WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.960 So we continue our series this morning on the great stories of the Bible. 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:13.200 We have children's storybook Bibles, and in the storybook Bibles, typically they recount 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:16.600 the most popular, the great stories of the Bible. 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:22.719 And the logic for this comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6, where God says, tell your children, 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:26.760 tell your children the great things that I have done and teach them the commandments 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:32.679 we do this in the modern world at bedtime when we read to our kids, if you have kids, 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:33.880 the things that God has done. 00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:40.040 But what we're doing in this series is giving an adult's look at the theology of the great 00:00:40.040 --> 00:00:44.160 stories, the kind of stories that make it into the storybooks. 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:50.520 And the burning bush, as you know, if you've grown up in the church, is a great story. 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:57.880 It's a great story because for 2,000 years, Christians, and especially Christian theologians, 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:03.440 have gone to Exodus 3 to answer what is perhaps the greatest question of existence, and that 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:05.400 is, who is God? 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:09.800 And this has really been the passage that people in the Old Testament have always gone to, 00:01:09.800 --> 00:01:12.000 to answer that question, who is God? 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.920 It's this passage that really answers it in the whole Old Testament. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:24.359 And what that means is that this passage is for people, if you this morning are a seeker, 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:29.599 if you are one of the many in our city that are on the spiritual hunt, that you know that 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:35.400 there's something more to existence than the material world, but you haven't found it yet. 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:40.120 This passage is for you, because that's exactly where Moses was in this passage. 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:46.079 And it's also for you, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer, and you're bored with 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:52.520 Christianity, you have a really tough time wanting to know God, because this is the question, 00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:53.520 who is God? 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:55.240 It's the question, it brings you back. 00:01:55.240 --> 00:01:58.960 And if you're hungry, if you're a hungry Christian, if you're growing, if you've been eating up 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:03.719 the Bible and learning more and more and coming to the knowledge of God and Christ more and 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.439 more, this passage is for you, because it asks the question, who is God? 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:09.360 And you could never ask that question enough. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:12.840 And so that means this passage is for everybody. 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:18.200 Whether you're a believer or unbeliever, coming and seeking, or you've found something, this 00:02:18.200 --> 00:02:20.440 passage is talking to you. 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:24.720 And so to answer the question, who is God, we're just going to look at two things about 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:26.640 God from the passage. 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:32.320 First, Exodus 3 tells us about the God who finds. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:37.120 And secondly, Exodus 3 tells us about the God who reveals. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.080 And so first, the God who finds. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:45.120 In verse 1, Moses, he's doing his thing. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:46.120 He's doing his thing. 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:48.439 He's a shepherd. 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:53.159 And he's out shepherding his flock just outside west of Midian. 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:54.920 And this is his day job. 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:56.280 He does this every day. 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:57.400 He shepherds the flock. 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:00.920 He takes them out in the wilderness and feeds them and gives them water and brings them home 00:03:00.920 --> 00:03:01.920 again. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:08.639 And he's doing his thing, and all of a sudden he's encountered by a bush that the text says, 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:13.919 he sees up on Mount Horib, which is on fire, but it's not being burned up. 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:15.719 It's not literally being consumed. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.119 It's not being burnt into pieces. 00:03:18.119 --> 00:03:24.599 Literally it says that it's not exactly maybe not a bush, but a thicket, or literally thorns, 00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:27.279 brambles, kind of a picture. 00:03:27.279 --> 00:03:29.799 So it might even be pretty big. 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:32.280 But this is his day job. 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:33.719 He's not out pursuing God. 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:35.360 He's not out looking for God. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:37.680 He's shepherding his flock. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:44.160 And it says in verse 3 that he's forced to turn aside, to see something great, to go 00:03:44.160 --> 00:03:45.920 up the mountain Mount Horib. 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:50.560 By the way, Mount Horib, the most, the more popular name for it is Sinai. 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:56.000 This is Mount Sinai, the place that he will return to after the Exodus. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.280 And so Moses is a shepherd. 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:05.520 He was a prince of Egypt as DreamWorks reminded us so well in 1998. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:08.920 He was a prince of Egypt. 00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:11.520 He's a shepherd now because he ran away from Egypt. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:19.040 He had murdered an Egyptian slaver who was beating an Israelite. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:23.040 And the reason he did this is because he knew that he was also an Israelite. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:25.199 Moses was born an Israelite. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:30.920 And from an early age, he entered into Pharaoh's household as a prince. 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:32.639 So he was an Israelite by birth. 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:35.039 He knew that. 00:04:35.039 --> 00:04:38.079 But by culture, he was Egyptian. 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:44.719 And there's every indication in Exodus so far that Moses was an Egyptian. 00:04:44.719 --> 00:04:50.039 He was an Israelite ethnically, but he was Egyptian by culture. 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:55.920 And this is clear in the previous chapter in chapter two, after Moses kills that Egyptian 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:00.560 slaver, he runs away to Midian to the wilderness and he comes upon a well. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.760 And there are women there trying to feed their flocks. 00:05:03.760 --> 00:05:08.360 And these male shepherds come in and attack them and force them away from the well so 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:09.680 they can't get water. 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:12.200 And Moses comes in and he saves them. 00:05:12.200 --> 00:05:14.280 He fights for them. 00:05:14.280 --> 00:05:15.280 Maybe he beats up the guys. 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:16.280 I don't know. 00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:19.280 But he fights for them and he gets the women their water. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:26.599 And they go back to their father, Jethro, and they say, we were saved by an Egyptian. 00:05:26.599 --> 00:05:27.759 So they think he's an Egyptian. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:28.879 He looks like an Egyptian. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:31.039 He dresses like an Egyptian, probably. 00:05:31.039 --> 00:05:32.479 He talks like an Egyptian. 00:05:32.479 --> 00:05:35.839 He uses the cool slang words that are happening in Egypt at the time. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:38.000 He's an Egyptian by culture. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.399 He grew up in Pharaoh's palace. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:48.879 And that means so far in the book of Exodus, every indication tells us that Moses is by 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:52.480 definition a pagan at this point. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:59.360 A pagan, meaning he doesn't worship strictly the God of Israel. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:03.740 Every indication in the passage so far tells us that he's probably a pagan. 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:07.879 He marries one of the girls whom he saved at the well. 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:09.199 And her name is Zipporah. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:10.800 She's the daughter of Jethro. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.319 And it says in our passage in the first verse, Jethro is the priest of Midian. 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:20.800 And when it says that he's the priest of Midian, it's not saying that he's the priest of Israel's 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:22.879 God in Midian. 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:25.639 He's not the priest of the biblical God in Midian. 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:28.719 He's the priest of a Midianite religion. 00:06:28.719 --> 00:06:33.879 And we know pretty well now from different ancient Near Eastern sources that in Midian, 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:39.159 they worshiped a God called Baal-Payor, which just means God of Payor. 00:06:39.159 --> 00:06:42.600 And they worshiped Ashtaroth, the Queen of Heaven. 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:47.120 And so he marries into a family that's polytheistic. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:50.360 He marries into a family that worships many gods. 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.520 And he fits right in. 00:06:52.520 --> 00:06:53.520 He's part of them. 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:56.760 He's the son-in-law of the priest of Midian. 00:06:56.760 --> 00:07:00.000 And that means that Moses was a polytheist. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.000 He was a pagan. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.560 Up to this point in the Bible, he knows about Israel's God. 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.600 He knows about the stories, probably. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.400 But he's a pagan. 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:12.000 He had settled into rural life. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.000 He settled into a foreign land. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:17.959 And he was living amongst a polytheistic culture. 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:24.240 And what that means is that this is Moses' conversion story. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:28.920 This is Moses' conversion story. 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:32.399 Moses was a man on the search. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:36.360 He was a man seeking and looking for something, looking for truth. 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:38.439 And he always had been. 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:44.920 And he was out doing his day job shepherding at this passage when he's confronted by something 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:49.040 great, by great sites. 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:52.160 He had always been attracted by justice. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:56.480 He's willing to go fight for the Israelite slave in the face of a slaver. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:00.399 He's willing to go save the women at the well. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:08.360 But even more than that, when he has his first son, Zipporah, he names his son, Gershom, 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.240 which means I'm a sojourner. 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:12.240 I'm a seeker. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.240 I'm searching for something that I haven't yet found. 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:17.439 And he was in a conflicted state. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:22.960 He was ethnically Israelite, culturally Egyptian and polytheistic. 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:24.319 And he was searching for truth. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:26.160 And he hadn't found it. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:27.600 He was a sojourner. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:37.680 And seeking, being on the spiritual hunt, it's incredibly common in our city, in a city 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:38.839 like Edinburgh. 00:08:38.839 --> 00:08:43.399 If you go out and talk to people in the streets in Edinburgh, you'll probably not find as 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:46.359 many people who are atheistic as you would expect. 00:08:46.359 --> 00:08:51.159 What you'll find in the 21st century is that more than not, people are on the spiritual 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:52.659 hunt. 00:08:52.659 --> 00:08:55.479 They're spiritualists in some general sense. 00:08:55.479 --> 00:08:58.919 They know that there's something more to existence than just the material world, but 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:03.439 they haven't quite found exactly what that might be. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:10.440 There was an old narrative that really started in the 1900s called the secularist story or 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:11.600 theory. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:16.440 And it started with Karl Marx, perhaps when Karl Marx, the guy who founded Marxism, said 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.360 that religion is just an opiate to the masses. 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:21.360 It's an opiate. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:25.400 It's a drug to people who don't have knowledge, who don't have technology, who need something 00:09:25.400 --> 00:09:29.200 to get them through the day in a life that's misery and a life that's suffering. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:32.280 And a lot of people really picked up on that narrative in the 20th century, especially in 00:09:32.279 --> 00:09:33.919 the academy. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:39.039 Scholars would constantly talk about how religion, by the end of the 20th century, would almost 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:41.159 be completely wiped out. 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:45.679 That religion would slowly but surely die out as technology improved, as the hospitals 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:50.959 got better, as life extended, and you didn't need an opiate, some sense of an otherworldly 00:09:50.959 --> 00:09:55.159 God to help you get through your day to day life. 00:09:55.159 --> 00:10:01.159 Today, four-fifths of all people on earth believe in the supernatural. 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:02.600 80 percent. 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:06.279 And that number just really hasn't changed much in a century. 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:10.439 80 percent, four out of every five people on the entire planet, believe in the supernatural. 00:10:10.439 --> 00:10:14.480 I mean, there's a good reason for that. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:20.639 Materialism is really hard to square with our basic human experience. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:25.159 Materialism being that there is no supernatural world, there is no spiritual world. 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:26.600 Everything is just matter in motion. 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.600 What you see is what you get. 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:34.240 But it's really hard to square materialism with some of our most basic experiences. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:39.519 The fact that we fall in love, the fact that love exists, the fact that we long and need 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:44.040 hope, that we want so badly for there to be life after death, that we know that there 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:50.440 is a justice out there, that law exists before us and outside of us, that all cultures recognize 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:55.840 some of the same laws universally, that we want meaning, that there must be purpose, 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.800 that every human being desires that, these are called metaphysical realities. 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:05.120 They're truths that exist above and beyond the material world, and we all have some kind 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.320 of sense of them. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:11.080 Even when we feel guilty, there's a metaphysical reality that can't be explained by the sheer 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:12.600 material. 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:18.200 And for that reason, 80 percent of the people on earth that exist today think it's reasonable 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:24.519 to conclude that there is a supernatural, that the spiritual exists. 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:31.600 And so that means it's incredibly normal and even popular to be a spiritual person in the 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:32.960 21st century. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.960 It's incredibly normal, it's incredibly popular. 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:43.399 But to be a spiritual person in the 21st century typically almost always now means you're always 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:49.720 on the search for something, for something supernatural, but you're never actually allowed 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.720 to find anything. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:56.840 And that's the condition of what it means to be spiritual in the 21st century. 00:11:56.840 --> 00:11:59.200 You know that there's something else that exists, you know it's out there, but you're 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:04.560 never actually allowed in our culture to find it, to actually say, there's the truth. 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:08.279 There's the God I was looking for. 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:16.240 And for that reason, being spiritual in general fits really well with most religions, because 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:22.279 most religions simply ask this, they ask a lowest common denominator, the same thing 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.240 that being spiritual asks for. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:30.199 And that's that you try to be a good person, that you try to be a decent citizen, do your 00:12:30.199 --> 00:12:37.079 duty, generally be a good person, that you try to stay humble, that you never arrive, 00:12:37.079 --> 00:12:39.959 that you always know there's something more to life, but you're never quite sure what 00:12:39.959 --> 00:12:40.959 it is. 00:12:40.959 --> 00:12:45.319 And that's the lowest common denominator of all religions really, that have ever existed, 00:12:45.319 --> 00:12:49.600 is ultimately trying to be a good person. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:13:00.279 History, the burning bush, is the explanation of why Christianity is not like modern spirituality 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:04.639 and why it's completely different than all the other religions that have ever existed 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:08.399 in all of history. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:13.279 Being spiritual says this, human beings are on the hunt to reach up to the divine and 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:15.759 hope beyond hope by being a good person. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:20.200 Someday you might find it, someday if you're good enough you might get there. 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:25.919 And Christianity says the exact opposite, it says that the only hope in the world for 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:30.600 human beings and for the entire cosmos is not that you reach up and get God, but that 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:34.919 God comes down and finds you. 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:40.120 That God condescends, that God comes and forces you to turn aside from your day to day job 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:48.399 from your local shepherding duties and to walk up the mountain and see something great. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:52.600 And that means that the only way a human being can know God according to the Bible, according 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:58.960 to the biblical religion, is that God come down, that God come find you. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:04.639 And the Bible tells the story that despite human sin, despite human rebellion, despite 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:10.879 humans rejecting the God who created, there is a God who comes down and says, I want you, 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.120 I've come to find you. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.159 And so the question is how? 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:18.519 And that really dives us into the depths of the burning bush story. 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:22.519 So secondly, how does God come find us? 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:29.279 And the answer is because God, the biblical God is the God who comes and reveals himself. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:35.720 And in this passage, God reveals himself in two ways, and the first way is the way of 00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:38.000 the great conundrum. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:43.519 So if you look down at verse four, Moses turns aside to go up the mountain, and when the 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:50.159 Lord sees him, it says that God calls out to Moses out of the bush and says, Moses, 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:51.480 Moses. 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:59.960 Now God repeats Moses' name, and in Hebrew, the language that exists behind this English 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:06.279 translation, repeating something more than once is really important in that language. 00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:07.279 It's emphatic. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.600 And what that means is when he says Moses' name twice, the sense of it is that it's incredibly 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.800 endearing. 00:15:13.800 --> 00:15:15.680 It's a father talking to a child. 00:15:15.680 --> 00:15:17.200 It's Moses. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:20.720 Moses, I want you. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:22.160 I love you. 00:15:22.160 --> 00:15:24.240 I've come for you. 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:25.240 Insert your name here. 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:26.399 I want you. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:27.399 I love you. 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:29.600 I've come for you. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:36.000 And then in verse five, but don't come near me. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:37.360 You see it in verse five. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:42.080 Then as soon as he says Moses, Moses, I want you. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:46.200 And then the very next verse, but don't come near me. 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:48.480 Stay back. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.879 Don't get any closer. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:55.960 I will kill you if you come any closer. 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:57.320 So this is the great conundrum. 00:15:57.320 --> 00:16:00.240 God says, insert your name here. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:02.639 Moses, Moses, I want you. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:03.639 I've come for you. 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:04.639 Come to me. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:07.279 And then as soon as Moses starts to approach, he said, stop right there. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:08.680 Don't get any closer. 00:16:08.680 --> 00:16:09.680 Don't come near me. 00:16:09.680 --> 00:16:11.720 You cannot touch me. 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:13.440 You cannot dwell with me. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:16.759 You cannot be here in this sacred space. 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:17.759 Take off your shoes. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:21.519 You know where you are. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:25.000 And look, the text tells us exactly what this means in verse five. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:26.000 Don't come near. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:27.000 Take off your sandals. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.399 The place on which you are standing is holy. 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:34.120 The reason God comes down to find Moses, he wants Moses, he yearns for Moses. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:36.120 And then he says, don't come any closer. 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:37.120 The text says it. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.799 It's because God is holy. 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:46.120 And what that means, God is saying is, I'm better than you. 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:49.679 I'm better than you. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:54.919 In other words, God is saying, look, I define reality. 00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:56.279 You've been coming. 00:16:56.279 --> 00:17:01.560 You've been searching this life on your terms, worshiping God after God, running away from 00:17:01.560 --> 00:17:02.560 justice. 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:03.560 I'm coming to you. 00:17:03.560 --> 00:17:05.920 I'm defining reality. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:07.519 What this means, God is fiery. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.079 He can't be controlled. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:11.839 He won't be controlled. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:16.279 And what he's calling Moses to do is to take off his sandals and face reality that God 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:19.679 defines who God is. 00:17:19.679 --> 00:17:27.000 And what this means is that our feelings, our hearts, what we want God to be like, isn't 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.879 the definition of who God is. 00:17:29.879 --> 00:17:33.559 That human beings' hearts cannot define God. 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:37.319 No matter how much a human being wants God to be a certain way, you can't fit him into 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:38.319 your frame. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:39.319 He's fiery. 00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:42.119 He's down in a burning bush, and he says, don't come any closer. 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:43.119 I'm holy. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:49.480 You are not perfect, and you know in your conscience that you ought to be. 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.679 And so he says, come, come, Moses, but stop. 00:17:52.679 --> 00:17:53.799 Don't get any closer. 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:55.720 Take off your sandals. 00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:59.519 Give up your idols, in other words. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:07.720 And so the question, sorry, let me say this, John, the apostle puts it this way in 1 John 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:09.200 chapter 3. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:13.920 He says, God is greater than your heart. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:15.920 God is greater than your heart. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:20.360 What would God be like if God was exactly like what your heart desired of him? 00:18:20.360 --> 00:18:21.360 That wouldn't be a God. 00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:24.759 It wouldn't be a God if you could frame him in exactly the way you wanted to be. 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:26.759 But God is greater than your heart. 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:30.759 And so the question that's being presented to Moses in this moment, come to me, but don't 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:38.119 get any closer, is are you willing to surrender to reality? 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:40.079 Are you willing to surrender? 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:45.000 Are you willing to acknowledge the God who is, not the God that you want God to be? 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.400 Are you willing to take off your sandals, to remove your idols, to remove your false 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:52.279 conceptions of God? 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:57.240 And so the second way that God reveals himself in this passage is specifically through a 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:01.000 burning bush. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:07.400 Moses sees a bush on fire, and God speaks to him out of that bush, and it did not burn 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:08.400 up. 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:10.920 It was not consumed. 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:17.839 But no storybook, if you flip to Exodus 3, the story of the burning bush in any of the 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:24.599 storybooks, no storybook really captures exactly what's happening here. 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:29.439 The Free Church of Scotland, the denomination that St. Columbus is part of, has as its emblem 00:19:29.439 --> 00:19:33.879 the burning bush, and Edinburgh Theological Seminary across the street also has as its 00:19:33.879 --> 00:19:37.399 emblem the burning bush, which is good, all good and well. 00:19:37.399 --> 00:19:44.079 But the emblem of the burning bush actually doesn't get at what's happening in this passage. 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:49.839 The point is that Moses doesn't exactly see just a burning bush. 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:50.839 What is it? 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:51.839 What's the purpose, the point here? 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:54.079 What is it that Moses sees exactly? 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:57.279 And if you look down at verse 2, you'll see it. 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:04.879 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. 00:20:04.879 --> 00:20:06.679 The angel of the Lord appeared to him. 00:20:06.679 --> 00:20:14.079 And then, well, in other words, the thing that Moses sees is not simply a bush that's 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:16.919 on fire. 00:20:16.919 --> 00:20:19.679 Moses had seen many bushes that were on fire. 00:20:19.679 --> 00:20:21.240 He lived in the desert. 00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:27.680 In verse 6, it says that when he approaches it, he hides his face, afraid. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:32.880 Now, people who live in Midian, they don't hide their faces from bushes that are on fire. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:35.079 It's just not what you do. 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:38.880 You light bushes on fire all the time if you live in where he lived. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.039 Why did he hide his face? 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:42.920 Why was he afraid? 00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:44.319 And it's not because of the bush. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:47.759 It's because of what he saw in the bush, coming out of the bush. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:54.599 Now what he saw emerging from the bush was an embodied human likeness. 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:56.559 Did you catch that in verse 2? 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:02.720 He saw the angel of the Lord coming out of the midst of the bush, clothed in a flame 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:04.519 of fire. 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.680 He sees a likeness. 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:12.400 He sees an image of something that looks like a human being coming out of the bush. 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:14.519 Now who is this? 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:15.519 What is this? 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:19.879 This angel of the Lord that he sees, the angel of the Lord. 00:21:19.879 --> 00:21:24.599 The text doesn't say it's an angel of the Lord, but the angel of the Lord. 00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:26.839 The definite article, the angel of the Lord. 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:28.920 And that's really important. 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:32.839 The angel of the Lord makes an appearance a few times in the first five books of the 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:35.519 Old Testament, Genesis to Deuteronomy. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:40.720 In Genesis 22, the angel of the Lord comes to Hagar. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:46.200 And when the angel of the Lord comes, Hagar worships the angel. 00:21:46.200 --> 00:21:50.839 And then Hagar later says, God came and spoke to me. 00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:56.400 And just before that, in Genesis 18, three men appear to Abraham. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:01.079 And one of them, it says, is the angel of the Lord. 00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:07.600 And Moses in that passage bows down and worships at the feet of the angel of the Lord, who 00:22:07.600 --> 00:22:10.640 looks like a human being. 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:16.480 And even more than that, in Exodus 23, God talks about the angel of the Lord. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:22.200 He says, look, I'm going to send my angel before you to guard you, the people of Israel, 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.160 on the way to bring you to the place I have prepared. 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:26.800 Be attentive to the angel. 00:22:26.800 --> 00:22:28.120 Listen to his voice. 00:22:28.120 --> 00:22:32.560 Do not rebel against him because he will not forgive your transgressions for my name is 00:22:32.560 --> 00:22:34.400 in him. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:38.560 But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:42.159 to your enemies and a foe to your foes. 00:22:42.159 --> 00:22:44.519 Who's the angel of the Lord? 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:51.319 And what Exodus 23 says is the angel of the Lord has the power to forgive sins or to condemn 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:52.799 transgressions. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:59.799 That the angel of the Lord, it says, bears the name of God, or literally is the name 00:22:59.799 --> 00:23:01.440 of God. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:06.799 Now the name. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:09.919 If you live in the Old Testament times, if you live in the Ancient Near East and you 00:23:09.919 --> 00:23:14.639 have a name, it means something pretty different from what it means for us today in the modern 00:23:14.639 --> 00:23:15.639 world. 00:23:15.639 --> 00:23:16.639 My name's Cory. 00:23:16.639 --> 00:23:18.139 I've said that already. 00:23:18.139 --> 00:23:20.680 My name's Cory. 00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:22.759 And look, it could be different. 00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:25.240 My name could be something different very easily. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:26.559 My parents could have done something. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:28.200 I could have changed it anytime. 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:31.720 And there's a decent chance that even with a different name, I could still be exactly 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:33.359 who I am today. 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:38.079 To a large degree, I could be here working here and doing a PhD and teaching at this church 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:40.199 and all this stuff. 00:23:40.199 --> 00:23:47.159 If you're a male in this room today, your name is either Colin, Don, or Neil. 00:23:47.159 --> 00:23:49.839 And there's no doubt about that. 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:57.839 And look, if your name is Don and you play the piano, it could have been Colin or Neil, 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:00.240 nothing else but one of those two. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:02.119 And it could have been different. 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:03.599 It wouldn't have mattered. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:11.279 In the modern world, your name does not have a direct bearing on exactly who you are and 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:13.479 what you do in life. 00:24:13.479 --> 00:24:16.879 Not so for the ancient Near East. 00:24:16.879 --> 00:24:22.119 Abraham was called Abraham by God-wide because his name means Father of Nations. 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:26.399 When you name somebody, you name them according to their vocation, their identity, who they 00:24:26.399 --> 00:24:27.399 are. 00:24:27.399 --> 00:24:29.559 Abraham is called Abraham because he is the Father of Nations. 00:24:29.559 --> 00:24:31.279 And that's exactly what his name means. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:35.240 And it's the same thing for God. 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:41.319 And so when God says his name, when God says the angel of the Lord bears my name, what 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:47.480 he's saying is my name is equal to my identity, my nature. 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:49.879 My name is exactly who I am. 00:24:49.879 --> 00:24:53.559 He's telling us exactly what his nature is like when he says his name. 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:57.599 And in Exodus 23, he says that the angel of the Lord, this angel that's coming out of 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:02.199 the midst of this fiery bush, is his name. 00:25:02.199 --> 00:25:08.079 And the beautiful thing is we can know exactly what that means because in Exodus 314, the 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:13.159 greatest passage in all the Bible perhaps that declares who God is, God tells us exactly 00:25:13.159 --> 00:25:15.159 what his name is. 00:25:15.159 --> 00:25:22.319 Exodus 314, Moses comes and says, God, what am I going to go tell the people when I say 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:24.799 I'm representing you to them? 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:28.359 And God says, I am who I am. 00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:30.240 That's my name. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.079 Or in the very next line, I am is my name. 00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:37.039 And what does that mean? 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:41.200 And theologians have taken this just very, we're almost done very briefly in two ways 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:42.680 historically. 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:47.639 First, this is the translation of God's name Yahweh. 00:25:47.639 --> 00:25:50.799 Yahweh, it's a verb in Hebrew. 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:53.759 It means I am or I will be who I will be. 00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:55.400 I am who I am. 00:25:55.400 --> 00:26:01.720 And what God is saying, we take it, he's saying, as first, he's saying to Moses, I am absolute 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:03.359 being. 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:05.680 I am existence. 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:07.640 I am bigger than you. 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:09.759 You are a relative being. 00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:10.759 You are contingent. 00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:12.200 You're not necessary. 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:13.240 You come and you go. 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:14.279 You live and you die. 00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:16.879 Just like every single one of us, you change. 00:26:16.879 --> 00:26:20.359 You are a person that's in becoming, people often say. 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:21.359 You're always changing. 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:22.879 You have potential. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.440 God doesn't have potential. 00:26:24.440 --> 00:26:25.440 God doesn't change. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.520 He is, and that's why he calls himself the I am. 00:26:28.520 --> 00:26:35.280 I am absolute being, completely qualitatively different from us who are relative beings. 00:26:35.280 --> 00:26:39.680 But the second way that people have often taken this in the context, the passage, is 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:45.520 what he is saying here is, I've promised your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and I'm 00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:49.920 coming to tell you I'm rescuing you and your people. 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:51.480 And I am what I am. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:53.200 I will be what I will be. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:55.039 What I say is what I do. 00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:59.880 I'm not capricious like the gods of Egypt, the gods of Midian that you've been worshiping. 00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:01.200 I do what I say. 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:02.480 I'm consistent. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:04.640 I will rescue you because I promised it. 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:07.640 I am what I am. 00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:09.559 This is my name, Yahweh. 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:17.240 I am, that is God's name, the name of God that has been revealed to us, Yahweh. 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:24.240 And in this passage, it says that the angel of the Lord, in Exodus 23, bears the name 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:28.120 Yahweh. 00:27:28.120 --> 00:27:34.519 And what that means is that what we have here, the angel coming out of the burning bush is 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:38.599 a pre-incarnate incarnation of God. 00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:46.039 Meaning, this is God, calm down, condescended in human form in a human likeness called the 00:27:46.039 --> 00:27:47.319 angel of the Lord. 00:27:47.319 --> 00:27:51.039 And every time that the angel of the Lord comes down in human likeness in the Old Testament, 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:54.759 he comes as the mediator. 00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:58.599 And in Genesis 22, we looked at it a couple of weeks ago, there was a mediator in that 00:27:58.599 --> 00:28:02.960 passage as Moses began to sacrifice his son, Isaac. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:07.799 There was a mediator, a lamb, in the midst of a thicket, in the midst of literally, it 00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:10.240 says, a bush. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:17.519 And now we have another mediator in another bush coming out of the flame of the fire. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:21.839 How does God solve the great conundrum? 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:23.920 How does God solve the great conundrum? 00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:27.519 Is God's justice and God's love? 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:32.400 He says, I love you, I want you, I don't care what you've done, come to me. 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:36.440 Moses, Moses, Colin, Colin, Don, Don, Neil, Neil, whatever your name is, come to me, I 00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:37.519 want you. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:42.799 If you're a seeker, if you're on the spiritual search, he comes down, unlike all the other 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:46.759 religions, God comes down and says, I don't care what you've done, I want you. 00:28:46.759 --> 00:28:54.400 And don't get any closer because I'm just and I'm holy, and that's the great conundrum. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:55.400 And how do you solve it? 00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:57.639 How do you solve the great conundrum? 00:28:57.639 --> 00:29:04.200 And the answer is the mediator, the angel of the Lord, come in the fire. 00:29:04.200 --> 00:29:10.160 1200 years later, 1200 years later, there are two episodes in the Gospels, John chapter 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.360 eight, John chapter 18. 00:29:12.360 --> 00:29:17.480 And the first, Jesus Christ is talking to the scribes and they say to him, do you have 00:29:17.480 --> 00:29:18.480 a demon? 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:21.319 And he says, no, I don't have a demon. 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:22.319 False. 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:25.279 And then they say, well, are you a prophet? 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:26.680 How do you do the things you do? 00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:33.279 And he says, Abraham wished that he could see the day that I come, that I would come. 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:36.879 And they said, whoa, that sounds like blasphemy to me. 00:29:36.879 --> 00:29:39.519 Are you saying that you're greater than Abraham? 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:52.399 And Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am literally before Abraham was Yahweh. 00:29:52.399 --> 00:29:54.879 I am the angel. 00:29:54.879 --> 00:29:56.200 I'm the angel of the Lord. 00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:57.200 I am Yahweh. 00:29:57.200 --> 00:29:59.000 I bear the name. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:03.079 Then chapters later in John chapter 18, he's standing in the garden of Gethsemane about 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:06.519 to go to the cross and the soldiers come for him. 00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:09.240 And they come to arrest him and he says, who is it that you're searching for? 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:11.880 And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:13.000 And what does he say? 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:18.640 He says, I am Yahweh. 00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:20.480 And we know that he's not just identifying himself. 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:21.480 Yeah, I'm Jesus. 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:25.920 I'm the one you're looking for because the soldiers fall back, if you remember in that 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:28.640 passage, and they fall on their faces. 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:32.280 The soldiers who've come to arrest him and he's given himself up and they fall back and 00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:36.040 fall on their faces because he says the divine name. 00:30:36.040 --> 00:30:38.200 He says, I am. 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:41.240 Who is it that's standing in the midst of the fire coming out of the burning bush, the 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:43.040 mediator that Moses sees? 00:30:43.040 --> 00:30:45.080 It's the Son of God. 00:30:45.080 --> 00:30:47.680 It's pre-incarnate incarnation. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:52.840 It's who we will one day call Jesus Christ, God become man. 00:30:52.840 --> 00:30:55.000 And he had to come in the fire. 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:58.600 In this passage, he comes into the fire that's inapproachable, a fire that he cannot be 00:30:58.599 --> 00:30:59.599 touched by. 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:04.759 But 1200 years later, he's going to come just past the Garden of Gethsemane and step into 00:31:04.759 --> 00:31:05.759 the fire. 00:31:05.759 --> 00:31:09.639 He's going to come and step into the fire so that we could approach the fire that never 00:31:09.639 --> 00:31:13.000 goes out, the fire that's always burning but never consumes. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:18.159 Jesus Christ came just like he did 1200 years before in the fire, but this time it was in 00:31:18.159 --> 00:31:19.679 the fires of judgment. 00:31:19.679 --> 00:31:25.480 And that's why the cross is the answer to the great conundrum. 00:31:25.480 --> 00:31:29.240 What do you do about God's justice in the face of God's love? 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:35.240 God killed himself so that when he said, Moses, Moses, Colin, Colin, insert your name here, 00:31:35.240 --> 00:31:41.319 you could come to him no matter what you've done and he could call you son or daughter. 00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:45.680 The answer to the great conundrum is the cross. 00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:51.440 And so let me just say, and we'll close, what do you have to do? 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:54.599 Christianity is like no other religion because of that. 00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:57.519 God became man, God came to find us. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:31:59.079 What do you have to do? 00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:05.759 Just real quick, you have to turn aside like Moses did from your day job. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:11.679 When you see something great, you've got to walk up the mountain and go take hold of it, 00:32:11.679 --> 00:32:13.399 find it. 00:32:13.399 --> 00:32:19.959 In other words, sometimes our busyness gets in the way of perceiving reality that this 00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:26.160 world exists from God, for God, through God, and to God. 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:31.680 One pastor in New York, Tim Keller, puts it this way, what if Moses would have said, 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:36.000 that's really interesting, but I got to get the sheep home by eight o'clock tonight, so 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:38.200 I got to go. 00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:43.720 You have to turn aside and go see the God who has found you. 00:32:43.720 --> 00:32:45.640 He has come in Jesus Christ. 00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:49.079 He has pronounced, I want you in Christ. 00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:55.319 And so to turn aside means, secondly, in the New Testament, it's a similar word, repent, 00:32:55.319 --> 00:33:01.879 to turn, to turn off the path you've been on, to turn from idols, and to come to face 00:33:01.879 --> 00:33:07.240 the real God, the God that is greater than your heart. 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:12.399 Take off your shoes, your idols, and reimagine the purpose of your life, standing on the 00:33:12.399 --> 00:33:15.879 sacred ground of the gospel. 00:33:15.879 --> 00:33:16.879 Let's pray. 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:22.200 Father, we thank you for this word, we thank you for the God who reveals himself. 00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:27.360 That's you, primarily, finally in Christ Jesus. 00:33:27.360 --> 00:33:29.440 Help us to believe and hope. 00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:49.279 In Jesus' name, amen.