Exiting Egypt Chapter 3 Part1

Exiting Egypt

A Burning Bush Brings Redemption

Exodus 3:1-10

By Dennis Lee

Moses is an old man at this point. Eighty years old to be exact. He killed an Egyptian 40 years earlier and has suffered the consequences, banishment from Egypt and his people, and death if he returns.

But the years have passed and whatever stirrings that once existed before are now more than likely a buried memory. He’s settled down to a shepherd’s life in Midian, content with being a part of Jethro’s family.

Now, normally we don’t look for 80 year olds to lead revolutions, or to get a new life. Even Nicodemus asked Jesus, “Can a man be born again when he is old?” (Jn. 3:4).

But God has not forgotten Moses. There is a telling phrase in verse 8 where God says, “I have come down.” This is probably the defining verse concerning the character of God. God doesn’t sit up placidly in heaven listening to harp music, oblivious to history and the plight of His people. Rather He is actively involved even though the children of Israel, and you and I today may not see it, as we saw last week as we talked about the providence of God, that is, the power of God sustaining and guiding human destiny.

For you see, God heard the groaning of the people, remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, looked upon their plight and knew exactly what they were going through. And so He came down and here He confronts Moses, because now was the time for their deliverance.

Read Ex. 3:1-6

The meaning of the burning bush story is that miracles happen, and God speaks to His people and to their situations. And what we see from this story are several lessons.

A. God Appears in the Ordinary

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God (Ex. 3:1 NKJV)

Nothing real exciting is going on in Moses’ life. He’s simply doing what he had been doing for these past 40 years. He’s going about his daily work routine, nothing out of the ordinary, when God appeared.

Edmund Burke, an 18^th century philosopher stated, “History is full of momentous trifles.” What insight. History is shot full of ordinary everyday events that turn momentous, and that have extraordinary meaning.

Back in 1837, a farmer fired upon British soldiers and Old North Bridge in Concord, and it because known as “The shot that was heard around the world.” He was no different than anyone else defending their home, but it then became the rallying cry for the American Minute Men during the American Revolutionary War.

Or then there was James Wilson Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in California back on Jan. 24, 1848 when he discovered a gold nugget. He was going about his everyday routine when he found tye nugget, and the California Gold Rush was on.

And so it was with Moses. Life as a shepherd had become routine. He was leading his flock to the back of the desert, something he had done hundreds of time before when all of a sudden God appears.

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush (Ex. 3:2a NKJV)

God appeared in the ordinary. God appeared in the ordinary routine of Moses’ life, and through the ordinary throne bush in that region. But through the everyday drag of life Moses maintain his trust and faith in God, and the lesson in this is that we need to be faithful, even though we may not see God working in our now.

We need to be faithful because God, as we have seen in our past studies, and will continue to see throughout our study in Exodus, is that God is a covenant keeping God, and He will keep His promises. As it states, “God came down,” and God will come to you in whatever it is that you are going through, and it will generally be like Moses, when you least expect it in the ordinary routine of the day.