THE GOD OF THE BUSH
Ex. 3:1-14
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. President Bush was going through an airport when he saw a man who looked like Moses. He asked him, "Are you Moses?" The man acted as if he didn't hear.
2. He asked him again, "Are you Moses?" The man refused to look at him. The third time, Bush got right up close and asked, "Are you Moses?" "Yes!"
3. "Why didn't you answer me the first two times I spoke to you?" "Because the last time I spoke to a bush, I spent the next 40 years on the backside of the wilderness."
B. WHAT’S IN A NAME?
1. Pharaoh once asked a good question, “Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him?” Who and what is God?
2. A great definition is the Westminster Catechism: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
3. God reveals Himself by making known or proclaiming His Name. To worship God is to call upon His Name (Gen. 12:8), to fear it (Deut. 28:58), to praise it (2 Sam. 22:50), to glorify it (Ps. 86:9). It’s wickedness to take His name in vain (Ex. 20:7) or to blaspheme it (Lev. 18:21; 24:16).
C. MOST COMMON NAMES OF SCRIPTURE:
1. ELOHIM (trans. “God” in KJV) is the word that signifies the creative power and omnipotence of God. The plural form foreshadows the revelation of the Trinity.
2. EL SHADDAI. El Shaddai is the name God used with Abraham. Shaddu means “mountain” and used in conjunction with El is means “Almighty God.” It can also mean “the God who is sufficient (Gen. 21:33).
3. ADONAI literally means “Lord, Master.” It conveys the idea of rulership and dominion (Ex. 23:17; Isa. 10:16,33.
4. MELEK is the word speaking of God as “King.” Nebuchadnezzar said, “I praise…the King of Heaven” Dan. 4:37. David recognized God as King; “The Lord is King forever & ever” Ps. 10:16; “He is the King of Glory” Ps. 24:8,10; “I will exalt You my God the King!” Ps. 145:1.
5. But tonight I want us to look at God’s special name revealed in connection with His bringing Israel (& us) into covenant with Him.
D. TEXT
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God….“I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Moses 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?” God 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.’” Ex. 3:1-7,10,13-14.
E. THESIS
1. We’re starting a new series tonight taking a look at the names by which God has described Himself. The series is entitled, “The Names of God.”
2. Tonight’s message is entitled, “The God of the Bush” and deals with the most important of God’s names.
I. BACKGROUND OF MOSES
A. MOSES’ UPBRINGING
1. According to the ancient historian, Philo (Life of Moses, 1:13), Moses was the adopted son of Hatshepsut. She was her father's only child and she was otherwise childless.
2. Stephen said, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” Acts 7:22.
3. He knew he was of Israelite birth and willing to relinquish his Egyptian inheritance.
4. MOSES CHOSE something better than ruling on the throne of Egypt a short time, or having a closet full of gold; something better than a few dancing girls.
5. Where are the Pharaohs of Egypt today? Where are the dancing girls? (Dead and turned to dust). Where is Egypt's glory today? A few stone monuments are left, slowly turning into dust. Had Moses chosen them, that's all that would remain of his poor choice.
6. WHAT MOSES SAW:
a. But Moses saw that the eternal glory of God's kingdom would smash and triumph over all others.
b. He saw a City with walls made of precious stones, where the streets are paved with gold, and pleasures abound.
c. Moses saw Jesus would make him an heir of it all and he would sit with Jesus on His throne and rule and reign!
7. How petty the throne of Egypt looks next to the throne of God! How petty the gold of Egypt looks next to the gold of heaven! How foolish to choose passing pleasures of this world over eternal rewards!
8. Moses weighed them on the scales: the best part of the world versus the worst part of eternal life -- and God's kingdom easily won the contest. Have you made the same choice?
9. Moses made the mistake of jumping the gun and not trying to deliver Israel with God’s help, but with the strength of his own arm. Seeing abuse, he killed an Egyptian and fled for the wilderness of Sinai.
B. 40 YEARS AND NO ACTION
1. 40 years passed with Moses on the "backside of the desert," OUT IN THE DESERT, THERE WERE NO…
a. No Beautiful Egyptian girls b. No good food
c. No pleasant sounds, smells d. No entertainments.
e. He slept on the ground, ate locusts and honey, drank from a creek, all he smelled was goats. 40 years in the heat and rugged country with little water.
2. Don't you know the devil mocked him? "What a fool you were to leave all that!" "God’s forgotten you." "It's all for nothing, your serving the Lord." Moses was probably at his lowest place.
3. Maybe some of you are at a low place. God hasn’t forgotten you! God has a plan for life, just hang in there!
4. A JOKEster said Moses was one of the most wicked people in history; He broke all 10 commandments at once!
II. WHAT GOT MOSES’ ATTENTION
A. THE ASBESTOS BUSH
1. Some have tried to explain this Bush by claiming that it was a "Fire Bush," which spontaneously would catch on fire when the conditions were right. NOT SO!
2. Moses saw it burning, and paid no attention. It wasn't until much later, when it should have long been ashes, that Moses began to sense something supernatural.
3. It burned like a gas-log fire; the bush remained perfectly unharmed.
4. Was God ever manifested before that in fire? Yes! What was unusual however, was that it was burning in a bush. This is meant to teach us a lesson.
a. This was supernatural fire; material fire would have burned up the bush. Like Pentecost – fire was on their heads but their hair did not burn!
b. There was no harm in the fire. It symbolized Grace in Judgment.
B. WHY WAS THE BUSH ON FIRE?
1. To get the WORLD’S ATTENTION. God needs a bush to burn through. Will we be that Bush?
2. To show His Judging/purifying Nature. When the world sees your purified life, they'll see a difference.
3. Demonstration of Mercy. The bush, though on fire, wasn’t harmed. Normally, God burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
C. WHAT IT SIGNIFIED
1. Verse 8, "I have come down..."
2. A MOVE OF GOD IS COMING. There is movement in the establishment of the kingdom of God. The "smoking and burning lamp" of Abraham (Genesis 15) has flared into a fire!
3. May God “come down” again in our day & turn the world upside down!
III. WHO IS THE GOD OF ABRAHAM?
A. THE GOD OF THE BUSH
1. When Moses was on Mount Sinai kneeling before the burning bush, he asked God what his name was. God replied, "Tell the Israelites “‘I AM has sent me to you’ Ex. 3:14,10.” Usually translated “Lord” in the KJV, this name is used of God 7,000 times!
2. This name is actually from the Hebrew verb “havah” – “to live” and encompasses the past, present, and the future. It speaks of God being the Eternal One Who enters into relationship & covenant with His creatures.
This name is called the tetragrammaton (‘four consonants’) because it has no vowels and it’s not certain whether it’s supposed to be JHVH or YHWH.
3. This name expresses the fact that God is not a God of the past – Who “WAS;” nor is He a God of just the future – Who “WILL BE,” but God is a God Who lives outside the realm of time, Who is in the past, present, and future – simultaneously! He is the Great “I AM!”
4. God’s name also means “to Be” and the past, present, and future connotations make this name means the “Self-Existent One.”
5. By this name, Elohim, the Creator God, does not stand aloof from His creatures, but seeing their need, comes down to help and to save them. In assuming this relationship, God reveals Himself as Jehovah the Covenant God.
6. This name is especially God’s name as COVENANT KEEPER. This is captured in Mal. 3:6 when God says, “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
7. Here God identifies His name with His strict adherence to the covenant made with their forefathers not to destroy them.
8. Examples: “For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath” Deut. 4:31. See also Lev. 26:44; Deut. 7:2; 2 Kgs. 13:23; 2 Chr. 21:7.
B. THE HYPHENATED NAMES OF GOD
1. Several times in Scripture, God connected His Covenant Name JHVH. Scholars call these the “compound names” of God.
2. This has special importance because if God will always strictly keep His covenants, then when He joins it to a particular work He will do, this identifies this as an unchangeable part of His nature.
3. Some of these hyphenated names are:
a. Jehovah-Jireh, Gen. 22:14, “God who provides;”
b. Jehovah-Rapha, Ex. 15:26, “the Lord who heals.;”
c. Jehovah-Nissi, Ex. 17:15, “the Lord our Banner;”
d. Jehovah-Shalom, Jdg. 6:24, “the Lord our Peace;”
e. Jehovah-Rohi, Ps. 23:1, “the Lord my Shepherd;”
e. Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Jer. 23:6, “the Lord our Righteousness;”
f. Jehovah-Tsuri, Ps. 19:14, “the Lord my Rock;”
f. Jehovah-Tsabaoth, 1 Sam. 1:3, “the Lord of hosts.”
4. So these are the names of God I want us to look at for the next several weeks!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. During the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln often found refuge at a Presbyterian Church in Washington DC.
2. He would go with an aide, sit with his stovepipe hat in his lap, and never interrupt the meeting because the congregation would all be in a dither if they knew the president had come to sit in that midweek service.
3. He sat off to the side, near the pastor's study, as the minister would open the Scriptures and teach God's Word and would lead the congregation in worship. The war was tearing the nation apart and tearing his soul. Having just lost his own son, Lincoln was on the bottom, and he needed solace and sustenance
4. As the pastor finished his message and the people began to leave, the president stood quietly and straightened his coat and took his hat in hand and began to leave.
5. The aide stopped him and said, "What did you think of the sermon, Mr. Pres.?" He said, "I thought the sermon was carefully thought through, eloquently delivered." The aide said, "You thought it was a great sermon?"
6. He said, "No, I thought he failed." "He failed? Well, how? Why?" "Because he did not ask of us something great." (Bruce Larson)
7. Teddy Roosevelt believed, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." (Charles Swindoll). God save us!
B. THE CALL
1. I want to challenge you today to do great things.
2. Do not consider your abilities, only consider the Mighty Power of the God who sends you!
3. Moses found that the Covenant-keeping God was going to keep His word. It’s because of His character that we can stand on the Word to claim the glorious promises of God.
4. What do you need God to do for you tonight? If He’s promised it in His Word, the Lord will not fail to keep His promise. Let’s go to prayer.
