Encounter With God

2. To Bless the Afflicted; 3:8, 17

The second purpose for encounter with God is to bless the afflicted. In verse 8 and 17 of Chapter 3, God mentioned two times, that He will bring the Israelites into the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Of course, the promised land flowing with milk and honey symbolizes heaven. However, the main purpose of salvation is not to get men out of Hell and put them in Heaven. I repeat, the main purpose of salvation is not to get men out of Hell and put them in Heaven. This is only a by-product. There is another far more important metaphor in Chapter 3 of Exodus and that’s the burning bush. Thorns and bushes generally symbolize sin in the Scripture. The bush was on fire but it was not consumed. Why was the bush not consumed? Because God was in the bush. Our flesh constantly tempts us to sin and it is like a bush which is set on fire. If we accept Christ’s spirit to come within us, we are not consumed by the fire or by sin, for our sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ. On the contrary, if we do not accept Christ, we will be consumed by fire, the literal fire of Hell. If we accept Christ, we have God in us, much like God in the burning bush. Therefore, salvation is not merely getting men out of Hell and put them in Heaven. If this were the case, then all of us who are saved will be the sitting around waiting to go to heaven. Salvation is getting God out of heaven and putting Him in us, the burning bush. Yes, it is a true blessing to be able to go to Heaven, but the biggest blessing is the ability to enjoy God’s presence inside us on a daily basis, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us, and not to grieve the Spirit. God wants us to give this blessing to others and this is the second purpose to encounter with Him.

C. Power of Encounter with God

This will lead to the third main point, the power of encounter with God. If we have good preparations and we understand the purposes of encounter with God, we will be empowered by Him in carrying out His will through us. From Chapter 3 of Exodus, we see that we will be empowered in three areas, with the power of His presence, power of His word and the power of His Image.

1. Power of His Presence; 3:12-14

From the Chiastic / Parallel structure of this passage, we see that the most important passage in Chapter 3 is in verse 12 the presence of God with us. He is the Holy God mentioned in verse 5 and since he is the Holy God, He demands sacrifices for our sin in verse 18, which ultimately was fulfilled by the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. In verses 6 and 16, God reminded Moses that He is the same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He wanted to send Moses to the Pharaoh to deliver His people out of Egypt into the promised land. Similarly, this very same God is still reaching out to us, asking us to deliver His people from the bondage of sin.

2. Power of His Word; 3:15-21

Besides the power of His presence, we have the power of His Word. In verse 15, God told Moses what to say to the Israelites. In verse 16, God told Moses what to say to the elders of Israel. And in verse 19, God told Moses what to say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. You see, God told Moses exactly what he was supposed to say to the Israelites and to Pharaoh. Today, God is still speaking to us through His word, the Bible.