The Story of Moses: Calling
Exodus 3
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
03-16–2025
Power of a Second Chance
It was my freshman year of college and emotionally I was a wreck. A break up with my high school girlfriend had sent me into a tailspin. I had an 8:00 class that I didn’t make very often because I was having a hard time sleeping.
When the grades came, I made As and Bs in all my classes but one. In that class, I made an F. I had never made an F in my life. It was devastating.
But it got worse. I was a full academic scholarship and the F had taken my GPA below the threshold needed to keep my scholarship. In other words, I was about to lose my scholarship and my parents were not in a position to pay my bills.
Unknown to me, my mother had called the professor of this class and begged him for a second chance. All I needed was a couple of grace points and I would pass and keep my scholarship.
I was mortified when learned that my mommy had called my professor but it turns out that he did give those grace points and I did keep my scholarship.
My mother told me, “You’ve been given a second chance, make the most of it!”
I retook that class, psychology, and made an A. In fact, I made As in every psychology class for the next four years. By the end of my college career, my name was on a plaque as the psychology student of the year!
Humans don’t often give each other second chances. In fact, we have a proverb in our culture - “Fool me once, it’s your fault. Fool me twice, it’s my fault.”
Aren’t you glad that God isn’t like that? Aren’t you glad that God gives second chances? And third? And fourth?
This morning, we are going to see God give Moses a second chance after forty years in the desert.
Review
Two weeks ago, we watched as Moses attempted to do the right thing in the wrong way.
For nearly 40 years, Moses had lived the life of privilege in the palace but he never forgot where he came from or who he really was.
This was a turning point in Moses’s life. He knew he could lead the people out of Egypt. He was born for such a time as this.
He killed an Egyptian he found beating an Israelite slave and then buried the evidence in the sand.
But…
“The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” (Exodus 2:13)
Moses confronts two Hebrews duking it out. He thought that unity was important. We can’t be turning on each other.
He separated the two and then, like a father, demands answers.
The response of the men absolutely shook him to the core:
“The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” (Exodus 2:14)
Where was the respect he deserved? And how did he know about the Egyptian he had killed? No one saw him and he buried the evidence.
Moses’s heart started beating wildly. If these people know, the palace must have gotten word as well. ?
“When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.” (Exodus 2:15)
Yes, he was Pharaoh’s adopted grandson but he had killed an Egyptian, proving, deep down, that he was still just a stinking Hebrew.
Moses knew he had to get out of town so he ran to Midian and he sat down beside a well.
We watched as he came to the rescue of seven daughters of a man named Reul. His priestly name was Jethro.
They invited him home for dinner and he stayed with him, married one of the daughters, and had a son, who he named Gershom, which means foreigner.
Remember how D.L Moody described Moses’s life:
“Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody, and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody”.
Exodus 3 opens nearly forty years later and we find Moses as a nobody in the middle of nowhere. But God is a God of second chances.
Please turn with me to Exodus 3.
Prayer.
Far Side of the Desert
“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 wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (Exodus 3:1)
Exodus 3 begins forty years later. For four decades, Moses had settled into the routine of tending his father-in-law’s flocks. He protected the sheep, took care of them, and led them to good pasturelands.
Day after day after day. For over 14,000 days, he was a shepherd. The tense of the verb means that was his habitual occupation.
In search of grazing lands, he led the sheep for two weeks until he found himself in the shadow of Mt. Horeb.
I’ll let Chuck Swindoll describe the scene:
“Moses wiped the sweat from his eyebrow and squinted into the distance. With the sun already setting behind Mt. Horeb, faraway objects became nebulous in the purple haze of dusk. He couldn’t tell if he was looking at a fairway caravan kicking up a cloud or just a rock jutting up from the ground.
“You better get going,” he said to the Egyptian trader, who had stopped to sell his goods and to talk, it seems until his lips were chapped. “It looks like another caravan’s making its way to the coast.”
“Very well,” the trader said. “You don’t want to buy anything. I fully understand. But what if I offered a simple exchange?”
No. I’m not interested.” Moses was beginning to wonder if this trader was dense or if he was ignoring the hints for some other reason.
“A question, then.”
Here it came. Moses knew there had to be something else.
“You are a Midianite, and yet your name - it’s Egyptian. I’m old, I remember that an Egyptian prince by that same name disappeared many years ago. The young men don’t know. In fact, they don’t know anything these days. The schools have gone down so much since I was young. As a matter of fact, when I was twelve…”
“No,” Moses interrupted.
No, what?” The trader asked.
“No. I’m not named after the prince of Egypt, nor am I’m I related to him.”
“No, I imagine you wouldn’t be. After all, a pharaoh would never allow a relative of his to work as a lowly shepherd in Midian.”
The trader spurred his camel into motion and headed down the trail toward the Sinai region.
Moses thought about what the trader had said. “A shepherd,” he whispered to himself. “What an existence. And I could be leading a nation.”
God had taken him from the palace to the pasture. His time in Egypt seemed like a lifetime ago.
He thought he had missed his chance to be a deliverer to his people.
But God has a specific timing for His plans and His delay doesn’t mean His denial.
The desert gave him time to rest and rely on God. He would need energy for the next chapter of his journey.
A Burning Bush
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. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
It was a normal day. (In fact, God does His best work on normal days). Moses was in a patch of land that had little vegetation. It was mainly rocks and sand.
The same sand. The same sheep. But, this day, there was something different, something bizarre.
The landscape was covered in bushes. They were thorn bushes that looked more like tumbleweeds. Because of the intense heat, or lightning strikes, it was not uncommon to see a bush on fire.
In fact, Moses would have used these kinds of bushes as kindling to start to start fires at night.
But, these bushes would burn to ashes within minutes. This bush was burning but, instead of flaming out, it burned brighter.
This goes against the laws of physics. Something was going on.
More than that, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flames.
When you see the title “The Angel of the Lord,” in the Old Testament, it means a Christophany, an appearance of Jesus before the incarnation.
Moses is captivated by this and decides to “turn aside,” to give his full attention to this “strange sight.”
Hey You!
“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.”
Isn’t it interesting that God did not speak until He knew that he had Moses’s attention?
I wonder if that’s why so few people hear God speaking through the Scriptures today? Could it be that we are so distracted by a million other things, that God is just waiting for us to turn aside from all that sparkles to give Him our undivided attention?
[Reel of former satanist testimony]
On this ordinary day, God spoke for the first time in over 400 years. Not since God had spoken to Jacob at Beersheba had the voice of God been heard.
And God reminded Moses that he knew his name. He had not forgotten him. He had been with him all 14,000 days in the desert.
When God wants to get someone’s attention in Scripture, He calls them twice.
Abraham, Abraham.
Jacob, Jacob.
Samuel, Samuel.
Martha, Martha.
Saul, Saul.
Can I just remind you that God knows your name? He created you. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. He knows every hair on your head. He knows your dreams and your disappointments. He knows you! And when He calls our names, we should listen!
I’ve only heard the audible voice of God once in 33 years. It was in Florida, going over the bridge to the island where the church was, and I heard, “You will not be here long” as clear as any voice I’ve ever heard.
This is extremely rare and, truthfully, I didn’t believe God talked to people that way until it happened to me.
I visited with Betty Miller yesterday and she told me that a couple of weeks ago she was really fearful of dying alone. She said that Jesus said to her, “You can’t die alone because I’ll be there with you!” She said her fear was instantly gone.
Henry Blackaby explains “God speaks through a variety of means. In the present God primarily speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church.”
Let me be very clear on this. The number one way God speaks is through His Word. When people say to me that they haven’t heard God’s voice, I always ask, “Where’s your Bible?”
The Bible is the way we grow spiritually. If you are not reading your Bible, what is your growth plan? Can I recommend the Daily Audio Bible for 2025?
George Muller, a prayer warrior who ran children’s orphanages completely on faith read his Bible cover to cover more than 200 times in his 92 years.
From the age of 71-92, he read the Bible five times a year, because he said, as he grew older, he had the time and needed it more.
When Moses heard his name, he immediately replied, “Here I am.” Moses was curious about what God was up to.
But before God would clue him in on what was going on, He had a warning to give Moses.
Holy Ground
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Literally, the Hebrew reads, “Stop coming closer.” Moses was inching closer to the bush to get a better look but God says, “Stop!”
God then gives Moses a command - take off your sandals.
In the Middle East, it is still customary to remove your shoes when you enter a house. It’s a sign of respect, humility, and reverence.
In synagogues and mosques today it is required that you remove your shoes when entering.
God then gives Moses the reason for the warning. He is standing on “holy ground.” This is the first time the word “holy” is used in the Bible.”
If Moses had looked around, all he would have seen was a barren landscape. It didn’t look very holy to him.
But it wasn’t the place that made it holy but the presence in the place. God was there!
On Wednesday night of this week, Maxine and I visited with friends in Odell. Six weeks ago, Mike’s stomach hurt. It turns out it was stage four colon cancer that had spread throughout his body.
Wednesday night, as we sat there with Mike and his family, I reminded him, (the hearing is the last to go), that we were on holy ground because he was so near going to heaven.
Mike did go to heaven the next day and I’ll talk about that moment at his funeral on Tuesday.
Last week, we were in Atlanta for Maxine’s stepfather’s memorial service. It was held at his church, The Church of the Apostles.
In one of the halls, there are eleven panels created by sculptor Alice Proctor, which tells the story of Moses. I knew I was preaching on the burning bush so I found that panel and took a picture.
In the caption besides the panel, she writes,
“Moses’ sandals are at his side because God instructed him to remove them while on holy ground.”
Moses is learning about who God is in this interaction.
God is a Promise Keeper.
“Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
In Egypt, Moses was exposed to hundreds of different gods. But God introduces Himself as the covenant keeping God.
He made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 to make his “offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky.” (Gen 15:5)
God had renewed that covenant with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. He has been faithful all the way down the line to Moses’s father, Amram.
Notice that God’s name is “I am” not “I was.”
In response to the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection, Jesus said,
But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Matt 22:31-32)
Jesus made the fact that He was God in a bod when he responded to the Pharisees:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham! “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” (John 8:56-59)
They weren’t going to stone Him because He believed in the resurrection. They were going to stone Him because He said His name was “I am, claiming to be God!
God is Holy.
There is only one attribute of God that is repeated three times.
“Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev 4:8)
The Westminster Confession of Faith describes God’s holiness as “encompassing His infinite purity, righteousness, and freedom from sin, making Him the ultimate standard of goodness and justice.”
God's holiness is not merely a characteristic among others, but a fundamental aspect of His very nature, setting Him apart from all creation.
His holiness is linked to his sovereignty, justice and righteousness, glory and majesty.
In a song that Moses wrote with his sister later in Exodus, he asks:
“Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)
God's holiness inspires awe and reverence, leading to worship.
"Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness, tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.” (Psalm 96:9-11)
God is transcendent and immanent
Transcendent simply means that God is separated from us. He is over us, above us, infinitely beyond us, and not like us.
God is absolutely incomprehensible to us. He is not limited by time or space. He is independent of His creation and the sovereign ruler of the universe.
David wrote:
"The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:4-6)
God is transcendent but He is also immanent, which means that God is present in the world through his Word, actions, and Holy Spirit.
God's immanence allows for a close and personal relationship with humanity, while his transcendence ensures his greatness and power.
The ultimate example of God’s immanence was the incarnation of Jesus, when He took on human form and became part of our world.
Moses is experiencing all three of these attributes at the same time!
How do we know? Because he hid his face out of fear!
"At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”
Let me remind you that the fear of God is not trembling before a terrorist but the awe and reverence for a father.
God Sees and Hears
Good then expresses his heart to Moses:
“The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.”
The Israelites groaned, moaned, and cried for help because of the situation they were in.
God has seen the misery of His people and heard their cry.
God expressed His love for them. He had a plan. He would “come down.” This means He will be directly involved, and it usually involves judgement.
He had come down to confuse the language at the tower of Babel. He had come down to deal with the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now He was planning to come down and rescue His children out of slavery.
He would lead them to a new good and spacious land. It would be good in quality and size. There would be grass, fruit trees, cows, goats, and bees.
He would drive out the other nations that live there.
He had told Abraham this would happen:
“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions… In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Gen 15:13-14,16)
It was working out. Their deliverer was on the backside of the desert learning the lessons needed to be their deliverer.
We know that God is near to us and hears our cries:
David wrote:
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. (Psalm 18:6)
And
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
The Israelites may have felt like God didn’t care. You may feel like God has abandoned you or isn’t listening or doesn’t care.
But God is the God of second chances!
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Moses is going to get a second chance to be the deliverer. But wait until you hear how he responds!
Second Chances
Jonah
God told Jonah to go and announce judgement on the people of Nineveh. God said go. Jonah said no and took a ship in the total opposite direction. God didn’t use a burning bush but a big ole fish to get Jonah’s attention. Instead dying in the fish, he was given a second chance.
John Mark
He initially accompanied Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey but bailed on them and went back home. We aren’t told why. Maybe it was harder than he thought.
When Paul and Barnabas planned their next missionary journey, Barnabas suggested taking John Mark again. Paul said absolutely not. This led to a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas.
Ultimately, Paul took Silas with him and Barnabas gave John Mark a second chance to help him on the journey.
I’m glad that Barnabas gave Mark a second chance because he would end up writing the first first Gospel!
My Dad
My father was a moral man. He taught us that Williams men don’t lie, we work hard, and we are faithful. But the most I ever heard him talk about Jesus was to say, “The man died for you.”
After my mother died, my father, brother, and I went to a Promise Keepers conference in Memphis. Jack Hayford preached on these very verses. He had us take off our shoes. It was one of those times that are hard to describe. You had to be there. The Spirit was moving and I looked over and my dad was on his knees, in his socks, crying and praying. That day, on holy ground, my dad was born again!
Peter.
This is my favorite second chance story. Peter, who spent a lot of time with his foot in his mouth, had declared that even if everyone abandons Jesus, he never would.
Not only does he abandon Jesus, he denies he ever knew Him to a servant girl.
If anyone didn’t deserve a second chance, it was Peter and he knew it.
After the resurrection, Jesus had breakfast on the beach with Peter:
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
Then he said to him, “Follow me!” (John 21:15-19)
Three denials. Three questions. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? With this, Jesus restored Peter.
I can picture Jesus smiling at His forlorn friend. Come on Peter. Enough sulking. Follow me!
Peter becomes a leader in the early church, preaches the first sermon, (3,000 people got saved), two of his letters are in our Bible, and ultimately was crucified upside down for his Savior.
Maybe this morning you need a second chance, or a third. If you are a thousand miles away from God how many steps back is it? One!
Ending Video: The Power of a Second Chance
Let me go back and point something out that you may have missed.
What kind of bush was it that God appeared to Moses in? A thorn bush. It would have been these kinds of thorns that composed the crown of thorns worn by Jesus when He died for you.
We are sinners, by nature and practice, and we can never save ourselves but Jesus died in our place, for our sin, to give us a chance at eternal life.
Ending Song: Turn your Eyes Upon Jesus (YT)
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