God Sends For His Glory
Exodus 3:1-15
In 2017, Josh Martin preached a sermon on the first few episodes of Exodus, more specifically, the calling of Moses to be God’s spokesman to Pharoh and agent of deliverance for Israel. Though the sermon focuses more specifically on dealing with pain and suffering, Josh unveils a core missional theme and God’s blueprints for deliverance we see throughout the rest of scripture. The narrative of God rescuing His people goes something like this: God delivers a person out of their circumstance, gives them the power to cling to His promises, then sends them straight back into that circumstance to get other people out too. God is intentional in every step to ensure this event will be properly remembered by the Israelites throughout all generations (Exodus 12:14) and is a foretelling of the greater Exodus we have received in Christ dying for our sins. Yes, our story of redemption is ultimately about God’s glory; His fame being made known intimately. And the story arch of God’s calling and use of Moses is nothing short of a perfect example.
Moses had attempted to free Israel on His own but earned him 40 years as an exiled shepherd in a far-off land. When God calls him, there are some insecurities to wrestle with, seen especially in their conversation here and continued through Exodus 4:14. Continuously though, when Moses addresses his insecurities before God, God comforts, reminds, and directs Moses to who God is. This is important because, for the rest of Moses’ narrative, it means God is the main character of the story. God gives Moses the strength to cling to His promises by telling Moses who He is. Moses lets God into his deepest struggles, and God gives Moses confirmation of not Moses’s identity but exactly who it is that is with Moses. “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.’”
This name God gives himself in response to Moses’s question is equivalent in Hebrew to “Yahweh,” the name Moses and the Israelites knew God to go by according to the testimonies of the Patriarchs. Zooming into Moses’s question asking, though, Enduring Word poses an interesting critique. “This really wasn’t the right question; “Who is God?” was the proper question. God’s identity was more important than who Moses was. When we know the God who is with us, we can step forth confidently to do His will” (Guzik, 2018). Considering what has already been established about God, this makes sense: He is the main character. Therefore, this is about His glory.
God does not achieve this how we would typically think a hero to achieve glory, done so by establishing an intimate relationship with His people. Already, Yahweh has revealed Himself to Moses in a more intimate way than all three of the Patriarchs named. Furthermore, His compassion for Israel is what troubles His heart so much as to come to deliver them. God says He sees their oppression, hears their cries, and knows their pain much more than they think. What hero do we know that saves quite like our God? That He should seek not just our escape from pain and suffering but an offering of a relationship that gives us new life. Transformation starts when we let God into our pain, struggle, or hardship situations.
In light of this truth, consider the following questions:
What is God saying to you as you read the passages above?
Is there anything you haven’t been letting God into?
How does knowing God is with you as you proclaim His glory comfort you? How can you remind yourself that He is with you?
