Rev. David Holwick T Exodus series, #2
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 28, 2009
Exodus 3:1-12
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I. You can still see it today!
A. St. Catherine's at Sinai is one of world's oldest monasteries.
1) Up to the 1950's you had to enter in a bucket on a rope.
a) The monastery contains the world's oldest icon.
b) It used to have the world's oldest Bible, until a
German scholar sneaked off with it.
2) You can climb to the treeless summit of Sinai, the mountain
of God, if you can take the intense desert heat.
3) The bush, which they claim is the original, grows at the
base of the mountain in the monastery.
a) A chapel has been built over its roots.
B. The Burning Bush was a pivotal event in spiritual history.
1) Three world religions believe Moses really met with
God and received a revelation from him.
a) A human communicated directly with the divine.
b) Philosophers call this transcendence.
c) The rock group "The Doors" called it breaking on through
to the other side.
2) Does it have any connection with your own spiritual history?
II. God takes the initiative.
A. In our day and age, many people seek God.
1) Last week in Britain, thousands of worshippers gathered
at the ancient Stonehenge to greet the summer solstice
with supposed Druid ceremonies.
2) In India, tens of millions will travel to a sacred river
to bathe and attain salvation.
3) Christians are in favor of seeking God as well.
a) Some well-known Bible verses encourage us to do this:
1> David told his son Solomon, "If you seek him, he
will be found by you." - 1 Chronicles 28:9
2> Isaiah says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near." Isaiah 55:6
B. But Moses wasn't looking at all.
1) He was completely oblivious.
2) Not that he was spiritually dense, it just wasn't on his
agenda for that day. Sheep were.
3) Moses has spent half his life tending sheep. In a desert.
a) You might think of this as idyllic.
1> Star-filled nights.
2> The quietness of the desert.
3> The gentle baahing of sheep.
b) I think it would be stupifyingly boring.
1> The same thing day after day.
2> Nothing but brown all around you.
C. From within the bush, God spoke.
1) Moses didn't know this day would be any different
until he saw a burning bush.
a) Not a tree, just an insignificant bush.
b) But it was enough to get his attention.
c) Some believe God started with something insignificant
to build up to something greater.
2) The angel who speaks probably represents God himself.
a) This is very common in the Old Testament.
b) He is often called the Angel of the Lord, and is even
called God.
3) Fortunately, Moses listened.
a) He came up with a lot of excuses, but in the end he
did what God called him to do.
III. You have to be in touch with the right God.
A. Moses lived in a world with a multitude of gods.
1) His own father-in-law was a pagan priest.
2) Our world is not that different.
3) Even the name of God is still an issue.
Two years ago a Catholic bishop in the Netherlands
said Christians should call God "Allah."
This would lessen tension with the Muslims there.
He says God doesn't mind what he is called.
Human beings invented this discussion themselves,
he believes, in order to argue about it.
You can make a case that Allah is just another word
for deity or god.
But the Allah of the Koran is not a personal god
and he is very different from the God of the Bible.
Names mean something.
#24902
B. Moses asks God for his name.
1) God answers that he is "I AM (THAT I AM)".
2) Scholars call it the Tetragram.
a) It is only four Hebrew consonants, often pronounced
YAHWEH.
b) Jews were afraid to pronounce it, so they wrote in
the vowels for "Adonai" which means Lord.
1> When they came to the Tetragram, they said Adonai
instead of Yahweh.
2> Years later, people just put the letters all
together and came up with "Jehovah."
3> Most modern Bibles translate it as LORD with all
capital letters.
C. What does it mean? 3:14
1) The name Yahweh had been known to generations of Jews.
a) What Moses is really seeking is the meaning of the name.
2) The name was not an evasion.
a) God wasn't pulling his leg or telling him to shut up.
b) It relates directly to what God had promised Moses -
he would be with him.
1> God really exists, and he is a present God.
IV. The burning bush tells us a great deal about God's character.
A. God is holy. 3:5
1) He is separate from humans.
a) Removing shoes emphasized the difference between humans
and God.
1> Moses was wise to hide his face.
b) This verse has the first occurrence of the noun "holy"
in the Bible.
2) Yet the passage also makes God sound quite human -
he sees, hears, knows, comes down.
a) This is the only way we could relate to him, by
thinking of him in our own terms,
b) It doesn't mean God has a physical form, or that the
ancient Hebrews thought he did.
B. God has spoken before. 3:6
1) He had a relationship with the patriarchs as well.
a) The whole Bible emphasizes the continuity of God's
message to us.
2) Jesus noted that God is their God - present tense.
a) They still live in his presence. Matt 22:32
C. God knows what is going on in our lives.
1) He sees the misery in Egypt, and is concerned about it.
2) Jesus says this is still true.
a) God knows the smallest details of our lives.
b) He is concerned when we are in pain, or when others
abuse us.
D. God is going to do something about it.
1) God is in the rescuing business.
2) He will bring the Israelites to a better place.
V. Does God still speak out of burning bushes?
A. Many think he does not, and never has.
Charlie Warren notes that a radical book has just been
published.
It was written by Geoffrey Berg, a graduate of England's
Cambridge University.
Berg claims his book "absolutely disproves the existence of God,
logically and simply."
It presents six "new or improved" arguments "that practically
everybody can understand."
Not only that, but the book will be sent free to every public
library in all the world's major English-speaking countries.
So I guess I'll look for a new job.
My life and career have been a lie and a waste of time.
We all must join up with atheists now.
But wait a minute!
Some of you just talked with God this morning.
You tell me you're quite sure it was Him.
And some of you say you feel His presence in church Sundays.
And I know lots of folks who know Him personally.
Let's pray for Geoffrey Berg and all who read his book.
God works in mysterious ways.
Maybe He will use this misguided book in some way to bring
about an opposite response to what Berg intended.
#35891
B. God has always been in the outreach business.
1) The Bible says he is reaching out to us before we ever
think of reaching out for him. Eph 2:8
a) It even says when we hate him and are his enemy,
that is when he initiates our salvation. Rom 5:8
2) The greatest example of this has to be the Incarnation.
a) God was born among us in the person of Jesus.
b) We didn't treat him very well.
1> But it can work out for our salvation anyway.
C. Has God revealed himself to YOU?
1) Our church believes we can all know God personally.
a) But the fact that you CAN doesn't mean you DO.
b) Do you?
2) The physical experience is not the point.
a) You don't have to hear a voice or see a flaming bush.
b) But there will come a point in your life when you
understand that God is real.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#24902 "What Does God Care What We Call Him?" by Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.,
President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
http://www.albertmohler.com, August 22, 2007.
#35891 "Padlock Your Church!" by Charlie Warren, Baptist Press,
http://www.baptistpress.org, June 16, 2009.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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