God Prepares for Deliverance
Exodus 3:7-17
International Sunday School Lesson
November 3, 2013
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
If you had to, how would you tell someone who you are? You would tell them your name. But what does that tell them about you? How would you go about doing that so that someone knew who you really are?
That is a tough one because you have to come to know someone. To really know who someone is takes time. So when I see this scripture for today I notice how many words there are in giving Moses an answer to the question, “What is His name?”
Think about it this way. Do you have someone in your life with who, they or you, can simply say when calling on the phone or when walking through a door, “It’s me!”?
If you do, that person or you instantly know who is on the other end or in that space with you. If you don’t have that connection with someone its meaningless.
Yes, this is a bit of an oversimplification with regard to God and He is anything but simple. As we have come to understand His “name” we consider the factors of God. He refers to Himself as I Am and we would say He is. According to the NIV the Hebrew for His name can also be, “He will be”. So God’s name is that He always has been, is, and will be. I like the “heaviness” of all that when you consider His name and I find it fitting.
So did they, the people of Israel, know who God was? My gut tells me that they were not on an “It’s me” basis. Thus this explanation, “Say to the Israelites, The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” Genesis 3:15a
I am further convinced of this, that they didn’t know Him as “I Am” in their lives because He went on to tell Moses that this name was how He was “to be remembered from generation to generation.” Genesis 3:15b
I think it rather akin to Jacob last week as I professed my belief that though Jacob maybe knew about God because of Abraham his grandfather and Isaac his father he didn’t have a relationship with God and neither have I felt did the people of Israel have much of one.
I believe we see this in the behavior of the people of Israel from the moment they face the first peril at the crossing of the sea as Pharaoh pursued them to their full transformation into God’s people as time went by. As time passed then they began to know who God was.
Can we claim to know who God is? Do we have an, “It’s Me!” relationship with Him? If not I guess we better get to work to know Him better. Without knowing Him well enough how can we be very effective in the work of the gospel?
For Discussion:
1. Discuss the figurative language found in verses 7-9 so it is understood that God wasn’t just now finally hearing the cries of the people or just now finally concerned.
2. Discuss that God told Abram about this period of enslavement found in Genesis 15:13-14
3. After reading the doubt Moses expresses about himself in 3:11, find and discuss three other verses where he continues to be hesitant.
4. There are three words very closely related to “I Am” do not miss them. They are “I will be” found in verse 12. They are worthy of a concordance search to see when and how God uses them in the Bible from beginning to end.
5. In verse 12 God is not just referring to Moses when He says “you will worship” but to the people of Israel. Because they will find themselves there worshiping Him and not still in Egypt.
6. Find and discuss when God first promised this land mentioned in verse 17.
7. I think a great commentary/lesson/sermon on today’s scripture could be made by combining it with The Great Commission found in Matthew 28:16-20. Discuss the parallels.
Upcoming Lessons
11-3-13 God Prepares for Deliverance Exodus 3:7-17
11-10-13 Beginning of Passover Exodus 12:1-14
11-17-13 Beginning of Freedom Exodus 14:13, 14, 21-30 or 14:21-30
11-24-13 Beginning of the Tabernacle Exodus 40:16-30, 34, 38
12-1-13 The Angel Foretells Jesus’ Birth Luke 1:26-40
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
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