Exodus 3:5

God had called to Moses out of the burning bush, and the first thing that God said to Moses is recorded in Exodus 3:5. It says, “And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” Dirty shoes symbolize the sins that we commit each day on our journey through life. One of the biggest differences between God and man has to do with holiness. Jesus is holy, but all of us are sinful. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You will not be able to draw near to the Lord unless you also make the correct response to your sin problem with repentance and turning to Jesus. The correct response is to repent of your sins. Jesus said in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

God said to Moses in Exodus 3:6, “Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.” One reason that this is an interesting verse is because Jesus used this verse to prove a point: a point about the resurrection. Many times the New Testament is our best commentary on the Old Testament. The New Testament fulfills and explains the Old Testament. Jesus said that Exodus 3:6 proves to us the truth of the resurrection from the dead. It proves that people do not cease to exist when they die. Jesus referred to this passage in Mark chapter 12. The Bible says in Mark 12:18, “Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection…” Jesus gave His answer to the Sadducees in Mark 12:24-27, “And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.” God did not say that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob back when they were alive. The meaning of Exodus 3:5 is that God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they are still alive. God is still doing all the things for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God does for anyone about whom it can be said, God is his God. God sustains them, God blesses them, God guides them, God empowers them, and God gives them opportunities. They are still alive, except that now they live in heaven instead of on earth.

The Bible says in Exodus 3:7-10, “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7 reminds us that God knows. He knows our “affliction,” He knows our “cry,” and He knows our “sorrows.” Jesus sees and knows, and He cares about His believers. Because He cares, He will save us. He is the Savior and the Deliverer. He said to Moses in Exodus 3:8, “I am come down to deliver them.”

God did not want His children to have to stay in Egypt where they were hated and oppressed. God had something better for them: a better land: “a land flowing with milk and honey.” This land is symbolic of heaven. One day Jesus will deliver us from this world with all of its wickedness and all of its sorrows, and He will take us to heaven, the best promised land of all. Concerning when we will be delivered from this earth, the Bible says in First Thessalonians 4:16-18, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Notice that in Exodus 3:8 God said that this land of milk and honey was also “the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” In other words there would be enemies to the people of God in this land. To have enemies will always be a part of life for a believer. That is because of the spiritual differences between those who believe in Jesus and those who do not. It says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Of course, God was planning to drive out the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the rest of them. God named the enemies because He knew them. He was well aware of them, just as He is of your enemies. Here is the lesson: God has a place for you in this world. You will have enemies there, but God will fight your enemies for you. He will give you the victory. That is why Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

In Exodus 3:10 God makes His plan very clear to Moses. God said to Moses, “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” God wanted Moses to be the leader of the children of Israel. God wanted Moses to go back into Egypt after all those years had passed, and to go directly to Pharaoh to ask that the children of Israel be allowed to leave Egypt. What God said to Moses caused Moses to fear and to doubt. The Bible says in Exodus 3:11, “And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses was in the “backside of the desert” for forty years because he had left Egypt for two reasons: because of Pharaoh and because of the children of Israel. Remember that Exodus 2:15 said that Pharaoh “sought to slay Moses.” The children of Israel had rejected Moses when he tried to help them. Remember that they said to Moses in Exodus 2:14, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?” Moses probably had no intention of ever returning to Egypt or ever getting involved with the children of Israel again. Moses had lived in the “backside of the desert” for forty years. He married a Midianite woman. He had a family, and he had a life tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law. And so Moses said to God, “Who am I?” Moses had no confidence in himself. He thought there was no way that he could do what God wanted him to do.

One of the great passages of the Bible has to do with the answer that God gave to Moses after Moses expressed his own doubts and lack of confidence. Quoting God, the Bible says in Exodus 3:12, “And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” In this verse God told Moses three things. First, God said, “Certainly I will be with thee.” To live by faith day by day, and moment by moment, it is important to think about the fact that Jesus is with us wherever we go and whatever circumstances we face. Sometimes we may think just like Moses that we are too small and too weak to face all of our challenges or all of our enemies. But when we know that Jesus is with us, we can put our hand in His hand, and we can rely on Him. One of the reasons that people turn to substance abuse is that they have not learned to lean upon Jesus. Jesus said to His believers in Matthew 28:20, “…lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

The second thing that God told Moses in Exodus 3:12 is, “I have sent thee.” God has a will and a calling for every one of His children. The Bible says in Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” It is important that a believer knows that he or she is living where and how God wills. That is one of the reasons that it is important that we pray, “Thy will be done.” Pray for God’s will in every circumstance of your life, and then believe that God is guiding every circumstance of your life. When something happens to you, you can say that this is God’s will because you have been praying for God’s will, and He allowed it for a reason. You may not understand the reason now, but it all fits into God’s plan for you. Jesus has a plan for you just like He had for Moses.

The third thing that God told Moses in Exodus 3:12 had to do with a promise about the future. Moses doubted that he would be able to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. God gave Moses a promise about the future. God told Moses that Moses would eventually come right back to Mount Sinai, at the very place where God was now talking to Moses. God said to Moses, “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” God’s promises to us are all that we need. If God makes us a promise about the future, we should believe the Word that He gave to us, because He is God and His Word is always true. We also have promises about the future in the New Testament. It is a great blessing to know the promises, and to know what God has said will happen in the future. It says in Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

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