2/20 Tell Them I Sent You

This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 20, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Tell Them I Sent You. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.

Our readings for today are Exodus 3, Luke 6, and Job 20.

Please open your Bibles to Exodus 3.

When I was in college, I worked for a civil engineering company and one of the main parts of my job was delivering blue prints to job sites and Virginia Department of Transportation offices all over the state. Most of the VDOT offices were very small dropping off plans was usually a quick affair: drop in, “here are your plans,” and I’m back on the road. But I never liked going to VDOT headquarters in Richmond because it sometimes meant waiting a long time to see the person I needed to deliver the plans and that might mean I didn’t get home until well after dinner. I mentioned this to my boss one time after a long wait in Richmond and he seemed surprised. He said, “Next time, just tell them I sent you.” I decided to try it. Sure enough, the very next time, I waltz into the office, “Mr. M sent me.” Doors just flew open, I was quickly escorted where I needed to go. It was amazing. I never had to wait again at that office. 

In today’s Scripture for Students, we’re going to see how Moses gets equipped with an even more powerful name for opening doors. Follow along with me as I read Exodus 3:1–15,

1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 

2 And the angel of 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. 

3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 

4 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.” 

5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 

6 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. 

7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 

8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 

9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 

12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 

14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 

15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.

In this story, Moses gets to see something that no one had ever seen before or has seen since. I’ve cut down a lot of bushes in my yard and then burned them in my fire pit and tell you what: they don’t last very long. Bushes burn up quick. But not this one. So Moses stops by to take a look. And then he gets a second surprise: not only is this bush fireproof, it speaks! Well, not really. God speaks through it, and calls Moses near and tells him to take off his shoes since this is a holy place. 

What happens next you could describe as “calling and commissioning.” God calls Moses into his service and commissions him—or sends him on a mission—to be God’s spokesman and the leader of God’s people to take them out of Egypt. There are other calling and commissioning scenes in the Bible—try to remember what happens in this one and when we get there, compare and contrast what happens to Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul, and even Jesus himself.

You might think that a burning bush and the voice of God speaking from that bush would be enough to convince you to do what God is sending you to do. But Moses must have had some pretty strong doubts because he speaks up in verse 11 and again in 13. He’s basically asking, “What if people don’t believe me? What if they think I am making this up?”

What comes next, in verses 14 and 15, is one of the most important moments in the entire Bible. In verse 14, God explains who he is in a way that highlights his eternal existence: I am who I am. He just is. No beginning and no end. But in verse 15, God gives Moses his actual name. He says, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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.” This is the name that will open doors for Moses. Many times in the Old Testament, we see the word Lord written with a capital L and a lower case o-r-d. That is the Hebrew word, adonai, which is a title of respect, kind of like sir or master in English. But when you see Lord in small caps: capital L and then a slightly shorter capital O-R-D, that is the Hebrew term YHWH, the name of God. And God says, “tell them I sent you.” 

This should have been more than enough for Moses, but as you’ll see over the next day or two, it wasn’t. Still, we need to think about what this moment means.

God has a name. This means he is personal and that he is very involved with his creation in general and his people in particular. Moses wasn’t out looking for God, was he? God took the initiative to draw Moses to himself, to make an introduction, and to send Moses on a mission to lead God’s people out of the tyranny of Egyptian slavery.

I’ve never seen a bush burn like this and I’ve bet you haven’t either, but God has called and commissioned every one of us, too. In fact, he is even more personally involved in our lives than he was with Moses and the Israelites. Moses heard words coming out of the burning bush, but we know from John 1:14 that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God drew near the Israelites to lead them and care for them. Jesus drew near to Christians to lead us and care for us. If you’ve ever wondered whether God cares for you, Exodus 3:15 can answer that question for good.

That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.

This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!