Why It Matters //

"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.” (Exodus 3:7) Our God is a God who saves, who delivers. The story of Exodus is one in which God hears and sees His people suffering, and makes a way (where there is no way) to free them from slavery and deliver them from Egypt. Jesus reveals himself to Moses as a burning bush, revealing His Name, that He is the same God of their forefathers, the same God of their children’s children, the same God who was, and is, and is to come.

What It's Talking About // 

In the Book of Exodus, Moses recounts the story of God leading the Israelites out of Egypt and towards the promised land. Throughout these chapters, we see God’s incredible faithfulness to His people and to His Word, to bring deliverance and salvation to a people very much held captive by the Egyptians and by their own fear/idols. Despite the Israelites’ continual doubt and rebellion against God, God remembers His promise and continues to lead them towards a land flowing with milk and honey. In this particular passage, The Lord reveals Himself to Moses as a burning bush, revealing His Name, “I AM,” and His desire to deliver His people. Despite Moses’ protests, The Lord calls him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, promising that He will be him and with His people every step of the way. 

Exodus 3:1-15 NIV

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 wilderness 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.

7 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. 

8 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. 

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 

10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

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

12 And 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 mountain.”

13 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?”

14 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.’”

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, 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 you shall call me

    from generation to generation.

John 8:54-58 NIV

54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 

55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”