“For God So Loved the World...”
Exodus 3:1-15
3/14/07-Mid Week Lenten Service
John 3:16 is a well-known verse to all of us.
It is the Gospel in a nutshell. It could also be the shortest
commentary on the entire Scriptures. This evening I would like to
look at God’s calling of Moses to be Israel’s deliverer in
light of John 3:16, and see how Israel’s deliverance mirrors our
own deliverance through Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 begins: God so loved the
world. It was because God loved His people Israel that He was
moved to compassion concerning them. His eyes saw their misery
and their affliction, and His ears were open to their cries. He
was aware of the suffering and oppression that they had to endure, and
He took pity on them. It was not that they deserved God’s
love and mercy. God did not owe them His divine favor and
grace. After all, they were as sinful as the Egyptians
were. They, too, deserved God’s judgment. The burning
bush was a symbol of the judgment of God upon them. The bush
represented God’s people, a thorn bush despised among the other
nations. The fire represented the judgment of God who was among
His people, chastening them and purifying them through their suffering,
preparing them to be His holy people. That the bush did not burn
signified that God’s chastening was indeed painful, but did not
destroy. God used even their suffering to refine, purify, and
strengthen their faith in Him. But now it was time to deliver
them from their oppression, and God’s fiery judgment of wrath
would fall on their enemies and destroy them.
Just as God looked with pity upon the Israelites in
their suffering, so He looks with pity upon you too, as He sees you
suffering under the oppression of sin, death, hell, and the
devil. Rightly did these things at one time hold you
captive. But through Jesus, your Savior, He has released from
your bondage to them. He still uses them at times, however, to
chasten but not to destroy you, in order to test your faith and refine
you. But His love for you never fails. You are certainly
not worthy of His love, but He loves you because He is love. He
chooses to love you, and it is His love for you that causes Him to act
on your behalf, just as He acted on behalf of the Israelites.
John 3:16 continues: God sent His
only-begotten Son. This is God’s love in action. We
see His love in the O.T. active in sending Moses to deliver His people
from their slavery. In Moses we see a type of Christ. Moses
had been a shepherd. He was leading his flock to a place where
there was water and grass when the Lord called to him from the burning
bush. He would now do the same thing with God’s flock, the
people of Israel. He would shepherd them with the Word of God,
giving them spiritual food and drink to live on during their trek
through the desert, leading them to their final destination - a place
flowing with milk and honey. Through Moses God delivered His
people. He brought them through the waters of the Red Sea, fed
them on bread from heaven, gave them water from a Rock, provided them
meat to eat, made it so that their clothing didn’t wear out, and
gave them His Name. It was, in fact, by doing all these things
that God showed His people who He was by being His Name for them.
By His Name He was ever actively and graciously present among His
people, providing for both their spiritual and physical needs.
In Jesus we have the fulfillment of Moses.
With God’s help, Moses could deliver God’s people from
their bondage in Egypt, but he couldn’t deliver them from their
bondage to sin. Moses, after all, was a sinful man as well and
needed a deliverer himself. God sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, to deliver you from your bondage to sin, death, hell, and the
devil. Instead of you having to endure God’s fiery judgment
of wrath, He endured it Himself on the cross for you. He was the
burning bush that was engulfed by the wrath of God but not
destroyed. Now through Him God provides you with spiritual food
and drink, feeding you on His Word, feeding you on the body and blood
of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, delivering you through the
waters of Baptism, providing for all your needs, both physical and
spiritual. And God has given you His Name, the same Name He gave
Moses, which the Lord informs us is the Name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. With His Name upon you He is always
graciously and actively present among you to bless you, just as He was
among His people in the O.T.
John 3:16 continues with these words: That
whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Moses had to struggle with doubts when he heard God call him to deliver
His people. First of all, he looked at himself and saw his
inadequacies as potential road blocks to God’s plan. He was
correct in concluding that he in and of himself was in no way up for
the task. But God promised to be with him. He gave Moses
His Word. And He gave him a sign, that just as Moses had met with
God on that mountain, so the people of Israel would meet God there
too. Their worship of God at that place (Mt. Sinai) would be the
sign that God had delivered them.
Your worship in this place is a sign of your
deliverance from the power of sin, death, hell, and the devil.
You would not be here right now receiving from the Lord His gifts to
you, if you were not His people. Sure, there are always
hypocrites among God’s people, but whoever believes in Jesus as
his deliverer receives by faith the Lord’s gifts and has eternal
life according to God’s promise. This promise is given to
you for the sake of the One who’s Name is God with us - Immanuel
- the One who was with us in the flesh to give His life on the cross
and rise again from the dead 2,000 years ago, who is with you now to
deliver that salvation to you through His Word and Sacraments, and who
will come again for you someday to deliver you from this vale of tears
and bring you home to be with Him in heaven forever.
This is our holy ground, here where we are gathered
around God’s Word and His Sacraments, just as Moses stood on holy
ground on Mt. Sinai. It was holy ground, because the Lord was
present there. He is present here among us by virtue of His
promise to us, that where two or three are gathered in His Name, there
He is in their midst. He is present among us by virtue of His
Name placed upon us at Baptism. He is present among us through
His Word preached among us by His called and ordained servants.
And He is present among us by means of bread and wine in the holy
Supper, which He says are His body and blood, given and shed for
us. We may doubt His Words, as Moses did, but it doesn’t
change God’s promise, only whether we will benefit from it or not.
It was because God loved the people of Israel that
He sent the deliverer, Moses, to lead His people from slavery to
freedom. They left Egypt in faith, following the Lord, who was
their true Deliverer, who gave them His Name, saved them through water,
fed them from heaven, and brought them to a land flowing with milk and
honey. You baptized believers in Jesus, God’s Israel today,
are loved by God in the same way. It was His love for you that
moved Him to send you the Deliverer, His only-begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, to save you from your spiritual bondage. He has given you
His Name, which you can call upon in every trouble and with it pray,
praise, and give thanks to Him, and He will hear you, have mercy on
you, and deliver you from all your fears. He has given you
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and continues to be present
among you giving you these gifts through His Word and Sacraments.
And you have His promise that He will bring you safely into His kingdom
when finally your end comes or when He comes again for you. In
the meantime, we follow our Lord Jesus Christ who leads us with the
banner of His cross towards our eternal home. He is our Help and
our Deliverer, our Mighty God and Savior. Amen.