God's Presence and Human Reluctance (Pt. 1) | Exodus 3:11–22

Exodus tells the story of a God who isn't distant, but moves toward his people in power and mercy. God reveals himself as I am, leading Israel out of slavery and into the life-changing reality of his presence. So if you have your Bibles, your series guides with you, I'll encourage you to open those up.

We're in the book of Exodus chapter three. I just want to start off our morning by reading the text that we're going to be discussing this morning. It's a very familiar text, very well-known passage, but there's a lot of detail in it.

And I wonder, I did this, I assumed things were in the text that actually weren't, or there's more detail in the text than I knew. So I think it's just helpful for us to read it again and allow God's word to just permeate our thoughts and our minds. Let me read for you Genesis chapter three, verses, I'm going to read 10, the commands in 10, verses 10 through 22, the end of the chapter.

I'll read it for us. It says this, therefore go, I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses asked God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt? He answered, I will certainly be with you.

And this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you. When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain. Then Moses asked God, if I go to the Israelites and they say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you.

And they ask me, what is his name? What should I tell them? God replied to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you.

God also said to Moses, say this to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. This is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, the Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me and said, I've paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey. They will listen to what you say.

Then you, along with the elders of Israel must go to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now, please let us go on a three day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. However, I know that the King of Egypt will not allow you to go even under force from a strong hand.

But when I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles that I will perform in it, after that, he will let you go. And I will bring these people such favor with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty handed. Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold, jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters.

So you will plunder the Egyptians." Just a spectacular text that we have the privilege of discussing and understanding today. And God will give us understanding. I love this text.

I think it's because Moses is just such a fascinating character that I resonate with so much. So put yourself in his shoes just for a moment. And I think this text will really come alive.

I have just a question to kind of help you maybe understand what Moses felt just for a moment. It's this, have you ever been nominated for something you didn't want to do? Have you ever been asked to do something and your first thought was, no, that'll be terrible. I want nothing to do with that.

I did. And it has stuck with me forever. I was 19 or 20 years old.

I think I was a sophomore in college and I got that summons for jury duty. Have you been there? I was in Bible college and it was coming up to finals a week. And I was just trying to survive, just trying to get to the end of the semester.

And I got my jury summons. So I put together all my list of reasons I should not serve in jury duty. So I, you know, I'm a conservative Baptist.

I'm a Bible college student. Like it just, I'm going to be sleep deprived because of finals. Like I went and talked to my professors and they're all like, you should do it.

You should do it. I'm like, so I'm putting together my list. I'm like, this is going to go terribly.

You don't want me to be a juror. I'm not going to be a good juror. Like for all these reasons, I thought, like I won't get picked.

So I do my summons, I show up, I get picked. I get chosen to be on jury. And it went as terribly as I thought it might.

I was 19 or 20, still a child, very immature. I'm in Bible college. I cared way more about my schooling than I did jury duty.

And I remember sitting through this terrible trial and not caring. And I, this is where my most embarrassing moment comes. So if you ever want to know my most embarrassing moment, here it is.

I fell asleep. I think it was day two or day three. I couldn't have cared less.

And I fell asleep. I'm out cold, probably doing like the head nod thing or the bobbing, I don't remember. But here's the story.

The judge calls on the juror next to me to wake me up. Hey, juror seven, can you wake up juror six? So some guy taps me on the shoulder and says, hey, in front of everybody, the judge wants to talk to you. And in front of me, all my other jurors and the people who care deeply about the trial, the individuals involved, the family, the witnesses, the judge says, hey son, I know you don't care what's happening in this room, but there are a lot of people that do, and this matters a lot to them.

Could you care? And I remember just melting, wanting to be a million miles away from there. Can you imagine? That's my most embarrassing moment and still haunted by that moment this day. But the judge was right.

I did not wanna be there. I didn't wanna be picked for that. I thought it was gonna go terribly and it did.

I wonder if that's how Moses felt in this moment in chapter three, verse 10, where he's called to do something he probably didn't want to do. I sympathize a little bit with Moses. So in Exodus chapter three, verse 10, God assigns Moses a task and Moses' response to the task shows his lack of enthusiasm and confidence.

God says to Moses, therefore go, I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. But I wonder if what Moses heard was this, go and you better amazingly persuade Pharaoh with your eloquent words and you better rescue Israel by your incredible leadership strength. I wonder if he thought that and felt that.

Like Moses, it's all on your shoulders, but that's not what God said. God said, go, I am sending you, you will lead. There's only one command in verse 10 and it's to go.

And then there are multiple implications of that command. What will happen if he goes? The first one is he's sending you to Pharaoh. You will go to Pharaoh, that's where you're going.

You'll get an audience with Pharaoh. And secondly, you will lead my people out of Egypt. They will follow you.

You go, these will be the things that happen. In other words, there is something Moses has to do. He has to obey, he has to respond positively.

Obey, go back to Egypt. And there are things that only God can do that aren't up to Moses. Get Moses an audience with Pharaoh.

Moses can't do that. That's something God's gonna have to provide. And then God would make Israel follow Moses.

At this time, many commentators believe it's about a million people. These million people would follow Moses and God would lead them through it. The weight, here's the point.

The weight of this text is actually on God. It's not on Moses. Moses' command is to simply obey, to go and return.

God would provide, God would be the miracle worker. But to be fair, this command is loaded with history and personal baggage for Moses. Returning to Egypt was probably not something he was eager to hear as the command.

Just a summary of where we've been so far. In chapter one, Moses is born as an Israelite boy in slavery under a death sentence. His life begins very tumultuous.

He is placed in a basket by his mother and he's rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and raised as the Prince of Egypt. Nothing he chose, but all the lot that God had for him. He's raised in the palace as the Prince of Egypt.

At 40 years old, he encounters a Hebrew and Egyptian arguing and he protects his Hebrew peer and kills an Egyptian by defending the Hebrew. Word spreads of this interaction and Moses is terrified for his life and for embarrassment. And he flees Egypt from Pharaoh who was going to kill him.

The next 40 years, Moses spends in obscurity, shepherding sheep in Midian. His life has drastically changed from the first 40 to the second 40, live in obscurity in Midian. And now Moses is 80 years old and God says, return.

Go back to where you grew up, that history, that baggage, those stories that you've never forgotten. I want you to go back there. Return to the place you ran away from.

Go back to Pharaoh, go back to your past. Do you understand his reluctance, his hesitation? I'm not justifying Moses's reluctance, but I do sympathize with Moses. This probably wasn't great news.

Friends, do you have any places you really don't want to go back to? I do. I have a couple of places in mind that if God called right now and said, hey, Travis, I need you to go there. I'd be like, ooh, there? I think I've got some excuses.

I think I've got some reasons. You don't want me back there. I feel this for Moses.

This is the context of our story. And then Moses responds. That's our text, is Moses's response to this command.

In Exodus three and four, Moses will give five objections or responses to God's call. Today, we'll see the first two. We're gonna look at these two interactions, these two questions that Moses asked God to clarify, probably to wiggle his way out of it a little bit.

And we're gonna learn so much about us and even more about how amazing God is. We're gonna look at verse 11 as the first response and verse 13 is the second response. Response number one goes like this.

But Moses asked God. So here's the command. He's like, a couple of points of clarification.

I hear what you're saying. Hold up. Who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

That's response one. And then response two. Then Moses asked God.

One more point of clarification. If I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name? What should I tell them? Like, I don't know if I'm prepared for this. I don't know if I'm ready.

I don't know if I know enough. Moses hears the command and immediately responds with questions rather than obedience. So what I wanna do is just take a few minutes looking at each response and then how God answers that response.

So here's the first one. Who am I? That's how I'm summarizing response number one. Moses asks, who am I? Who am I that I should go? My translation is, why me? Shouldn't it be somebody else? I'm not your guy.

I'm not good enough. It's not gonna go well. If you pick me, I'm gonna botch this up.

I'm gonna mess up. I'm gonna fall asleep in front of the judge. Like anybody will do a better job than me.

I call this spiritual insecurity. God's asking him to step up, to obey. And all he sees in himself is reasons he can't do what's asked.

Moses sees nothing in himself that qualifies him to be the future rescuer and leader of the entire nation of Israel. And God's response in verse 12 is so fascinating and helpful because God doesn't say, no, Moses, actually you're wrong. You are quite capable.

Moses, you're very qualified. You're super talented, super articulate. Moses, you're enough.

That's not what God says. God says, I will certainly be with you. He's teaching Moses.

And Moses is actually missing the point. Moses, you're not the point. You're not the rescuer.

You're not the hero. You're not the leader. You're just a tool I'm going to use to accomplish my purpose.

You know what the point is? God and God's presence, his power being used through Moses. Moses is asking an identity question. Am I good enough? God gives him a presence promise.

You're not, but I am. I'm enough and I will be with you. Friends, here's good news.

He's with us too. He says, I will be with you always. God is saying, you don't need to know that you're sufficient.

I think that's oftentimes what we want to hear. Like, tell me I'm good. Give me those pats on the back.

Tell me I'm qualified. Tell me I'm great. Tell me I'm good enough.

That's not what God teaches Moses. You don't need to know that you're sufficient. You need to know that you're dependent.

Dependent is way more important than qualified. This is who God wants to use. God also gives Moses, this is so beautiful too.

He gives him a promise. Notice in verse 12, he gives him a promise to only deepen his confidence and dependence on God. God says, when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.

So here you have Moses all alone, afraid, insecure at Mount Horeb, also known later as Mount Sinai. He says at the end of this story, you'll never believe it, but it's not going to be you with your shoes off worshiping me here. It's going to be all of Israel.

I'm going to get them out of Egypt. I'm going to accomplish what I'm telling you. We'll gather here.

You'll worship your God on this mountain. I'm going to do way more things than you could even imagine. You're not just going to stand in front of Pharaoh.

You're going to rescue Israel and we'll worship here together. God's telling Moses, you will go back, but you'll bring back all of Israel. Trust me, I know how the story goes.

Moses, you think what I'm asking you to do is impossible, but in reality, the story's way greater than you could even ever imagine. I just need you to say yes and obey and trust me. And I will do amazing things through you.

All of Israel will return to this very mountain to worship God here, not in Egypt. Before Moses takes a single step of obedience, God tells him how the story ends. I love this too, guys.

This is, take this to heart. Rather than scolding Moses for his reluctance, God comforts him with promises. Isn't that good news? Because so many times I'm Moses, reluctant, insecure, rather than God being like, Travis, you're such a failure.

God says, Travis, I got you. I've got this. I've always had it.

Why do you think your role is that important? Just obey, do your part. Rather than scolding Moses for his reluctance, he comforts him with promises. This is our God, friends.

I love later in Exodus chapter 34, verse six, Moses says this about God, about what he has learned. He says, the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God. Slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.

I wonder if Moses was thinking back to Exodus three when he failed, when he was insecure, when he doubted. And instead of getting judgment, he got mercy, compassion, love, and grace. Let's look at the second response for a second.

They build on each other. Now I'm summarizing response number two this way. Who are you? His first question was, who am I? But now he needs to know a little bit more about God.

He's insecure about his knowledge, about who God is. In verse 13, Moses asks, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you and they will ask me, what is his name? What should I tell them? Notice who Moses is nervous about facing. I assumed it was Pharaoh.

I'm gonna stand in front of the most important person on earth and I've got to have a theological answer. That's not what he says. He actually says, you know who I'm nervous about facing? You know who I'm insecure to see again? It's my peers.

It's my fellow Israelites. I'm super nervous about this. I find that very interesting.

It's not what I expected or even remembered. Here's why he's insecure about that. Because back in Exodus two, when Moses tried to help his people, he defended an Israelite.

He was confronted by one of his Israelite peers. And they asked him, who made you a commander and judge over us? And there was one simple question that stumped Moses and he fell apart. He's like, I don't know.

You're right, I just ended up in a basket and now I'm in charge. Like, I don't know. You can just sense his insecurity.

And it wasn't this big debate that he did pretty well with, but botched one piece. He failed at the very first question. He's reliving all of his greatest nightmares.

It's gonna happen again. They're gonna ask me one question. Oh, interesting, really? Like you were sent from God to send us, to free us.

What's his name? And he's like, I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna fall apart. I'm gonna say the one thing I said I wasn't gonna say.

He's just reliving his insecurities. You can imagine Moses' response to that question, but who made you commanders? You're right, I don't know. And he immediately ran and hid for his life from Pharaoh the first time.

Moses fears rejection from Pharaoh, but maybe even more from his own people, the Israelites. So now he asks, if I go to them, and they ask me who sent me, what do I say? And God's response is such a brilliant piece of scripture for us that builds so much confidence. God's response is this.

I am who I am. In Hebrew, it's Yahweh, Asir, Yahweh. God repeats his name by saying his character.

This is who I am, and this is what I'm like. Yahweh, Asir, Yahweh. This name reveals something profound.

God tells Moses his name in verse 12. It's hard to see it in English, but in verse 12, God says, I am with you. He says his name, but Moses didn't catch it.

So later he asked the second question, but what's your name? And God repeats his name by saying it again for emphasis. I am, I told him, this is who I am, and this is what I'm like. God's name and his character are the same.

That's beautiful and profound. That simple phrase, Yahweh, I am, signifies this, that God is self-existent, he's self-sufficient, he's immutable, which means he's unchanging, and he's ever present. All that simple word, I am, his name, tells us his name, but also what he's like.

I think this is fascinating too, and I don't wanna skip over it. So I'm gonna repeat a little bit what you heard last week. Remember how God is revealing himself to Moses as fire in a burning bush.

I think that's significant. So God's given him his name. God's given him his character.

I am, I am, and he reveals what he's like by being fire, by appearing as fire. This is super helpful. God chooses to reveal himself to Moses as a fire.

God is saying, Moses, here's my name, here's my character. Now see this fire? This teaches you something about me too. Friends, what do we know about fire? I don't know much.

I know a few things about fire. Fire needs fuel to stay alive, and fire consumes what it touches. I think I've got those things straight.

So God's revealing himself to Moses as fire, but there's something unique about God, different about God than typical fire. This is what the burning bush shows us. In our text, God is teaching Moses that he is like fire, but a little unlike fire.

Number one, God needs no fuel. The bush is on fire, but it's not burning up. It's not consuming the bush for its fuel.

This fire is eternal. It's self-sufficient, self-existent. That's typically impossible.

Nothing on earth is like that. Nothing is independent of everything except for God. Every fire needs something to burn except for God.

God depends on nothing. This is the name I am as revealed in the burning bush. Number two, fire consumes what it touches, but not here.

God is choosing to reveal himself as fire that isn't consuming anything. Friends, we know this, fire is fierce. It's dangerous.

It's deadly. It's consuming. But yet this may be another way that God is revealing himself different than normal fire.

In Deuteronomy chapter four, Moses is retelling the story. It's already have, this is kind of like the first person account. Deuteronomy is like the third person account.

He's retelling the story. Moses in the retelling of the story calls God a consuming fire, which is what fire does. But here in Exodus three, we see the consuming fire not consume something.

It's not consuming the bush, which it could. And it's not consuming Moses, which it could. This is important.

God's response to Moses in verse 14, I believe reveals God's mercy. He's a consuming fire who doesn't always consume. Could he destroy Moses at that moment? Could he destroy the bush? Is Moses unworthy? Is Moses deserving of justice? Yes, but he's not consuming.

Showing that God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. All these things that Moses comes to learn through these experiences. When God says, I am who I am, in that moment, he reveals his fierce power, but also his loving mercy displayed in the burning bush.

I think it's fascinating. Friends, this is who our God is. He is the I am.

He's Yahweh, self-sustaining, self-existent, but also full of mercy. This is his name forever. Generations will call him this.

Generations will describe him this way. That's exactly what we're doing today. Describing and declaring how awesome God is.

So that's our text. Wanted to walk you through it just to help you see it. Now my job now is to apply it, help us to put this together.

What do we do with all this information? There's a lot more detail in the text. You have your Bibles, you have the Holy Spirit, you continue to study it and he'll illuminate it to you. I wanna pull these things together, help us apply what we're supposed to learn today.

So what do we do with this text? How should we apply what we're learning? Our text helps us just as it helped Moses. It moves us from insecurity to obedience. It's exactly what this moment did for Moses.

It's not done. There's three more objections in chapter four. But what God is doing is he's refining Moses.

He's teaching Moses there's no reason to be insecure. He's preparing Moses for the journey ahead. And he's friends, let him do that for you today.

Let him move you from insecurity to obedience. Allow the Holy Spirit to prompt you where there's lack of obedience, where you need boldness. That I believe is the point of this text.

Understanding the answer to Moses' two responses changes everything for Moses and for us. Here's what you need to learn friends. Who am I? Who are you? Here's the answer, dependent.

Learn that today. Learn that from Moses. And number two, who is God? Completely independent, self-sufficient and full of mercy.

He is the great I am. Understanding who you are and your great need and understanding who God is and his ability frees us from insecurity and moves us to boldness to live for him, to do whatever he's calling us to do. I wanna summarize all these things we learned with just a few sentences that I think the Lord used in my heart.

And maybe they'll be helpful for you today. One of them is this. The greatest cause of spiritual insecurity is self-centeredness.

You see that in Moses. The reason he's insecure, unwilling to obey is because it's all about him. He's not eloquent enough.

He's not talented enough. He doesn't speak well enough. He's viewing himself as the main character of the story.

There's two types of self-centeredness too, friends. Some of us are like Moses. We're insecure.

We don't view ourselves highly enough. Like I'm not good enough. God, you couldn't use me.

I can't even do jury duty right. Like what are you gonna call me to do, God? Like don't pick anybody else. Don't pick me.

Many of us are that way. But the other side of self-centeredness is thinking too highly of yourself. And therefore things are below you or somebody else can do them.

I think both of those create people who don't move, who don't go, who don't obey. So I'd ask you to wrestle with that. What is causing your willingness to say no? It's probably self-centeredness.

I also think this is true. In one of the applications of our texts, the greatest answer to spiritual insecurity is knowing that the I am is with you. It's God's presence that solves your insecurity.

It's God's presence that moves you, that gives you the boldness you need to say yes to what God is calling you to do. Chapter three ends in a beautiful way. Verses 16 through 22, God again tells Moses exactly how the story will unfold.

And he's given all of this is by God's grace. I'm gonna tell you exactly what's gonna happen so you have no reason to doubt. It's all God's love being poured out.

And he's telling Moses this main thing. I'll always be with you. I'll never leave you.

I've got this. Just obey. His God's presence, knowing who the I am is, is what solves our insecurity.

God tells Moses that this is what I'm gonna do in the years ahead. I'm gonna deliver Israel. I'm gonna judge Egypt.

I'm gonna bring them to the promised land and they're not gonna leave empty handed. They're gonna leave with their pockets filled. And he promises them, I will be with you the entire time.

And friends, all of that is such good news for insecure people like you and I who doubt our ability, doubt God's commands, are terrified to do what he calls us to do and to step out in faith. Understanding who God is drives us to action. God tells Moses the end of the story to instill boldness and trust for the journey ahead.

And praise God, he's done the same for you. In your laps is a book of 66 books that only instill your confidence in him. Why would you doubt his goodness? Why would you doubt his promptings and his leading? He's given you the end of the story and he wins.

Don't you wanna be a part of that? Friends, all Moses is is the tool that God is gonna use. He's just the bush in the story. And you and I, that's our role to play.

We're just simply the tool that God will use to accomplish his purposes and his goal. This is the God you and I serve. He's the same today that he was thousands of years ago when he interacted with Moses and the burning bush.

He's an ever present promise-making covenant-keeping I am, who gives his people way more than they deserve. Friends, God's presence is the solution to human reluctance. So where are you reluctant? Where are you hesitant? Where are you giving excuses for why you shouldn't obey or be bold or have courage? What's that look like for you? Know what the solution is? Not a better you, not a tougher you, but more aware of God's presence in your life.

Here's my take-home truth or my presence promise for us today. It's this, God's presence not only calls us, it comforts us, moving us from insecurity to obedience. What a great lesson to learn, friends.

It's not about you and I. It's not about our roles, our talents, our giftings, our abilities. It's about an almighty self-sufficient God who can use tools like us to accomplish anything, to accomplish his purpose.