In the beginning, this boy who grew up in a household of Egyptian royalty knew something about the God of his people. In the end, because of God’s self-revelation in both word and experience, Moses knew God Himself. There is such a chasm between those things, and God Himself undertook Moses’ instruction to bring him to this wonderful end state. We will be considering the school of God in the life of Moses by examining several essential texts.

Well versed in Moses, that there's a pun there somewhere. I started my countdown clock and I haven't started yet. Restart that right this second. My subject this morning is God's self-revelation to Moses in word and experience. God revealed himself to Moses.

He showed himself to Moses. He gave him words to describe himself and he proved every word to be true throughout Moses's long life. I want to start this morning by making this proposition. The God who is is a God who reveals himself. He didn't have to, But he does.

He wants to be known, so he makes himself known. And that is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt by this book, by the life of Moses. The reason you have this book in your lap is because God is a God who wants to be known and who has revealed himself in order to be known, who has raised up men to show himself to, cause them to record those words so that we might know him. Friends, there's a vast difference between knowing about God, which is good, and truly knowing God, which is essential. God himself undertook Moses's instruction to bring Moses from this starting point of knowing about God to this in state of knowing God.

And so in the text that we'll go to this morning we're going to witness the school of God where God is the headmaster, God is the teacher, God is revealing himself by the words that he gives to the author of Scripture and by the experiences that he brings them through in his faithfulness to prove that all his words about himself are true words the theme of the conference is from Daniel 11 verse 32 The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out exploits. Moses is the poster child for that. Moses is the poster child for knowing God and out of knowing God doing exploits because of his trust in God. Lord, I pray that you would help us. I pray that during this time that your word would be that your word would be held up, exalted, understood, known, loved.

Help us to love your word. Thank you for revealing yourself to us. You are the greatest treasure. Praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Before we get started in earnest, I want to consider who we're studying this morning. We're studying the author of the the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. In my Bible it's 17% of the pages of Scripture. That is a lot of the direct revelation of God given to his people through one man, Moses. We know about creation because of the writings of Moses.

We know about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, because of the writings of Moses. We know about the deliverance of God to his people from their bondage in Egypt because of the writings of Moses. We have the law of God because of the writings of Moses. So I want to say this. Moses was in the school of God for me.

God raised up Moses not just to show himself to Moses. He wanted Moses to know him, but he wants me to know him too. And 70% of my Bible, 17% of the direct revelation of God came because God wanted Moses to know him to write it down so that I might know him. God gave Moses a God gave Moses a long life. What did that include?

40 years in Egypt. He was in Pharaoh's household. 40 years in the desert of me. A Midian tending sheep. Those were not wasted years and 40 years delivering God's people as the man that God raised up to do it and leading God's people as the man God raised up to do it.

I want to take us to four passages where God broke into the life of Moses and allowed Moses to experience him directly and he gave him words about himself. He revealed himself to Moses. The first of the four passages that will go is Exodus chapter 3. So please open your Bible to Exodus chapter 3 one of the most famous texts in Scripture the burning bush passage and I'll be reading Exodus 3 verses 1 through 15 please follow along Exodus 3 1 through 15 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb the mountain of God. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush so he looked and beheld and behold a bush was burning with fire but the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn. So 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. Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, 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 where he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I've surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses said to the Lord God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? So he said, I will certainly be with you and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you when you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall serve God on this mountain and Moses said to God indeed when I come to the children of Israel and say to them the God of your father says sent me to you and they say to me what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am and he said thus you shall say to the children of Israel I am has sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. God draws Moses in with a great sight, a bush that burns but isn't consumed. Moses doesn't initiate this. Moses is just doing his work. He isn't seeking God in this moment, but God seeks Moses.

God calls out to Moses. The first thing that he says is I do not draw near this place take your sandals off your feet to the place where you stand is holy ground God revealed himself to Moses as as holy holy means separate, utterly different, literally means other, something other, something apart. The point is wherever the special presence of God is, is holy by association. It is holy by being near this holy God, this utterly different God. So the ground the day before that was common, the day after would be common was holy ground on this day because God was there.

Everything in your life is common until this holy God sets it aside to himself and for himself and then it is holy because and only because of God's association with it. God then tells Moses who he is. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God was revealing himself to Moses, setting Moses apart to himself and for himself because he promised Abraham that he would be the God to his descendants. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob weren't directly his fathers.

They were his predecessors hundreds of years earlier. God had made promises to Abraham hundreds of years earlier. God remembered them. God fulfilled them. God revealed himself to Moses as a promise-making God and a promise-keeping God, even if it would be hundreds of years later that God would remember his promise when maybe no one else did and God would keep his promises.

God was raising up Moses in order to help and deliver and bless Abraham's descendants because he promised that to Abraham that he would be the God of his descendants. God says that he has seen the oppression of his people and heard the cries of his people and known the sorrows of his people. You see all of that in verse 7 God is revealing himself That he is not far off and uninterested David would would marvel at This Listen to what David said in Psalm 8 verses 3 and 4. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him. David understood that the members of mankind are just a speck on a speck.

If you go out into space, you don't even see earth. We think it's big. It's not big. We are a speck on that speck. Why would God even take notice of us?

Why would He even have thoughts about us? Oh, but He is mindful of us. He does visit of us. David marveled, we should marvel. God revealed Himself to be this, to Moses, to be the God of his fathers and and his God.

Mindful even of a speck on a speck. One who would visit his people to keep his promises. The text then says this and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. The holiness of God is more than a theological concept. It is a palpable reality to those who God draws near to in that way.

It is a discernible reality. What does that mean? You can feel it. You know when you are in the presence of God when he draws near to you in that way. Peter felt that sometimes in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Peter once fell down before Jesus and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Oh, Lord. Isaiah felt that way in Isaiah chapter 6. He was in the special presence of God and he prostrated himself and said, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips.

I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Next, Moses understandably felt unequal to the task of standing before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to demand the liberation of the Israelites. Moses even isn't even confident that the Israelites will listen to him. So he asked God in essence when I say that the God of your fathers has sent me and they ask in return what is his name? What can I tell them?

And God said and I believe this is the most significant self revelation of God by God in this text. I am who I am. Tell them them, I am sent you. What does that even mean? What kind of a name is that?

That is the name of the God who was utterly other. Utterly different than us. This name I am is closely associated with the name Yahweh or Jehovah. Moses uses that name Yahweh Jehovah the Hebrew for that several times in this text in Exodus 3 most Bibles indicate that Hebrew name by all capsing Lord capital L capital O capital R capital D it means the self-existing one the transcendent one he transcends all other things he is beyond all other things as the source of everything that exists everything that you know seen experienced, he's beyond it. It exists because of him.

Jehovah needs nothing outside of himself to exist from eternity past through eternity future. Think of all the things outside of yourself that you need to exist. You need food but You need the right kind of drink you need air, but you need the right kind of the air God needs nothing to exist outside of himself from eternity past through eternity future He is dependent on nothing he is limited by nothing He doesn't need any of us for anything, but every one of us needs Him for everything. He is other. All reality has its being in Him.

All reality is defined by Him. He is and so other things can be. Because he is only because he is, other things can be. He is God. Moses wrote at least one Psalm.

Maybe he wrote more, but at least he wrote Psalm 90 because it's marked a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Listen to Psalm 90 verse 2. Before the mountains were brought forth wherever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. God, before you made anything from everlasting that way to everlasting that way you are God you have always been God. You will always be God.

He is. So God revealed himself to Moses in these words from the burning bush. And then God continued to show Moses these things about himself for the next 80 years. The next 80 years would be full of God proving every word of that true in the life of Moses. That he is utterly separate, that none is like him.

How many times in the scripture does God say, who will you compare to me? There is none like me. Secondly, Exodus chapter 20. Please turn to Exodus chapter 20. You know Exodus chapter 20, maybe not by that designation, but you know the Ten Commandments, here they are.

Follow along as I read Exodus 20 verses 1 through 17. God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me keep my commandments You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in it you shall do no work you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land, which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors. The Ten Commandments, eight don'ts, don't kill people, don't steal, don't lie, and more. Two dos, do honor God's day.

Do honor your parents. So it's a list of do's and don'ts, right? No, no. Fundamentally it is not a list of do's and don'ts. Fundamentally it is a self revelation of God is the self revelation of a God of perfect righteousness I love these things I hate these things.

This is what I'm like. Who is the only person who has ever kept these commandments? Really kept them wholeheartedly kept them Perfectly kept them. Continuously kept them. God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Why did Jesus keep the commands? Because that's who He is! He does what He loves, unfailingly. He never ever does what he hates. Never.

Then to go past Exodus 20 into the chapter after chapter that have all of these other laws which extend from the Ten Commandments as sub-laws that's really what they are. God reveals himself to be the object of worship who must be a worship according to his own desires and not according to the desires of the worshippers. Go read the chapters Exodus 21 Exodus 22 Exodus 23 Exodus 24 and on and on friends consider the detail surrounding every element of worship in the books of Moses. Finish Exodus go to Leviticus finish Leviticus see these things said again in Deuteronomy. Look at every aspect of worship and how minutely every aspect is prescribed by God.

You can only come to one conclusion that the object of our worship wants to be worshipped in the ways that he desires, not according to the desires of the worshipper. Consider Leviticus chapter 10, where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, bring what's called profane fire, which God had not commanded them to bring. They brought worship that was according to their own desire, not according to the desires of the object of worship, God, and God killed them for it. He sent fire from heaven. And then God said this, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy.

And before all the people, I must be glorified. When we worship God according to our own desires instead of according to what he has said pleasing him. We're saying you're common like us. You're not holy. You're common like us.

Those who draw near to God, he must be regarded as holy as other. His desires for worship matter. Consider the sacrificial system in the law which teaches that the wages of sin is death. What is all the animal killing about? It's that the wages of sin is death, that God is an all-knowing, perfectly righteous judge who could never overlook unrighteousness as if it didn't matter to him as if it wasn't treason against him but who was willing to accept a substitute if the substitute is innocent in place of the guilty one So we see these two things a self revelation of God in the sacrificial system that God is on yieldingly righteousness and yieldingly righteous.

He could never pass over sin as if it didn't matter as if it wasn't treason. But at the same time, he isn't content just to render justice on the object that deserves it, but that he's willing to accept a substitute if it's the right substitute, if it's a substitute without its own blemishes. Exodus 20 is the first giving of the 10 commandment. There's another in Deuteronomy Chapter five. And in the very next chapter, Deuteronomy Chapter six, Moses is given what Jesus calls the greatest commandment to love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength.

This isn't a new law to be added alongside the other laws. It is a sum total of all the laws. Love is the fulfillment of the law and love for God stands preeminent. There's love for God and love for a neighbor and love for God is the greatest commandment. It stands preeminent.

Friends, understand what that is. To love God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength. It is simply to acknowledge the infinite worth, the incomparable beauty and goodness of the God who is and has revealed himself the only acceptable response to this God is to adore him so much so that to deny it is a crime. In the end it's the it is the crime. Thirdly, let's go to Exodus 33 and 34.

Turn to Exodus, I'll be reading the end of 33 and then a portion of 34. Here God has commanded Moses to lead the people away from Sinai. He tells Moses to lead the people into this promised land of abundance but that he's not going with them because they're stiff-necked and Moses intercedes he begs God not to send them away if he won't go with them. And God responds to Moses' intercession and says that he will go with them. And then we begin to read this in Exodus 33.

Now read Exodus 33 verses 18 through 23. And he Moses said, Please show me your glory. Then he God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion but he said you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live and the Lord said here is a place by me and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by.

And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face you shall not see." Moses makes this very bold request, please show me your glory. God tells Moses that he will show himself. He'll make all of his goodness pass before him and He will proclaim himself. He will not make a proclamation of who he is He will describe himself to Moses And then God makes this statement. I will be gracious to who I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

In other words, God is never anyone's debtor to this request or to anyone for anything. God never acts because he owes and has to. God never finds himself in that position. Acting because he owes and has to pay off a deck. Acting because he's compelled to.

The only thing that ever compels God is when he makes a promise and that is not outside of himself that is inside of himself when he gives grace it is completely freely Because it pleases him to give grace. When he gives mercy, he does it completely freely. He never owes mercy. By definition, you never owe mercy. He does it because it pleases him.

He does it because he is merciful. God also warns Moses that Moses can't see him head on, that his glory is too much for a person to fully behold and live. Can you imagine that? God reveals himself to Moses as so brilliantly glorious that human beings can't bear it. You could only stand a glimpse of it.

Paul says that God alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light that no one has seen or can see him. It's 1st Timothy 6 16. So God tells Moses that he will hide Moses in the crevice of a rock and also shield Moses with his hand while he passes by him and all his goodness and then having passed by, he will remove his shielding hand so that Moses can see his back, so that Moses can get just a glimpse of God in his glory. Now he does this. Look at Exodus chapter 34 verses 5 through 9.

Exodus 34, 5 through 9. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation so Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped then he said if I have now found grace in your sight Oh Lord let my lord I pray go among us even though we are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance." Now, we can't know what Moses saw when God showed himself a glimpse of his glory to Moses. But we can know what God said when he proclaimed himself. As Moses has given us the words, God starts by announcing himself the Lord the Lord God there it is all capsing Lord capital L capital capital R capital D Yahweh Jehovah the self-existing Yahweh, Jehovah, the self-existing transcendent God who is dependent on nothing, limited by nothing, infinite, eternal.

And this is God's self proclamation. This is God's description of himself. He is full of mercy. He loves to hold back condemnation and destruction that's been earned. He is full of grace.

He loves to freely give favor and good, really give favor and good, which is completely undeserved. He suffers long. He's so patient. The wages of sin is death, and he maintains the right to pay those wages at any moment, the nanosecond after the sin, but so, so, so, so often, he gives time, lavish time, and opportunity to repent, to turn and find that God is a God of mercy, is a God full of grace. He abounds in goodness, not a little good, overflowing with good, super abounding in goodness.

He abounds in truth. He doesn't tell the truth. He is the truth. 1 John 1 5 says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is 100% truth, 100% good, without even the slightest hint at all of falsehood and corruption.

Everything we know, everything we touch, everything we experience is a mixture at best. God is no mixture. He's all good in truth without even a hint at all of corruption or falsehood. He forgives the sins of thousands. But he also maintains his righteousness.

He doesn't clear the guilty, even allowing the reaping of what has been sown down through several generations. He is utterly glorious in his self-existence. He is utterly glorious in the fullness of his mercy. He is utterly glorious in his forgiveness he is utterly glorious in his justice he is utterly glorious you cannot gaze upon him Moses has just seen a little from the back. He does what you would do.

He made haste to bow down and worship. He's just acknowledging the obvious that there's one thing to do when you see a little of the glory of this God. You must adore him. You must adore him. It is a crime not to adore him.

Finally number four, Deuteronomy 18, 18. Deuteronomy 18, 18. Just one verse. Deuteronomy 18, verse 18. Moses is relating to the nation of Israel what God told him.

He says what God had said to him. We read this. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren. I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Moses was mighty in the Lord.

People didn't listen to him. God promised to raise up a prophet like him that the people would listen to. This is fulfilled in Jesus, the son of God, the Messiah God. Jesus is God, and it's just representative. I just picked one verse to represent a host of verses in Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and the books of Moses, of the pictures of Jesus and the types of Jesus and the prophecies of Jesus and the foreshadows of Jesus and the promises about Jesus in Moses's books.

Jesus is everywhere in Moses's books so that in Luke Chapter 24 when two disciples were on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection and Jesus falls in with them on their journey, but they don't know that it's Jesus. And he begins to speak with these two disciples. We read this. Then Jesus said to them, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded them and expounded to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself so that in concerning himself. So that in Acts 28 when Paul was preaching Christ from from prison we read this in Acts 28 verse 23.

So when they had appointed him a day, when they had appointed Paul a day, many came to him at his lodging to whom he explained and solemnly testified at the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. Paul could preach out of Moses from morning and evening and the prophets. It could take all day to show you the Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Zechariah and on. Because Jesus is the ultimate self revelation of God, God revealed himself to Moses in all of the pictures and types and foreshadows and prophecies and promises of a savior who would come and redeem his people. In conclusion, let me say three things.

First, God wants to be known. His glory is too glorious to be hidden he must be known he has revealed himself second Why the exploits in the life of Moses? Why the wonders in Egypt? Why the Red Sea? Why water out of a rock?

Why Sustained through 40 years, holding this people together through 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. It is because Moses knew his God that he did the great exploits. It is because God raised him up and revealed himself to Moses that makes Moses able to go out on the limb again and again and again to Stick his neck out again and again. Moses knew God. That's why the exploits.

Third and finally, Do not pine away from Moses' revelation. Oh, if only God would reveal himself to me like that. Where's my burning bush? Where's my crevice in the rock? No friends, the prophets longed to see what we see.

We don't have it worse than Moses, we have it better than Moses. We're on the other side of Jesus. The things that he saw through a glass darkly we see in technicolor. Friends, this God is thrilling. This God is sufficient to satisfy the soul in time and eternity, in life and then forever.

The one who asks receives. God reveal yourself to me. The one who seeks, finds. Seek him. This book is telling you he wants to be known.

The door is opened to the one who knocks. Be like Jacob, I will not let you go until you bless me. This God is thrilling. Seek Him. God, I thank you for your subjective revelation of yourself to us.

The indwelling of your Holy Spirit who cries out within us, Abba Father, that gives us this internal impulse where we're identified as really yours, really your children. I'm so grateful for that. At the same time, I'm thankful for writing in stone. I'm thankful for an objective revelation of you that when my feeling fades there my Bible is telling me who you are. Thank you for raising up Moses for this great purpose that you would reveal yourself to him.

Using words, you would compel him to write them down. You would protect them through the centuries and millennia. So now I can know who you are. Thank you for being a God who desires to be known. Thank you for being a God who is thrilling to know.

Pray that day by day we would be more and more satisfied with you, less and less satisfied with the trinkets that compete for our attention. Maybe so in Jesus' name, amen.