The King Promises to Come
Exodus 3:1-17
"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
(Matthew 28:20b)
When Moses asks God His name, God says "Yahweh" or "I Am who I Am." Not only does He not give a name that limits who He is, but He gives Moses a name that means He will never change; He is ever-present. One of His name's meanings is "I will be there." Whatever our situation, when we are oppressed by burdens and feel heavy with anxiety, He comes. He will be there in the midst of our trials and temptations, rather like the fourth person in the fiery furnace with the three in Daniel 3:25.
The King has come in the manger, He reigned from the cross and came to our rescue, coming as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and coming again at the last day. We have not been left alone; even now He comes to us each day. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Whatever our crisis, our disappointment, our loss, our bereavement, or whenever we fret over our continuing sinfulness, He will be there in the furnace of our pain. Our King - the very One who came to us as an infant - is ever-coming for us today.
INSIGHT
Praise the King for the specific occasions you can recall when you have known that He has kept His promise of "being there" for you.
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Ezekiel 47-48
Proverbs 4
Hebrews 3-4
Exodus 3:1-17
Moses and the Burning Bush
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,[a] 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[b] 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.[c] 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,[d] 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.
16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Footnotes:
a. Exodus 3:6 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch (see Acts 7:32) fathers
b. Exodus 3:12 The Hebrew is plural.
c. Exodus 3:14 Or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE
d. Exodus 3:15 The Hebrew for LORD sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14.
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