A Divine Mission

Today on Renewing Your Mind, Moses was the mediator of the old covenant that made him perhaps the most important and extraordinary person of the whole Old Testament. He, in a sense, foreshadowed the greater mediator, Christ himself.

Most of us are familiar with Moses and the burning bush. It is a captivating story, but it's much more than that. In this brief passage and Exodus Chapter three, God reveals that he is sovereign over nature than nations. He reveals his name and through Moses. God foreshadows the most important event in human history.

In our last session together, we considered the implications of gods being that are revealed in his name. I am who I am.

And we look back to the very first verse of the Book of Genesis that begins in the beginning.

God. And we looked at the significance of that, that God is eternal and everything else that is created by him has a beginning in time and manifests the attributes of change or mutability.

Now, the context in which we've been looking at Moses meeting with God in the midnight wilderness has to do not simply with creation, but with the same God who creates engages in history in his work of redemption.

And that's something we often forget because the same God who has the power to bring a universe into being through the sheer power of his word. What a Gustin called the divine imperative, in which God simply said, let there be. And it was he spoke through his word, do the whole universe into being. And for us to contemplate the magnitude of that power is beyond our intellectual capacity. But what we need to understand is that that same God with that same power and with that same word is the God who from all eternity purposed a plan of redemption for is fallen creatures.

And we noticed in the discussion that Moses says with God that when God revealed himself by the sacred name, he said in verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am as sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. And that he instructed Moses, go and gather the elders of Israel together and say again, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob appeared to me.

Well, that's important that we see the continuity between the one who is identified as the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one who is now revealing his memorial name. I am who I am.

And we have to go back a little bit into the past history of the Old Testament and ask the question, why does God call himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob? And how did the people of Israel get into this situation that God is now addressing with? Moses said goes back to Abraham, whom God called out of a land of paganism, idolatry and darkness, and called him out of Mesopotamia or the Chaldeans and told him to get up and to leave the land of his birth, to leave his friends, to leave his family, his doctor, his dentist and everything that was important to him and get up and go to a land that I will show you.

And we're told that by faith, Abraham obeyed this mandate from God and went out searching for a land of promise that he knew not where it would be.

And we know how his story unfolded with the promise of a child in his old age, and that through this child, the whole universe would be blessed that the descendants of Abraham would be like the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea that Abraham that lived to see that multiplication of his seed. He lived to see the promised son, Isaac. But he never really saw the promised land. The only piece of real estate he ended up owning was Mac Pela, which was is grave. But at the end of his life, he told Isaac of this promise and the patriarchal blessing was then transferred from Abraham to Isaac. And in like manner, at the end of Isaac's life, he gave a patriarchal blessing not to E saw, but to Jacob. And then as we read and the latter chapters of the book of Genesis, one of the sons of Jacob, whose name was Joseph, was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery and then thrown into prison. And there's that story unfolded. He because he could interpret dreams, found favor with the reigning pharaoh and because of his administrative abilities, rose to the level of prime minister of all of Egypt. And it just so happened. And the vagaries and gratuitous events of history and what we would call the vicissitudes. A famine came to the land of the father and brothers of Joseph. But in the meantime, Joseph had been appointed the head of the Storehouse Enterprise in Egypt.

And so while the other peoples of other countries around them were starving, the people in Egypt under Joseph's leadership had been prepared for the eventuality of such a famine. And you know how the story went, how the Jacob sent his sons down into Egypt to inquire about getting food so he could feed his family. And all of the machinations that unfolded there ended up with this reunion between the other sons of Jacob and with Joseph.

And Joseph invited his father, Jacob, to migrate into Egypt, where they would be having an abundance of food and avoid any problems of starvation and a special parcel of land. The land of Goshen was given to Jacob and to his family.

That's how the Israelites got to Egypt in the first place. But then we have that ominous report in the scriptures that there came a Faye Roe who remembered not Joseph.

And instead of treating the children of Israel as guests in the land with special privilege. Instead, the pharaoh and slayed them and used them as a massive slave Labor Corps.

And that's the context in which this section of exodus takes place, where the whole purpose of this meeting between God and Moses was to address the problem of Jewish slavery.

And you recall that God said to Moses, I have heard the cries of my people.

Their cries have risen up to me and now Moses, I am determined to liberate them, to free them from slavery, that they may come out of this land and come to my holy mountain there to worship me. So that's the whole reason for this encounter at the burning Bush that I've said was a watershed moment, not only for Israel, but for the entire history of the world. Now, in that context, God promises redemption, liberation.

And it's not going to come to pass without great struggle and great considerations that will include Moses. If we go to the New Testament to the book of Hebrews, we hear something in the New Testament about the evaluation of Moses in Hebrews Chapter three. We read these words, therefore, Holy Brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Consider the apostle and high priests of our confession.

Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, who appointed him as Moses, also was faithful in all of his house.

Now, what we're finding here in the early chapters of Hebrews is that the author of Hebrews compares and contrasts Jesus to the Angels to which are the angels. Did the father ever say this day by begotten the end, to which of the angels that God promised to have him sit in his right hand?

Not, of course. And so we see the superiority of Christ to the angels. But then what comes next is this comparison and contrast between Jesus and Moses. And we don't want to miss the significance that because first of all, Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. And as I said early on in this lecture series, that that particular task that was given to Moses made him perhaps the most important and extraordinary person of the whole Old Testament. It was through the media material work of Moses that the nation of Israel was established. It was through the work of Moses that the Ten Commandments from Sinai were delivered to the people.

And as a mediator, he was the go between between God and the people of Israel.

Now, the thing that's significant about that, that in so far as Moses was the mediator of the old covenant, he in a sense foreshadowed the greater mediator who would come later on the mediator of the new covenant, Christ himself. And there are many statements that regard the relationship between Moses and Jesus, written by the New Testament apostles. The law came through Moses, grace and peace came through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what I want us to look at in this session briefly, is that comparative analysis between the two mediators.

It's interesting, the New Testament on one occasion, who said there's only one mediator between God and man, even Jesus Christ. And of course, what that meant. There is only one supreme mediator who in his mediatory office brings to the task both his humanity and his deity.

Moses could mediate things for the people of Israel as a human being. But Moses was not God incarnate.

Now he read in Hebrews this comparison, Jesus Christ, who is faithful to him, who appointed him as also Moses, was faithful in all his house.

That is in all of God's house.

For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. That is Jesus inasmuch. He who built the house has more on her than the house for every house is built by someone. But he who built all things is God, and Moses was faithful and all of God's house as a servant for a testimony of those things who are truly spoken afterwards. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of that hope firm to the end.

So we see in this comparison that Moses was faithful as a servant. He was a servant in the house. But he didn't own a house. He did not possess the house. The house was not built by him. He served in it.

But in the new covenant, we have a house whose maker and builder is Christ. And that house is his people. We are that house. And here the house is owned by the son.

And he is not a servant, but the owner of the house. No.

Later on in the catalog of the Saints and the witnesses, they're rehearsed in Chapter 11 and the roll call of the Saints of Hebrews. We read these comments about Moses.

By face Moses when he was born.

Was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. By Faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. A steaming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

For he looked to the reward again. You can't help but think Moses is 80 years old. Walking around the Midianites desert, he's a human being. He's not a paper saint. He's got to be asking himself the question again and again. Why am I here? Is my life just a waste of time?

All that training I had in Pharaoh's house. The education that I learned in Egypt, the study in languages, the arts, medicine and all the rest to be walking back and forth on this barren wasteland in the middle of night wilderness.

Where are you, God? Why am I here? I mean, this is a question.

That people ask in every generation, certainly. It's a question that you've asked from time to time. What am I doing here in this place? My life seems to have no great significance. I think every human being born in the image of God has built in an aspiration for significance. We want our lives to count.

We want people to say something when we die more than the date of our birth and the date of our death.

We want to leave a legacy that is a benefit to other people so that our lives were not wasted but were worth while.

He was 18 years old. Scratching his head. Ask him the question. Day after day.

Till he saw that Bush. It was burning and not concerned. And God was saying to him, Moses. This is holy ground.

And I'm speaking to you because I have a holy mission. I could shout from the heavens. I could speak directly to Pharaoh and say, Hey, Pharaoh, let my people go.

But that's not how I do things. I'm giving you that responsibility. This is your life's goal. This is your destiny.

Then I may work through you. To redeem your people. Incredible thing.

When the author of Hebrews goes on to say, by faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as saying him, who is invisible by faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lust. He who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they pass through the Red Sea. As buy dry land. Whereas the Egyptians attempted to do so.

Were dropped. This whole saga. It's a saga of faith.

And the faith of a man to the calling of God upon his life. But as I said, he only weak Lee foreshadows. The mediator of the New Covenant, who is the owner of his house, whose work of liberation and salvation makes the work of Moses pale into insignificance, only this time it's not Pharaoh.

It's Satan.

And God is addressing Satan through the ministry of his only begotten son. And the message that he's giving to Satan, through the son, through the Incarnate Word is this. Let my people go.

And by the word of his power.

The greatest exodus imaginable in human history. Takes place one Christ leads captivity captive. And he frees his saints from the bondage of sin.

And is receiving the reward that he would sit at the right hand of God, the father manifesting that his mission far surpassed. The mission of Moses. This is the one who was the calm, like Moses, but greater than Moses because his work of liberation and salvation. Was in the ultimate form of liberation, you know, those people that left the land of Egypt under the mandate of God never made it to the promised land. In the final analysis, they were faith less.

But all of Jesus redeems makes it to the promised land. He takes them to the promised land. He reserves a place in heaven for them so that.

The media Turrill work that he has accomplished. Cannot be put to shame. Or left undone because he. Is the incarnation.

I am.

The very words you used throughout the Gospel of John before Abraham was Jesus said, Aigo, Amy, I am I am the Good Shepherd. I am the door through which men must enter.

I am the resurrection and the life.

I am the way, the truth and the life, very name by which God reveals himself and that Bush is used by the son of God.

It's amazing how much God revealed about himself in this encounter with Moses at the burning Bush. And as we heard Dr. Darcey's prole say, the rest of the Bible is replete with references back to this moment. We're glad you're with us today for Renewing Your Mind. This is one of 10 messages in our C series on Moses and the Burning Bush. He explains the meaning behind God's appearance to Moses there and the eternal significance of the words that God spoke. We'd like to send you this to DVD set. Just contact us today with your gift of any amount. Our phone number is 800 four three five 43 43. You can also make a request and give your gift online at Renewing Your Mind dot org. Today is the last day we're making this offer available to you. So we hope you'll contact us soon. That number again is 800 four, three, five, four, three, four, three. You know, back in March, at the outset of the Corona virus pandemic, we made the decision to make all of our teaching series free to stream online. More than twenty five hundred messages to choose from. That represents more than a thousand hours of time, proven trusted teaching, covering topics in biblical studies, theology, church history, Christian living and world view. And we've now made the decision to extend that free offer through the end of this month. So we invite you to take advantage of that. Just download the Free Ligonier app or visit our Web site at Ligonier dot org.

Well, as many of you know, we were not able to hold our national conference in person because of the corona virus pandemic, but we did have a live streaming event that people around the world were able to see. The theme was made and the image of God. And next week, we plan to air selected messages from that event will feature Michael Reeves, Stephen Nichols, Sinclair Ferguson and others go help. You'll join us beginning Monday for Renewing Your Mind.