SERMON NOTES: Exodus 3:10-15 – Real Relationship and the Disruptive Call

Exodus 3:10-15 Real Relationship and the Disruptive Call

Here is how we started our first sermon in Exodus:

Exodus… “is about the mercy, justice, holiness, and glory of the almighty God, who rules history by his sovereign power and who saves the people of his covenant. When the Biblical writers recall the exodus, they rarely mention Moses at all; instead they speak of the wonders of God. This gives us a hint that the proper way to study Exodus is to pay constant attention to what the book is showing and telling about the character of God. Exodus is an exercise in theology, which is simply the study of God.” – Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 23.

Exodus is precious. 

Why? If the Bible is true, then there is nothing more important than the God of the Bible, who he is, who I am in relation to him, and what he is doing in world history. 

Exodus gives us a very intimate revelation of the Lord as he forges a relationship with Moses and we get to know who the Lord is in relationship to his co-regent image-bearers.

Moses gets to know the Lord, and Moses gets to know himself in relation to being on mission with the Lord.

We Get to know the God of the Bible, and we will get to know ourselves in relation to being on mission with the Lord. 

Let’s re-center ourselves on where we are in the metanarrative of the good news.

The Creator God of the Bible made the universe as a marvelous expression of his glory, and he created mankind to be his image bearing co-regents in harnessing the wild and alive creation for his glory and our joy. 

A member of the Lord’s council, a fiery seraph called the Serpent, led a rebellion among the Lord’s council against the Lord and his plan. They apparently did not like the Lord’s plan for and with the image-bearers. So, the rebels sought to spoil creation and take some manner of control from the Lord and the image-bearers by enticing the image-bearers to distrust and rebel against the Lord. 

In doing so, the image-bearers lost fellowship with the Lord and came under the sentence of death as the curse of sin. In addition to this tragedy, all of creation came under the curse of sin and death. 

The Lord, however, rich in eternal mercy and grace and directed in divine purpose, will not be thwarted. 

The Lord sets in motion his eternal plan to redeem mankind (A redeemed mankind is deemed more glorious than one that did not need redemption), and he will do so at his own expense working with and through a people he chooses to preach the message of who he is, his costly salvation, and his redemption of all creation. This message is called the good news of the kingdom in the New Testament. 

The people the Lord graciously selected for the work are the descendants of Abraham. 

Moses is the chosen instrument of the descendants of Abraham for carrying on the mission by leading his family out of their enslavement in Egypt. 

Moses himself gets introduced to this One who will save him and his people in the burning bush. 

Moses encounters the Triune God of the Bible in the bush. 

The God of the Bible, partly revealed in his glory in the bush, Jesus, will later take on flesh and perfectly reveal all of who God is, die in our place for our in, be buried, rise, and ascend back to the Father to complete salvation for all who will believe in him from all nations.  

With the setting firmly in mind, let’s read our Scripture for today. Exodus 3:10-15.

Moses’ 40 years in the wilderness were not his refinement. Those 40 years were his preparation for the refinement of being introduced to the Lord. 

Looking into God’s face, knowing the Lord’s name, and thus getting to know the Lord results in Moses’ soul being laid bare so that in relationship with the God of the Bible, Moses will be called to be with the Lord on his redemptive mission.  

We will see this today in two big observations from the text, and we will modify those observations with some clarifying points.  

And, to keep in line with where Stephen left off last week, we will begin with the end of our passage. 

1. The Lord shares his name with Moses. Verse 13-15.
   1. God introduces himself to Moses. 
   2. God is the one who takes the initiative to reveal himself, and he has a conversation with Moses.
      1. Clarifying observations:
         1. God, in initiating a conversation with Moses, is forging a relationship with him.
            1. To drive the realness of the relationship home, God is gracious to answer Moses’ hypothetical question that might come from the people not with judgment, but by actually telling Moses his name.
            2. If they ask, “What is his name? What shall I say to them?”
            3. Some folks make too much of Moses’ question by reading into his motives for asking.
               1. I don’t think there is anything beyond a sincere question at this point. 
               2. Moses has just met the Creator God of the universe, and he’s been given a disrupting mission to declare that God has sent him to disrupt the slavery of the gods of Egypt over his missionary people, and it stands to reason when Moses sets his words and actions to that disruption, he might need to have some answer about the source of this call to disrupt an entire cosmic and earthly system that is holding Egypt and the Lord’s people in bondage. 
            4. Either way, Moses asks for God’s name, and God is gracious to tell him. 
         2. Some vital questions: Why? Who cares? What’s in a name? Why even answer Moses’ question?
            1. Why? Because the Lord cares to share his name. 
            2. Who cares? God cares that we know him or he wouldn’t introduce himself. 
            3. What’s in a name? Everything.
               1. A name reveals intimate details of who we are in the hopes and blessings set on us by parents.
                  1. Gabriel – Mighty of God
                  2. John Mark – God is gracious / Make war
                  3. Daniel – The Lord is my Judge
               2. God giving his name is an invitation to know him. 
            4. Why even answer Moses’ question? Establishing a real Edenic relationship with image-bearers is part of salvation and mission.
               1. Sin took Edenic, in-person relationship with God away. 
               2. We need to know God to be saved.
               3. We need to know God to sustain us when the mission gets hard and we lose sight of the “why” because we are devastated by the hardships of the mission. 
            5. Names are how we establish relationships. Names are how we know someone. 
            6. Naming is given to mankind by God as one of our image-bearing authorities over creation.
               1. With all of this in mind, in giving his name to us, we are assured we can really know God and be known by him. 
         3. No one names the God of the Bible, he shares his name as he self-reveals because there is no one above him, and no one can know him without him revealing himself to them.
            1. He is the initiator of saving relationships, and he is the Prime Namer, and there is none above him.
               1. The Lord is THE God. There is none above him. 
               2. Therefore, his glory and fame are above all.
                  1. Any being that seeks to be established above the Lord is out of place, part of the dark kingdom, and should be shunned, rebuked, and avoided. 
         4. God sharing his name shows us he will establish a real relationship with image-bearers who will respond in faith.
            1. The Lord actually shares his name with Moses because Moses asks. 
            2. The Lord delights in being known and knowing us when we respond to him in faith.
         5. The Lord’s name is so important and powerful, that all through the Bible you’ll read things like this:
            1. Proverb 18:10 (ESV) 10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
            2. Psalm 20:7 (ESV) Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
            3. Isaiah 30:27 (ESV) 27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
               1. “The Name” is so holy and powerful, that Jewish folks refused to speak it. They would refer to YHWH as “The Name” because it was so sacred.
                  1. Many also see in Isaiah 30:27 “The Name” as being a key distinction in his person as “The Name” is depicted in bodily form. We understand who that is, the Eternal Son, the Lord Jesus. 
               2. In fact, many Jewish leaders believe many of us foolish to so flippantly speak “The Name”.
                  1. This is one reason we are taught in commanded ment 3 not to take “The Name” in vain. 
                  2. We should be very careful in soiling “The Name”.
                     1. God takes it seriously.
                        1. It is by, in, and through this name that we are rescued from sin and reconciled back to God in Jesus Christ. 
                     2. It’s not random that Joseph and Mary are instructed to name Yeshua, Yeshua (Jesus) because his name means “YHWH saves”.
                        1. The Name of the Lord is indeed a strong tower. 
         6. God’s name was more than a name: It represented his entire character and reputation. – Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 95–96.
            1. The “I Am” is who he says he is, and we lean into his word, and relationship to him by Jesus and indwelling Holy Spirit to get to know the depths of his character, nature, and reputation. 
            2. The more we get to know the Lord, the greater our affection for him. 
         7. God shares a glorious flurry of revelation about his identity through his name beginning in verse 14 with variations of his name and culminating in his proper name in verse 15.
            1. Verse 14: “I AM WHO I AM” is literally “I am what I am” or “I will be what I will be.”
               1. Verse 14: “I AM” is literally a verb of being, “hayah”. I will be. 
            2. Verse 15: “The LORD” is YHWH.
               1. God uses a string of statements and being verbs to lead us to his proper name, YHWH.
               2. Whenever you see all capital letters “LORD” in most translations, it is the proper name of God, YHWH, and it is translated as “The LORD”. 
               3. So what? What are we to take from the Lord’s revealing his name?
            3. YHWH, the name, reminds us that the creator God is mysterious, and we are to go only so far as he goes and allows us to go in the revelation of himself. 
               1. The great Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) wrote, “God is that which he calls himself, and he calls himself that which he is.” Who is God? God is who he is, and that’s all there is to it. – Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, trans. William Hendricksen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977), p. 85. Cited in – Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 97.
               2. We don’t get to attribute to God things that he does not attribute to himself.
                  1. So we must be careful in our theological assertions. 
            4. YHWH, the name, is present tense and reminds us that the creator God is eternal and unchanging in his nature.
               1. Malachi 3:6 (ESV) 6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
                  1. The Lord’s unchanging nature ensures that we can hold on to him and that his saving is not fickle. 
            5. YHWH, the name, means that the creator God is self-sufficient and self-existent. 
               1. The Lord does not owe his being or existence to anyone. He simply exists eternally and is the source of all being. 
               2. I’m not going to rescue you from the infinite depth of that reality. You need to wrestle with these infinitely deep truths that human language fails at adequately communicating. You need to get to know the Lord yourself. 
               3. The Lord does not have any unmet needs or unsatisfied desires. He does not need any help. He is not co-dependent. He does not live or move or have his being in anyone except himself. – Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 97–98.
                  1. Moses is going to desperately need to know these glories as he gets into the weeds of the disruptive call the Lord is putting on his life. 
                  2. The depth of the character of the Lord revealed in his name is the one anchor that can and will sustain Moses and us as we live out the call to be on mission with him.
                     1. Nothing else can keep you anchored. 
                     2. You need to hold on to the Lord, and his unchanging character when the storms come. 
                     3. AND he delights to reveal himself to you! Receive him by faith.
                        1. That is the Rock Jesus teaches us to build our lives upon. 

2. The Lord invites Moses to join him in the work of disrupting the rule and systems of the gods of Egypt by setting his people free to worship the Lord and the mission of securing the promised land as a home base for rescuing all nations from the enslaving systemic grip of the little “g” gods who seek to steel YHWH’s worship. Verse 10-12. 
   1. That observation is a long and loaded sentence because verse 10 is a loaded invitation to Moses.
      1. Moses is personally invited to go to Pharaoh who believes he’s a “god” in the flesh representing the immaterial “gods” of Egypt, and whose people believe he’s a god, and give him a message from THE Creator and Ruler of all things God. 
      2. Moses is not just sent to declare God’s intentions. Moses is sent to actually bring Israel out of Egypt from under the oppressive bondage of Pharaoh and these “gods”.
         1. Have you thought through the gigantic nature of that work?
            1. Join with the Lord. 
            2. Disrupt the rule and systems of these “gods” who have a mere man believing he’s one of the “gods” while being a puppet of these “gods”. 
            3. Mobilizing some 2 million people to just walk out of Egypt while plundering them.  
            4. Getting 2 million people to the land Abraham was promised as a home base for the mission he was given in Genesis 12.
               1. Food? 
               2. Water?
               3. Route?
               4. War?
               5. Weapons?
            5. Training people out of the system of slavery that has gripped them for so long, a system that will entice them to just turn around when it gets hard and believe slavery is better because it comes with plentiful leaks and fish. 
      3. This invitation rightfully stuns Moses, and it’s going to take us some time to work through Moses’ objections in the coming weeks.
         1. Moses’ first objection is one of his abilities.
            1. Let’s get this out of the way now.
               1. Moses is not able, so he’s correct in his objection. 
               2. What Moses does not yet know is that the Lord will make him able. 
            2. Moses says to the Lord: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
               1. The gravity and hugeness of this vocational call rightly humbles Moses to the place he will question all of his life experience and training.
                  1. And Moses is no slouch. He’s Egyptian trained in the king’s household to be a ruler over Egypt. 
               2. Listen to what Acts 7:22 tells us about Moses’ qualifications and keep it in mind as Moses’ is confronted with the work and begins to tell the Lord why he can’t do it.
                  1. Acts 7:22 (ESV) 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
               3. Moses met the Creator God, and he is invited to join him in the mission given all the way back in Eden, and Moses rightly feels small. 
         2. The Lord is good and gracious and gentle with Moses to offer the greatest gift of all, his presence.
            1. “But I will be with you.”
               1. The Lord offers Moses a sign that the Lord would be with him.
                  1. That sign is a sure promise that the mission will succeed and when it does succeed they will meet up on the very mountain they are having this conversation on so the Lord can help Moses continue his service of worship. 
                  2. There is surety in the Lord’s work.
                     1. The Lord tells him “When you have brought them out.”
                        1. The success of the mission was and is never in doubt.
                  3. AND, the Lord’s work requires faith.
                     1. It seems the sign will only be seen when the Exodus happens and they journey to the mountain.
                     2. So, Moses is going to have to hear the Lord, obey him, and walk in faith.
                        1. This is how the Lord works!
                        2. He works with us, promises us his presence, and offers us the reward of faithful obedience. 
                  4. This should be no surprise. From the beginning, the Lord chose to work with his image-bearers in maximizing creation for his glory and their joy, and he pursues this with Moses and with us.
                     1. The Lord succeeds with us together with him in our work fueled by his supernatural power. 
                     2. This is what he’s inviting Moses to be involved in, and it’s what he invites us to do in the Great Commission.  

Application

The Lord introduces himself to Moses and invites him to join up with THE mission. There’s lots to know and apply here. 

As we walk with the Lord through Exodus, we are going to have the opportunity to learn how to experience the Lord as Moses did. 

Henry Blackaby identifies 7 realities of experiencing the Lord from Exodus 3 and 4 in his classic study “Experiencing God”, and I want to share my version of Blackaby’s observations. I have only 6 as I’ve integrated this over the years and crystalized it for us this morning. 

1. Know the Lord is always at work on his mission to disrupt and crush the rebellion, establish his reign, and save folks from all nations in restoring the glory of his name. 
2. Know the Lord establishes a relationship with his people by revealing himself and transforming them through the preached good news.
   1. God initiates. 
   2. God communicates.
      1. He set this pattern. 
   3. God does this through his people, now, preaching his good news. 
   4. This good news transforms rebels into saints. 
3. The Lord will speak to his people as churches and individuals about personally joining in his disruptive mission through all domains of society to engage the unreached.
   1. It’s possible to be a redeemed child of God by playing consumer church growth games and avoid a face-to-face encounter with the Lord in the places he’s pioneering his kingdom and thus avoid getting skin in the game of dismantling the dark kingdom. 
   2. You have to want eyes that see and say “yes” to personal involvement in bringing light into darkness.
4. When the Lord invites us to personally and corporately get involved, we will have a crisis of belief.
   1. Can we/I do this? Should we/I do this? This is hard. This will hurt. 
   2. We either move forward with the Lord in obedience and experience his supply.
   3. Or we refuse the invitation and take steps back to wandering until we learn to obey.
      1. In this state of wandering, we live by the “arm of the flesh” rather than the supernatural production of the kingdom of God.  
      2. And where we live, this state of wandering can be so comfortable that we can live our whole lives believing our knowledge and cushy experiences are the pinnacle of walking with God while we’re actually living by our own power.
   4. The invitation of the Lord is not a suggestion we can refuse and carry on with life as we want it without the gracious correction of the Lord.
      1. Life, if the Bible’s content is true, is fulfilled on mission with the Lord to bring about the restoration of all things in the destruction of the dark kingdom, and we don’t get an “opt-out” on that without the Lord correcting us in what the Bible calls “sanctification”.
         1. It’s not like there are two tracks: 1. Those who join with the Lord. 2. Those who easily and leisurely watch from the sidelines in the spectator sport of Christianity with no consequence at some point.
            1. I don’t know what this means for those who never do anything beyond pray some prayer to go to heaven and never grow beyond that.
               1. It’s hard to call that “Christian”. 
5. When we get on mission, we must adjust to life on a disruptive mission with the Lord and each other.
   1. We have to adjust our expectations, metrics, and systems to move with the Lord.
      1. Church framework won’t cut it. 
      2. We have to think kingdom framework, and that is a different system. 
   2. We have to adjust to an understanding of the practice of disrupting dark forces. We are NOT appealing to consumers to grow a crowd, and our work and decisions are challenging.
      1. We are, like Moses, leading systems and people out of slavery to sin and darkness to holiness and light. 
      2. This is tedious and hard and dangerous work.
         1. Friends and family will do as Aaron and Miriam did to Moses. 
   3. The mission is not to have nice easy Sunday services and comfortable small groups and cool ministries with fun and cool things for the whole family so that folks show up and we have some big numbers to report so that we look like spiritual success and get to talk on the big stage and get a book deal. 
   4. The mission is to worship the Lord with our lives and words (Romans 12:1-2) in joining the Lord in disrupting the destructive systems set up by the “gods of this age” who instigated the rebellion in the garden.
      1. We do this by preaching the good news and in every way taking ground held by enemy forces in the heavenly places by demolishing strongholds of unbelief and thus strongholds that manifest in brokenness and destruction in systems and people in those systems. 
   5. In doing this we gain a “glocal” reach that is beyond our ability and is in fact supernatural in its administration.
      1. This adjustment is costly and yet richly supplied for.
         1. This is part of what prayer is for. 
      2. This adjustment is difficult as we learn to love the Lord with all our being and the people who are the objects of his affection and don’t yet know it and are under the yoke of darkness.  
      3. Just take a look at the cross, and Jesus’ invitation to take it up and walk with him in his yoke. We must act while believing that he will supply the power to make it easy and light in spite of the hardship it will bring.
         1. That’s part of the juxtaposition of life with Jesus and why it demands faith.
            1. We are on a cross-carrying mission that Jesus will bear the load for. 
6. We get to know and experience the Lord in all the power and victories and hardships that will require signs and wonders in receiving the Lord’s supply for the mission.
   1. If you are not experiencing the supernatural work of the Lord it might be that you are not engaged in anything but your own advancement, knowledge, and comfort rather than disrupting the slavery of the dark kingdom.
      1. The supernatural gifts of the Lord are to empower the labor of disrupting darkness not to give us an entertaining fireworks show. 
      2. Let’s worship the Lord and receive from him all we need for his glory, the advancement of his kingdom, and our joy!