God Came Down To Rescue His People

In the famous passage about the burning bush (Exodus 3) God Almighty appears to Moses. He tells Moses that he has seen his people's affliction in Egypt and has heard their cries, and knows their suffering. And he is about to do something about it: God himself has come down to rescue his people!

It is God who will rescue. God himself has come down to rescue his people! Israel could not rescue themselves. Moses had tried to rescue the people and failed (Ex 2:11-15). A new king has risen to power, but did not rescue Israel (2:23). God is Israel’s only hope, and he has come down to rescue them!

But next we see that, though God himself will rescue Israel, God has chosen to do it through a mediator. God had said that he had come down to deliver Israel, but then he told Moses, “Come, I will send you…” (v10). So who will rescue Israel, God or Moses? Yes. God will rescue, but he has chosen to do it through a man who will serve as a mediator between God and his people. Oh, the gospel implications here (which we will highlight below)!!

God then revealed his covenant name to Moses. “I AM WHO I AM." He said, “Tell the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you." So the God who IS - the unchanging, constant, uncreated God - has revealed his rescue plan for his people! And this plan is not a rescue attempt; rather Israel's rescue is certain. God gives his word: "I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt" (3:17).

How is this relevant to us?
In these events we see clear pictures of Jesus Christ, the ultimate Rescuer of God’s people, to whom the whole Bible points; Jesus said Moses wrote about him (John 5:39, 46; Luke 24:25-27; 44-45; Acts 10:43)! Notice these glorious fulfillments of types and pictures we see in Exodus 3, beautifully realized in Christ:

1. God Rescues us through a Man, who is Mediator between God and men. Just as Moses served as mediator between God and Israel, Christ is the God-Man:

• For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus 1 Timothy 2:5

2. Moses was sent by I AM; Jesus is I AM! Jesus clearly claimed to be God, using the name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, the I AM.

• Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” [57] So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” [58] Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” [59] So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. John 8:56-59

See also John 6:35(“I am the bread of life”); 8:12 (“I am the light of the world”); 10:7 (“I am the door of the sheep”), 10:11 (“I am the good shepherd”); 11:25 (“I am the resurrection and the life”); 14:6 (“I am the way, the truth, and the life”); 15:1 (“I am the true vine”).

3. In Christ, God Has Come Down to Rescue! God has come down to us in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue his people from every nation! We could not come up to God, so he humbled himself and came for us!

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… John 1:1, 14a

• No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. John 3:13

• For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. [40] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:38-40

• I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John 6:51

4. Rescue is Certain. I Promise I Will Rescue You (Ex 3:17). Just as God promised to rescue Israel, so we have God's word that he will rescue all who comes to him through Jesus Christ.

• All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. John 6:37

• And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. 1 John 2:25

• So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul... Hebrews 6:17-19a

Praise God! Though we were helpless in our sins, God has come down to rescue us in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ! Believe the Promise. Rescue – eternal rescue and blessedness with God – is certain for all of God’s people; those who have believed on Christ. Cry out to God for rescue: from our sins, from his just wrath, from our vices and lusts and idols and self-righteousness; from Satan, the world system, death, hell and the grave. Cry out to the Rescuer to be delivered from these things, and rescued to the eternal enjoyment of God in Christ!

Jesus Was Not Created...EVER

Is Jesus a created being? Perhaps you've wondered about this. Did God make Jesus? Did Jesus begin to exist when he was born as a man? Or maybe he was created by God sometime before that? Because the truth is, if Jesus was NEVER created - but eternally exists - the only option we are left with is that he is...God!

The opening lines of John's gospel give us a firm answer to this question:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us... grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:1-3, 14, 17, ESV)

Verse 17 identifies who John is talking about as "Jesus Christ." Verse 14 tell us that he 'became flesh.' So John is clearly referring to Jesus, who became a Man.

But the first three verses teach us about the nature of Jesus' identity. Jesus is the Word, who was in the beginning "with God." To say that Jesus was "with" God shows that he is a separate Person from God. But then John tells us that this Person who was "with" God "was God." Amazing! He is separate from God and he is God.

But verse 3 is what answers our question about Jesus' origin. "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." Do you see how John words the same thought two different ways? Is he being redundant? No, he is being clear! He is telling us that Jesus was never created!

To say that all things were made "through" Jesus is one thing. But John then adds that "without" Jesus "was not any thing made that was made." He is saying that God created NOTHING apart from Jesus...not even Jesus! This means that Jesus was involved in the creation of everything, and that nothing (not even himself) was created by God, apart from Jesus. Do you see it? No spirit, no angel, no particle, no being was made by God the Father apart from Jesus. Jesus is the eternally existent Son of God who was always with God and always God. And through Jesus anything that has ever been created was created. In other words, anything not created by Jesus is not created. Since Jesus exists, and all things that were created were made by him, and he did not make himself, he is God. Wow!

But what about Colossians 1:15, which refers to Jesus as the "firstborn of all creation"? Some say this means that Jesus was the first created thing (firstborn of creation = created first). But Paul is here speaking about Jesus' right to rule over his creation - the right of the firstborn of the King. King David was spoken of in this way ("I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" Psalm 89:27).

Jesus is God. He is a separate Person from God the Father. He is a separate Person from God the Holy Spirit. But the three, while separate Persons, are shown in Scripture to be One God.

To me, the clearest evidence in the Bible that Jesus is God is where God the Father is quoted as calling Jesus God! This is found in Hebrews 1. First God tells the angels to worship the firstborn (Jesus the Son) (verse 6). You don't worship anyone but God (Matthew 4:10)! But then he clearly calls Jesus God:

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever... (Hebrews 1:8, ESV)

There are many other clear references to Jesus' divinity in Scripture, but how can you argue with God himself? Whoever God calls God is God, right?

So...if Jesus is God, have you worshiped him as God? Have you believed his words? Have you trusted in his substitutionary death on the cross for your sins and believed in his resurrection from the dead for salvation? Jesus is both God and the way to God (John 14:6). Don't be sidetracked by other things, other ideas, other 'ways.' Look to Jesus!

Jesus is the GOD Isaiah Saw...Before Jesus Was Born!

In the year that King Uzziah died, the prophet Issaiah saw something that blew him away and left him undone.  He saw God!  Though no man can truly see God and live (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18), it was granted for Isaiah to see a vision of God's glory.  "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne" (Is 6:1). Whoever Isaiah saw is God. He was sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and he was being worshiped by the living creatures, who cried out "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” What a statement! 
God has declared that he alone is to be worshiped (Exodus 20:3), and that he will not share his glory with another (Isaiah 48:11). The fact that the creatures are worshiping this Being in the heavenly vision proves that whoever is seated on this high throne of heaven, receiving the worship of the heavenly beings IS GOD. 

Further, the creatures declare that he is HOLY, while Jesus confirmed that there is no one good but God alone (Luke 18:19). Even more evidence that the Occupant of this throne is God!  And finally, the creatures call him "the LORD of hosts." They are using the covenant name of God himself - Yahweh!  There is no doubt that Isaiah has seen a glorious, awe-inspiring vision of Almighty God.

And then, over 700 years later, Jesus is born.  A Man.  Covered in flesh.  Like us.  And yet, God!  In John's gospel, a statement is made that is profound and jaw-dropping and absolutely life-changing.  John quotes Isaiah (Isaiah 6, the very chapter we have been discussing) and then says, "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him" (John 12:41).  Isaiah saw whose glory and spoke of whom?  Before John's quote of Isaiah, John had been speaking of (drum roll...) Jesus!  "When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled" (then the quotes from Isaiah, and then) "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him."

WOW!

Over 700 years before Jesus was born as a Man, Isaiah saw God in a heart-stirring, sin-crushing vision, and John tells us that this God - this Yahweh God who sits on the throne of heaven and is worshiped as "Holy, holy, holy" by the heavenly creatures, is none other than the Man Jesus Christ!  Whoah!  Jesus is God! 

The other quote John gives from Isaiah in John 12 is taken from Isaiah 53.  You know, the one where the suffering Servant is numbered with the transgressors, crushed by God, bears the sin of many and makes many righteous - THAT Isaiah 53. So John quotes 2 passages from Isaiah - one showing the glory of Yahweh God on his throne and the other showing the broken, dying, bloody Servant who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. And these 2 quotes are brought together in one verse, where John says, "Isaiah said these things because he saw his (Jesus') glory and spoke of him." 

The glory of Jesus was seen by Isaiah. His glory as the one worshiped on the throne, and his glory as the crucified propitiation for our sins.  Behold the glory of Jesus!

This mind-blowing declaration that Jesus was/is God agrees with the rest of Scripture:

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ...14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory...   John 1:1-3, 14 (ESV)
• For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.  Colossians 2:9 (ESV)
• He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  ...But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever...  Hebrews 1:3, 8 (ESV)  [Yes, you read that correctly. That is indeed God the Father calling Jesus "God" and declaring that his throne - the one Isaiah saw him seated on over 700 years before he was born - is forever and ever!]

So just how big is your view of Jesus Christ?  It is too small.
God was manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) in the person of the Man Christ Jesus.
Worship the Lord of glory! 
Worship Jesus!