Introduction
As we’ve been walking through God’s covenants in the Bible, I’ve noticed that at the start of each covenant we are given great gospel reminders. To be sure, there are gospel reminders throughout God’s covenant dealings with His people, but it seems there are great and explicit gospel reminders at the start of each new administration of the Covenant of Grace. God graciously blesses Adam and then calls him to obey. When he fails God responds with gracious gospel promises. Noah graciously receives favor from the Lord, and God pours out mercy and grace upon Noah and his household, even while He immerses the rest of the world in judgment and wrath. God graciously calls Abraham, and then cuts a covenant with him, swearing by Himself, the God who cannot lie or die, that He will faithfully and graciously keep covenant with Abraham and his household, come what may. And today, as we get into the Mosaic Covenant, we’re once again going to be given a great gospel reminder, rooted in who God is, and who He has shown Himself to be in His Word again and again. So with that in mind, look with me at Exodus 2:23-3:15.
Context
So far in this series we’ve seen God’s mercy and grace poured out upon Adam and his household, Noah and his household, and Abraham and his household. Though all of humanity are sinners who have sinned against an infinitely holy God and deserve His righteous wrath, because God is eternal, and has always been eternally merciful and gracious, and abounding in steadfast love, in eternity past He not only chose to create a people for Himself, but also to redeem a people for Himself. Because of who the triune God is—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—knowing that if He created mankind that we would sin against Him and fail to keep covenant with Him, God made a Covenant of Redemption with Himself where God the Father elects His people, God the Son lives and dies and rises again to save His people, and God the Holy Spirit applies that salvation. And what we’ve seen is the effects and the grace of that Covenant extended to Adam, Noah, and Abraham and their households.
Though man broke covenant with God, God had an eternal covenant within Himself, a gracious Covenant of Redemption that anticipated and paid for our sin, and provides a Covenant of Grace enabling sinful man to be in right communion with the one true and holy God. So God’s covenant that He brought man into at creation, the covenant we have all failed to keep, gave way to the Covenant of Grace because of the Covenant of Redemption. God’s love for us, God’s grace for us, and God’s mercy for us are not rooted in us, but are rooted in eternity past because they flow from who God is as the eternal triune God who has always been.
God’s love for us is not rooted in who we are. I often hear people say that God’s love is unconditional, or that God loves us just the way we are… And neither of those are quite right. God loves us in spite of how we are because of who He is. It’s not that His love is unconditional, but that all the conditions of God’s love are met in Himself. He loves us because of how loving He is, not how lovable we are. And though He does love us right where we are, He loves us too much to leave us there. As Martin Luther put it, “The love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it.” Or as Sinclair Ferguson has said, “It is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather He accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ’s sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son.” Both His loving us and accepting us flow from who He is, not who we are. And He is the eternal God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And He redeems sinners like us. He brings sinners like us into covenant with Himself so that we can know Him, love Him, live for Him, and live with Him forever.
Over the last few weeks we have focused on these glorious realities by looking at God’s Covenant with Abraham. God brought Abraham into right covenant with Himself, along with his household. And God chose to carry on the promises and the blessings of the Covenant of Grace in and through the child God gave to Abraham… through Isaac. Isaac was a child of promise because he walked in the faith of his father Abraham. And after Isaac so too did Isaac’s son Jacob, also known as Israel. And that pattern of covenant faithfulness continued on for some time. As God tells us in Deuteronomy 7:9, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” And indeed that’s what we’ve seen in each administration of God’s Covenant of Grace, with Adam, with Noah, and with Abraham and his household.
With each administration of the covenant the revelation of God’s gospel and the beauty and the riches of His promises and blessings increase, as do the curses for rejecting them… God’s grand plan of redemption is getting clearer and clearer each time, and with that clarity comes greater blessings. But, that doesn’t mean everything is always getting better. Just like in our lives, there are hills and valleys, there are good times and bad times, times of joy and prosperity, and times of heartache and suffering.
God promised Abraham that a nation would come from him and that in him all that nations would be blessed. He promised him a land, and ultimately all things in Christ, even the whole earth. But, not immediately. In Genesis 15:13-21 He told Abraham, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham was a Christian. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:8-10). On the one hand, he had to live as a sojourner because he would not inherit the earth until the fullness of the kingdom comes on the last Day; but on the other hand, there was the land that his offspring would get much sooner than that. But even then they would have to wait 400 years, because, God in His kindness, wasn’t going to take the land from the Amorites until their sinfulness was so bad that it was truly just to do so. So Abraham sojourned for a time, and his people would as well, being displaced, afflicted, and enslaved for 400 years. And this brings us to Exodus.
Exodus
From Abraham to Isaac, from Issac to Jacob, from Jacob to Levi, and on down the line of Levi comes Moses. A Levite born into danger and put in a basket to avoid death, and then adopted into the house of Pharaoh’s daughter in Egypt. Moses lived in two worlds. On the one hand, he was treated as though he was royalty, able to enjoy all the pleasures and treasures of Egypt. But, on the other hand, he was a Hebrew, a Levite, a Jew who had a love for his people. A love that led him to defend his people, even killing an Egyptian to protect a Hebrew.
Like Abraham, Moses was a Christian. Hebrews 11:23-26 tells us, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” He took on the reproach of Christ, defended his people, and then fled from Egypt. And Hebrews tells us he did all of that in faith. And that’s where our passage today picks up.
In Exodus 2:23-25 we read, “During those many days (the days after Moses fled from Egypt, during which time he had been married and was living in the land of his father in law) the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” Now notice what the text says, God remembered His covenant with Abraham. All of the interactions, the mercy, and the grace that is coming for Moses and the people of Israel is coming as a direct result of God’s covenant promises to Abraham. In other words, the Mosaic Covenant is a product of the Abrahamic Covenant, and that’s because they both flow from God’s eternal Covenant of Redemption, and are administrations of His Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Grace is a result of the Covenant of Redemption, and so likewise the Mosaic Covenant is a result of the Abrahamic Covenant. And this leads to God’s dealings with His people.
God sees the sufferings of His people, He hears their groaning and their cries, and He cares. And because He is a faithful God who always keeps covenant with His people, who is always abounding in steadfast love for His people, He’s going to rescue them from their bondage. Beloved, let that encourage you. God sees what you’re going through. God hears your cries. He hears your prayers. He even hears those prayers that come out as mere groaning, too deep for words. He hears and He knows, and He cares. And in one way or another, He will pour out His mercy and grace upon you. He will keep covenant. As Hebrews 10:23 says, He who promised is faithful, so holdfast. Keep walking in obedient faith. Keep covenant with your God, for He will keep covenant with you. This is what we have seen, and this is what we will see today as well.
Starting in Exodus 3 we read, “1 Now 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 (also known as Mount Sinai). 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. 3 And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ 4 When 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.’ 5 Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ 6 And 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.”
Here we see a theophany, an appearing of God before the incarnation of Christ. Though this does seem to be Christ appearing to Moses in and through the burning bush. Throughout church history Jesus is understood to be this angel of the Lord spoken of here, not because He’s actually an angel, but because the word angel means messenger, and Jesus is the Messenger, and the very Message of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). And that Word, that Message, that Messenger is Jesus. So, often it seems that in the Old Testament, when the (definite article) angel of the Lord appears, it is the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ. And here we know this is more than just an angel because the Scripture says it is the Lord Himself who speaks to Moses, not merely His angelic messenger. Which is why Moses is fearful. He, a sinner, is being confronted by the infinitely glorious and holy God of the universe.
And the Lord tells Moses that He is the holy God of His Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… That is, He is the God who kept covenant with them, and who will now keep covenant with him. And take note of that: Moses did not choose his family. He’s a Hebrew, a Levite by birth, but that was not his choice. But it makes no difference. He was born into a covenant household, and now he’s going to be called to walk in obedient faith in line with that reality. I like the way I heard pastor Chris Wiley explain this. He said, “Truth is like a notice from the IRS; this is because it’s followed by a reckoning.” In other words, you don’t have to accept the IRS into your heart for them to get there. Their jurisdiction trumps what you want or accept. And so it is with God and His covenant dealings with His people. He may or may not give you notice, but He doesn’t ask permission. He is the God of Moses’ fathers, therefore He is Moses’ God as well. This is the Truth regardless of what Moses thinks. This is the LORD of lords speaking, and Moses must submit.
Hebrews 12:28-29 says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” And this is the same expectation of Moses. Moses is confronted by the eternal God who is a consuming fire. And though God is keeping the bush from being consumed, if Moses doesn’t approach God on His terms, if he doesn’t take off his shoes and humble himself with a broken and repentant heart, with a heart of faith, it’s not the bush that will be consumed, but Moses. The place where Moses stood was holy ground because the God who is holy, holy, holy is before him. And this is both a terrifying and yet amazingly good thing, as we shall see.
Picking it back up in Exodus 3:7, the Lord goes on to say, “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, 8 and 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.” So not only is God the covenant God of Abraham, but He’s about to keep His covenant promises to Abraham in and through the Exodus and the Mosaic Covenant. The land He promised to Abraham is about to be given to Moses’ people.
God goes on in Exodus 3:9, “‘And 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.’ 11 But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ 12 He 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.’ 13 Then 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?’ 14 God 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.’ ’ 15 God 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.’”
The God of the burning bush… the bush that is always burning yet never burned or consumed, showing that the fire is totally self-sufficient… The God who shows Himself in and through this self-sufficient fire, and fireproof bush, is the God who is. He is the great I AM. That is, just like what is seen in the fire and the bush, He is the self-sufficient One. He is the God of Abraham who cannot lie and cannot die. He is the God who needs nothing and no one because He has always been and will always be totally sufficient in and of Himself. He is the God who has power over death and destruction, and thus fears nothing and no one… Indeed He has power over all. Which is why when Moses has doubts He encourages Him by saying, “I will be with you.”
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob… The covenant making and covenant keeping God is the great I AM. And though this is true of each person of the Trinity, we know this is especially pointing us to Jesus, because in John 8:58 Jesus Himself said, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” Jesus is the great I AM. Jesus is the Word who was with God before all things, and who is God and created all things. Indeed Jesus is the Word of God that creates. Jesus is God’s Word, God’s Message, and God’s Messenger. Indeed He is God—God the Son who gives Himself freely to save His people… That is, His covenant people who look to Him by faith.
And Moses is looking to God by faith here. When God calls him, Moses responds by saying, “Here I am…” That’s the same response of faith that Abraham had, and the same response of faith that Isaiah has in Isaiah 6. Like Abraham, Moses believes God. He’s seeing and hearing amazing things. He’s seeing and hearing good news of great joy for his people. It isn’t until he hears his part in it that he begins to doubt. It seems as though Moses doesn’t simply doubt God or the sufficiency of God’s grace and His power to save… at least not in general. Moses just doubts those things in regards to himself. And I think many of you are often prone to do the same thing.
You know God is mighty to save, you just aren’t sure He’s mighty to save you. You know God saves sinners, but you’re not sure if He saves sinners like you. You know God works and moves in and through people all of the time, you’re just not sure He can or He will work in and through you. Well beloved, take heart. As the late Jerry Bridges said so well, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” By all means, take God at His Word for others; but make sure you take God at His Word for you as well. He who promised is faithful. So lean on His promises, and trust in His faithfulness. Don’t let your sinfulness or your neediness overwhelm you; instead, be overwhelmed by His grace, because His grace is sufficient, even for you.
From Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to David and to Jesus Himself… God is, always has been, and always will be the self sufficient God who always perfectly keeps covenant with His people. He needs nothing and no one, yet from His eternal goodness and glory flows mercy and grace, leading Him to create and to redeem. And as God stresses here, this story of redemption is all one story flowing from His Covenant of Redemption. All who have been and all who will be saved are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It is the grace of God in Christ that delivers His people. And that’s what He is here promising Moses. And as we will see, that’s what the whole Exodus story displays. The Exodus is a picture of the gospel, where God redeems and delivers His people out of bondage and into right relationship with Him.
As we know all too well, and as Ephesians 2:1-5 beautifully lays out, “[we] were dead in the trespasses and sins in which [we] once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [In other words, we were totally enslaved. we were in bondage to sin, Satan, and death.] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace [we] have been saved.”
So be encouraged church. God saves for the same reason He creates—because of who He is, not because of who we are. It’s because He’s rich in mercy and abounding in great and steadfast love. He doesn’t need us. He is totally sufficient in and of Himself. But He delights to share Himself with sinners like us. And He delights to use sinners like us. The insufficiency of Moses is no match for the sufficiency of God. And the same is true for us. Now, on the one hand, in and of ourselves we are all too far gone and totally insufficient. But, on the other hand, because God’s grace is greater than our sin, and His covenant faithfulness is greater than our sinfulness, none of us are too far gone, and God’s grace is sufficient for us all.
Every single one of us are going through something, or multiple things for that matter. And if not us personally, than someone we love. And if we’re honest, as we look at those things we don’t see a way forward. We don’t see how things could possibly work out for good. We look at the shipwreck of our lives, or the lives of those we love and we don’t see any possible way to recover. But, we must remember that God is a God that rescues and delivers.
God is a God who hears our prayers, who cares, and who answers. And He is a God who saves when all seems lost, because He is a God who saves when all truly are lost. God’s law and God’s gospel, God’s sovereign grace and covenantal faithfulness are enough to repair our broken vessels and not only chart a new course for us, but also to enable us too set sail and press on for His glory. So again, that means you are not too far gone. Your children are not too far gone. Your spouse is not too far gone. Your grandchildren are not too far gone. Your friends, neighbors, and coworkers are not too far gone. Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep trying. Keep drawing near to the Lord and trust that He will draw near to you.
As we will see next week, God is going to use Moses, and His people will be rescued and delivered from the slavery of Egypt. As God has revealed Himself and shown Himself faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so will He do so to Moses. Moses wants to know who God is, and all He can know is what God makes known to him and has made known to him. He is the God of the eternal Covenant. He is the God of the Word. He is the God who has revealed Himself in and through His Word and His covenant faithfulness. The God who is…
As Paul said in Romans 11:33-36, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” God, the all sufficient One who has always been, who is truly eternal and infinite in every way, is the very source of all things. All things are made by Him and defined by Him. As Adam exercised dominion by naming the things God created, so God shows His ultimate dominion—that He is the sovereign Lord of all—by showing that only He can name Himself. And His name is the name from which all others and all things flow. He is the great I AM that is, always was, and always will be. The eternal God of the universe who has power over all.
Even in telling Moses His name God is delivering good news. For His name declares that He has total authority and ability to save, therefore Moses, and us, can take Him at His Word. Now, that doesn’t mean that suffering and hardship doesn’t lie ahead. As we know all too well, pain, suffering, and heartache are a part of the Christian life. But, though they are a part of it, in and through them good is being worked. In fact, that’s what many reformed theologians have associated with the burning bush. Though it is God revealing Himself, it’s also a symbol of our faith that reminds us that our faith will go through fiery trials again and again. But each of them will give way to greater glory.
That’s hard for us to see at times. But we must remember there is more going on than we can see. It’s been said that the Christian life is like a stained glass window. From far away it’s a beautiful picture, but up close it’s just a bunch of broken glass. And so, our lives from God’s vantage point are beautiful. He sees the point of it all. Indeed, He has ordained it all for our good and His glory. But up close, from our vantage point, it seems broken and sharp, and it doesn’t make sense. But, we’re too close to judge, and to feeble to trace God’s hand. Which is why I always tell you, when you can’t trace God’s hand you must trust His character. And His character is good. And that’s what God reminds Moses of here, and us as well. Indeed these gospel reminders and covenant promises are for people from every nation and generation. As He tells us at the end of verse 15, this is His name forever, and thus He is to be remembered throughout all generations. These gospel and covenantal realties are to carry on from generation to generation, from household to household, from parent to child, until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. And indeed they have been, for that is how we know them today.
God said of Abraham in Genesis 18:19, that He had, “chosen him, that He may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised Him.” And essentially that’s the same charge we see on Moses and all of God’s people here. His covenant blessings are meant to carry on throughout all generations. His gospel is meant to advance throughout every nation and generation. So, this applies to us as well. We are to take the blessings that we have been given and be a blessing to others. To our households and church, to our neighbors, and to the world. That’s what our lives are about. That’s what our families are about. And that’s what this church is about.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, with each administration of the Covenant of Grace the revelation of God’s gospel and the beauty and the riches of His promises and blessings increase. God’s grand plan of redemption is getting clearer and clearer each time, and with that clarity comes greater blessings. And that’s what we’ve seen in this passage. God is giving Moses and us greater clarity about who He is and how amazing His grace is. But, though greater blessings are being revealed and given, that doesn’t mean everything is always getting better, or going well. Moses and Israel still had many trials before them, as do we. There are hills and valleys, there are good times and bad times, times of joy and prosperity, and times of heartache and suffering. But we must that our good and sovereign God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
So, remember what we’ve seen today. God introduces the Mosaic Covenant by reminding Moses and us that He is the God who has revealed Himself in and through His Word as the all sufficient God who is perfectly faithful, and who faithfully keeps covenant with His people. He is the God that can be trusted. And He is the God that is mighty to save. He is the God who redeems and delivers. He is the God whose grace is sufficient even for the utterly insufficient. This is what we see in the Exodus. And this is what we see in Jesus. And that’s because the God we see in the Exodus is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, today, and in the weeks to come, remember how firm a foundation God has laid for you in His Word and in who He is. And let that control how you live out who He says that you are and what He’s called you to do. He is your God who will be with you always, even to the end of the age. So may we know Him, may we love Him, may we live for Him, all while looking forward to the Day that we will live with Him forevermore.