God's Faithfulness: Ad Infinitum

Week’s Key Verse 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” – Exodus 34:6-9 Introduction Ad Infinitum: again and again in the same way; forever. God’s faithfulness truly is Ad infinitum. As we begin today’s devo, I want to start by looking at verse 6 above as our key. “6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’” God is talking directly to Moses and the people of Israel here. He shares his nature with us, but it is easy to miss. “The part where God proclaimed that he was merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” What does that mean? A Burning Encounter 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. – EXODUS 3:1-6 Two things strike me in this encounter. The first of which has to do with God saying “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” If you go back to read the accounts of those men, you’ll see that with each new generation God establishes his covenant with them. He takes the time reiterate to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses. The second is what I’d like to focus on. This burning bush. Let’s set the stage a bit. Egypt, 80+ years earlier, the pharaoh fearing an uprising calls for infanticide. He orders all the male Hebrew children to be thrown into the Nile River. Moses’ mom loves him enough to hide him in a basket and send him away. He grows up in the courts of the pharaoh and in time finds out who he really is. He kills an Egyptian guard and flees. At about the age of 40, or so, he arrives in Midian, marries Zipporah and starts into sheep herding for Jethro, his father in law. He’s a fugitive, but for 40 years, he’s alive and we can only assume happy. He one day is herding the sheep when he has an encounter with God that leaves him different. He noticed a bush that was on fire, but not consumed. What is interesting to me is the first thing God shares with him. We see in Vv. 5 and 6 that God firstly helps Moses realize where he is, but second helps him realize who he’s talking to. God in a beautiful statement of his infinite faithfulness lays out his credentials. Moses had a burning encounter with the living God. And God, in his faithfulness to Moses, didn’t leave him for the rest of his life. “I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, OF ISAAC, AND OF JACOB,” Things happen, they go along on a journey together. We read later of the wonders of God. But the one thing that keeps coming up is God’s faithfulness. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. – DEUTERONOMY 34:1-6 Moses made a mistake. God asked him to speak to a rock and God would cause water to come out of it. Moses chose instead to strike the rock. God had bailed Israel out time and time again, but in this instance, I believe Moses was angry with Israel and allowed his anger with the people to overwhelm his faithfulness to God. Up to this point, Moses has been the only man to encounter God in this way. He had been face to face with God. He’d led, with God’s help, 2 million or so Hebrews through the Desert, to the very borders of their promise and then through the desert for 40 years of punishment. He’d had enough, I am sure, of all the junk. All the flaky belief, the lack of trust, the faithlessness of Israel, but God remained with them. In fact, God treated Moses and the children of Jacob consistently. With patience and long-suffering. Tying up Loose-Ends So we have just read two accounts, how do we wrap up and parse what we have just heard? With the theme that I am trying to present here we have two seemingly disparate stories about the faithfulness of God. But in reality, both are connected. Firstly the burning bush. We in the church often use this type of experience to denote an amazing encounter that changes us forever. God is the same, yesterday today and forever. He has told us he doesn’t change. When we encounter him in the way Moses did, being changed forever by moment with Him, he doesn’t ever leave us hanging. Moses encountered God. He walked with God for 120 years. He lived in God’s presence for days on end. Yet, as we see, Moses made a mistake. And God being who he is, has to visit justice on Moses. He doesn’t allow him to go into the land. But he allows Moses to see it and be with Him in the holy mountain. Beth Peore was near Mt. Horeb, where Moses first saw the Goodness of God with his eyes, and yet lived. Could it be that in the end of our lives, after we have said and done all we can, God will bring us back to that first experience and remind us yet again that he was with us in the wilderness? Could it be that after all we say and do to hurt our relationship with God, his faithfulness to us will not ever leave us? Jesus is proof positive of that fact. By coming, living perfect, and dying for us, he yet again shone a light on God’s faithfulness which is truly the same forever and ever.