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Exodus 3:7-12 The burning bush was an attention getter. Fire in a place where all the vegetation is dry and extremely flammable, is dangerous. Fire that does not consume dry vegetation and does not spread is not natural. By nature, fire consumes bushes and it spreads. The Lord got Moses’ attention by appearing in a flaming fire inside a bush. The fire was burning, but the bush was not consumed. So, Moses turned aside to see what he called a “great sight.” By turning aside, he shows that this thing has his attention. Once God saw that the burning bush had Moses’ attention, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” Moses responded, “Here I am.” At this point, God makes it clear to Moses who it is that is addressing him. It is not just a bush. God is speaking to Moses from out of the bush. He instructs Moses to take off his sandals because he is standing on holy ground, and then He tells Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Exodus 3:1-6 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ( Exodus 3:2 ESV ) “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him...” This phrase introduces us to the deliverer God chose. God called a shepherd from watching sheep on the backside of the wilderness to go to Egypt and deliver His people from slavery and lead them to the Promised Land. God chose a shepherd of sheep to become a shepherd of people. Our story today starts with Moses on the west, or backside, of the wilderness. This is on the Sinai Peninsula, the west side of which borders on Egypt. God is not affected by geographical distance. He is omnipresent. This means He is everywhere all the time. But, Moses is human. Geographical distance influences him. The farther west he goes, the closer he gets to his suffering people. Moses is alone with his wooly companions. Sheep are good listeners, but t

Exodus 2:23-3:10 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ( Exodus 2:23 ESV ) “During those many days” means a long time. Exodus 7:7 says: Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. ( Exodus 7:7 ESV ) We know then that Moses was 79 or 80 years old at the time we are picking up the story. Acts 7:23 tells us: When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. ( Acts 7:23 ESV ) When Moses visited his brothers, the children of Israel, he was 40 years old. At that time, he murdered an Egyptian and fled from the king of Egypt, who was trying to kill Moses because of the murder. He fled at 40 and returned at 80, so we know that the “many days” Exodus 2:23 is talking about was 40 years or approximately 14,610 days. 14,600 days

Exodus 2:11-22 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. ( Exodus 2:11 ESV ) Moses had grown up. The beautiful baby of Exodus 2:1 became a man. Acts 7 says: Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.” ( Acts 7:21-22 ESV ) Pharaoh’s daughter raised Moses as her son. She named him Moses because he was a descendant of the river. The Nile was sacred. His name signified that she considered Moses as a gift from the gods. He had the best education money could buy. He was a prince, groomed to be a ruler and a judge. Exodus 2:11-22 gives us two examples of his physical competence. First, he killed the Egyptian. If Moses was carrying a sword, he knew how to use it. If he was not carrying a sword, the murder would have been difficult for the

Exodus 2:1-10 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. Exodus 2:2 ESV This week we begin with a love story. A man from the tribe of Levi meets a woman from the tribe of Levi. We are not given their names, yet. But, we do know that they met at the height of Pharaoh’s persecution of their nation. Pharaoh set taskmasters over the Israelites to afflict them with heavy burdens. The Egyptians feared the Israelites and tried to kill them with forced labor. When this did not work, Pharaoh resorted to trying to kill the Israelites by killing their babies. Pharaoh ordered the murder of the baby boys. First, he ordered his healthcare workers to kill the boys as they were born. This did not work. So, Pharaoh ordered that all the Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile. In this environment of persecution and oppression, our young couple started their lives together. Chapter one told us that in spite of all that P