Our Lord Jehovah Is Our Great I Am

OUR LORD JEHOVAH IS OUR GREAT I AM

EXODUS 3:9-15 MARCH 23, 2003

EXODUS 3:9-15

9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyp-tians are oppressing them. 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

11But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

12And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this moun-tain."

13Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, `What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?"

14God 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.’ "

15God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, `The LORD,C 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, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

Today in our text, the Lord wants us to not limit our thinking. He wants us to look at our God as He looks at Himself, that He is not limited by mankind’s limited thinking. Our Lord is lim-itless. We are going to look at the limitlessness of God. That’s hard to do because you and I often have very exacting parameters that we set up…5280 feet = 1 mile, 16 ounces = 1 pound, etc. Our thinking becomes rather narrow and limited. When it comes to the Lord, we have seen time and again, as He has spoken to His prophets and to His people, and as He speaks to us, that He is limitless. He loves us with an everlasting love. His grace is an undeserved gift to each and every one of us.

In our second lesson today, we heard how the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom. Because of that, we stand in awe of God. We gather together on Sundays and other special occasions that we might offer up our worship and our praise to our God who is limitless. It is something that our Lord deserves. The prophet Isaiah tells us: "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols"(ISAIAH 42:8). He says, ‘I am the LORD.’ He deserves our attention, our full love from our hearts and minds and souls. That’s what the Lord teaches us this morning.

OUR LORD JEHOVAH IS OUR GREAT I AM

I. I AM remains unchanged

II. I AM keeps every promise

I. I AM remains unchanged

The words in Exodus 3 start with Moses going up to Mount Horeb. Moses is going off to worship by himself. As he gets closer to where he wants to worship, he sees a bush that is on fire but is not burning up. He gets closer to see this miracle. As he gets closer, he hears a voice that says, ‘I am the Lord.’ Moses realizes this is a holy, awesome place. This is the place of God. He takes off his shoes and the Lord is going to speak to Moses. The Lord is going to show Moses His limitless love because He’s going to give him a task to do.

The Lord has been listening and He has heard something. 9And now the cry of the Isra-elites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. When the Israelites went down into Egypt when Joseph was there, it was the only place that had food. Joseph was in favor with Pharaoh. It didn’t take long for a different Pharaoh to rise up and to forget about Joseph and to forget about the promises made to the Israelites. Pharaoh was now concerned about the Israelites overtaking Egypt, so all the male offspring born to the Israelites were commanded by Pharaoh to be put to death. Pharaoh did not want a leader to rise up from among the Israelites. Moses was spared. We come to this part and God says, ‘I’ve listened. I’ve heard the Israelites cry out. I’ve seen the Egyptians and seen how they’ve made them slaves.’ Now God says to Moses: 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my peo-ple the Israelites out of Egypt."