#DailyDevotion Jesus– YHWH Fulfills His Promises
Exodus 3 Moses was watching the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. As he led the flock beyond the wilderness, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2The Angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire coming out of a bush. He saw the bush burning without being burned up. 3“I’m going over there,” Moses said, “to see this wonderful sight. Why doesn’t the bush burn up?” 4When the LORD saw he had come over to see it, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses, Moses!” “Yes,” Moses answered. 5“Don’t come near,” He said. “Take your sandals off your feet, because you are standing on holy ground.” 6Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7“I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt,” the LORD said, “and have heard them cry under their slave drivers. I know how they’re suffering. 8And I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and take them out of that country up to a good and large country, a land flowing with milk and honey, where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites are. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has come to Me, and I also have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10Come now, I am sending you to Pharaoh, and you will bring My people Israel out of Egypt.”
So Moses is hiding out in Midian from the Egyptians because of his murder of an Egyptian in the employ of his father-in-law. While he is out shepherding sheep the Angel of the LORD appears to Moses in a flaming bush. Now angel means messenger so you could say the Messenger of the LORD. Messengers also carry a Word and this particular messenger is the Word of the LORD i.e. Jesus, pre-incarnate. Jesus appears this way a number of times in the Old Testament. We know it is God himself in this form for when it is ‘the’ Angel of the LORD and not just ‘an’ angel of the LORD that Angel is treated as God himself. And unlike the angel in Revelation whom John tries to worship and the angel forbids it, the Angel of the LORD receives the worship due God alone.
Having gotten Moses’ attention he calls out to Moses to take off his feet because he was standing on holy ground. It was holy because the LORD was there touching it to communicate his will to Moses. He identifies himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. You might in this name, as the LORD calls out himself as God three times perhaps a revelation of the Trinity. From this name we also see from Jesus that God is a God of the living and not the dead, i.e. despite the three mentioned had reached room temperature and were dust by now, as far as God is concerned they are alive, as Jesus reminds us in John 11, those who believe in him never die.
So the time has come. The LORD is keeping his promises. He had led Israel into Egypt to become a great nation and so they have multiplied as the LORD promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The LORD allowed the Egyptians to make them miserable so they would want to leave and go to the Promised Land which he had promised their fathers. They were crying out to God and the LORD was hearing them. God the LORD was coming to rescue them and he was going to use Moses to do it. Our God, the Living God, is a God of means. He created everything out of nothing but ever since then he uses creation and people to accomplish his will. So he himself even takes on creation when he forms a body for himself from the seed of the Virgin. He said they would grow and the Egyptians would mistreat them. He said he would deliver them with a strong outstretched arm and he did.
If the LORD so keeps to the stiff-necked, stubborn Israelites, he will keep his promises he has made to you as well. He has promised all who believe in Jesus and are baptized will be saved. He has promised a resurrection to eternal life in a new heavens and a new earth when he returns. His promises fulfilled in the past guarantee his promises fulfilled in the future. You can bank on it.
Almighty God and Lord, you have fulfilled your promises of old to the Israelites and have made us promises in Christ Jesus your son. Grant us faith in these promises that we may receive them and watch them be fulfilled before our very eyes at his revelation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.