From time to time there are individuals who claim to have had a vision or a near death experience in which they saw God and/or heaven. They use their stories to “prove” that God and heaven are real. I am usually skeptical of these stories because their account of seeing God and heaven doesn’t match what the Bible tells us really happens when people actually see God. In this video we learn that people experience abject fear when they see God, so if someone claims to have seen God/heaven but their story does not include fear, then their story is probably false. We also learn that we don’t need visions to know that God and heaven are real.
Exodus 2:23 – 3:12
Major Break
Ex. 2:23 Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.
Ex. 2:24 So God heard their[Israelites] groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Ex. 2:25 God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.
minor break
Ex. 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Ex. 3:2 The angel of the LORD[Yahweh] appeared to him[Moses] in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he[Moses] looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
Ex. 3:3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”
Ex. 3:4 When the LORD[Yahweh] saw that he[Moses] turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he[Moses] said, “Here I am.”
Ex. 3:5 Then He[God] said, “Do not come near here; remove your[Moses] sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
Ex. 3:6 He[God] said also, “I am the God of your[Moses] father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Ex. 3:7 The LORD[Yahweh] said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
Ex. 3:8 “So I[Yahweh] have come down to deliver them[Israelites] from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land[Egypt] to a good and spacious land[Canaan], to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
Ex. 3:9 “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me[Yahweh]; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
Ex. 3:10 “Therefore, come now, and I[Yahweh] will send you[Moses] to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Ex. 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
Ex. 3:12 And He[Yahweh] said, “Certainly I will be with you[Moses], and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.”