Exodus 3 Devotional Bible Study

Exodus 3 Chapter Summary

Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep and came to Mount Horeb. There, he saw a bush on fire but not being burned up, so he went to see what was happening. As he approached…

“Do not come any closer,” God said.

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

- Exodus 3:5

 

God said He was going to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and bring them into Canaan.

 

“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

- Exodus 3:10

 

Moses, however, felt unable to carry out the work God was sending him to do. Moses wasn’t anyone important. He didn’t think Pharaoh or the Israelites would listen to him.

 

God told Moses to tell the Israelites I AM had sent him. God knew Pharaoh would not listen to Moses, so God promised to show Pharoah God’s “mighty hand” and compel him to obey. He also told Moses that when the Israelite women leave Egypt, they are to ask the Egyptian women for gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing, because God would make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Israelites so that they would not leave Egypt empty-handed.

 

I Want to Be a Burning Bush

Exodus 3:1-3

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 wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 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. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

I want to be on fire for the Lord but have Him continually sustaining me so that I’m not burnt up.

I want others to see my passion for God and have the curiosity to investigate this “strange sight.”

 

 

God’s Introduction

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.

Why does God introduce Himself like this to Moses?

I think it’s because He’s giving Moses his track record. He’s saying, “Do you remember what I did for your forefathers? I can do the same thing for you.”

He’s also affirming His faithfulness. He’s saying, “Do you remember the promises I made to those men? I haven’t forgotten about them.”

The good news is that same God cares about us, and now, He has an even longer track record to prove His faithfulness. Will you look back on Biblical and Christian history today, and say “If God worked all through those people’s times and lives, He will be faithful to work in my time and life”?

 

Out and Up

Exodus 3:7-10

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, 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. 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.”

Do you know that God always brings us into something better? When the Israelites first went to Egypt, God sent them there because it was better than dying of starvation from the famine in Canaan. Now, the conditions in Egypt have changed, and so God is bringing them up out of there to go back to Canaan.

Do you know that God sees how your conditions have changed too? Have faith and hope that He is leading you out and up into a better situation.

 

 

Why Does God Call Himself “I AM?”

Exodus 3:13-14

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?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Why is God called I Am? Because He is constant. He doesn’t change. What He reveals to us has changed throughout the years, but His character and His plan has not. We can have confidence that our good God is always there – always has been, always will be. He IS.

 

God Lied?

Exodus 3:18-20

“The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.”

Was God’s plan to have the Israelites go make a sacrifice in the wilderness and then go back to slavery in Egypt? Wasn’t the plan always to bring the Israelites out of Egypt back into Canaan?

So, why does God tell Moses to lie to Pharaoh, saying God simply wants the Hebrews to go make a sacrifice?

God told the Israelites to lie to Pharaoh, I think, because is if Moses had demanded that Pharaoh let the people go completely, Pharaoh would have killed Moses and possibly all of the Israelite men. Telling the lie kept tensions at a low point and allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt safely.

 

God Provides, Despite All Obstacles

Exodus 3:21-22

“And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”

Would the Israelites ever have thought the Egyptians would give them silver and gold and clothing? The Egyptians were their oppressors, their owners, their taskmasters, their enemies. And yet God provided. Because that’s what God does.

What obstacles are you facing? Do you believe God can provide, no matter what?