Exodus 3:6  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
10  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
11  And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
12  And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
13  And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
15  And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Now that God had Moses’ attention, He began to further reveal Himself to Moses. God is the God of the living. God called Abraham out of his homeland and brought him into a new land. God protected Abraham on his travels to that land and also in that land. Abraham was a stranger in a new land. He did not have an army. He used his few men to defend other kings and their people. God proved Himself to be real and true. God also revealed Himself to Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons. Rebekah knew while those two sons were in her womb what God’s plan was for them. We are not told what Rebekah told Isaac, but God made sure that His plan was carried forward. Jacob and Rebekah did not need to scheme for God’s plan to work. God worked in spite of their deceptive ways. God also led in the life of Jacob. Jacob had some things to learn in his walk with God.
Through all that went before, God was real and His plan kept moving forward. Now it was time for Moses to learn how to walk with God and serve Him.
We read that Moses was greatly impacted by the facts that God was giving him. Moses reacted in a very real manner. He realized he was in the presence of the Holy God. He realized that he was not fit to stand before this Holy God. The fact is, he was there.
In verse 7 God told Moses that He was fully aware of what His people were facing in Egypt. Moses had demonstrated his concern for the welfare of what he accepted as his people. He needed to be reminded that the Hebrews were God’s chosen people. God had a specific interest in them.
God was not incapable of stopping the cruel treatment the Hebrews were receiving. He knew all about the sorrow this was causing for them. He was right on time with His response. As we noted before, Moses tried to intervene, but it did not help matters. He had to flee and he was of no use to the Hebrews from where he was. God would work to bring Moses to where he needed to be and where he could be effective.
In verse 8 God told Moses that He had come down to deliver the Hebrews out of the hand of the Egyptians. God’s deliverance would include bringing the Hebrews into the land that He had promised to Abraham several hundred years earlier. God promised Moses that land was a land flowing with milk and honey. He also told them who currently occupied that land. The tribes mentioned had been given temporary use of that land. However, it was soon going to go to the real occupants of that land. The Hebrews were going to be given stewardship of that land according to God’s promise made to Abraham.
In verse 9 God again assured Moses that He was well aware of what the Hebrews were facing. God was not off in the distance somewhere. He heard the cry of the Hebrews. He saw what was happening to them. The Hebrews needed to be brought to the place where they would be ready to leave Egypt at God’s command. They had to be brought to the place where they would no longer have any ties to that land. We know that during their wilderness wanderings, that particular generation often kept looking back with fondness to the place where they were badly mistreated.
In verse 10 God invited Moses to come with Him. He would send him before Pharaoh. This was now a different Pharaoh than the one that Moses had offended. As we noted earlier, the Pharaoh’s were lazy men. They did not check their history very well. This Pharaoh did not know about Moses’ earlier actions. Moses did not need to fear this man. He needed to walk in the fear of the LORD.
God was going to guide Moses in leading His people out from under the clutches of Pharaoh. God was going to bring them out of Egypt all together. His intent was for them to never see that land again.
In verse 11 Moses began to make excuses for himself. He soon lost that needed reverence for God. Now he was ready to argue with God. He had witnessed the greatness of this God in that the bush was burning and not consumed. He had been commanded to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Moses was given facts that brought him to his knees. He realized he had no right to stand in the presence of this Holy God.
However, now that he was being told of his calling, he grew proud and stubborn. He did not want to get involved in this task. He knew he was a nobody, but he failed to realize that Pharaoh did not need to fear him. Pharaoh needed to learn to fear the true God. Moses was just the human messenger that God was going to enlist in getting the Pharaoh’s attention.
Moses was only listening with partial ears. He was far too focussed on himself and not enough on God. His attitude needed to change.
His first argument with God was his false humility. He did not believe he had the right or the authority to go and stand before Pharaoh.
God took that argument away. He promised to be with him all the way. God promised Moses that after He had brought the people out of Egypt, they would come and serve God at that very mountain he was at, Mount Horeb.
This promise did not satisfy Moses. He continued to stall. Now he wanted to know what God’s name was. God had already revealed Who He was to Moses. Moses claimed to want more specific information on God. God answered him and told him Who He was. God told Moses that He is the I AM. He is the ever present God.
God revealed Himself as Jehovah God some 6,519 times in the Old Testament. This name speaks to the self-existent nature of God. He is God and no one can interfere with Him. He does what He will do because there is none that can stop Him.
In our text God told Moses: I AM THAT I AM. The I AM is the root word of Jehovah. It is “haw-yaw”. It means “to be”. God is never the I WAS or the I WILL BE. God is the ever present God. Moses did not need to fear that there would ever be a moment when God would not be with him. The Hebrews also needed to know that fact. Even though they had been suffering now for some time, they needed to understand that the true God had always been right there. He knew all that was taking place. He was never out of the picture.
God told Moses to tell the Hebrews that I AM had sent him to them. God again reminded Moses that He is the living God Who was there with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He knew the history of the nation of Israel. He had been their God from the start. Israel would never have been a nation if God had not chosen Abraham as the “father” of the nation. Isaac was born when Abraham and Sarah were beyond child bearing age. However, Isaac was born and he grew up and developed and God chose the younger of his two sons to be the next patriarch of the nation. Moses was to remind the current generation that His name I AM was His name for ever. Every generation of Hebrews needed to be reminded that the true God, the God they needed to know and serve, is the ever present God Who cannot be stopped. The struggles Israel faced in the past, and the struggles they are facing now are not because God is incapable of protecting them. In fact, if it were not for God’s protection of them, they would long have been destroyed. Hitler, together with the Catholics and the Muslims, tried to destroy the Jews. They failed. Iran and her proxies have been trying to destroy Israel and they will not succeed.
Gentiles also need to be reminded that we too can put our trust in this self-existent God. No government can stand against this true God. Communism has tried to erase God from the picture. They have failed. Countries like China and ideologies like Islam have tried to remove God from the picture and they will never succeed. The true God is from everlasting to everlasting.
Moses needed to take the knowledge of God to the Hebrews and he needed to stand before Pharaoh and present this true God before him. Moses was not yet ready to obey God. He was still in an argumentative mood. God would not give up. He would prove Himself to be the I AM. Moses would need to learn to submit to this ever present God.
Today, we would be wise to humbly submit before this same ever present God. He will never leave His child alone. We may not always understand why He does things the way He does. However, we have no reason to doubt that He knows what He is doing. As we submit to Him, we will be blessed by Him.
Pastor Bartel