I AM Part One: Moses and the Burning Bush | September 13, 2026

Well, good morning, and welcome to Trinity.

If I haven't met you before, my name is Mike, and I'm one of the pastors here, and I'd like to invite you this morning to turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, please don't hesitate to hop up and grab one from the stack in the back in the hallway.

You can find Exodus 3 on page 43 in the church Bibles.

We each have stories that are foundational, informational to who we are, that inform how we see ourselves and how we relate to the world.

Some of those for me include a cross-country move when I was 10, a summer as a counselor and trainee at a Christian camp for boys in the mountains at 16.

Of course, the story of dating and marrying Jenny, the call to ministry.

These are significant moments that changed the trajectory of my life that have formed me into who I am today and have informed the rest of my story.

For the people of God, Exodus 3 is one of those stories.

It's a story where God reveals himself in an extraordinary way, where he invites an ordinary man into his story, where he reveals his character and his name.

I am who I am.

Starting next week, we're gonna spend seven weeks looking at Jesus' seven I AM statements in the book of John.

I'm so excited for what we'll learn together about Jesus and his purposes this fall, but first we need to rewind to the place where God first reveals himself as I am, the story of the burning bush.

The story is what theologians call a theophany.

It's a moment where God reveals himself in a tangible way to a person.

In this case, he does it in a burning bush.

It's a story of God's self-revelation and divine intervention on behalf of his people.

This morning, what we're gonna do is look at this encounter, this theophany, this divine revelation, which includes the sharing of a name.

We're gonna see what it has to say about God's person and work and character.

We'll highlight 10 things it reveals about God.

We'll see a bit about how we might respond to Him along the way.

But first, let's pray together.

Gracious God, thank you for this morning for the chance to gather, to sing, to pray, to hear from your word.

I pray now that as my words line up with your words, that they would fall on ears and hearts, ready to receive them and respond.

Gracious God, if I say anything that isn't from you, I pray that those words would quickly be forgotten.

And I pray all these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

When we come to Exodus 3, here's the situation.

God's people have been enslaved now for generations in Egypt.

An Israelite man named Moses ends up adopted into the court of the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh, where he lives a privileged life until he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave.

He intervenes and ends up killing the Egyptian.

And so Moses flees into the desert where he eventually marries into the family of a man named Jethro.

It's Moses' job to tend Jethro's sheep.

And this is what Moses is doing in verse one.

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

Moses looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

This is the moment of Theophany, direct moment of divine self-revelation.

And it reveals two extraordinary things to us about God.

First, sometimes God uses unique, extraordinary ways.

I never expected that sort of ways to get our attention.

Like a burning bush.

It's the first and the second.

More often than not, the way that God shows up, though, is by stepping into our ordinary everyday lives.

When we're driving to work, we're on a walk, while we do the dishes, or put our kids to bed, and our interactions with friends or teachers or grandchildren.

Or while in the wilderness taking care of sheep.

Moses' extraordinary interaction with God happens in the midst of an ordinary day doing ordinary work.

Now Moses could have missed it.

He could have ignored it, avoided it, been too busy for it.

Instead, he responds with curiosity in verse 3.

Moses said, I think I'm gonna turn aside to see this great sight.

Why the bush is not burned?

I must confess, I sometimes struggle to hear the voice of God.

Do you ever feel like that?

Surely not.

For me, it's generally because I'm too busy or too distracted or worried about my own stuff.

Does that ring true for you?

But when I look back on my life and the times and the seasons when I was most responsive to the voice of God in my life, three things were almost always true.

First, I was usually looking.

Moses didn't even know he was looking, but he was certainly open.

He's paying attention to his surroundings.

Second, I was willing to be interrupted by God, to pause what I was doing, to turn aside for his sake.

Moses has a job to do.

He's tending sheep.

And yet, he's willing to turn aside.

He's interruptible.

Those seasons where I have most fruitfully and faithfully heard the voice of God in my life.

I was paying attention.

I was interruptible.

And third, I responded to God with curiosity.

God, what are you up to in this?

Or, huh?

Why am I responding this way?

Or God, what would you have me do here?

Likewise, Moses responds with curiosity.

I think I'm gonna go see what's going on here.

God interrupts his ordinary routine with an extraordinary interruption.

Moses, meanwhile, is looking.

Then he allows himself to be interrupted and he responds with curiosity.

Friends, are you looking for God in your everyday life?

Are you interruptible?

Are you interacting with God with curiosity?

Or are you too busy, distracted by your own stuff?

When that happens, it gets awfully hard to hear the voice of God.

Moses, though, is interruptible and curious, and what happens next reveals an awful lot about both human nature and God's character.

Look at verse 4.

When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, that he'd responded interruptible with curiosity, God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses.

Moses said, Here I am.

And then God said, Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

In love, God invites Moses near, calls to him, speaks to him, draws him to him, even as in that same moment his holiness is revealed.

This is who God is.

He's one who seeks us out, draws us towards him, even as his own holiness coupled with our own sinfulness makes it impossible for us to truly and completely approach him.

Maybe you've experienced this in your own life.

A sense of God's love for you, his care for you, when he draws you towards him in relationship.

And then the reality of your own messiness, which keeps him at an arm's length.

Moses experiences both of those things, God's love and his holiness.

And then in verse 6, God said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

And that's it, right there.

Moses encounters God and immediately is confronted by his own humanity, his own brokenness.

In that moment, he hears the voice of God and he realizes how unworthy he is.

Wonder if you've ever felt like that.

I know I have.

Wondered how God could ever love me, dare to look at me even.

That's how Moses feels.

Totally unworthy, and he hides his face.

And yet, even as Moses hides, God still speaks to him.

Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people.

This is verse 7, who are in Egypt.

And I've heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

I know their sufferings.

And I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebuzites.

And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

And oh, this reveals so much to us about the love of God.

Even as Moses covers his face in shame, God still speaks to him, reveals himself to him, initiates a relationship with him.

Moses, the murderer.

Moses the coward who ran away rather than facing the consequences of his actions.

Moses, the forgotten nobody of a shepherd.

Moses, who has nothing to offer but himself and a lifetime of regret.

Have you ever felt like that?

How could God ever want to know me and my weariness and brokenness with a backstory like mine?

And yet, here we've got the God of your father, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, before whom Moses can do nothing but hide his face.

We've got that God revealing his very heart.

Because look at this.

God says in verse 7, and then again in verse 9, and he's heard the cry of his people.

He sees their suffering and hurt, the oppression and pain, their stories of bone-crushing weariness and a heartache.

If you've got a Bible, open in your lap, circle this phrase.

It's the one repeated in both verse 7 and 9.

I have seen.

The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

He is the God who sees.

And it's still true today.

Our world, our neighborhoods, our families, our schools, workplaces are full of grief, brokenness, hurt, death, sickness, sin, pain.

It's exhausting sometimes and overwhelming often.

But God is the God who sees, who sees our hurt and pain and suffering.

Sees our weariness and our heartache, sees the things we carry, sees our stories.

He's not indifferent.

Because he's not just the God who sees, he's also the God who delivers.

You see that in verse 8?

Underline it in your Bible.

I will deliver.

It's a promise.

It's a promise that he will make a way for his people out of darkness into a new land and a new future.

He's a God who delivers.

And how will he do it?

Through Moses of all people.

The coward, the murderer, the one who ran away and refused to take responsibility, the one who spent the last, is it 40 years?

It's always 40 years in the Bible.

Wandering around in the desert.

He's gonna spend another 40 years wandering around in the desert later, but this Moses, shepherd, dirty, smelly, all alone in the wilderness with those stinky, stubborn sheep.

This Moses is how he's gonna save his people.

Friends, God is a God who sends.

And he sends imperfect people.

Praise the Lord! If he didn't, we'd be, well, not a part of the story.

And yet here we are, right?

God calls Moses, he draws him near, he reveals himself to him, and then he invites Moses into the story, into his story, and he sends him back to do his work.

Look at verse 10.

Come, come closer.

I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

Now, of course, Moses is skeptical.

After all, he's only human and he's not even a particularly good human at that.

He's a shepherd.

Back in Egypt, he's a wanted criminal.

He's surely not up to the task, and he says so in verse 11.

Moses said, Who?

Me?

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?

Bring the children of Egypt out of, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

But God said, I will be with you, and this shall be a sign for you that I have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.

Oh God, is so patient.

He responds to Moses' objection by revealing yet one more thing about himself.

Underline this phrase I will be with you.

God doesn't just invite, he doesn't just send.

He promises to be with Moses, to empower him to do the work he's given him to do.

To be with him in the going, to be with him when he's overwhelmed and has no idea what he's doing.

To be with broken, messed up Moses as he goes about the work he's been given to do.

Of course, Moses still has objections.

And this gets to the crux of the text for the purposes of our next eight weeks.

Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask, What's his name?

What shall I say to them?

Now, one commentary that I read noted that names in the ancient world were believed to be intimately connected to the essence of the individual.

Knowledge of a person's name gave knowledge of their nature and potentially power over them.

It's the Navarsity Press Bible background commentary.

Now, I don't think Moses is angling for power over God here, but I think he's rightfully intimidated by the call.

And he's looking for some affirmation, for some sort of certainty.

Anyone who's ever been called by God to do something challenging, from a hard conversation to sharing Christ with a neighbor to a big move or career change or overseas missions work knows what that feels like.

I don't know what I'm doing, God.

You're asking me to do this thing, I'm in way over my head.

Could you please just give me a little bit of certainty that this is you?

That I'm not just hearing things, right?

That you're gonna be with me, and we can handle this together.

And while God does reveal himself, he does not provide certainty.

He doesn't give Moses that in a name.

He does, however, invite faith.

He replies, God said to Moses, I am who I am.

I wonder how God said it.

He was conversationally, I am who I am.

In a frustrated whisper, I am who I am.

Did he thunder?

I am who I am.

I got your attention there, Jack.

Regardless, he continues, he said, say this to the people of Israel.

I am has sent me to you.

God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel.

The Lord, and the Hebrew here for Lord, anytime you see it in all caps in the Old Testament, that's that's Yahweh, I am.

The same I am, but because Israelites, out of respect, don't say that name out loud.

It's generally written, all caps Lord.

So if you see that in your Bible, Old Testament, all caps Lord, it's I am.

I am the God of your fathers, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

I am has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

This is the culmination of the big reveal of God's self-revelation to Moses.

My name is I am.

It's built from the Hebrew verb to be.

Scholars generally argue that the verb can be understood a few different ways.

It speaks to existence.

I am what I am.

It speaks to freedom.

I will be.

What I will be.

You don't get to say who I am, you don't get to say who I'll be, I will be who I will be.

And it also speaks to creation.

I create what I create, I make other things be.

In other words, in this one name, God reveals his eternal nature.

He is before all time and ever will be.

He reveals his complete sovereignty and freedom to be and do and create as he wills, as only as the only uncreated one.

He reveals his incomprehensibility.

We cannot understand or comprehend God in any way apart from his gracious revelation to us.

He reveals his unchangeability, as the liturgy reminds us, who was and is and is to come.

And so much more.

It's a wonder, this name, this revelation.

It's a miracle that the God of the universe, the great I am, the eternal, unchangeable, all-knowing, would reveal himself to Moses, would reveal himself to you and to me.

The great I Am.

That he would see our pain, that would hear our cries, that would meet us in the ordinary and the extraordinary.

That he would invite us into his story, sending us, going with us, even as he delivers his people.

This is the great I am, who was and is and is to come.

The one who draws us to him, who interrupts our ordinary to speak with us, who hears our cries and sees our pain, who invites us to participate in his story, who sends us and goes with us.

And in the end, who promises to deliver his people from bondage and oppression and bring them into a new future as his people.

So he says to Moses, Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you, I've seen you, and what's been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I'll bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebuzites, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I always like to end a sermon by asking, okay, so what?

And well, this week is an intro.

We'll get to the so what's over the course of the fall, but here's what I'll leave with us this morning.

One of the oldest heresies in the book, called Marcionism, is the one that argues that the God of the Old Testament isn't the same as the God of the New Testament.

It's patently false.

And what we'll see over the next eight weeks is that Jesus Christ is of one being with the I am revealed here in Exodus 3.

It's a shocking claim for Jesus' contemporaries.

And it's why we needed to start here with the unchangeable, the incomprehensible, the completely sovereign.

So we'd understand when Jesus starts walking around saying, I am the light, I am the shepherd, we can begin to grasp how mind-blowing it is.

But we believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that he's been up to the same thing the whole time.

He's still stepping into our ordinary in extraordinary ways.

He's still holy and yet drawing us towards himself.

He still speaks and sees and sends and promises his presence.

He is I am, and yet is still attentive to the needs of his people.

And so, might I encourage us this morning to be the sort of people, the sort of community that looks for this God at work.

That's interruptible, that approaches him with humility and curiosity, trusting his character hasn't changed, that he's still inviting us, just as he did Moses, into his story.

Will you stand and pray with me?

Oh gracious God, we praise you, for the ways that you've revealed yourself to your people throughout generations.

We thank you and praise you for the ways that you have revealed yourself to us in the person and work, the life, death, and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

And we pray, gracious God, that you would continue to reveal yourself to us.

That we would believe that you see us in our world and our suffering.

That you send us to be a part of your story.

You promise to deliver.

We pray all these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.