The Book of Exodus

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Moses is tending sheep at Horeb, the mountain of God, when he sees a bush on fire that is not burning up. He turns aside to look, and out of the bush God calls him by name, "Moses, Moses." God stops him from coming closer and tells him to remove his shoes, "for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Then God identifies Himself: "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." This is the same covenant God who spoke to the patriarchs, now speaking to Moses. Moses' response is right and instinctive: "Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." The wonder of the strange sight gives way to holy fear when Moses realizes Who is speaking. A curious shepherd has stumbled into the presence of the living God.

Gospel Focus

The burning bush teaches us how to meet God. The fire that did not consume the bush is a picture of God's holy presence, for "our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29), yet He drew near to a lowly bush without destroying it, as He draws near to lowly people in mercy. But notice that the first command was reverence: take off your shoes, this is holy ground. We live in a casual age that has largely lost the fear of God, but to truly meet Him is to be brought low in awe. The New Testament still calls us to "serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." And see that God met Moses not in a temple but in the wilderness, in an ordinary bush, while he did his daily work. God can turn any patch of desert into holy ground by His presence. The place is not made holy by its beauty or its fame, but by the God who shows up there. When the Lord draws near, whether in a desert or a kitchen or a hospital room, the ground becomes holy, and reverence is the only fitting response.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God tells Moses why He has come. Notice the pile of tender verbs: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people ... have heard their cry ... I know their sorrows." God was not distant or indifferent during the long centuries of bondage. He saw every lash, heard every groan, and knew every sorrow personally. And now, He says, "I am come down to deliver them." He will not only rescue them from Egypt but bring them "unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Everything begins with God's compassion. Before there is a plan, a plague, or a Passover, there is a God who has seen His people's misery and has been moved to act. The deliverance of the Exodus flows out of the heart of a God who cares.

Gospel Focus

"I am come down to deliver them." This is the pattern of our salvation. God did not save His people from a safe distance; He came down. And that coming down reached its fullness in Jesus Christ, of whom the Lord said, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38). The same God who came down to a bush and then down to Egypt came down all the way into human flesh to deliver us, not from Pharaoh but from sin and death. Our God is not a watcher on a far throne; He is the God who sees our affliction, hears our cry, knows our sorrows, and comes down to save. If you feel unseen in your suffering, hear this: God has surely seen, He has heard, He knows, and in Christ He has already come down. The whole gospel is God coming down to bring His people up, out of bondage and into the good land He has promised.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

When God commissions him, Moses shrinks back: "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?" God does not answer by building up Moses; He answers with Himself: "Certainly I will be with thee." The qualification for the task is not Moses' ability but God's presence. Then Moses asks what he should say if the people ask God's name, and God gives the great answer: "I AM THAT I AM ... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." God's name is not a mere label but a revelation of His very being: He is the self-existent, eternal One who always is. He then ties this to His covenant name, the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and says, "this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." The God who sends Moses is the God who simply, eternally, is.

Gospel Focus

"I AM THAT I AM" is one of the greatest revelations of God in the Bible, and it points straight to Jesus. When the Lord Jesus stood among the Jews, He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). He did not say "I was"; He said "I am," taking to Himself the very name of the God of the burning bush, and His hearers understood exactly what He claimed, for they took up stones to stone Him. The I AM who spoke to Moses is the same Lord who walked in Galilee. There are not two Gods, an Old Testament I AM and a separate New Testament Son; there is one God, the eternal I AM, who was made flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the truth: the one God has a name, and that name is fulfilled and made known to us in Jesus. And notice the comfort in God's answer to Moses. When we, like Moses, say "Who am I?", God does not point us to our own strength but to Himself: "I will be with thee." Our sufficiency is never in ourselves, "our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 3:5). The eternal I AM, present with us in Christ, is all the qualification we need.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God lays out the whole plan in advance. Moses is to gather the elders and tell them the LORD has "surely visited you," and they will listen. Then Moses and the elders are to go to Pharaoh and ask to go three days' journey to sacrifice. God tells Moses plainly that Pharaoh "will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand," at least not at first. But God is not troubled by Pharaoh's stubbornness; it is part of the plan. "I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders ... and after that he will let you go." God even promises that His people will not leave empty; the Egyptians will give them silver, gold, and clothing, so that they "spoil the Egyptians." Before a single plague falls, God announces exactly how it will end. He is not reacting to events; He is declaring them.

Gospel Focus

Notice that God foretold Pharaoh's resistance before Moses ever set out. The opposition did not surprise God or threaten His plan; He had already declared how it would end, in the total defeat of Egypt and the deliverance of His people. This is a great comfort. When God calls us to a work, He is not blind to the hard road ahead. The Pharaohs who will resist, the obstacles that look immovable, all of it is already known to Him and folded into His purpose. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Pharaoh had a mighty hand, but God had a mightier, and He would stretch it out. And see that God's people would not come out empty; they would leave Egypt enriched. The God who brings His people through opposition brings them out not as beggars but as those blessed by His hand. When the Lord sends us into a hard task, we go knowing the outcome is already secure in the hands of the God who declares the end from the beginning, and who never sends His people out empty.