Exodus 3-4, 9th Jan 2005 HTF
David Heath-Whyte
NB: This is what I planned to say, what I actually said was probably different in places...
Invent your own God?
Right - this morning, we're going to invent our own God, and see if he works!
Yep - I know it's the very nature of sin, and it breaks commandments - but bear with me!
Here's my made-up God: let's say he made the world, he rules the world, he loves the world he has made, and let's say that his love means that he won't ever let anything nasty happen to anyone.
Here's my made-up God: made the world, rules it, loves it - and that means he won't let anything nasty happen.
Of course, the Asian Tsunami blows this God out of the water, along with all those people's lives and houses.
Says he loves the world, and won't let anything nasty happen? Well he's either a rubbish God, or he doesn't exist at all.
Of course that is exactly the answer: he doesn't exist at all.
And that's not surprising, because I just made him up.
The God I described is not the Real God, my made-up God is not the God of the Bible.
My made-up God had a big difference, a big mistake, a big lie: it was this statement "his love means that he won't ever let anything nasty happen to anyone"
The Real God of the Bible does love the world he created, and yet he's 'subjected his creation to frustration' (Rom 8) so that disasters do happen. So - where is the love?
Here: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
Because of his love, God has given us something bigger than any disasters: eternal life through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
But we'll never find that if we try to invent our own God - we'll only find that from listening to what he has said about himself in the Bible.
Our series looking at the book of Exodus has turned out to be very well timed - it contains very important teaching from the Real God about what he's really like, and how we can have a relationship with him.
Context & Narrative
Exodus
Exodus is a book all about Relationship between God and people.
It covers real historical events - the escape of the Hebrew people from Slavery in Egypt around 1500BC - but it's really a book about God, and how he made the Exodus happen, and how he made a special relationship with these people.
And all this helps us to understand our relationship with God.
Ex 3-4
Last week we heard about his plan, his people and his purpose, and this week we're looking at the amazing event which kicks off several months of hot action; God and Moses meeting at the burning bush - turn with me to chapter 3 & 4.
Let's just remind ourselves of the events of these chapters.
3:1-10
There are three parts - first, chapter 3, verses 1-10, the meeting begins.
There's a bush that's on fire, but it never burns out - and then when Moses approaches it, God himself speaks to him, he introduces himself, tells Moses of his Plan, and sends him off: v.10 "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
3:11-4:17
Then, part two, 3:11-4:17, Moses makes five objections to God.
They begin as reasonable questions, but become increasingly pathetic.
Who am I? Who are you? What if they don't believe me? I'm useless at speaking! Send someone else!
Each time, God answers: He promises his presence, reveals his name, gives signs, assures that the words will be there, and lastly provides Aaron's help.
4:18-31
And then part three, 4:18-31, Moses travels back to Egypt, and with Aaron, explains God's plan to God's people: and v.31: "...they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped."
The scene is set, we're ready for action - how will Pharoah respond to God's demand...?
So
Well, we will find out, but: right now lets look more closely, and see what God reveals about himself - things that are important for Moses' mission, things are important for our relationship with God - things that, I believe, help us make some sense of the Real God, and his real World (including Tsunamis)
To help us remember, there are three Ss:
Specific
not vague
First: the Real God is Specific.
He's not a vague, general, 'kind-of' thing who you can't really describe (in case you offend someone)
No, the Real God is specific - you can say what he's like, and what he's not like; because he makes these things known.
I've got something on the lectern here - and you don't what it is.
Let me tell you: it's a "thingy" - nowthat's true, but vague and not very helpful.
Let me try again: it's a hymn book - that's true, and it's specific: you can no longer imagine that this "thingy" is a bottle of champagne or anything else - it is a specific thing.And Moses finds that God is specific.
named
3:6 God says: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." - he's that God.
In v.13, Moses asks: "Who shall I tell them you are?" and God, in reply, tells him his name, his personal name: v.14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
In that culture, the name of a person held the essence of the person's character and being.
Prospective parents these days often search through name books, to see if they like the meaning of the names they like the sound of. But in the end, the name is just a tag.
But for God, the name really does describe his character - so the name of God the Son is "Jesus", Yeshua - meaning "God saves" - because that's what Jesus is about.
"I am" is what God is about. It's his name - the name of God the Trinity. In Hebrew it is "Yahweh", a shortened form of the phrase in v.14: "I am who I am".
That is - I am the big, over-everything, supreme God - v.15 the God of the past - of your ancestors - and, "This is my name for ever..." the God of the future.
This is God - the great "I am", Yahweh.
And that immediately makes him specific: he's not like any single one of the Egyptian or Canaanite gods that Moses had heard about. This real God is the one and only: the "I am" - he's not a thingy, he's got a name. He's not what you think he might be, he is what he reveals himself to be.
The Real God is specific.
so
But our world wants us to think that God is a 'thingy': sure we can talk about God - but don't name him. Don't call him Yahweh - that's too specific - and certainly don't mention Jesus or "Father, Son and Holy Spirit".
But the problem with "thingy" religion is that it can't help when a disaster happens - it's either too vague and has no answers, or you've made your own 'thingy' God, and it doesn't work, and so you reject your idol, thinking you've rejected the real God.
Fortunately the real God is specific - he names himself, he makes himself known.
So let's use his names - let's talk about Jesus, God the Trinity, Yahweh, so that people can hear specifics about what the Real God is like, so that they can have real help, and real hope. Because in the end, a "thingy" God is useless to everyone.
The Real God is Specific.
Sovereign
control
Moses also finds out that the Real God is Sovereign.
He's Sovereign, in Control - the ruler of everything.
He's sovereign over history: he's already written the history of the Hebrews, and here it is, in 3:7-10, v.17-22, and 4:21-23
This is what is going to happen! Says God - and he knows, because he's in control of history.
He's Sovereign over nature as well: it's Yahweh who can burn a bush without it burning up; it's Yahweh who (4:1-9) can make a staff into a real snake, a hand become leprous in a moment, and Nile water turn to real blood.
He's in control of history, and nature - and the human heart. 4:21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
The real God is sovereign.
And this chapter is very significant in Exodus - because he made known not just his character, but also what he was going to do, in advance.
And as you read the rest of Exodus (in your bath tonight, or whenever) you can find out - is he the God he says he is? does history work out the way he says it will?
Jesus - salvation
The Real God is Sovereign.
We see this same Sovereignty in Jesus.
At least three times Jesus tells his disciples, in advance: "I'm going to have to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and I must be killed and after three days rise again." - and that's exactly what did happen. (Mark 8:31)
And when he's on trial before Pontius Pilate Jesus makes it very clear who's in control: (John 19:11) "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above."
And just as Yahweh's sovereign plan in Exodus led to salvation for his people, so Yahweh's sovereign plan in Jesus brings rescue - for anyone who will turn to him and receive it (including you).
The Real God is Sovereign.
Tsunami?
So: was this Real God sovereign over the Tsunami?
Just stop and think for a moment: In what you've read of the Bible, has the Real God ever promised to use his sovereignty in a way that will stop disasters happening?
No - in fact, throughout the Bible disasters are acknowledged by God, used by God, even promised by the Sovereign Lord.
"There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines" says Jesus - who is the Lord of History. (Mark 13)
(Romans 8:20-21) "...the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it" writes the apostle Paul - who continues: "in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."
Shocking? In our "live for today", "eat, drink and be merry", materialistic, God-rejecting world, we find it hard to cope with any non-peaceful, tragic death, let alone thousands at one time.
But if natural disasters are in the sovereign (and loving) hands of the Real God, for whom history does not end at your death, and whose purposes go beyond this universe as we know it to a new creation, and who has opened wide the gates to that place in the Lord Jesus Christ for anyone who will just receive him....
Then if we are caught up in a disaster, we know we can hold onto him, because his purposes for us are bigger than the terror and tragedy of the immediate situation.
The trauma is not taken away, but there is reassurance, hope and even inspiration: God is not absent, impotent, caught off guard, or limited. The Real God is still Sovereign, and we can trust him.
The Real God is the Saviour.
And even more, because the third important thing God makes known here is that he is the Saviour.
The Real God is Specific, he is Sovereign, and he is the Saviour.
relationship
The Real God is the Saviour: he's a personal God, interested in people, to save them so that they can be in a relationship with him.
The book, Exodus, is all about being saved for relationship with God.
God cares, and he saves, so that people can know him.
3:7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them...
And God will say to Pharoah, 4:23 "Let my son go, so that he may worship me."
God makes history work out so that these people will enter into a covenant relationship with him, so that he will be their God and they will be his people, and they will worship him and he will care for them.
The Real God is the Saviour.
personal
And this is a personal thing.
God isn't just a "thingy" - and neither are you just a "thingy" to him.
God makes himself known to Moses as the Personal God, who is interested and involved with his creation.
The name "Yahweh" is a personal name.
Unfortunately we lose that in translation - it gets translated "The LORD" in capital letters, in most of our bibles, which is more of a title than a personal name.
Think of what you call me - You can call me "the Vicar", which is an impersonal title, or you can call me "David", my name, which is more personal and friendly.
"Yahweh" is a personal name.
And being Saved has got that personal dimension.
The people are being saved so that they can worship Yahweh, because they are his children.
The Real God is the Saviour, who saves people so that they can be in personal relationship with Him.
Jesus
And the NT teaches us that, with the Exodus, Yahweh foreshadows what he'll do with the cross.
It's a demonstration of what the cross is all about.
On the cross, Jesus saves people, so that they can be in personal relationship with Him.
And our Promised Land, is the still-to-come new creation.
And God has promised to make the new creation so that there will be no disasters there - natural or man-made.
And the Lord Jesus, risen from the dead, calls people of every nation to turn to him, and receive this salvation into this relationship.
The Real God is the Saviour
Tsunami?
And when you know him like that, when you're saved into that relationship, then your experience of this world changes. You experience everything in a different way - even a Tsunami.
Now - with the made-up God, that's a trite answer, because no-one expects him to do anything, because he can't.
But with the Real God - the Specific, Sovereign God, who Saves.... wherever you are in the world, people who are calling out to Jesus, trusting in him, are having a different experience of life whatever happens, and will have a different experience of death, whatever happens.
They are not more wealthy, or more comfortable - but they are Saved and in a real relationship with the personal God forever.
The Personal Real God who can give them peace while they're dying; comfort while they're grieving; patience to endure; love to give sacrificially; courage to get involved and help.
I guess it's a bit like giving birth: it's always a painful experience - but how much better when there's someone you love alongside to help; how much worse when a women gives birth on her own?
With the Real God, the Saviour, there is a friend alongside, forever.
The question is: what will we do to make sure that people can know about the loving Lord Jesus, in this disaster, and before the next one - whether that's on a global scale, or a personal scale?
The Real God is the Saviour.
The Real God.
The God who won't let nasty things happen is a false God who has never existed, and I hope that you have never put your trust in Him.
It's important that we know and trust the God of Exodus, the Real God.
He is Specific - will we name him so that people can have real help and hope?
He is Sovereign - will we hold onto him, who has something for us bigger than anything this world can throw at us.
He is the Saviour - will we be ready, trusting in him, and will we help others to know his help now, and to be ready for when tragedy hits them?