Exodus 3:1-4:31

Daily Reading for Saturday, Week 5

Exodus 3

The Burning Bush

¹Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." ⁴When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." ⁵Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." ⁶And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." ¹¹But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"¹²He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

¹³Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" ¹⁴God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" ¹⁵God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. ¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, ¹⁷and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey."' ¹⁸And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.' ¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. ²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. ²¹And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, ²²but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians."

Exodus 4

Moses Given Powerful Signs

¹Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'" ²The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." ³And he said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. ⁴But the LORD said to Moses, "Put out your hand and catch it by the tail"—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ⁵"that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." ⁶Again, the LORD said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak."And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. ⁷Then God said, "Put your hand back inside your cloak." So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. ⁸"If they will not believe you," God said, "or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. ⁹If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

¹⁰But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." ¹¹Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹²Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." ¹³But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else." ¹⁴Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. ¹⁶ He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. ¹⁷And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs."

Moses Returns to Egypt

¹⁸Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." ¹⁹And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead." ²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

²¹And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. ²²Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, ²³and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.'"

²⁴At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. ²⁵Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" ²⁶So he let him alone. It was then that she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

²⁷The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. ³⁰ Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.³¹And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Pastor’s Commentary:

God calls Moses to lead His people up out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses at first resists the call. He seems to have good objections. He can’t talk very well. He is pretty much a nobody, tending the flock of his father-in-law. He isn’t one of the great men. “Who am I that I should lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? Why will the people believe me? Send someone else!”

God is patient with Moses, up to a point. God promises to be with Moses. He patiently reminds Moses that He made the mouth of man. God gives Moses several signs to show that God sent Moses to lead them up out of Egypt. God even reveals to Moses His Name, “I AM WHO I AM.” And when Moses finally says, “Send someone else,” then God’s patience is tried enough. “I’ve given you Aaron your brother as a spokesman. He will be very glad when you speak with him.”

The point here is not that God calls some to greatness. But the main point is that God delivers His people through His chosen tools. Moses was to be a tool in God’s hands. God would use Moses to deliver His people from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses was not great in his own work, but God in His greatness used poor humble Moses to accomplish great things.

Your work may not seem so great. You probably are not called to deliver people out of bondage to slavery. You probably are not called in the same way that Moses was, out of a burning bush that didn’t burn up. But God has spoken to you in His Word. God has given you a calling. God in His greatness uses poor humble people to accomplish great things. It’s through farmers that God feeds the world. It’s through mothers that God nurtures children. It’s through fathers that God disciplines children in love. It is through the parents that God teaches children the right way to go. Teachers, pastors, doctors, nurses, cleaning ladies, janitors, and even garbage truck drivers are all knit into this amazing tapestry that God uses to work great things here on earth. Your calling from God is precious and true and God uses it to bless many many people. By God’s grace, you have a high and holy calling.

As part of the proof of God’s call to Moses, God gives Moses His divine Name. God says, “I AM WHO I AM.” The point is, God is unique. There is none like Him. He alone created this world. He calls people to their vocations and He alone redeems His people. He does not give His glory to another. Whenever you see the word “LORD” in all capital letters like that, the word behind that word LORD in the Hebrew is “I AM WHO I AM” or “Yahweh.”

The LORD told Moses, “When you go back to Egypt… Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’” To redeem His firstborn son from Egypt, God requires the firstborn of Pharaoh. But to redeem the whole world, God’s Firstborn Son is delivered into our hands. We killed Him by our sin. But He saved us from our sins by His suffering, death, and resurrection. May we bow our heads in worship when we see that God has visited us and redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil!

There is a very interesting hard to understand passage in Exodus 4:24-26. But when you look at what God promised through circumcision, things become a little clearer. God had told Abraham that circumcision was the sign of the covenant between Himself and Abraham. Now part of that covenant promise was about to be fulfilled through God using Moses to bring God’s people to the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Moses’ son did not bear the sign of the covenant! He was not circumcised! God had told Abraham that all his descendants should be circumcised on the eighth day, and Moses had willfully disobeyed God. Perhaps it was through the influence of Zipporah, his Midianite wife. She was obviously upset with Moses about the circumcision. Really, despising circumcision is akin to denying the promise of God. No wonder God had to further humble Moses. Yet, even so, God continues to work out the salvation of His people.