The Burning Bush & The Angel of the Lord: Who Did Moses Really See?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Les Feldick Okay, it's good to have everybody back, and we'll just jump right in where we left off last week, and that would be in chapter 2 of Exodus. And again, for those of you watching us on television, in case there are some who have never watched us before, we're just an informal Bible class, and we just trust that you'll find a Bible and sit down and follow these references with us, because we always maintain it's the Word of God that counts, and nothing that I can say or anyone else can say that can make the difference. But to understand what God's Word says is what I hopefully am attempting to do. All right, now you remember last week that Moses made his presentation to the children of Israel and had hoped to be able to deliver them. Remember that he had everything going for him. He was the second most powerful man in Egypt, but by faith he realized that those people in bondage and slavery were his kinfolk, and that according to all the promises, they would one day leave Egypt and go back up to Canaan. Now, I think the question came up maybe during our break time, well, how did they know, or how much did they know? So I got you in Exodus chapter 2, I'm sorry, but let's just for a moment go all the way back to chapter 15 of Genesis. It'll be a little review, but you have to know that all these things were in God's mind before they ever happened. And see, that's the beauty of prophecy, and that's again the substantiation that the Bible is the Word of God, because God foretold things long before they happened, and then they did. Now, way back here in Genesis chapter 15 is just shortly after He has given the covenant to Abraham that out of him would come this nation of people in which He would put them into a land, and He would give them a government. He would be their king. And then, of course, Abraham said back in Genesis 15 verse 8, he says, "...whereby shall I know that I'll inherit this land that you're talking about?" And so remember when we studied this, we said that God literally descended to man's level and went through the very rites of transferring real estate, and I always tell people right in the margin here of chapter 15 from verse 12 to the end, Israel's deed. Here is where Jehovah came down and actually carried out the rite, r-i-t-e, the rite of real estate transfer as they did back in the antiquities. Now, as He's going through this transfer of real estate, that is, deeding the whole Middle East to Abraham, He gives prophecy, and in verse 13 is where it begins. And He, or God, said unto Abraham, Know of a surety. In other words, God said it, and you can bank on it. Know of a surety that thy seed, in other words His children's children, shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. He's referring, of course, to Egypt. And shall serve them, they'll go under bondage, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Now we'll, we broke that down, that the four hundred years is the sojourning and not just necessarily the affliction, although it would certainly sound that way from this verse, I know that. But then verse 14, Also that nation, Egypt, whom they shall serve, I will judge, and afterward they, the children of Israel, shall come out with great substance. Abraham, of course, is being told in verse 15 that he will die after a good old age. And then verse 16, In the fourth generation they shall come hither, or here, and remember God is talking to Abraham in the land of Canaan. And so He said, After they've been in Egypt those four hundred and thirty years, they will come here again. And the reason being that He could not send the Amorites packing until they had had that four hundred years of opportunity to either clean up their act or get so bad that God would be fair in literally telling the Israelites to annihilate them. And so here it's all prophesied, that they would end up in a land that wasn't theirs, which we now know as Egypt. They would go under slavery, under bondage, but that God would bring them back to the promised land. All right, so now if you'll come back with me then to Exodus chapter 2, and after He kills the Egyptian, He has to flee. After all, murder was just as much against the law then as it is now, only the results were a lot worse. And so verse 15 of Exodus 2, when Pharaoh heard this thing, in other words that Moses, the second man of Egypt, had killed an Egyptian, when Pharaoh heard this thing he sought to slay Moses, in other words carrying out capital punishment. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, that is to the east, out to the area of the Sinai Peninsula. And he sat down by a well. And then again, here is where I've got to give credit to the movie Ten Commandments. I think they made it rather clear that as Moses now fled to that east country, he met these gals, herd and sheep, and as they were about to water them, they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock, verse 16. And then verse 17, shepherds came and drove them, that is the daughters of the priest of Midian, drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them. See, now there again, he wasn't no puny individual. He wasn't afraid of anybody. And so even these rough old eastern shepherds, as they tried to usurp the well, Moses chased them away, single-handedly. And so when the girls went home to Reuel, their father, verse 18, and he said, How is it that you're so soon come today? Verse 19, and they said, An Egyptian, now underline that, from all outward appearances, from his language, from everything, what was he? He was Egyptian. My land, he'd been raised in Pharaoh's palace now for 35 years, but inside, what is he? He's a Hebrew. He's an Israelite. And so they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock. Well, and then you know what happened. Verse 21, Moses was content to dwell with a man, and he in turn gives Moses one of his daughters to wife. Now here again is the perfect picture all through the Old Testament. Joseph, it happened to him. It happens to Moses, and we've got other instances where these men of God, driven away from their original setting, will marry what kind of a girl? A Gentile. And you remember several weeks ago, we pointed out that when Christ was rejected, and as I said in the last half hour's program, He was literally exiled back to heaven. And while He's in exile, what kind of a bride is He calling out? A Gentile bride. See, the church is predominantly Gentile. And so you have this picture all the way up through the Old Testament. Now even here, Moses, a Jew, an Israelite, but he marries a Gentile. Verse 22, "...she bear him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land." Now verse 23, "...and it came to pass in the process of time." Well, do you know how long? Forty years. Forty years, because again you go back to Acts chapter 7, and there, well, let's look at it. For those that are watching on television, we don't want them to take anything for granted. Go back to Acts chapter 7 again, and we see Moses' whole life is broken down into three 40-year segments, not counting, of course, the five years in his mother's house. But the first 40 years, he of course is in Pharaoh's palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. The second 40 years, he's now on the backside of the desert herding sheep. And then the third 40 years, as you're all aware, he comes back and delivers the children of Israel. So in Acts chapter 7, we already looked at the one verse in 23, where it says, "...and when he was a full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit the children of Israel." Then drop down to verse 30, "...and when 40 years were expired, there appeared unto him in the wilderness of Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire at the bush." Now that's the beginning of his third 40 years, when he will go back and lead Israel out and then in the wilderness. So he has three 40-year segments. Now then, come back to Exodus. Verse 23 again, "...and it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried. And their cry came up to God by reason of this bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with..." Who? "...Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Now I hammer that covenant into people constantly. In our telephone class, we are presently in the book of Acts, and I'm just showing them, and they're seeing it. My, we had the best time Monday night. And how that everything that's happening all the way up through the Gospels and well into the book of Acts is based on that Abrahamic covenant. And that covenant said what? I'll make of you a great nation, I'll put you in a geographical area, and I'll give you a king. But who would be the king? The Son of God, the Messiah, see? All right, now here it is again, God now realizing that it's time for Him to move in according to His own prophetic utterances back there to Abraham. And so He remembered the covenant that He made with Abraham, He repeated it to Isaac, He repeated it to Jacob, and that covenant carries all the way through. And so verse 25, He looked upon the children of Israel, and He had respect unto them. He remembered them, and now He's going to start making things happen. Chapter 3, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father. In plain English, what's his title? He's a shepherd. He's a shepherd. Now let me show you what this must have done to the man. Now because for all practical purposes, he's an Egyptian. Now turn back with me to Genesis 46, I think it is. Genesis 46, the last verse of that chapter, and that will tell you, I think, without a doubt, what this did to the man Moses. And we'll see more of it in the verses to come. Genesis chapter 46, verse 34. Now again, you've got to get this setting. We haven't got time to read all these verses. Joseph is making things ready for Jacob and the other sons to come down into Egypt and dwell in Goshen. Now you want to remember, Joseph is the second man. He's not the top. So everything has to be, of course, with the Pharaoh's blessing. So now Joseph is preparing the family so that they don't goof everything up. And so he said, Now look, when you get ready to approach Pharaoh that you're coming down into Egypt. Now let's look at what the word itself says. Then you shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle, even from our youth until now, both we and also our fathers. Now there's a colon, so the thought goes back now to Joseph. Why is he telling them that? Because that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, so that you get Pharaoh's okay. But don't tell him that you've got sheep, because what does the verse say? A shepherd is an abomination in the eyes of an Egyptian. Sort of reminds you of our old west, doesn't it? I mean, the cattlemen, the barons, you know, they thought cattle were king, and I do too. I mean, I love cattle, and I don't like sheep. Now I suppose I'll have some sheep farmers call me on that one, but I just don't have a nickel's worth of time for sheep. I think they smell, I think they're dumb, and all the rest of the things, and I think maybe that's why God uses sheep as such an example in Scripture, because they are so stupid. But nevertheless, Pharaoh knew that, and he just thought anybody who tended sheep was an abomination. Now are you getting the point? This is where Moses ends up, a shepherd with those smelly old sheep after having been 40 years in the pomp and circumstance and the wealth and the luxury of Egypt. Now why? God had a purpose. Now I'll come back to Exodus again, if you will, chapter 3. So now as he's herding his sheep, he comes to the backside of the desert. Now you know what that really means? You know, we use the term boondocks. Hey, this is worse than boondocks. This is boondocky boondocks. This is way out in the wilderness part of the desert, miles from any civilized city. And he comes to Mount Sinai. Now I don't know how many of you, or even on television, realize the geography of the Sinai Peninsula. I often have kicked myself for not making it a point to put it in my file. But back, oh, years ago, just on the Sinai Peninsula, in pictures, and I'll tell you what, it is the most rugged, the most wilderness country that you ever laid your eyes on. How the children of Israel even negotiated it is beyond me. So anyway, it was not a very nice place to spend 40 years, and poor old Moses is going to have 80 of them out there. So now he's had 40 years back there tending sheep, and he comes to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Now I hope you all realize that Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are one in the same. You know that. Verse 2, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire. Now again, keep your hand in Exodus. I've got to take you back to Genesis for just a second. Go back to Genesis 48. Because this term, angel of the Lord, pops up so often through the Old Testament, and I want everyone to know without a doubt who is this angel of the Lord. You've got Genesis 48, and now Jacob is speaking in verse 16, verse 16, where Jacob says, "...the angel who..." What's the next word? "...redeemed me." In other words, the redeeming angel. Now there is only one Redeemer in Scripture, and who is it? It's Christ. See? He's Jehovah in the Old Testament, the Son of God. He's the angel of God, but it's always the second person of the Trinity. It's God the Son. The angel who redeemed me, the Redeemer, and there's only one. All right, now then come back quickly to Exodus. "...and so the angel of the Lord," verse 2, "...appeared unto him in a flame of fire." So now who is in the bush? Jehovah, God the Son. Oh, I don't think Moses sees Him here bodily like Abraham did back there in Genesis 18, but the voice was still the voice of Jehovah, and we'll show that if we've got time in this program, then certainly in the next one. "...so it spoke to him out of the midst of the bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush was burned with fire, but it was not consumed." Now, this doesn't come from my own thinking, but I read years ago where someone made the comment, and I kind of tend to agree, that this burning bush was also a picture of Israel. Israel is constantly in the fires of judgment, aren't they? Everybody has always been trying to obliterate them, but after what, 2,000, 4,000 years now, has it burned up? No, the nation of Israel is still on the scene, see? And like the burning bush, the amazing thing was it was burning with fire, but it wasn't consumed, and so also is the nation of Israel. Take that for what it's worth. Verse 3, "...and Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight." Why the bush is not burned? "...and when the Lord," Jehovah, "...when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see," now here's where it sometimes gets sticky unless you know terminology, "...now he turns aside to see who called unto him." What's the word? God, see? Now watch this. All the way through these verses, we're going to see that God and the voice, which is Jehovah, are used synonymously, and why is that? Because Christ is God, see? Now I'm going to emphasize it more and more because I've said so often, this is one of the first signs of the cults. They do not ever, any of them, recognize Christ as God, but the Scripture does, and here is another good example. Even though it's Christ, it's the angel of the Lord, it's the Redeemer, it's God the Son, it's Jehovah, yet he's also called God, see? All right, so God said, or called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. Moses said, here am I, and then, you know, the account, draw not hither, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And, of course, Mount Sinai will remain that way for quite a long time. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham. Here it comes again, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now why does the Scripture keep repeating those three names over and over so that it soaks in that all these covenant promises were repeated to those three patriarchs, and we cannot forget it. We have to keep that in mind. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Now this throws a curve at a lot of people, doesn't it? Well, I thought the Bible said that if any man looked on God, he would die. It said in the reverse way, it says, no man looketh on God and lives. And yet Moses knew that it was God that he was approaching. But, you know, there was another individual who said, I see God. You remember who it was? The most unlikely of people. It was Hagar. Remember? And she named the place that she had seen God. Who else saw God? Well, Jacob did. He wrestled with him. See, I have seen God face to face. And then they come back and say, well, how can that be? The Bible always contradicts itself. No, there's no contradiction. It always goes back to what I taught way back there in Genesis. You remember I told you that the Godhead, the Trinity, is an invisible Spirit God? The Trinity is invisible. No man has ever seen the Godhead, the Trinity. But who steps out of the Trinity and reveals himself time after time? God the Son. See? God the Son. You've got a perfect example of that. We've got time. Go back with me to Hebrews. Hebrews is another perfect example of those terminology. In Hebrews chapter 1—I had to think for a minute whether it was 1 or 11, but it's chapter 1. It's just verses 1 and 2. Now, this is a lesson all in itself. Verse 1 says, God—just plain, simple G-O -D—God, the triune, the eternal, sovereign God, at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, the Old Testament, that same God hath in these last days—now, remember, the last days in Scripture are not the closing days of the age. It's from the time of Christ's birth to the end. That's the last days. But in these last days, how has God spoken? Through His Son. See? Now, what have you got there? You've got the triune God in verse 1, but how does the triune God speak to mankind? Through the Son. And it's the same way in creation. Those of you who were with us way back during Genesis 1-1, in the beginning what? God. But all the rest of Scripture attributes creation to who? God the Son, Jesus Christ, who hath created all things by Jesus. In fact, it's right here in this same verse, verse 2 of Hebrews 1, whom He, God, hath appointed heir of all things by whom also He, God, did what? Made the worlds. How? By the Son. And Colossians says that Jesus the Christ is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. And so now come back to Exodus. I'm not going to have time to go into the I Ams, because I want to have a whole half hour for that one. But as you come back to Exodus chapter 3, now verse 7, And the Lord said, now you see this constant change in names of deity? First it's God, that's Elohim, the triune, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, Elohim. Then it comes down to the God of Abraham, the same God, but now in verse 7, the Lord said, now those of you who have been with me, some of you almost 20 years already, when you see that term L-O-R-D in capital letters, who is it? It's Jehovah. And who is Jehovah? God the Son. Who's God the Son? Jesus the Christ. So here we have this breakdown now in Elohim, the God of Abraham, but it's God the Son, it's the Lord who is speaking out of the burning bush. And so now He says, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt. Now I'm a stickler for pronouns as well as everything else. When God back here in the Old Testament says, My people, who is He talking about? The Jew. And I think you all realize that now. He's not talking about those pagans all around Israel. He's talking about His people, Israel, My people, His covenant people. And so He says, I have seen the affliction of My people. I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmaster, for I know their sorrows. I am going to come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land. Remember what He said in Genesis? That after 430 years He would bring them hither, Canaan, again. And He said, by reason of their crying, He said, I know their sorrows. Verse 8, I am come to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land unto a good land. Now you remember when we studied that Abrahamic covenant? Remember all the references I showed you that God promised them a literal geographical area of this earth, the land? Here it is again. And I will bring them into that land flowing with milk and honey, into the place of the Canaanites. Now you remember what He said back in Genesis 15? Israel would have to stay in bondage until the Canaanites' iniquity was full. In other words, they had gone so deep into sin and wickedness that God was perfectly fair in telling Joshua, who now leads the children of Israel when they come in, to do what to the Canaanites? Kill them all. Don't spare a one, not even an infant or an old person of long years, because if you spare one of them, they're going to be like a rotten apple in the barrel. What happens to the rest of them? They all go. And so this is the reason that God patiently let His own people suffer in Egypt so that the Amorites and the Canaanites could prove the worthiness of the judgment that's going to come upon them. The only part that's pitiful is that Israel didn't carry it out. And just like God said, if you don't cleanse the land of them, you'll go down to their level, and they did. But nevertheless, God says, now I'm going to give you the land that is occupied by the Canaanites. Now again, our politicians should realize that this is exactly what's taking place in the Middle East. God took the Jew out of Palestine as a result of their rebellion in the book of Acts and the crucifixion. He had the Romans destroy the temple. But when He took them out, what did He promise? I'll bring you back. It's their land. And now we're seeing it happen right before our very eyes. God is bringing the Jews back to Palestine. The poor Arabs, I feel for them. They've got their homes there, their businesses, but something is going to have to happen because that land belongs to the Israelites, and they're going to get it. How? I don't know. But I'll just bet the ranch that it's going to happen, that these Arabs and these Palestinians are going to have to find the new home because God is bringing His people back in order to fulfill the covenants that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's Route 1, Box 760, Quinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.