[Exodus 3] Moses Meets God on the Mountain: In Exodus 3, Moses agrees to tend flocks for his father-in-law Jethro. On the backside of the desert, he sees the burning bush and encounters God in all His glory. The Father commissions Moses to return to Egypt and lead the people back to worship on this very mountain. We see then that the time Moses spent in the wilderness prepared him to lead the people of Israel through that same experience.
[Exo 3:1-22 KJV] 1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, [even] to Horeb. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed. 3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I. 5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest [is] holy ground. 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. 7 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; 8 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. 9 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. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 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? 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. 13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this [is] my name for ever, and this [is] my memorial unto all generations. 16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and [seen] that which is done to you in Egypt: 17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: 22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put [them] upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
After self-imposed banishment to the desert, Moses, a prince of Egypt, is reduced to caring for the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro. Have you ever spent time on the backside of the desert? We usually don’t want to be there, but it is often necessary to prepare us for greater things even as Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness being prepared by God.
Who was Jethro? Verse 1 says he was not just a herdman, but he was a priest in service to the inhabitants of Midian. Why was a priest needed? Because there were wells there (the same wells where Moses met Jethro’s daughters and came into Jethro’s acquaintance.) Wells were considered sacred in those days, and every prominent well had a priest assigned to it for sacred purposes. Jethro was the priest at the wells of Midian. What does Midian mean? Midian means strife and contention. What’s in a name? When Moses first comes to the wells of Midian, he finds that shepherds are contending for the well and driving away Jethro’s daughters (Ex. 2:15-17). Have you done time at the wells of strife and contention? We all have, at some point or another. Moses came to the wells of Midian, and by what he did and didn’t do, he secured his destiny. How did you conduct yourself in the last strife-filled situation you found yourself in? Were you part of the solution or part of the problem? Moses distinguished himself at Midian and secured a bride and employment with his father-in-law Jethro. No doubt, it was demeaning to him because, as we learned from Joseph, Egyptians despised shepherds. Have you ever felt demeaned or marginalized? Welcome to the backside of the desert. What you do next will make all the difference.
While Moses served Jethro in the desert v. 1 tells us that he came to the mount of God. What do we know about Horeb? Most importantly, this is where forty years; hence Moses will camp with the people of God and receive the law from Jehovah’s hand. Thus we see that the land that Moses leads the children of Israel to is the same land where he tended the flocks of Jethro for many years. Don’t despise the wilderness training. If you don’t know the lay of the land as it were, how will you be able to lead the people of God through the same territory you have gone through in your past?
Other passages state that the law was handed down on Mt. Sinai, but most scholars agree that Sinai and Horeb are the same place in this passage introduced to us, not as just any mountain but the mountain of God, the dwelling place of God Himself. The name Horeb means “glowing heat,” and Sinai was a reference to Sin the Sumerian God of the moon. Thus the mountain of God represents all that the sun and the moon encompass in man’s existence, God being Lord Jehovah over all.
Arriving at Horeb, the angel of the Lord appears to Moses in a bush engulfed in flaming fire, yet the bush was not consumed. Years later, when Moses returns to this place, the people will witness not merely a burning bush but the entire mountain engulfed with the fire of God’s presence. This is the same fire that Zechariah prophesied of regarding God’s people in the end time:
[Zec 2:5 KJV] 5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
Metaphorically speaking the writer of Hebrews declares that the church of the Living God is the fulfillment of what Horeb represents in type and shadow in the Old Testament:
[Heb 12:22 KJV] 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
When we read of this mountain, then we are learning something that informs us about who we are as the temple of God, the building of God, and the Mount of God in the earth – the church of the Redeemed in Christ Jesus. As the angel was in the mountain, even so, the angel is in our midst. As the bush burned but was not consumed, so we understand that this is a representation of something on the inside of us where God’s voice originates in us as it originated for Moses in the midst of the bush, yet it was not consumed.
How does Moses respond to what He sees? He turns aside to investigate. At first, he is curious, but then the voice of God speaks. Interestingly, Moses doesn’t take his sandals off until God tells him to. He doesn’t fall on his face or hide his face from fear until God speaks out of the fire. This is a lesson for us about supernatural things. If you walk with God for any time at all, you are going to experience the unusual in terms of phenomenon and visitation. Let your heart be prepared to focus on the voice of God speaking and not the outward manifestations; however remarkable they might be.
Moses hides his face, and after introducing Himself, the Lord gets right to the point (v. 7). He has seen the affliction of the people in Egypt and is come down to deliver them and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses, in his heart, surely rejoiced because he understood that suffering well. What did this have to do with Moses, however? If God was come down to deliver, why is this a conversation for God to have with him? We tend to want God to act without our engagement, but that is not in the Father’s character. He is our Helper. In all His dealings, he wants to come alongside and work with us His wonders to perform. His heart is to deliver, but He first must have our cooperation and, in this case, Moses’ cooperation (v. 10). What about you? Do you need to see the Father’s delivering hand on your situation? Remember the words of Ezekiel:
[Eze 22:30 KJV] 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
God is on the mountain, and He will not leave the mountain until he has a man who will work in cooperation with Him. Moses objects to this (v. 11) complaining that he is a nobody, but Jehovah insists (v. 12) that while He requires Moses’ cooperation, the ultimate deliverance will be by His hand. He promises to be with Moses and in token thereof He reveals himself to Moses as the I AM that I AM. This is how Moses is to validate his mission to the Israelite elders in captivity. Further, Moses is to instruct the elders that it is His plan to bring them out of the furnace of all fiction into the land flowing with milk and honey to have for their inheritance as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In v. 18, Jehovah assures Moses that the elders will indeed eventually hear what he has to say and agree to go with Him. The Father also makes it clear that it won’t be easy because Pharoah’s heart will be hardened for the purpose of God showing to Egypt and to all the world the glory and power and the sovereignty of God working on behalf of His covenantal people. Pharaoh will eventually relent Moses is informed (v. 20), and as the people go, they will find favor with the Egyptians and will not go away empty-handed. We need to hear that today. Most Christian narratives point to poverty and suffering as though that is God’s choice for us, but God promises that you are coming out of captivity, and you are coming out laden with the wealth of the heathen for your inheritance.
