Exodus 3:1-22<\/p>\n
The third chapter of Exodus begins with Moses, now a shepherd in the service of his father-in-law, Jethro, alone with his sheep.\u00a0 He was at Horeb, also known as Sinai – the mountain of God.\u00a0 Moses had, in fact, been tending Jethro’s sheep for 40 years. He must have been alone much of the time.\u00a0 He surely remembered his years in Pharaoh’s court as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter.\u00a0 He knew God’s purpose for him was to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.\u00a0 But – so much time had passed!\u00a0 What had happened?<\/p>\n
It was here at Mount Sinai that Moses experienced an amazing site – the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush and the bush did not burn up.\u00a0 The appearance of God in fire in the burning bush reveals two things about Him:\u00a0 His immanence (ever present) and his transcendence (Holiness).<\/p>\n
God calls Moses from within the bush and Moses answers ‘Here I am’.\u00a0 God instructs Moses to not come any closer and to take off his sandals.\u00a0 The ground Moses is standing on is holy ground.\u00a0 The place was holy because God was there.\u00a0 Holiness is the characteristic of God that more than any other sets Him apart from sinful humanity – the root meaning of holy is ‘that which is separate’.\u00a0 God is without sin or, completely separate from sin. (One interesting note: This is the first passage in the Bible where we see the use of the word ‘HOLY’.)<\/p>\n
Moses hid his face and God told him three things:
\n1.\u00a0 I am God of your father and God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
\n2.\u00a0 I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
\n3.\u00a0 I am send you (Moses) to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.<\/p>\n
But Moses objects – he considers himself unworthy.\u00a0 And of course he was unworthy!\u00a0 That was not the point,\u00a0 God was doing this, not Moses. And God makes that very clear when He promises “I will be with you.’<\/p>\n
Moses objects a second time and asks God what His name is.\u00a0 God had already told Moses who He was.\u00a0 However, God now answers with a new name:\u00a0 ‘I AM WHO I AM’.\u00a0 This name is not random.\u00a0 Names in the Bible are highly significant. \u00a0A name usually reveals something about the person.\u00a0 God’s names reveal specific truths about His character.\u00a0 From His names, we can truly know His attributes.<\/p>\n
This is God’s personal name. ‘I AM’ tells us God is a person; He is self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal and immutable.\u00a0 The Jews regard this as God’s supreme name.\u00a0 “I AM” is God’s covenant name.\u00a0 When Jesus used this name to refer to Himself, He declared Himself to be God.<\/p>\n
From verse 16 to the end of the chapter, God begins to give Moses instructions on how to talk to the elders of Israel and to Pharaoh, declaring the Israelite slaves will plunder their well-armed and powerful captors.\u00a0 This must have seemed incredible and impossible to Moses.\u00a0 He seems to forget he is TALKING to GOD in the midst of a burning bush that does not burn up.<\/p>\n
How has God spoken to you through His Word?\u00a0 Are we willing to do as He asks?\u00a0 We cannot expect to really hear from God until we receive Jesus – God’s Son –\u00a0 as our Lord and Savior.\u00a0 If you have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, please considering praying and inviting Him into your life.\u00a0 Then you too will know the GREAT ‘I AM”.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 —- Mary Mauderer<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exodus 3:1-22 The third chapter of Exodus begins with M […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion-2019_2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glorycbc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}