Chapter 1

Please read Exodus, chapters 1, 2 and 3.

In the final chapters of the Book Genesis we learn about Joseph, father Jacob’s favored son. His brothers hated him, threw him into a deep, dry well, where Joseph could have perished. Later they pulled him up and out and sold him into slavery to a caravan of traders who were on their way to Egypt. In turn those traders sold Joseph to an Egyptian bureaucrat and Joseph became that man’s trusted slave. Until that man’s wife tried hard to tempt Joseph into adultery and then falsely accused him, to her lawful husband, and Joseph landed in prison. Now, in Exodus, the continuing events.

The king of Egypt had a dream and, after he awoke, could not remember what he dreamt, or what his dream could mean. One of his officials told him about a Jewish prisoner who might be able to explain the dream and its meaning. Joseph was called out of prison and his God, the God of the Bible, gave him grace and ability to tell Pharaoh about seven years of plenty and then seven years of drought. Pharaoh promoted Joseph to be second in command in Egypt. Promptly Joseph then ordered much of the grain, in the years of plenty, to be saved and stored for food during the years of drought. It was a drought that also affected Joseph’s home country. His dad sent Joseph’s brothers into Egypt to buy grain. Now they would have to deal with their younger brother, whom they had sold into slavery. They never recognized him, until Joseph made himself known. In his high position Joseph did arrange for a royal welcome to his father and brothers into the land of Egypt. There they arrived with a company of seventy people. The mighty hand of God was at work in the lives of Jacob’s descendants. It never was a matter of good luck. It is advisable to always believe in God’s over all control.

After the death and burial of their father, the brothers of Joseph had a troubled conscience.

Genesis 50:15 – 21

v.18 “His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. ‘We are your slaves’ they said. But Joseph said to them ‘Don’t be afraid, am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, BUT GOD INTENDED IT FOR GOOD to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.”

Yes, down there, in a deep, dry well, God was there. Hooked up to a camel’s saddle, walking all the way into Egypt, God was there. Being enslaved in a foreigner’s house in the presence of an evil woman, and God was there! Unfairly imprisoned. God was there. A king did dream and was puzzled. God was there. Joseph arrives, next to the king, in the throne of Egypt. God was there. In the land of Israel, bitter drought. Every hour of every day, God was there.

Exodus 1:8 “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt .v.9 ‘Look’, he said to his people ‘the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.’ “.

He worried that the Israelites may conquer the Egyptians and he ordered all new Israelite baby boys to be killed. The Israelites were to be placed under slave labor, in the brick pits of Egypt, making bricks for Pharaoh’s expansion projects.

Acts 7:20-22 “At that time Moses was born and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action “.

Without mercy the Egyptian taskmasters drove their Israelite slaves. The God of Heaven saw it all, and He waited. The baby Moses, while floating in a basket, on the river Nile, God saw him too. And He waited, in order to show mercy to the occupants of Israel’s promised land. The Amorites were those occupants. God did tell Abraham about this.

Genesis 15:16 “ . . . for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Every day and every night these people could see God’s beautiful creation around them. And still did not worship the God of all creation. Finally God’s time did come and then they were doomed.

Pharaoh’s slaves were being treated harshly and they began crying out to the God of their fore fathers. But the God of the Bible does not work a human timetable. He has His own, in heaven. There was a second reason why Israel must wait and work. They needed a God given leader. And that man was in need of some teaching.

One day Moses killed an Egyptian. Moses’ head was too hot (Exodus 2:11- 14) Would God be willing and able to use a murderer?

Exodus 2:15 “ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.”

In Midian Moses became a shepherd. That’s where God began training him.

Exodus 3:1 “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father in law, the

priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to

Horeb, the mountain of God.”

And there, at the far side of the desert, Who was there to meet up with Moses? Wherever you are moving, you may be sure! God will be there!

Exodus 3:2 “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. v.3 So Moses thought ‘I will go over and see this strange sight - why the bush does not burn up”.

Please, do not be misled by Christians who see fire as a blessing from God. In the Bible fire always and consistently portrays judgment. Sometimes judgment clears the way for blessing to follow. And, for sinners who will accept grace, judgment always makes way for grace. In the burning bush that did not burn up Moses saw both, judgment and grace. The bush was burning, but it was not destroyed.

Exodus 3:4 “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses, Moses’. And Moses said ‘Here I am.’

Moses had gone over ‘to see this strange sight’. Many will agree with me about the joy, the peace and the power they received, when they had moved to a place, which at first seemed strange to them, but a place where they did hear God speaking their name. Finally Moses heard about God’s purpose for his life. Nothing can be more satisfying than to know of being in the centre of His mind and His will.

Exodus 3:5 “ ‘ Do not come any closer’ God said ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground ‘ “.

Moses? Sinful Moses? Standing on God’s holy ground? Yes, he could! How? Why? Well, divine holiness and judgment were at rest on the ground of divine grace. But he must take off his sandals. Why? Because his sandals had been walking on unholy ground. They may defile God’s ground. Moses understood something about the holiness of God and about his own sinfulness. Without true confession of sin, nobody will have a relationship with the most holy God. There must be forgiveness. Please agree with Him. Tell Him exactly what you are like and He will tell you what He is like. The God of the Bible is most Holy, most gracious and forgiving.

Exodus 3: 6 “Then He said: ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’. At this Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”

He was standing on holy ground and afraid to look at God. He still must learn to live and walk on holy ground. For me that means I am still learning to live and walk like a child of the only Holy Father should. By the way, did you ever read in the Gospel of John, chapter 3:16,17? Born again means to have been born of God. Eternal life is the life of God, the life of Jesus. Next to your old, sinful Adam nature, you will receive a new nature, which cannot sin, because it will eternally be God’s nature! When you receive eternal life you too will be a child of God. The old, sinful nature will be with you until the day you die, but the new God-nature will be everlasting because it can never die! As long as you live in your body there will be much quarrelling between the two natures.

The God of the Bible is the most holy God. All human sinfulness must be dealt with and judged righteously. But now He will show us a different side of His character.

Exodus 3: 7,8 “The Lord said:’ I have INDEED SEEN the misery of my people in Egypt. I have HEARD them crying out because of their slavedrivers and I am CONCERNED about their suffering. So I have COME DOWN to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey - the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.’ “

Blessing for a bunch of miserable slaves and righteous judgment for all the ‘ites’ who decided not to call on God.

Exodus 3: 9, 10 “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

For many years Moses had enjoyed the peaceful quietness of the desert. And now, suddenly God confronts him with the sorrowful need of his people back in Egypt. What a shock to the system. Once upon a time he had killed an Egyptian, it was the need that drove him to the deed. But the need and the deed were not instructions by God. A need does not constitute His call. After forty years of education in Egypt, Moses now must spend forty years in school, with God, in the desert, caring for sheep. A wise man once wrote: ‘No one can teach like God. And all who would learn of Him must be alone with Him.’ If you desire to know the God of the Bible, I advise you to step away from all the affairs of your ‘here and now’ and make yourself available, not only to His Word, the Bible, but to God Himself. Confess to Him your sinfulness and receive His forgiveness. That forgiveness is yours, because the eternal Son of God, the Lord Jesus, has paid Him the penalty of your sinfulness. Believe Him! After you do that, pray and seek for a church-fellowship where Jesus is the main driving force.

The Bible advises: ‘ Seek Him while He may be found.’

Only after Moses was forty years in a lonely desert the Lord God deemed him suitable to care for His people.

Exodus 3:11 “But Moses said to God: ’who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”

And now see again; see the caring heart of the God of the Bible. He had made it so abundantly clear. He literally said: I have seen, I have heard, I am concerned, I have come down’ and ‘now I am sending you’! ‘I will be with you.’ Many humans live as if that is not enough. But for those who will trust Him by faith, for those who will believe, it is more than sufficient.

Exodus 3:12 “And God said:’ I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I Who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you (plural) will worship God on this mountain “

v. 13 “Moses said to God ‘suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them: ‘the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me ‘What is His Name?’ Then what shall I tell them? ‘ “

This time Moses does not depend on his own thinking. Humbly he asks: ‘What shall I say?’ Is it not true that human hearts may keep on doubting,

reasoning and questioning? And being mistaken? But God’s answer always will come, when we wait for it, trusting Him.

Exodus 3:14, 15 “God said to Moses ‘I AM WHO I AM’. That is what you are to say to the Israelites. I AM has sent me to you “

Did you ask: ‘what’s in a name?’ Or, more particularly ‘What is in that name - I am who I am’? Well, an eternity before Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, God the Creator was, and an eternity before Moses’ time, He always was! He always will be I AM. While the Israelites were slaving in the brick-pits, I AM too was there. When Moses was to meet his people in Egypt I AM would be there and when Moses had to deliver God’s message to a stubborn king I AM would be at his side. I AM always was and always will be eternal and so will always be I AM. I must warn you, this answer will require faith from you. In daily life you believe train-time-tables. You believe doctors, surgeons, traffic lights, teachers, parking meters and weather forecasts. In all confidence you may also believe that power beyond all human power! The power that regulates rain and steers storms into thunderclaps and lightning. That sends snow and ice. The power that causes volcanoes to spew enormous outbursts and laid the foundations for this earth, knowing that in time those foundations would move and cause earthquakes. What can man, clever men, do about all that? Let me tell you, nothing! Those activities are reserved for the God of the Bible.

Long before this world came into being I am was Who He was! I am created this world, and in spite of all the abuse the earth has suffered by the hands of man, I am does still maintain it. When roaring seas are pounding a coastline can the local council stop it? Do you know anyone who tells clouds where they should go? And where their torrents of rain will bring roaring floods? And where people should be starving on account of drought? Please tell me, I would like to know that person. And tell him or her about the POWER and WISDOM which are taking care of every such circumstance. For thousands of years I am had His hand on every sunrise and sunset. In all of nature’s catastrophes He reminds us that He is still there and in firm control and patient while many men are cursing Him. I AM of Moses’ day is still ‘I AM WHO I AM’ in our days. He is the God of the Bible. And here is the most marvellous miracle from the heart of the Almighty, Eternal I AM. He had His one and only Son, Jesus, pay Him all the debt of my sinfulness. Your’s as well. You may not like that truth. To you it may be totally unacceptable. But that does not change the truth. It was settled, once and forever, when the most Holy God laid our sinfulness on His dear Son and heard Him cry from the Cross: ‘Why have YOU forsaken ME?’ The Name ‘I am Who I am’ does not call for debate or argument! As it was for Moses and for the Israelites in Egypt, today also, it calls for FAITH. And without your faith the grace and the goodness of God and the love of Jesus will not bring forgiveness to your life.

Look, I am writing about the God of the Bible! Not a god of human fabrications and imaginations! Jesus, the eternal Son of God, always one with the eternal great I AM, offers you forgiveness and His own life, life eternal, in place of eternal death in Hell. Will you believe Him, say it with a humble heart, ‘Thank You, Lord Jesus! You always thought of me.’

Now, let’s get back to God and Moses.

Exodus 3:16,17 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey. ‘

‘I have promised to bring you up out of your misery’. Those were the words the Lord God placed into the mouth of Moses. Yes, many long years ago, God had promised Abraham. You may read about it in Genesis, chapter 15:12-14.The eternal I AM of Moses’ days already was I AM in Abraham’s days.