Daily Scripture Reading Exodus 2:23 - 3:15

Many Christians think that when we go to heaven, meeting Jesus face to face is going to be a sweet and glorious occasion. However, throughout the Bible, when people met God face to face, they experienced fear and were afraid to face God. Today’s passage tells us about one of those occasions and warns us that meeting Jesus may be quite different than we expect.

After Moses murdered an Egyptian who was abusing a fellow Hebrew, Moses fled Egypt and settled down in Midian. Moses married the daughter of the priest of Midian and fathered children.

Ex. 2:23 ¶ Now it happened in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the slavery, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their slavery rose up to God.

Ex. 2:24 So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God’s covenant with Abraham and Isaac is described in the 17th chapter of Genesis. The covenant included a provision that the descendants of Abraham and Isaac would possess the land of Canaan. When Jacob was fleeing his brother Esau and saw God in a dream, God promised the land of Canaan would belong to Jacob’s descendants (see Gen. 28:13).

Ex. 2:25 And God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew them.

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.

The book of Exodus does not tell us how many years had elapsed since Moses arrived in Midian, but it was many.

Ex. 3:2 And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush; and he 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 is the bush not burned up?”

Ex. 3:4 And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, so God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Take note of the name “Yahweh”. Yahweh Himself spoke to Moses.

The Hebrew word “Yahweh” is a verb that means “He is”. It is the 3rd person singular version of the Hebrew verb “hayah” which means “to be”.

Ex. 3:5 Then He said, “Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Ex. 3:6 He said also, “I am the God of your 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.

Notice the words “hid” and “afraid”. When Moses understood he was talking to God, he was afraid to look at God and hid his face.

Were you ever in a situation where you wronged somebody, and then later you were in the presence of that person and you did not want to look at them or talk to them because you felt guilty? Or perhaps somebody wronged you and then they did not want to look at or talk to you. It is hard for humans to ignore our conscience when we are face to face with the person we wronged.

When Moses was face to face with God, he could not ignore his conscience. He knew God was much more powerful. Moses knew he was not perfect, but God is.

Many Christians think that when we go to heaven and see Jesus, we are going to interact with Jesus as if we are long lost friends and it will be such a sweet, pleasant moment. I believe Moses’ reaction to the burning bush is a better indicator of what will happen when we go to heaven. When we see God in all His glory, when we see God’s perfection, we will be so ashamed of our failures and imperfections that we will be too afraid and too embarrassed to look at Jesus.

Ex. 3:7 ¶ And Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings.

Ex. 3:8 So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, 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 So now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

Ex. 3:10 So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

In the English language, we use the same word, the word “you”, for both the second person singular and the second person plural. However, Biblical Hebrew differentiates between singular and plural in the 2nd person pronoun. In verse 10, the second person singular pronoun was used, meaning the word “you” is singular, meaning Yahweh was singling out Moses as the person to go to Pharaoh and lead 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?”

Think about Moses’ question. He asked, “Who am I?” At the time he asked this question he was a shepherd out in the wilderness with no power or influence; thus, he considered himself to be a nobody and not qualified to lead the Israelites.

However, Moses had grown up as the grandson of Pharaoh. Moses grew up in the court of Pharaoh. Out of all the Israelites, he was the most qualified to talk to Pharaoh, because Moses understood the protocol that was required to walk and talk inside the palace of Pharaoh.

Ex. 3:12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, 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 serve God at this mountain.”

Ex. 3:13 ¶ Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ And they will say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Ex. 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

The name “I AM” is the first person singular version of the name “Yahweh”. When the Israelites mentioned God’s name, they used the third person singular version of the Hebrew word “hayah” because they were referring to someone else. When When Yahweh Himself used His name, He used the 1st person singular because He was referring to Himself.

Ex. 3:15 And God furthermore said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation.

Many Christians think that when we go to heaven and see Jesus, we are going to interact with Jesus as if we are long lost friends and it will be such a sweet, pleasant moment. I believe Moses’ reaction to the burning bush is a better indicator of what will happen when we go to heaven. When we see God in all His glory, when we see God’s perfection, we will be so ashamed of our failures and imperfections that we will be too afraid and too embarrassed to look at Jesus.

In what ways have you failed Jesus?

How might your failures cause you to be too ashamed to look at Jesus when you meet Him in heaven?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”