Read Exodus 3 (spoiler: one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible). 

This is a very well-known passage, so it can be easy to skim over it because you’ve read it a hundred times. But try approaching it with no preconceived notions. See what the Holy Spirit illuminates as you read and take note of that. 

“Now 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. 2 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. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your 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 at God. 

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have 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 Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 

13 Then 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 me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,[b] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together 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 and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.[c] 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.” 

Moses is a man hiding in plain sight. He killed a man in Egypt and has now fled to a wilderness land where the kindness of a man named Jethro has taken him in to tend to his sheep. Moses is at a low of lows – he does not know who he is or how he fits in the world. He is searching for identity; for significance. 

Then, he looks over and sees a burning bush. But it’s odd because the bush isn’t actually burning up, even though it’s engulfed in flames. As Moses looks at the bush, it begins to speak. You read that right….the bush starts SPEAKING! Can you imagine? You’re just out in the field, minding your own business, and a whole bush starts talking to you, asking about your day and giving you orders. 

God gives Moses a massive assignment – to lead the people of Israel out of slavery from Pharaoh. But Moses is a fugitive in a foreign land with no ownership, leadership, or direction. When he hears God’s words, he immediately goes inward; he retreats just like you or I might retreat and shrink. The whispers start to get really loud – “Moses, you can’t do this, you’re a criminal shepherd with no leadership skills whatsoever.” He goes from “Here I am” to “Who am I” because he is forgetting who he is talking to. And God’s response to him is not “No, Moses, you got this. You have all the gifts, skills, resources, degrees, and potential you need.” God’s response actually has nothing to do with catering to Moses’ self-doubt and insecurity. His response gets Moses’ eyes off himself and onto the Creator of the world. God says, “But I will be with you.” Everything is going to work out in the end, not because of who Moses is, but because of who God is and His decision to be with us. Moses offers excuses, God offers His Presence. It’s not about Moses’s ability; it’s about God’s proximity. The same is true for your life. 

Then, Moses asks the most important question a human can ask: “Who shall I say sent me?” God first responds with “I AM WHO I AM.” Not quite a name, which is intentional. God is establishing a massive truth about his character and nature. John Piper says, “Nothing is more basic, and nothing is more ultimate than the fact that God is.” God is establishing that before He has a name, He has a being; an essence. One so other worldly, so far beyond our finite understanding, so set apart, that we will never be able to fully wrap our minds around it.  

Then He tells Moses to say, “I AM has sent me to you.” Closer to a name now. He is defining His being a bit more here. “I AM” means that God is the one absolutely self-existent, independent, and all-defining reality — he simply and eternally is, without beginning, end, change, or limits.  

Finally, He tells Moses to say, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.”  

LORD is a personal name built from “I AM.” In Hebrew, this is “YHWH,” which we say as “Yahweh.” He is there. He is before all things. He created all things. All things are in him and through Him. He is never changing, no start and no end. God is.  

This is the forming of Moses. The introduction to God’s presence. When we enter into God’s presence, we move from “Here I am” to “Who am I?” to knowing the only thing that matters is God as “I Am Who I Am.” 

As you trek through life, your abilities will convince you they’re going to take you somewhere, your relationships will convince you they define you, your thought cycles will convince you they are true, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is a life spent with Jesus.

He is not a far-off God, and He is not waiting for you to clean up your life so He can finally use you. All He desires is that you pick up His hand and walk with Him. 

Let’s pray 

Yahweh, thank you for your presence. Even if I feel far, you never are. There is no distance between us, only my willingness to turn towards your voice, just like Moses. I pray I’d have the posture to say “here I am,” the awareness of my own sin to say “who am I to be used by an almighty God,” and reverence for the only thing that matters – you. I want to know you. I want to know you. Help me to know you. 

In your name I pray, 

Amen