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| Exodus 3:2-5 |
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Lesson # Exodus 3:2-5 Study Material - Exodus 3:2-5 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Ex. 3:2-5 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, 'I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.' 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, 'Moses, Moses!' And he said, 'Here I am.' 5 Then He said, 'Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.' By the way, I think we will continue our study in Exodus until we get past the crossing of the Red Sea. Wouldn't seem right to leave the book before the Israelites get out of Egypt. Moses was out with the sheep. Watching over the flocks as he undoubtedly had done everyday for the past forty years. I'm sure he took time of to go hunting, attend celebrations and whatever else people did back in those days. He is in the country away from the populated areas when he sees a sight that just is different than anything he has ever seen. He sees a fire that does not grow brighter, nor dimmer. It does not spread or even seem to consume the bushes that are apparently feeding the fire. Curiosity is up now and so Moses goes away from whomever he is with, to see this event. He calls it a marvelous sight. Marvelous, 'gadowl', great, wonderful, excellent, something out of the ordinary, extraordinary. Moses was not speaking to himself when he stated that he wanted to go investigate the bush. Obviously others saw the fire, but disregarded it as just that, a small fire. They paid no further heed to it. A fire is a fire. The lightening strikes trees and bushes all of the time. This is nothing new. But Moses kept on looking at it. This fire was not just any fire, and he noticed the difference. Moses left his group and went to see for himself. A sign of a healthy spiritual life, is curiosity, the desire to know, the want to know, to learn, to see, to understand. This was inside Moses. He approached the bush and was stopped by God. 'Moses, Moses', repeated twice. This certainly gets Moses' attention. The bush, 'seneh' is a bush of thorns, a common bush with little purpose other than to burn. Out from a common bush, a bush that otherwise would cause great pain if one were to take hold of it because of the thorns, a voice comes to Moses. The first call of his own name would stop Moses in his tracks. The second call would bring his attention as the one who was speaking - the bush. Identity not yet given. Moses stops and answers cautiously, 'Here I am.' Most of us when our name is called will respond, 'Yes, here I am.', or something to that affect. We answer the inquiry. Now for the caution statement, 'Do not approach for the ground on which you are standing is Holy ground. First remove your shoes. Then approach.' Why this statement? When we approach God we must approach in sinless perfection. This requires us to confess out sins to God the Father thus restoring us into fellowship. From that perspective we may approach God and stand before Him on His Holy ground. Apart from that we are not received nor even permitted to stand before God, much less be heard. Moses will comply with the command. Why can Moses simply remove his shoes while we do not have that specific requirement today? Some cultures expect you to remove your shoes before entering their home. This is a general courtesy or respect for being allowed into their home. Your shoes have been walking outside the home and are dirty from whatever you have walked in or stood on while outside the home. To bring dirt and filth into someone's home would be disrespectful and certainly an insult. You would not be welcome if you brought trash into their home. Likewise, God expects you to bring your cleaned soul into His presence. To do otherwise would be an insult to Him. We have seen in other passages that mans righteousness and state of soul is no better than vomit or filthy menstrual rags. Isaiah covers this quite well. So with sin in the life, our soul is no better than an uncleaned unwashed body, covered not with plain dirt, but with disgusting and revolting filth and stench. That is the human state. Would you go to work or even into public smelling extremely foul such that everyone around you would gag? Of course not. At least no normal person would do such a thing intentionally. Of course there are those people out there in the world that will not shower , perceiving themselves as independent from the world, and that they have some kind of statement to make. These people are just plain stupid. Here we are not talking about such defiantly stubborn and anti social types. We are talking about normal everyday common folks. We all have souls and we all have sin natures, therefore we all carry the stench of soul when we get out of fellowship. Therefore, before we can approach God in our lives, in prayer, in Bible study, in anything, we need to clean ourselves up. We have already studied the principle of the confession requirement in Leviticus, and the mechanics of confession in 1 John 1:9. The is what is before us in this passage. Before you approach God, you must remove the filth from your life, and that is by means of your confessional prayer. That prayer is presented to God the Father only. All prayer is directed to God the Father and no one else, and in that prayer you simply list your sins. This is a prayer you should offer daily, or even perhaps several times daily depending on how good or bad of a day you are having. It is a private prayer offered to God in the privacy and silence of your own thoughts. It is no ones else's business, no one. From within the status of fellowship you function inside Gods palace, inside His will, under his protection and there you receive His blessings. Outside of fellowship you live outside of His palace, in the jungle of the world, and are subject to the miseries and threats of the jungle. Apart from fellowship you will have no spiritual life. There is no third choice. Approach the fire with shoes on and the fire will destroy you. Remove the filth and the fire will protect you. God has a government and long established policies. He deals with us through His righteousness and justice. Those two make up His Holiness. This is Holy ground - righteousness (sinless perfection) and justice (all sin condemned and judged). Nothing apart from absolute perfection is allowed near or into Gods presence. Rounding out Gods policy is His love, His perfect love which brings us a policy of grace. 'What is man that thou are mindful of him?' Positive volition in man brings Gods faithfulness into play. Faithfulness is the fourth part of His government. These four elements secure our eternal life and spiritual advancement, when we comply with His will - believe in Christ, study and advance to maturity. Moses has had 40 years to advance to spiritual maturity. He originally had a preconception of his destiny and purpose in life, but it was not in sync with Gods plan, but more influenced by his education in Pharaoh's house. Now his education was from Bible doctrine and God is now going to call him into service. Our original perceptions about ourselves often are not correct. We may desire to be contributors to society, or perceive ourselves as having some specific purpose which we want, but only to then be pointed in a different direction by circumstances that we cannot control. When God is ready for us, He will present the circumstances. Moses did not go looking for the bush, but the bush caught his attention. From there his direction was made clear. Not with chariots of legislative power would the Israelites be freed, but with a shepherds staff a nation would be born and a nation would be destroyed. The conversation with God did not occur in a grand palace, nor before a grand public audience, but in the desert in private and from a common bush of thorns. The fire from God authority, the commonness for those who are not of extraordinary Egyptian rank or privilege, the thorns for the affliction and burdens placed on the Hebrews. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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