Holy Ground: God Reveals Himself, I Will Be With You

``Over these last few weeks, I've been asking of the church a basic question, but a demanding question at the same time. But asking the question, how do we actually come to know ourselves truthfully? Now the tradition that we're drawing from being the reformed tradition, it insists that that self knowledge does not begin by looking inward. It it begins by looking at god and until we stand in the light of who God is, beholding his character, coming to know what is he saying. Our sense of who we are will always be partial or distorted or defensive. [00:47:58] (59 seconds)  #IWillBeWithYou

And that brings us to Exodus. When Israel meets God at Sinai or when Moses meets God at Horeb here, holiness and mercy appear together, and God reveals himself in these 12 verses. And in that revelation from God, human beings represented here by Moses in the narrative are exposed. And by by exposed, I don't mean that they're crushed, but they are clarified. They gain clarity. Moses gains clarity as to who he is before a holy god. [00:48:56] (42 seconds)

Now Moses is not at the beginning of his story. This is three chapters deep into Exodus, but he is actually decades in to his story. His life has already taken some turns that he did not plan. Does anybody know what that's like? Life takes a few detours. Right? Whatever confidence that that Moses had in himself has been worn down by time and by, this obscure life that he's living now in Midian and by his routine, this hard work routine that he has been in the midst of. And it is there in the midst of an ordinary day that God interrupts Moses. [00:49:38] (46 seconds)

You see, this isn't Moses on some vision quest to find himself or look for insider direction. God calls his name. God names the ground as holy. We'll get to this later. And God identifies himself before Moses even asks the question, who am I to do the things that you're calling me to do? That order is significant for us because Moses begins to see himself rightly only after he has been addressed by the living God. And that is not just Moses' story. [00:50:23] (41 seconds)

God meets Moses not in an ambition to be something bigger, but he meets Moses in a rhythm of long obedience. [00:52:21] (15 seconds)

A fire catches the attention of Moses. But the fire actually is not the whole point of this story. Right? It's certainly an attention getter, but it's not the point. What are what what gets Moses' attention, what captivates Moses here is that the bush is burning without being consumed. [00:53:09] (25 seconds)

The bush is ordinary and it is unimpressive. It is even it's a thorny bush, but it becomes the place where God makes himself known. And, again, we find another thing that happens here is God does not choose what looks impressive. God chooses that which will carry his presence. [00:53:40] (25 seconds)

And Moses' curiosity here is checked by reverence demanded by God. The ground is not holy by nature. It's holy because of the presence of God. Holiness is not a moral achievement. Holiness is the weight of the nearness of God. [00:55:37] (27 seconds)

Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is, fill in the blank, holy ground. And so you see here that God is is drawing near to Moses, but he is also establishing distance. He is also establishing a boundary. He is inviting the attention of Moses, but he is not inviting Moses to control the situation. [00:55:09] (28 seconds)