God Calls Moses

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AStudying God’s Word

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Studying God’s Word

Introduction

• Slide #1

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  Last week we were introduced to Moses. Who can remember the two ways in which God protected Moses? God protected Moses in the basket while he was in the Nile and after he had murdered the Egyptian, allowing him to escape.
• • Write on the board, “Who did Moses speak to at the burning bush?”
  Where did we leave Moses last week? He had fled to the land of Midian on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula and had settled in with a man named Reuel (or Jethro), marrying one of his daughters.

  When we entered Exodus last week, we found the Israelites under brutal slavery. The pharaoh was even willing to kill all of the male babies born so that the Israelites would not threaten Egypt’s security as a nation. Even though Moses had been protected in Pharaoh’s palace during this period of hostility, that favor was set aside once Moses had killed one of his subjects. The end of chapter 2 left us with a remarkable reminder that God knew the plight of his people.

• God had promised Abraham three things. How can we summarize the promise? We often use land, Seed, and nation as shorthand.

Moses Meets God

Today, we are going to look at how God continues to advance his plan to fulfill his promises to Abraham. We can see that there is a nation of Abraham’s descendants, but the land and the Seed are still to come.

Let’s read Exodus 3 together. Divide the passage for class members to read aloud (possibly divide at 3:12).

• What was Moses’ job in this passage? He was a shepherd, working for his father-in-law, Jethro.
• How long had Moses been in Midian? The passage does not say, but Acts 7:30 tells us that 40 years had passed. Since he was 40 when he left Egypt, he is now 80 years old.
• Who appeared to Moses? The angel of the Lord .
• Who speaks to Moses out of the bush? God.
• What does the first sentence in verse 2 serve to do? It looks ahead to verse 4 where God speaks and identifies the angel as God.
• What attracted Moses’ attention? He saw a bush on fire, but it was not consumed. Moses recognized this as a miracle and went to investigate.
• Why did God tell Moses to remove his sandals? He was standing on holy ground.
• How did God identify himself at first? As the God of Moses’ fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
• How did Moses respond? He “hid his face for he was afraid to look at God” (v. 6).
• What did God tell Moses he wanted to do for the Israelites? He had seen their troubles and intended to deliver them from the oppression in Egypt.
• Where did God want to take them? To the land of Canaan where the Canaanites and the other tribes then lived.
• How is that land described? A good and broad land and a land flowing with milk and honey.
• What do these phrases mean? They describe the land as one of bountiful provision. The expression “a land flowing with milk and honey” should not be taken literally as if the streams actually flowed with milk, but as a poetic expression of bounty.
• What had God planned for Moses? God intended to send Moses to Egypt to bring the people of Israel out (v. 10).
• How did Moses respond to God’s plan? He objected. We will look at these objections in the activity later.
• When Moses asked God’s name, what name did God provide? I Am Who I Am and I am , followed by the Lord .
• What foreshadowing about the mission is given in verse 10? The Israelites would be freed from their slavery and taken out of Egypt.
• What foreshadowing about the location is found in verse 12? Moses would return to that very mountain to worship once the people were freed.
• What foreshadowing about the response of the elders of Israel is found in verse 18? The elders would listen to Moses’ message and go with Moses to ask to be released.
• What foreshadowing of Pharaoh’s response is given in verses 19–20? Pharaoh would not let them go until God compelled him to do so.
• What foreshadowing of how the Israelites would leave Egypt is given in verses 21–22? God would give the Israelites favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and they would leave with rich possessions from the Egyptians.

Discover the Truth

We have mentioned before the idea of God appearing in physical form in the Old Testament. Here we have what is a clear example of a theophany—the angel of the Lord is God himself. Moses had encountered the holy God in this holy place. But it wasn’t holy because of its geography; it was holy because God was present there. Moses stood in the presence of the preincarnate Jesus and spoke with God there on that mountain.

• What does it mean for God to be holy? Refer to the Attributes of God poster. Discuss the idea that God’s holiness refers to His perfect moral character—he cannot sin, and he hates the sin present in His creation.

  As God revealed himself to Moses, he told Moses that he was the God of his fathers—God was still the same God who had appeared to Moses’ ancestors. This attribute of God is called his immutability. If you think about the word mutation, you think of something changing. So if God is immutable, then he does not change. God’s character is permanent and absolute. This does not mean that God never changes His course of action, but that His nature never changes.

  God also referred to himself as I AM. God declared His eternality and His self-existence in the name I AM and a similar form translated Lord in verse 15. These come from the Hebrew YHWH, which is also translated as “Jehovah,” a name for God in some modern translations.

• What does it mean to say that God is eternal? God is not bound by time but exists outside of time. He existed as the Godhead before he created the universe and time began. This also means that he is the definition of existence and that nothing could have caused Him—he is the ultimate cause of everything that exists.

  Two more attributes are clearly seen in this passage. God already knew what was going to happen after he sent Moses to Egypt. He told Moses how the elders would respond to his words and how Pharaoh would react to God’s command. God knows everything—past, present, future—and we call this his omniscience. The word comes from omni-, meaning “all,” and -science, meaning “knowledge.” God has all knowledge!

  Slide #17
  Moses had assurance from God that the promises of a land, a Seed, and a nation would be fulfilled, but Moses was hesitant. To some degree, Moses doubted God. That doubt is seen more clearly in chapter 4. Moses had little immediate knowledge of God, as far as we know. He was called to trust a God he had heard of, but had not experienced in any real way. We can understand his hesitation.

Shortcomings Activity

We are going to continue into chapter four. You will find the Shortcomings activity in your Student Guide. You are going to look at the five objections Moses raised to God. We have already read two of those instances in chapter 3, and there are three more in chapter four. Read through 4:17, and then answer the questions in the activity. Have the students work in small groups. One of the questions encourages the students to spend time praying for one another. You need to determine whether this fits in your timeframe and is doable according to your students’ level of spiritual maturity.

Let’s briefly summarize how Moses objected.

• Exodus 3:11–12 Moses thought he was not important enough, but God said that he would be with Moses and that once they had returned to worship on that mountain, Moses would know the truth.
• Exodus 3:13, 18 Moses objected asking what he should say if the people of Israel asked God’s name, but God told Moses specifically his name which he was to tell them.
• Exodus 4:1–9 Moses again objected, saying that the Israelites would not listen to him. So God showed him two signs and offered a third sign so that the miracles would be proof of Moses’ authority.
• Exodus 4:10–12 Moses objected, claiming that he was not a good speaker, but God promised to give Moses the words.
• Exodus 4:13–17 Moses asked for someone else to be sent, and God responded in anger and yet brought his brother Aaron to be with Moses.
• How did God respond to the objections Moses raised? God reassured Moses that he would be in control of the situation. In Exodus 4:14, God was angry with Moses.

Connect to the Truth

Moses demonstrated that he really did not trust that God could do what he said he would do. I am sure that there have been times when each of you has felt inadequate to accomplish a task that you know you were called to perform. Perhaps share a personal testimony about a time when you had to rely on God to do what he called you to.

If we are honest, we are incapable of doing these things apart from God empowering us to do so. Through the gifts of the Spirit and the talents he has given us, we can accomplish what God has called us to. We must humbly recognize our inadequacy and find our strength in Christ. As Jesus told his disciples in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Return to Egypt

Let’s continue reading about how Moses responded to this meeting with God.

• Will someone read Exodus 4:18–31? Have someone read the passage aloud.
• Whom did Moses see after he had met with God? Jethro, his father-in-law.
• What was his request? He asked Jethro for permission to leave, a cultural accommodation for a man who had given him a new life and family.
• How did Jethro respond? Jethro told him to go in peace.
• What further encouragement did God give Moses about his return? Moses would be safe since those who sought to kill him are dead. This is evidence that speaks against him returning to someone of the same household (e.g., a brother by adoption who was now Pharaoh) often depicted in movies.
• Who accompanied Moses? His wife and his two sons.
• What important object did Moses take? He took the staff he had when he had met God.
• How is the staff identified? It is called the staff of God.
• What did God reveal about the encounter Moses would have with Pharaoh? When Moses would perform the miracles before Pharaoh, God would harden his heart so that he would not let the Israelites leave.
• What was God’s intent for the release of the Israelites? He wanted them to serve him.
• What offense brought God’s anger against Moses as they journeyed? It seems Moses had failed to circumcise one of their sons, and Zipporah had to do it. This child was not circumcised and thus was not under the sign of the covenant, so Moses was being disobedient to God.
• When must the command to Aaron in verse 27 have been given? Since Aaron met Moses at Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God (3:1), this must have happened earlier in the account. See 4:14.
• When they arrived in Egypt, who spoke to the Israelite elders? Aaron spoke what God had told Moses.
• How was the message confirmed? The signs were performed before the people to authenticate the message.
• What was the response of the people? They believed the message and bowed their heads and worshipped God.

Discover the Truth

So, Moses was back in Egypt after 40 years in Midian. He probably thought he would never return or see his family again, but now he was with his people. In fact, he may not have seen Aaron since he was taken to the king’s palace. But now he was with the people he had wanted to connect with 40 years earlier.

In this account, we see one of the first instances of God sending a prophet to a people and authenticating the message with miraculous signs. This is a pattern that we will see many times as we continue walking through the Bible. But God is still the one directing the big picture. God knows Pharaoh will refuse the command, but he sends Moses and Aaron anyway. Even if Moses and Aaron don’t know what is going to happen, God does. God is going to work through a man with a stick to demonstrate his power to the Egyptians who have oppressed his people. Their wickedness is going to find judgment.

Application

God revealed himself to Moses and gave him a calling to free his people from Egypt. As we can understand, Moses was hesitant and worried that he wouldn’t be able to complete the task. But God was not worried about Moses’ shortcomings because the power and guidance would come from God.

After hundreds of years, God’s promise to the Israelites was about to be fulfilled. He had heard the cries of Abraham’s descendants and had sent them a savior. The land of promise was waiting for the nation which had come from the loins of Abraham, but the promise of the ultimate Savior had not yet been fulfilled. However, Moses was the first savior of the Israelites. As we move ahead, we will see that many more times the people will need a savior to deliver them from the enemies around them, but the Savior—the Seed promised to Eve—will not arrive for another 1,500 years. He is coming. God’s plan of salvation is marching forward.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class before you dismiss them.

• Praise God for being the eternal, immutable God.
• Ask God for the strength to obey the things He has called each person to.
• Thank God for his faithfulness to bring his plans to pass despite our weaknesses.