What Does Moses and The Burning Bush Have To Do With The Gospel?

[Aaron] Hey, we’re in Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God

[Jennifer] Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

[Aaron] And today we’re gonna talk about Moses and the burning bush.

[Aaron] Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast, where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after.

[Jennifer] I’m Jennifer, also known as unveiled wife.

[Aaron] And I’m Erin also known as husband revolution.

[Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade.

[Aaron] And so far we have four young children.

[Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media,

[Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith every day.

[Jennifer] We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one full of life,

[Aaron] love

[Jennifer] and power

[Aaron] That can only be found by chasing after God

[Jennifer] Together.

[Aaron] Thank you for joining us in this journey as we chase boldly after God’s will for our life together.

[Jennifer] This is Marriage After God.

[Aaron] Hey family Welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcasts. This is one of our monthly devotional episodes, which is awesome. We’re gonna be talking about some scripture. Some things we’re learning in the Bible. This is the second to last episode of this season. In season Three. Yeah,

[Jennifer] I’m actually really sad about it. I really enjoyed doing this with you. And I know it’s good to make it

[Aaron] You make it sound like it’s ending forever.

[Jennifer] Now, I know it’s good to take a break. But because we’ve been so consistent in doing it, I am gonna miss sitting here with you.

[Aaron] Yeah, but we’re gonna come back soon. We’re gonna have the baby. We’re gonna take a break and then we’re gonna come back. It’s gonna be awesome. So we’re not it’s not gone forever. We’re just gonna be we figured that coming up with a doing the seasonal podcast format is much more sustainable long term for our growing family and the way we work so.

[Jennifer] Okay, so with one more episode in the queue, then we should do a giveaway.

[Aaron] okay.

[Jennifer] What do you think about that?

[Aaron] I think it’s a fun thing I don’t think we’ve ever done. We’ve wanted to do giveaways in the past in the podcast, but because they stay up So long, it’s like how do we do a giveaway, but

[Jennifer] It’s not really evergreen,

[Aaron] We’re just gonna do a giveaway. And we’re gonna deal with the repercussions of it later. So

[Jennifer] so if you’re, if you’re listening to this, and it’s, you know, past the launch date and the date that we give you for the giveaway, it’s non existent anymore.

[Aaron] Yeah. But if you’re listening to this, and it’s before the date we’re gonna give you then you have a chance to win some of our books, we might give you all five of our books, we might give you our Marriage After God book. We’re gonna pick I think, four winners, the date that I picked to end the giveaway is April 10.

[Jennifer] Oh, cool. So yeah,

[Aaron] That’s about four weeks from the launch of this episode. And it’s also my birthday week, because my birthday is on April 6. So I might even like pick two winners on that day, on that week. So just know this, that if you’re listening to this on the launch day, and it’s before April 10 2020, then you have an opportunity to win some of our books, if it’s after April 10 2020. Thanks for listening to the episode,

[Jennifer] So because we’re gonna be on break during that time, how are you gonna announce the winners?

[Aaron] Announce the winners on Instagram.

[Jennifer] Okay,

[Aaron] so you gotta follow us on Instagram at Marriage After God. And this is how you enter the giveaway, it’s gonna be super easy. All you got to do is leave a review on our podcast, wherever you leave wherever you listen to our podcast, either on iTunes or whatever other podcast app you use, take a screenshot of the review, and then post it to social media and tag @marriageafterGod. And then maybe if you want to put a little note of like, why you love that episode, or why you love the podcast or to invite other people to follow, that’d be awesome.

[Jennifer] So is this just on Instagram?

[Aaron] This is gonna be just on Instagram,

[Jennifer] okay,

[Aaron] so they got to follow us on Instagram, and they gotta tag at Marriage After God and they gotta post a screenshot of their review.

[Jennifer] Cool.

[Aaron] If you’ve already left a review, you’re awesome. Thank you so much. Go find that review if you can. Or post a new review, because there’s a lot of reviews on there. And yeah, so we’re gonna, what we’re gonna do is I’m just gonna, as we get tagged in posts, I’ll get notified and once a week, maybe twice a week I’ll pick a winner

[Jennifer] cool

[Aaron] From those people. So if you’re listening to this and you want an opportunity to win our books, and if you just want opportunity to bless us take a screenshot of your review post it tag at Marriage After God and you’ll be entered in to the giveaway.

[Jennifer] Awesome. Okay, so we love you guys and you know we always like to give you free things and so I just wanted to highlight our creative date night ideas. Free thing so Aaron, why don’t you share more about that?

[Aaron] Yeah, so we created this PDF and it’s 52 creative date night ideas. And you get it you can download it for completely free you just go to datenightideas.com all one word, fill out the little form and boom, you gotta our little date night ideas in it. You can spend once do it once a week you can do like a 52 days in a row if you wanted to do that.

[Aaron] But yeah, it’s just it’s just some creative ideas. Maybe they just get those date night idea juices flowing, like to get out of the norm. So it’s create it’s datenightideas.com. All one word totally free. You should go get that today.

[Jennifer] All right, you guys today’s topic, Aaron already mentioned it, but it’s it’s a devotional style episode, which means we are going to be sharing what we’re learning from the Word of God. And we’ve been doing something new with family Bible time, which is something we’ve been doing consistently for several years now. And we love we see the benefit and fruitfulness in our family as a whole, but really just in our children and their growth and maturity and getting familiar with God’s word. A couple episodes ago, we mentioned our 24 family ways and that we had been going through that resource by Sally and clay Clarkson. And we finished that and so we’ve been kind of doing something new.

[Aaron] Yeah, it’s a it’s a fun little thing we’ve been doing where we’re going through. We might have mentioned this, but we’ll, we’ll recap it. We’re going through stories in the Bible. You know, so like Adam and Eve,

[Jennifer] Noah and Sarah

[Aaron] Abraham and Noah

[Jennifer] Joseph, all of them.

[Aaron] So we’re going through these stories that are very well known to us. Because we all grew up in Sunday school and our parents taught it.

[Jennifer] We wanted to make sure we weren’t skipping them over with our kids.

[Aaron] Yeah, we want our kids to know these, these these stories, these history, this history of the Bible, and then our faith. And so we’re going through these stories. And what we’re doing though, is we’re trying to focus on finding Christ in all of these stories. So we’ll read these stories. We’ll talk about what’s going on, we’ll talk about the history of it. We’ll talk about what God was doing in that time in that context. And then we’ll ask a bunch of questions to get them to think about like, how does that you know connect to Jesus? or what does that sound like over here and like, pointing them to, to Jesus?

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Which is really awesome. Because God’s redemptive stories throughout the entire Bible from start to finish, which we’ll talk about Yeah, it’s been really good. Elliot specifically is really loving it

[Jennifer] like there’s a at the end of each time together. He’s like, no, let’s keep going.

[Aaron] Coz he likes Specifically the the questions, I’ll read something and then I’ll ask him like a really,

[Jennifer] he likes to connect the dots.

[Aaron] Deep question And he’s like, Yeah, he’s like, like me, he likes puzzles. He’s like, oh, maybe that maybe this or

[Jennifer] maybe represent this or that.

[Aaron] Yeah, dig into those questions and engage that way.

[Jennifer] Yeah, pretty cool. So today, we’re gonna share something that we did last week, which we we studied Moses. And we went through a lot of different parts of Moses story, but today, we’re gonna focus on a

[Aaron] one little piece

[Jennifer] Yeah, one little piece of his experience. But first, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge just the importance of the Old Testament and the New Testament because, well, first of all, God’s the one that put the Bible together and thank God for His Holy word in the way that we we get to receive it. I’m thankful for it. And but one of the reasons I was drawn to God even as a child was because of these miraculous stories and things that he did, that are mentioned in the Old Testament.

[Aaron] Yeah.

[Jennifer] It helps shape my view of who God was, and really my fear of God, because it shows his power and his love and His compassion and just so much of who he is. But I never would have thought that the Old Testament was irrelevant. Okay, but, or even non essential to the Gospel. But just recently as in like, I think this time last few years. No, I know for myself,

[Aaron] more recently,

[Jennifer] More recently this time last year, I was hearing things about how people are, and I’m using air quotes here unhinging the Old Testament

[Aaron] Unhinging from the Old Testament,

[Jennifer] Almost as if it’s not relevant anymore, and it bothered me and so I just want to bring that up, because I think that it’s so important. And Aaron, I don’t know if you want to speak to that.

[Aaron] Why I’m not gonna go too deep into the idea that is being spread in some churches about this idea of like, hey, let’s just unhinge from the Old Testament all we’re gonna focus As the New Testament we’re not gonna, like we may reference the Old Testament a little bit, but it’s irrelevant is essentially the idea. But the moment you remove the Old Testament, you lose all context in the New Testament, like I said earlier that the redemption plan in the Bible that we see

[Jennifer] Started long before Matthew

[Aaron] It started in Genesis one and two, like we that it started back then.

[Jennifer] And it’s such a beautiful and powerful display of what God is doing when you see it all together as a whole.

[Aaron] And I also think like the reason that so there’s certain things in history that have happened, not just about the Bible, just overall, that if it wasn’t written down, we would never have known about it.

[Jennifer] Right. And knowing those things that have happened in history, help us be better today. So when you look at the Bible as a whole, God gave us his story from the beginning, gave us who he is back then, and who he is now they’re the same God. He doesn’t he hasn’t changed. His plan was the same from the beginning and if we try and just throw that out. I mean you can’t even read first Peter and understand what first Peters what Peters talking about first without knowing the Old Testament

[Jennifer] I was gonna say there’s so many references throughout the New Testament, referring back to the Old Testament

[Aaron] That Jesus Himself quotes the Old Testament, a ton. So, if Jesus isn’t unhinging from the Old Testament, I’m not going to. So that’s a little side tangent. So if you’re in a church that thinks that the Old Testament is irrelevant, I would ask you to pray about whether or not you’re getting the full teaching from the Word of God because we believe that the whole counsel of God is just that God’s counsel. It’s his word. And, and I’m not gonna remove any of it.

[Jennifer] I mean, even just Psalms and Proverbs, it’s like this. Beautiful. I don’t know. It’s comforting to me. There’s wisdom. It’s like, it’s so powerful to me. I love the Old Testament. And a little side, note

[Aaron] Its God’s word we should we should love it. We shouldn’t be afraid. This is another thing that’s really, really awesome and why people want to unhinge him, because there’s a lot of hard things in the Old Testament. Things that don’t fit with our modern culture, things that you’re like, wait a minute, God did what? And if we’re afraid to present that God to people, then we’re not actually presenting God to people because that is who God is. And he had a plan, and all of those things had a purpose, every single one of them. And it also reading those things in the Old Testament. And I’m sure everyone’s got an idea of something in the Old Testament, like, Oh, that was a difficult thing to hear, or that didn’t make any sense. Like these weird, crazy stories. It also gives the validity and authority of the Bible because if a man was to create a God, if just man was to create a god, you wouldn’t put all that stuff in there. You would only want to make him look good, right? Or powerful only. You wouldn’t want to show any of those things that we’re afraid of in the Old Testament, you someone creating a God wouldn’t do that. So the fact that those things exist, is kind of a testament to the the truth of it. Like, well, God’s putting in there because there’s a purpose for it. And God’s not afraid to present who he is to us.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] So, yeah, all that to say, we love the Old Testament. And if you’re a believer, and you love Jesus, you should do because Jesus loved the Old Testament.

[Jennifer] And if you haven’t been through that Old Testament in a while, we just want to encourage you to jump in.

[Aaron] Oh, yeah. Okay, so let’s transition into the actual like meat of this. There’s not, I don’t feel like there’s a ton here. Like I said, we’re not gonna go for a long time. But the what we’re gonna talk about, I think, is got some really awesome applications, pointing to the Gospel, reminding us of who we are, who God is. And just one little note on, on reading through the the stories in the Bible, it wasn’t until recently, a couple years ago, that I finally grasped, that the Bible in the sounds Elementary, but the Bible’s about Jesus.

[Jennifer] All of it.

[Aaron] All of it from the beginning to the end. There’s this plan. It’s God’s it’s God presenting himself and his redemption plan for mankind.

[Jennifer] I think It becomes so easy. Sorry to interrupt you, I was just thinking, sometimes it’s so easy for us to look and even read the Bible and continually see ourselves in it, or how, you know, who am I in this story? Or what can i glean from this? And how does it apply to my situation? But sometimes, I think,

[Aaron] more often

[Jennifer] more often, it should be just as reading it to say, God, who are you? And what are you doing in this?

[Aaron] A perfect example of this is that we often you know, get taught like, you’re David and you have a life in your life and you know, God’s gonna help you slay that Goliath, which is not necessarily wrong to like, think through that and ask God, how he’s gonna help you slay giants in your life. But the story is not about us. Story is about David the king, who’s gonna be

[Jennifer] well, he wasn’t King yet,

[Aaron] but he’s going to be the king.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And it also is more relevant as a picture of Jesus slaying death, slaying the enemy slaying. And so when we look at it that way, you’re like, Whoa, that’s powerful.

[Jennifer] It takes our eyes off of ourselves and says, oh, man, we magnify what’s what God God has done.

[Aaron] So doesn’t mean we can ever look. I mean, the Bible is supposed to be principles for our life and to show us the spiritual realm and to show us how we relate to God and and the world.

[Jennifer] Sure. But man, when you start reading these stories, which we’ve been doing with the kids, and looking for Christ and all of them, you find him

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] You like, Whoa, like, even their gods working. Even their, you know,

[Jennifer] like a little treasure hunt.

[Aaron] Yeah, so one, a little example of this, we were reading Noah’s Ark, we were reading about Noah and the ark, and how God was like, this is one of those stories that we remember the ark partner, like, that’s so beautiful. But we forget that God destroyed the world, and everyone in it. And that was a big deal for our kids to hear. They’re like, wait, so everything, like he destroyed all of it. We’re like, yeah, and we I brought it to him. I said, But did he destroy everything? And they’re like, Well, no, he saved animals. And he saved Noah and his family and we’re like, okay.

[Jennifer] Specially like Olive coz she’s at that age where she’s still learning where Erin heard the story and he kinda knows more, so it’s interesting to see them on there. different ages and and maturity understanding these stories,

[Aaron] But what I, what I helped them navigate I said, Okay, do you remember right here where God said he was sorry that he made man and that he wanted to, he was gonna destroy everything because of the wickedness in the world. They’re like Yeah. And I was like, Did he destroy everything? Like Well no, I said, so we get this picture of him, saving people, saving mankind, making a way out, making a way of escape making a way of salvation for us. And so I said, even though that sounds so like when you look at one piece or just the other, you don’t get the full picture. Right? He said he wasn’t destroy everything. But then he said, but he found favor with Noah and saved his family and all the animals through him. And then he said he’s gonna bless the world through their children. As he said, this is the Abraham he’s gonna bless the world through Abraham’s children. You see this pattern throughout, where he could have destroyed everything, but he doesn’t. He could have destroyed everything, but he doesn’t. He could have destroyed Adam and Eve, but he didn’t. He covered them instead. And so every story we’re just we’re like, man,

[Jennifer] like going back the layers.

[Aaron] Yeah. And it’s but it’s all about Christ. And we’re like, hey, but who’s Christ in this story? And they’re like the ark, the door. All these pictures of Jesus saving the world saving people. So,

[Jennifer] hey, we’re not supposed to talk about Noah’s Ark.

[Aaron] Sorry. We’re gonna be talking about Moses and the burning bush. Not ark. So, but this is the the case

[Jennifer] I’m just excited about these things.

[Aaron] Yeah. So again, when we read the word looking for Jesus, we’re gonna find him and that’s kind of what we wanted to talk about today. Okay, so let’s just let’s get in this. Jennifer, do you think that Moses is probably the most well known character in the Bible? Besides Jesus?

[Jennifer] I was gonna say, Well, Jesus probably is but yeah, I feel like a lot of people would know who he is. It makes me think of those. Those talk shows where they go out on the streets, and they’re like, questioning people. Do you know who it’s like some senator, they’re like, No, no,

[Jennifer] I felt like, I feel like there’s this iconic picture of Moses with his big beard and standing, you know, by the sea with the 10 commandments in his hand.

[Aaron] Well, there was like the Charlton Heston movement movie 10 commandments and like we’ve seen these, these movies from old

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] That have like, just iconic size these stories and these characters.

[Jennifer] But I would say yeah, he’s probably a main figures.

[Aaron] He’s probably one of the most well known figures in the Bible, Moses. And what’s awesome about this, the story of Moses, which we couldn’t even get through all of it, because there it’s like,

[Jennifer] There’s a lot Tim,

[Aaron] It’s most of Exodus is all of Exodus actually. It’s a lot of there’s a lot in the story of Moses, and what he did, but it’s awesome. I was telling the kids you know, it’s an epic story. There’s distress, there’s sadness, there’s faith, there’s murder, there’s catastrophe, there’s miracles. And then there’s ultimately like victory and freedom. There’s a battle. There’s good, there’s bad. You know, there’s there’s this it’s got all the elements of a powerful story. And we get it right there. And then I get to tell the kids but this happened.

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] This really happened.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And the midst of this story, we get some glimpses. Some major glimpses into the future plan for redemption for all of mankind, not just for the Israelites, you know, this story centers around Moses freeing the Israelites, or I should say God, freeing his people, because he made this promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Right?

[Jennifer] I just interrupt you for one quick second I read up on a new site that’s ran by Jews in Israel. And they were talking about Passover coming up. And it was a really interesting article, but a part of it references Moses and the miracle of the Red Sea and taking that Exodus, taking the people up, and this person said that if it wasn’t for him, basically, he made a way for Jesus, right, because of everything that happened. And everything that they experienced, they were saved. And then there was this lineage for Jesus to come and their brothers slavery. It was a really cool picture for me to remember that Moses wasn’t just used by God to save those people. He was doing it with this bigger picture in mind.

[Aaron] Right? So saving those people meant saving the world.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] So sent Jesus.

[Jennifer] Yeah. Even though it was years later, you know,

[Aaron] Right. We see a picture that with Joseph, you know, before the Exodus, you know, he drew Joseph and everything that happened to him, saved his family, which became Israel.

[Jennifer] Again, this just backs up with affirmation that that point that we’re making earlier that the Old Testament and the New Testament are connected in a beautiful way

[Aaron] And we can’t have one without the other.

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] At all. And so, you know, we get to this, we have this story of the 10 plagues. We have all these things, but before all of those things, there’s this experience that Moses has with God, where God starts this whole thing off, which is another testament to God’s love, because when I started the story off, I told the kids I said, I said children, why are the Jews enslaved in Egypt? Like, we don’t know. I said, did they do anything?

[Jennifer] Wrong?

[Aaron] Wrong? No, actually, the Bible tells us that they just increased.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And they had, they were increasing and being fruitful and having children. And Pharaoh said, not the pharaoh that knew Joseph, the pharaoh much laters that didn’t know Joseph. And it tells us that

[Jennifer] He was afraid

[Aaron] He was afraid of them. I said, unless they, you know, they’re gonna grow and become mightier that’s not gonna side with one of our enemies, lets enslave them. So not by anything they’ve done, which is again, a picture of Adam, it’s not by anything that we’ve done necessarily, but because sin entered the world through Adam, that all men are now sinners. Right? So the Israelites didn’t necessarily do anything directly to deserve this. It wasn’t like a punishment. It was they just enslave, enslaved because they’re growing and being blessed. And if this picture of you know all mankind, we’re all in bondage to death and slavery. We’re slaves to sin. We’re slaves to the fear of death. The Bible tells us,

[Jennifer] Not for those of us in Christ Jesus,

[Aaron] not for us, and that’s what we’re gonna Yeah, we’re Talk about it. And then I brought up I said, Okay, who initiates their salvation? who initiates they’re they’re coming out? Was it Moses?

[Jennifer] No,

[Aaron] No Moses ran away because he murdered someone.

[Jennifer] He was hiding you.

[Aaron] He wouldn’t have got a wife, you know, got a job he got out of town. He’s there just chilling in the in the desert, you know, shepherding some sheep. And God initiates. God comes down and meets with Moses in this experience to start this whole thing off for the people of Israel. Not so it’s not that we love God, but that he first loved us. Right? That’s this idea is like, Moses didn’t say God save my people. I want to let them go. Now he’s like, chilling out by himself.

[Jennifer] He got Married?

[Aaron] Yeah. I’m saying is he away from his brothers? His lineage?

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Coz he was one of them. And God’s gonna do something. Why don’t you read Exodus three, verse two and three, two to four.

[Jennifer] And the angel 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. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great site, why the bush is not burned? 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, although in God’s voice is probably not,

[Aaron] it’s probably a little bit more deeper,

[Jennifer] Yeah deeper, stronger, more authoritative than mine.

[Aaron] Yeah. What’s again, what’s awesome about this is Moses is just doing his job going about his life. Not even probably, I mean, he’s probably thinks about his people from time to time, but he’s just living his life. God meets him in a powerful way. He says, Moses, Moses, like, well, what’s going on? And he’s talking out of a burning bush, What a weird way to present yourself to someone, right? He and and Moses looks and he says, The the, this bush is not being burned. It’s on fire, but it’s not being consumed. Right. And so I asked the kids, I’m like, What do you guys think consumed, means? Because there’s all these big words and it’s an awesome opportunity to teach the kids big words.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And they’re like, what did Elliot He said something very close to like what it meant. I can’t remember the word to use but I got to explain to him like consuming like to like to eat to devour like it’s gonna be destroyed. Right? And I was like, but it’s not being consumed. So what do you think like why do you think the bush is not being consumed when you think that means, and there’s a picture the Bible doesn’t necessarily explain this picture. But what’s beautiful about the Bible is that it’s infinitely deep. And gently, shallow mean you can like you can tread in it and and you can also go dive down to the Abyss in the Bible, like, there’s the face value, and then there’s that deep spiritual value. There’s all of it until we can look at this, this experience the Moses heading So first of all, God’s initiating, God’s calling out to Moses, God’s got a plan. God’s got an agenda. And Moses is just right. I mean, invited in

[Jennifer] What a lucky guy.

[Aaron] Yea know, how lucky is Israel that

[Jennifer] I know.

[Aaron] It’s a God called him out of the bush. And it says that the angel of the Lord appeared to him I just want to, to bring this up right now because the Bible in the Old Testament specifically References The angel the Lord like hundreds of times, right? And this is a picture of the pre incarnate Christ. So this is before Jesus comes in the flesh, through Mary, right? And you see him all throughout the Old Testament. So angel of the Lord, because and we know this because it says, right here, it says, In the beginning of the verse, it says, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him. Okay, so who’s appearing to him, the angel Lord in a flame, and then it says, and behold, the bush was burning and was not consumed. And he turned aside and it says, When the Lord saw that he turned aside, God called him out of the bush. So we have this picture of it’s not just an angel, an angel would never call himself God. The Bible would never call it even regular angels that met with people and people tried bowing to them, they’d say, don’t bow to me. You saw this in the Old Testament, the New Testament, but this angel, it says in God called out and so we see this picture of the pre incarnate Christ, calling to Moses for a plan for something to do, would you think when we I was bringing that up to the kids about the angel? Or did you know that?

[Jennifer] Yeah, I had heard that before. I don’t remember when or how but I feel like I was familiar with it. What was cool is to see the kids eyes light up, like they were recognized, and they were seeing the picture unfold. So it was really cool.

[Aaron] When it’s beautiful. And if you go back and just like look up, angel of the Lord and look at all the verses, you’ll see all these opportuni, all these situations that Jesus was in a picture.

[Jennifer] Well, I remember specifically because we were talking about Moses. Elliot was familiar with the story already and so he brought up like the pillar of fire. And so he already record he did recognize that

[Aaron] Yeah, so we get another picture of Fire.

[Jennifer] Consuming fire.

[Aaron] Yeah,

[Jennifer] like that.

[Aaron] And the other part of this that I tried pointing out was this idea of the consuming fire. And there’s a this idea in the in the New Testament of God being a consuming fire, and we see this like on the mountain Mount Zion when we when Jesus is or when God ascended in like literally scorching the Mountain will read a little bit about that in the New Testament. But Gods is you see this fire which is purifying, it’s powerful. It’s consuming. It’s it’s this thing that it’s unquenchable. And that’s what God is he’s gonna consume, he’s gonna destroy and have wrath and the that side of it, but it also gives light and warmth. And so you see these these sides to fire. But in this picture, you get this really awesome, beautiful thing of a bush, an earthly thing, something made from the ground and grows out of the dirt on fire, but not being consumed. And I had to do a little bit of research on this cause some some other people have definitely gotten this imagery and showed an eye there was some really cool pictures they showed they showed this idea that the bush coming out of the ground glowing, it’s an organ, it’s a created thing. It has this picture, it’s representing a man like we’re out of the God made us out of the ground. Right in Genesis, he took the dust of the earth and made man and breathed His life into him but then you see this other picture of the fire being God around the bush, not consuming it. Usually the fire would consume a bush would burn it to dust, right? But it’s not. And so you see this picture of what God is going to do that God’s going to be with man. And instead of being consumed by God, which is what you saw on the flood, would you see with the 10 plagues, which you see with, like all of these situations of God’s wrath, you see this idea of like, instead of the wrath, it’s now a purifying fire. It’s a it’s a protective fire. It’s a and we’re one with it. We’re not being consumed by God.

[Jennifer] And you mentioned the word light earlier just a minute ago, and I feel like everything that Jesus spoke on was, you know, light.

[Aaron] Yeah.

[Jennifer] He references that a lot.

[Aaron] Just talking about consuming fire on a read from Hebrews. Hebrews 12 says in verse 18, it says, This is as for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom, a tempest and the sound of a trumpet in the voice of the voice whose words made the hears big that no further message be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given even even a beast touch of the mountain, it should be stoned. Indeed. so terrifying was the site that Moses said, I tremble with fear. But you have come to mountain Zion, in the, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable angels and festal gathering into the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all unto the spirits of the righteous, made perfect into Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of evil. So this is all referencing all of these horrible, terrible, scary experiences with God and he’s saying, you haven’t come to that because you have Christ, you’ve come to a better word, you’ve come to a better fire. And he says, Lets see that in verse 25, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on Earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven at that time, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus Let us offer to God, acceptable worship with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. And what’s amazing about this is he, right, the writer, references all of these scary, fearful moments with God where he is a consuming fire. He’s talking about Mount Zion, what I was just referencing, and he’s saying, but we’re coming to a better relationship with that Father, he says, so don’t refuse the the voice that you’re hearing now, because they did. And look what happened to them. He says, but if we refuse the one that’s proclaiming peace over us, that’s giving us a new home, saying that he’s gonna you know, the things that we know now this earth are going to melt away, but he’s going to give us an indestructible kingdom, one that we’re going to live in forever with him. He’s saying if you refuse that be fearful because he’s a consuming fire. So literally he’s saying, Let us be the bush that is surrounded by the consuming fire that and not being consumed. Right? He’s saying come to that come to that voice that’s now calling you through Jesus, which is what we’ve, we’ve been seeing there. So we’re seeing this picture right now with Moses walking up to this burning bush, about to be given a command by God. That for God’s purpose.

[Jennifer] So there’s a really cool little teaching here coming up that you spoke to the kids about that I thought was really neat. In conjunction with what you’re sharing right now where the bush represents man and and you know, this idea that God consumes man but doesn’t destroy him rather he purifies him and He protect him. And it has to do with Moses his sandals. So I’m gonna read Exodus three, five through six. Then he said, Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you’re standing is holy ground. 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. But you stopped right there. And you were talking to the kids about this idea of holy ground, and you’re asking them questions like, why would you have to take off his sandals? And, you know, what’s that about?

[Aaron] What is interesting, because we get these, we get these descriptions in the Bible, but it doesn’t like explain them.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] It’s not like, here’s the how it what it represents. We get to look at them and say, What is he doing? And what what is this representative

[Jennifer] Leave it to explore?

[Aaron] And we get to discern it and we get to read through other things. But what what I saw on this, the picture of this is, he said, God’s saying this grounds holy, and what are sandals to do? Like when you’re wearing sandals or shoes? What do they do?

[Jennifer] Keep your feet clean.

[Aaron] keep your feet clean, right? And remember Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, and he said, lest I do this, you have no place with me. And then Peter says, wash my whole body. And he says, but you don’t need to wash your whole body. Only your feet. Right? This idea that the feet are the things touching the ground, right the ground the earth, the thing that we are. We are Earth?

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] we’re from The earth. And you see this picture of God saying no, this ground is not like other ground, the earth that you think you’re from, and the earth that you that I’ve made you from is unholy because of what happened with the sun. But this ground right here. I have made this holy. So what he’s saying is stop trying to cover yourself, like the sand stop trying to protect yourself from the unholiness.

[Jennifer] Yeah, like it’s not good enough.

[Aaron] It’s not gonna use sandals, your sandals are not good enough, like your own covering. It’s almost like Adam and Eve’s covering themselves with fig leaves.

[Jennifer] Yeah, God’s like it was

[Aaron] It was not good enough to cover their nakedness. God covered them with something that was sufficient with skins. He sacrificed an animal. So we have this picture of God saying, take your sandals off and recognize who what you are, and put your feet on holy ground. Right, let your unholy flesh touch my holy ground. Because you think you’re gonna come your way to me. You think you’re gonna come with your good works. You’re you You know how much you’ve read the Bible how much you’ve prayed how much you’ve done in your life and, and that’s commending you to me. I say take it off and recognize you are dust.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Right. And he says, Take off your sandals, you’re on holy ground, right God made the ground holy, where he was at. He made the earth holy, which is what he does with us. He makes us holy. We are dust, unholy dust made from the earth. But he has made us holy through His Son, Jesus. And so there’s this picture of God saying, Take off your sandals, take off the thing that protects you or you think is keeping you clean, and come to me

[Jennifer] What a humbling experience for Moses. Like, first of all, you just have this, this miracle of the burning bush and and he’s probably thinking what is going on right now and he’s hearing, you know, God, speak to him. And then God tells him to take his shoes off and he’s got it. It’s humbling. You got to bend down, get your sand straw sandals, and then touch the dirt. And I just I

[Aaron] Well I mean it’s this picture. It’s the it’s the beginning place of the gospel is that we recognize who we are. And that we recognize that nothing we are doing or have done is worthy of salvation. Like the Bible says even your good works are as filthy rags. So like, look at this picture of his sandals protecting the fair. He’s saying, Come to me and humble yourself. Take your sandals off, stop trying to protect yourself from the dirt because you’re ordered.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Right, you are from the dirt. So we need to come to God. And the gospel is we need to recognize who we are that we are sinners in need of a Savior that we there’s nothing good in us, unless Christ is in us. And so we come to God that way. And that’s what God told Moses. He said, Take your sandals off, come here. And you’re going to walk on the dirt that I’ve made holy, because you could not have made this dirt holy, and your sandals will not protect you from the unholiness. And I just thought that was powerful. I was explained to the kids and they’re like, oh, their eyes are big. And then the last big kind of fun takeaway that we got from this is, is this idea of names? Right? So remember we talked we just talked about, like who Moses is,

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And that he’s that him recognizing, you know, to take it off a sandals and look at us like in the story for us to learn how to know who we are who God is, right? And so in Exodus three, verses 10 to 14, it says, this Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? And then God said, but I will be with you, and this shall be assigned for you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. What I think’s funny about this is the sign that God gives Moses is that he will accomplish the thing that God said to do.

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] He’s like your sign will be that you did it. Right. But I want you to take note real quick everyone listening. Moses says Who am I? Who am I? And then in verse 13, it says, “Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your father’s has sent me to you, and they asked me, What is his name? What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” So we see this cool contrast of Moses saying to God, when God gives them this command, like this, this mission, and it seems big, he’s gotta go to Pharaoh and take, you know, thousands of people out of Egypt. Right? Yeah, well, he knew the people, but it’s Egypt.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Like, that’s like going, like, hey, I want you to go to the President. I want you to demand I’d be like, Are you kidding me? Like, that’s a big deal.

[Jennifer] Especially for someone in hiding, right? cause at this point, he’s still hiding.

[Aaron] And now he is a Murderer. Yeah. And they know it. But he says, so God, or Moses says, Who am I? And God’s answer of who he who he is, is, I am, who I am. And so instead of when you change those word orders, one’s a question. The others an answer. So Moses says Who am I? Which is a great question that we should be asking ourselves before God, who am I? I think it’s a great posture that Moses has here because he’s recognizing stick. He was just told by a burning bush to take his sandals off that he’s standing on holy ground. He’s a shepherd, who is running from the pharaoh because he murdered someone hiding. And he’s looking at God asking him to do this amazing thing. And he’s saying, Who am I? Like, are you sure you got the right guy? God? And I think that’s an important question that we should ask ourselves, not out of a false humbleness, but a true one. It’s like God, who am I that you have decided to save me? That you’ve given me Your Son Jesus, that you’ve made me clean? Who am I? That you would come and send your son for me? Who am I that all of these things rather than I am the one that you should do this for? I am the one that Yeah, good. I’m glad you found me God because I’ve been planning this thing for a long time and, and I need to do that thing for you. You know, who am I? And then recognizing who the answer is, Jes, God is the answer.

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] God is the answer. He says, I am, its God’s mission, it God’s plan, it’s God’s sort resources, it’s God’s power. It’s God’s desire. It’s God’s will.

[Jennifer] It’s God’s initiation,

[Aaron] Its God’s initiation. So the only thing Moses could say is Who am I? Why, what Who am I in this picture? Right?

[Jennifer] Well, what I love about this is when we were doing it with the kids, I remember taking notes in my journal. And I wrote down this phrase that you said, you said, Moses saw himself as a question. God saw himself as the answer. And I just love that play on words.

[Aaron] Yeah and that’s true, like the answer to everything is God. And his son Jesus, he is provided the way, the truth and the life. As Jesus says about himself, no man comes to the Father, but through me,

[Jennifer] which we, we went on to ask the kids some of these questions. You said, Who is going to save the people? And they said, God, and you said, How? And they said, or who does he use? Moses, and then you said, who saves us? And they said, God, and you said, How wondering if they would make the connection? And I think it was all through Jesus.

[Aaron] Right. And that’s exactly the idea. This story is not about Moses, the story is about God. Moses is a tool in God’s hands. Yes. God used him in many ways. Yes, he was obedient. Yes, there was all these things. And there’s also him being afraid. And there’s also him saying, I can’t say anything, send me my brother to help me. But it was God’s plan. God, God says, I will save my people. He says it. And I’m gonna use you to do what Moses, but I’m saving them. I want you to know that I’m saving them. It’s my plan. They’re my people, not yours. You’re not gonna get the glory. You’re not I am. I am. That’s what God says. So who’s gonna save the people God? Who does he use? Moses, who saves us? God, Who does he use? His son Jesus, were saved through Jesus Christ. He makes our relationship with the Father. Right? And I just think that is so Amazing. And this is just one little like chapter

[Jennifer] Yeah,

[Aaron] in the Old Testament, and look at all of the things that we just pulled out of this about our salvation, and God’s plan for our salvation. And I don’t feel like I made any as though like, other people have figured this out before me, I’m not that smart. But it’s just beautiful. When you see the Bible in light of who Christ is and what God’s doing in this world. You see these things. So I hope everyone was really blessed by that. I know. I was, yeah,

[Jennifer] When we talked about this episode, I was like, we should definitely go over what we shared about with Moses, because that was pretty, that was a powerful day that we experienced.

[Aaron] So we’re coming to an end. And as usual, we pray, I hope you were blessed by this, I hope you would dig in to the story of Moses, looking for these things, trying it simply go in saying like, we’re gonna look for Christ, where’s Christ in this story? And just look for it. And just try and find those correlations find what God is trying to show you in the scriptures. So let’s pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your holy Word. Thank you for the many different stories and historical documentation of people and events that brought forth your plan of redemption. It is so interesting and amazing to see the many different ways the Old Testament and the New Testament are connected, and support each other. Thank you for showing us that Jesus was from the beginning part of you, and the awesome way he has mentioned in the Old Testament, as well as his incredible purpose that detailed in the New Testament. Thank you for the role of Moses and all that he was able to accomplish bringing you glory. Thank you for showing us how you use people to carry out your work. Your strong arm and your provision is evident in the story of Moses. Help us to continually grow and our understanding, of who you are, and asking you who I am. May Your will be carried out in a miraculous way in our lives for Your glory in Jesus name. Amen.

[Jennifer] Amen. We love you all. We hope this devotional blessed you, as it blessed us and again, check out that giveaway we got going on post a review on our podcast screenshot it tag us and you might win some books. Again, that ends on April 10 2020. And so if you are listening to this before, then go do it and you might get you might win some books. We love you all. And we’ll see you next week for our last episode of the season.

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