Latest / Scripture Central / The Great I AM is Always with You | Exodus 1-6 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | Mar 23-29

Transcript

The Great I AM is Always with You | Exodus 1-6 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | Mar 23-29 · Scripture Central

0:00
We worship a God who listens to us, who sees our challenges.
0:04
Jesus Christ has not forgotten who you are.
0:06
He knows how you feel. The great I am came all the way
0:12
down so that we could be lifted all the way up.
0:15
It's not who Moses was. It's not who you are.
0:19
It's who's with us that really makes the difference.
0:23
And The Great I am is still with us today.
0:32
Today we're starting our journey into the book of Exodus and I'm
0:35
so excited. Now it might be awful at the
0:37
start to ask ourselves the question who wrote the book of
0:41
Exodus? And when I was younger I never
0:43
really wondered that question because the Bible that I had
0:45
said very clearly the second book of Moses called Exodus.
0:49
And this reflects a long standing Jewish and Christian
0:52
tradition that Moses is the author of the first five books
0:56
of the Bible. And definitely he had a handed
0:58
it because Jesus himself said if you believed Moses, you would
1:02
believe me, for he wrote about me.
1:05
But the earliest manuscripts that we have of Genesis, Exodus,
1:09
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, they don't have
1:11
this heading that it was the first or second or third book of
1:15
Moses. That's something that comes
1:17
later. The text itself never names an
1:19
author. The Come Follow Me manual says
1:22
the first five books of the Old Testament, which are
1:24
traditionally attributed to Moses, probably passed through
1:28
the hands of numerous scribes and compilers over time.
1:32
So unlike the Book of Mormon, where Nephi or Mormon or Moroni
1:36
is very explicit in introducing themselves and telling us what
1:40
they're doing, the Bible often doesn't do that.
1:43
And Genesis through Deuteronomy definitely doesn't.
1:45
But that doesn't concern me because as the comfort of
1:48
Emmanuel continues, still the books of Moses are the inspired
1:52
words of God, even though they are, like any work of God,
1:55
transmitted through mortals, subject to human imperfections.
2:00
So even if we don't know who wrote it, the book of Exodus
2:03
remains one of the most exciting books of Scripture.
2:06
You know it's good because they've made so many movies
2:08
about it. This is a movie where babies are
2:10
rescued, a Bush burns without being consumed.
2:13
Moses boldly confronts the most powerful person on the earth.
2:17
We'll see rivers that turn to blood, a sea that split in two,
2:20
and manna fall from heaven. But Exodus is more than
2:24
Scripture made for Hollywood. It's a road map for us to go
2:29
back home. If we step back and look at the
2:33
big picture of Exodus, we see a structure that's really
2:36
illuminating. Exodus chapters one through 15
2:39
take us from slavery to salvation, and sometimes it can
2:44
feel like we're in bondage. We're stuck, but God is calling
2:48
to set us free. The next several chapters take
2:51
us from rescue to relationship. Because God wasn't just getting
2:56
a people out of Egypt, he was forming a covenant relationship
3:00
with them. Now, the final section of the
3:02
book of Exodus, I'll admit, is a little tricky.
3:05
These chapters can almost seem tedious.
3:07
There's chapter after chapter of little details about how the
3:11
Tabernacle would be constructed or what kind of clothing the
3:15
priest would wear. But these chapters are all about
3:18
preparing to enter into God's presence.
3:21
And interestingly enough, there's quite a bit of
3:23
correlation between details of the Tabernacle and priestly
3:27
garments and our own temple worship.
3:29
So these verses and chapters are ones we don't want to skip.
3:32
They'll take us into the presence of God.
3:35
Now, this is just the briefest of overviews, and I hope that
3:38
you're taking a look at other resources that are out there.
3:41
For example, I love the Bible Project videos that give big
3:44
picture overviews of each book of Scripture.
3:47
That's a great resource to look at in terms of the big picture
3:50
that we talked about in our very first day of class.
3:54
We're here roughly around the year 1300 BC, and that's plus or
3:59
minus a century or two. We know that Joseph brought his
4:02
family into Egypt, and for a time everything was going
4:05
wonderfully well. But by the time we get to the
4:07
book of Exodus, the Israelites are in bondage.
4:11
And today, as we explore the first six chapters of Exodus,
4:14
we'll see three main themes, Righteous resistance, The God
4:19
Who Remembers, and the Great I Am.
4:21
And as we start out talking about a righteous resistance, I
4:25
want to highlight two names that I fear are not well enough
4:28
known, Shipra and Puah. Did you notice that Pharaoh, the
4:33
most powerful person in the known universe?
4:36
His name is never mentioned in these chapters, but Shipra and
4:41
Pua, 2 humble Hebrew midwives are named.
4:44
In fact, it's not just Shipra and Pua.
4:47
In Exodus chapters one through 4, there are five named women
4:51
and one unnamed woman who save Moses's life.
4:55
You've got his sister Miriam, his mother Yak Bed, his wife
4:59
Zipporah, the Pharaoh's daughter.
5:01
That's the unnamed woman, plus Shipra and Pua.
5:05
Without these women, there would have been no crossing of the Red
5:08
Sea, No 10 Commandments, no entry into the Promised Land.
5:12
These women are absolutely vital to the whole Gospel story.
5:17
So let's take a closer look at Shipra and Pua.
5:21
Think about this question. If the president of the United
5:24
States called you and asked you to do something you knew was
5:28
wrong, what would you do? Now, we want to say I would
5:32
absolutely say no, but I've actually been asking this
5:34
question to people lately and they're like, that would be
5:38
really tough because it's the president.
5:40
The president has a lot of power, could manipulate you,
5:42
your job, your family. Plus the president might know
5:45
more than you know. What would you do if you were a
5:49
Hebrew midwife? You have very little power and
5:53
Pharaoh himself looks you in the eyes and says when you are
5:58
helping the Hebrew woman during childbirth, if it's a boy, kill
6:02
him. It's obviously wrong, but
6:06
Pharaoh's in charge. What will you do?
6:08
Shipra and Puah feared God. They did not do as the king of
6:13
Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.
6:18
That is a great verse I think to mark in scripture.
6:20
I'm sure there was some part of them in the back of their minds.
6:23
I was thinking I should just go with the flow man don't rock the
6:26
boat. Society is definitely saying
6:28
follow the Pharaoh, but instead they said God comes first.
6:34
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them family.
6:38
I think that's beautiful. They gave life to others and God
6:44
gave life to them. Who would I have the courage to
6:48
be like Shipra or PUA? Recently I learned about someone
6:52
who's a little bit closer to our day who reminded me of being a
6:56
modern Shipra. His name is Helmuth Huebner.
6:59
He was just 10 years old when he was baptized a member of the
7:02
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
7:04
Growing up in Nazi Germany, like almost all German boys, he
7:08
joined Hitler Youth. But he quickly became disturbed
7:11
by the propaganda he was seeing and the mistreatment of Jews.
7:15
He got together with some friends and started listening to
7:19
the BBC broadcasts, and he learned the truth of what was
7:22
going on. Now, that alone was a
7:26
treasonable crime, but he went one step further.
7:29
He didn't just listen, he started writing.
7:31
He wrote pamphlets attacking the Nazis, for example.
7:35
One pamphlet said German boys, do you know the country without
7:38
freedom, the country of terror and tyranny?
7:40
Yes. You know it well but are afraid
7:42
to talk about it. They have intimidated you to
7:44
such an extent that you don't dare talk for fear of reprisals.
7:47
They have succeeded you in making you spineless puppets to
7:51
do their bidding. So Helmuth would print these
7:54
fires and put them in different people's mailboxes or in a phone
7:58
booth. One fire was even more bold.
8:00
Hitler is the guilty. 1 He is the cause of the war, of the
8:04
mass murderers, of the persecutions of the Jews.
8:08
With some of the other young men and his branch, he made great
8:11
efforts to spread the word that Hitler was not the savior that
8:15
many of the Germans thought he was.
8:17
Well, eventually Helmuth was arrested, interrogated, and at
8:22
the age of 17, tried as an adult before the People's Court.
8:26
But still, Helmuth did not back down after he was handed the
8:30
death sentence. He said to the judge, now I must
8:34
die even though I've committed no crime.
8:37
So now it's my turn. But your turn will come.
8:41
On the day he died, he wrote a letter to some members of his
8:44
branch saying, I am calm and composed.
8:47
May the Lord bless you all and watch over you your Helmuth.
8:52
Helmuth is the youngest known German resistance member to be
8:57
sentenced to death by the People's Court.
9:00
In fact, they recently made a movie about him.
9:03
Can you see how he's a Shipra or a Pua?
9:06
The midwives in Helmuth both resisted evil with brave action.
9:10
But of course, you'll notice that there's a difference in
9:13
their stories. Shipra and Pua are blessed with
9:15
families, and Helmuth is executed just like we talked
9:19
about in an earlier class about the contrast between Abraham and
9:23
the three virgins on the altar. Just because you do the right
9:26
thing does not mean that everything is going to work out
9:28
the way you would hope. In fact, this story is another
9:31
reminder that faithfulness is not about outcomes, it's about
9:35
obedience. You and I might not live under a
9:38
Pharaoh, but we're still going to face moments where we feel
9:42
the pressure to go along with the crowd, to not make things
9:46
awkward. And in those moments, we're
9:48
going to have to decide, do I follow Pharaoh or do I follow
9:51
God? How have you followed God when
9:55
you've been pressured not to? I remember hearing God speaking
9:59
to me and saying you're too young to focus on our
10:02
relationships or a mission. A lot of my friends judge me.
10:05
A lot of people looked at me and they told me that I was doing
10:08
the wrong thing. But I know that God was with me,
10:11
especially in protecting me and helping me prepare to serve a
10:14
mission. And I know that that that
10:16
mission changed the course of my life.
10:18
Beautiful example. Thank you.
10:21
Now, just to be clear, when you're in a really tough
10:23
situation, it's not just that you have to grit your teeth and
10:27
say, OK, I've got to channel my inner Shipra.
10:29
Like I've got to do this with my own strength because we can turn
10:32
to the source that shipra and Pua turn to Jesus Christ, who we
10:37
might even say is the greater Shipra.
10:39
Remember, the midwives feared God and did not do what the king
10:46
of Egypt had told them. I don't think fear in this
10:49
context is like they were afraid they were going to be punished
10:51
by God. This was more of a reverence for
10:53
God, a respect for God, a love for God.
10:56
Because of this love for God, they were motivated to do what
11:00
was right, and their actions point us to Jesus Christ.
11:04
The midwives risk their lives to save innocent babies.
11:08
Jesus Christ gave his life to save guilty sinners.
11:11
The midwives defied Pharaoh, the most powerful man on earth.
11:15
Jesus confronted death and held the most powerful fears in the
11:18
universe. The midwives were rewarded for
11:21
their righteousness. Jesus gave up his reward.
11:25
He was condemned so that we could be forgiven, and now he
11:29
strengthens us to resist evil just like he did Shipra and Pua.
11:35
He is the God who remembers. So because of many courageous
11:40
women, Moses is going to grow up and have the opportunity to help
11:45
set the Israelites free from bondage.
11:48
And again, I want to honor his mother.
11:50
Yacht bed. Think about how brave she was
11:54
when Moses was a little child. Do you think she had any inkling
11:58
of what Moses would become? I'm not sure if Moses ever
12:02
performed any many miracles. I doubt he parted his bathwater,
12:07
but scripture suggests that there actually were indications
12:11
that he was a special boy. In the book of Hebrews it says
12:14
by faith Moses's mother hid him for three months after he was
12:19
born because they saw he was no ordinary child and they were not
12:24
afraid of the King's edict. I wish we knew a lot more about
12:29
yacht bed and the other mothers of the Old Testament.
12:32
Did you know there are 84 named mothers in the Old Testament?
12:38
Now you might be thinking yourself further than That is an
12:40
amazing fact and I wish I could learn a lot more about them.
12:43
Well, wish granted. My wife and I actually wrote an
12:45
article called Motherhood in the Old Testament and I invite you
12:49
to read a link to it on the course website.
12:52
But I love to think about Moses faith and the faith of his
12:56
entire family. And think about Moses.
12:58
His life wasn't easy when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew
13:04
slave. He intervened, but that
13:06
backfired and soon Moses is rejected by his own people on
13:10
the run from Pharaoh. So he flees to Midian where he
13:12
marries Sephora and becomes a shepherd.
13:15
Now, if you were just to guess how much time passes between
13:18
Moses leaving Egypt and the burning Bush, and if you had
13:24
asked me based on the movies I'd watch, I'd say, you know, maybe
13:27
a few weeks, a couple of months. It's actually 40 years.
13:31
Moses leaves Egypt when he's 40, and the burning Bush comes when
13:35
he's 80 years old. So for 40 years, Moses is just
13:39
kind of doing his thing, being the shepherd, maybe even
13:42
thinking to himself, you know, I, I could have done some great
13:45
thing, but I missed my chance. And I wonder if sometimes we in
13:50
our lives feel a little bit like Moses.
13:53
We've tried to do the right thing, but it's just not working
13:56
out. Maybe you prayed about which
13:58
classes to take this semester, but they're not going well.
14:01
Or you feel impressed to move to a new neighborhood, but now you
14:05
have no friends. Or there's a time when the Holy
14:07
Ghost is really working strongly in your heart and you feel like,
14:09
OK, I'm going to be unstoppable. But now it seems like you can't
14:13
feel that moment anymore. There's no magic formula for
14:17
what happens when we're in this middle period like Moses is in
14:20
the middle of 40 years. But there is a verse that I
14:24
think can really help. Before the parting of the Red
14:28
Sea, before the burning Bush, all the way back in Exodus 2, we
14:32
read, God heard the groaning of the Israelites.
14:36
He remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
14:40
Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites
14:44
and was concerned about them. Four simple verbs.
14:49
God heard, remembered, looked and was concerned.
14:55
It reminds us that we worship a God who listens to us, who sees
14:59
our challenges. Now when it says that God
15:02
remembered his covenant, it's not like God forgot about it.
15:05
It's not like a reminder popped up on his phone.
15:07
Say like, hey, don't forget. Don't you had a covenant with
15:09
Israel? No, actually the the Hebrew word
15:13
that's translated as remembering has a connotation of acting in
15:19
covenant faithfulness. So in other words, when the
15:21
narrator says God remembered, it means that God is ready to take
15:25
action. And from the burning Bush, God
15:28
said to Moses, go assemble the elders of Israel and say to
15:31
them, the Lord, the God of your father's, the God of Abraham,
15:34
Isaac and Jacob appeared to me and said, I have watched over
15:38
you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
15:42
It might have seemed to the Israelites that God was ignoring
15:47
them, but He was watching. It reminds me in Mark chapter 6,
15:54
when the disciples are in the boat and there's this big storm
15:57
they're toiling and rowing. They've done exactly what Jesus
16:00
told them to do. He's the one who told them to
16:01
get in the boat. They're thinking to themselves,
16:03
Why? Why isn't this working?
16:06
But Jesus was watching them the entire time.
16:10
And so Moses went to the Israelites and he told them, God
16:13
is aware of you. And what happens next really
16:16
touches me. I mean, imagine that you were in
16:18
Israelite during this time period.
16:20
Your parents were slaves, your grandparents were slaves.
16:22
You spend your whole day making bricks for a building that
16:25
you'll probably never be invited into.
16:27
And you've heard rumors of a God who made promises to some
16:30
distant ancestor named Abraham. But those promises don't really
16:35
seem to be coming true. Now Moses and Aaron come and
16:39
they start talking to you. Notice what happened to the
16:43
Israelites when they heard that the Lord was concerned about
16:46
them and had seen their misery. They bowed down and worshipped.
16:50
What inspires me about this verse is worship happened before
16:55
the miracle, before the plagues, before the parting of the Red
16:58
Sea. They are bowing down and
17:00
worshipping because they realized God remembers me.
17:05
God cares about me. You and I often want action.
17:08
We want like God to fix our problems right now.
17:11
But I wonder if sometimes God says to us, before I bring you
17:15
out of your problems, I want you to know that I see what you're
17:20
in now. My guess is we probably believe
17:23
this at some level. We might teach our Sunday school
17:26
class or our kids. God understands you.
17:28
God knows what you're going through.
17:30
But do we really believe this for ourselves?
17:34
That it's true for us? Because once the Israelites knew
17:39
God cared about them, that alone was enough for them to bow down
17:44
and worship. Their problems hadn't changed,
17:48
but their perception had. So take a moment and ponder this
17:52
question. Has there been a time in your
17:54
life where your circumstances didn't change, but you felt
17:58
healing because you knew God was aware of you?
18:03
For me, just listening to Elder, I ring say during General
18:06
conference how God is proving us, but he's also with us.
18:09
When he said that, that really touched my heart and gave me a
18:13
sense of strength and comfort, knowing that we live in these
18:17
last days. The times are intensifying, and
18:19
even in times of uncertainty and when we don't know what's going
18:23
to happen exactly, we know that the Lord is in charge.
18:26
He is the head of his church and the priesthood keys are there
18:30
with the quorum of the 12 apostles and our prophet, and
18:34
things will be OK. Thank you.
18:36
I guess I'm just a little bit slow to recognize that God is
18:43
aware of me. I recognize it after the
18:47
experience is completed. And I'll say the only way we got
18:53
through that is because God was with us and was aware of us.
18:59
Thank you. So I hope that everything in all
19:02
of our lives right now is perfect, but it's probable that
19:05
some of us are in the middle. We've left Egypt, we haven't got
19:09
to the burning Bush yet. We're stuck in this middle
19:12
period, and sometimes that middle period lasts for 40
19:16
years. It's not easy, but worship
19:19
begins when we realize that we have not been forgotten.
19:24
Jesus Christ, I testify, has not forgotten who you are.
19:27
He knows how you feel. In the book of Hebrews we read,
19:30
we have a high priest who can feel it when we are weak and
19:35
hurting so we can worship like the Israelites did in Exodus 4.
19:39
Not because we've seen the miracle, but because God heard.
19:42
He remembered, He looked, and he was concerned.
19:48
This God is real and he is the great I am.
19:53
That brings us back to Moses and the burning Bush.
19:56
So we touched on it just briefly earlier, but let's dive in a
19:59
little bit more to what happened.
20:00
So Moses has been guiding the sheep for 40 years.
20:04
It's just another day as far as Moses is concerned.
20:07
We read Moses led his flock beyond the wilderness and came
20:11
to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.
20:13
Now this is called the mountain of God because of what's about
20:16
to happen. So the narrator is telling us
20:18
something. That Moses didn't know.
20:20
It wasn't like he was going to a special mountain that day.
20:23
He's just doing his normal thing when all of a sudden he notices
20:28
a Bush is burning, but it's not being consumed.
20:33
Moses could have said, huh, that's weird, and then gone back
20:35
to his flock. But instead he investigated it.
20:38
And I wonder if we could liken that a little bit to our own
20:41
lives. Maybe we're just going about our
20:43
normal business, doing a normal day of Scripture study, and we
20:47
feel an impression, or it's something like we're almost
20:50
hearing God speaking to us. Do we sit with it?
20:53
Do we explore it, or do we just keep on going?
20:57
Well, Moses investigated and the Lord said to him, I'm
21:01
paraphrasing here. Moses, go to the most powerful
21:04
king on earth and tell him that he needs to free all of his
21:06
slaves. I mean, how would you feel if
21:08
you were Moses and God gives you that instruction?
21:11
I'm wondering if he thought to himself, I wonder how that's
21:14
going to work. In fact, instead of jumping on
21:16
the mission, Moses starts raising objections.
21:20
It's almost comical at first. He's like, who am I?
21:22
And then he says, who are you? And what if they don't believe
21:25
me and I'm not a good speaker? And finally he says, could you
21:27
just please send somebody else? It's almost like watching
21:31
someone trying to politely wriggle out of a church calling,
21:34
right? Oh, I'm so flattered that you'd
21:35
think of me, Bishop. But really, Sister Coleman would
21:37
do a much better job. Does this sound familiar to any
21:40
of us? But God doesn't scold Moses.
21:44
Instead, he patiently answers each concern.
21:48
This might wind up being too big of a table for us to really be
21:51
able to explore. But what I want to do is look at
21:54
each objection that Moses raises.
21:57
Think about what is the underlying fear that Moses has
22:02
and then see what does God say in response to that fear.
22:07
So for example, Moses says, who am I that I should go to
22:11
Pharaoh? Underlying fear, I'm not
22:14
qualified. God says I will be with you.
22:17
Moses says, well, what if they asked me what's his name?
22:19
Maybe there's an underlying fear.
22:21
I don't know enough about God. I'm not able to go and do this.
22:25
God tells him who he is. What if they don't believe me?
22:30
A fear of failure or rejection. God gives Moses 3 signs.
22:35
I've never been eloquent. I'm slow of speech and tongue.
22:39
There's a fear of inadequacy. God's response is who gave human
22:44
beings their mouths? I will help you speak.
22:48
One of my favorites. Moses says, Pardon your
22:50
servants, O Lord, but please send somebody else.
22:54
Maybe we could see in this a fear of new challenges, maybe
22:58
metaphorically Speaking of fear to step out of the boat to see
23:01
if you can walk on water. The Lord says, what about your
23:05
brother Aaron? I will help both of you speak
23:08
and will teach you what to do. It's interesting that when Moses
23:11
says could I get a helper, God doesn't say no.
23:15
Why Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people?
23:17
You have not rescued your people at all.
23:21
Maybe in this objection we see disappointment with God's plan.
23:26
God doesn't get frustrated. He looks forward.
23:29
He says now he will see what I will do to the Pharaoh.
23:32
Another objection, if the Israelites will not listen to
23:34
me, why should Pharaoh listen to me since I speak with faltering
23:38
lips? This is actually the same
23:40
concern that Moses had brought up earlier.
23:42
And I think it's interesting that we're going to face the
23:44
same thing in our own lives. Maybe we have a doubt or
23:46
concern, we pray about it, we feel good, we're confident, we
23:49
move forward. That same self doubt out
23:52
returns. God doesn't say, hey look, I
23:54
already told you the answer buddy.
23:56
He instead reaffirms the command to bring the Israelites out and
24:01
his support for Moses. Finally Moses says, since I
24:03
speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me over
24:09
and over again? Moses is struggling with the
24:11
same doubts and fear. So we don't maybe need to feel
24:14
concerned if we have similar experiences.
24:18
Now we could go in depth on any of these, but I want to pick
24:20
just the first two and do a little bit of a deeper dive into
24:25
them. When Moses says to the Lord who
24:27
am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of
24:32
Egypt, The Lord doesn't give Moses a pep talk about high self
24:36
esteem and try to pump him up. Instead, God says to Moses, I, I
24:41
will be with you. To me, this is one of the most
24:44
important phrases in the chapters we're seeing today.
24:46
I will be with you. It tells us that it wasn't about
24:50
who Moses was, it was about who was with him.
24:55
Think about that. It's not who Moses was.
24:57
It's not who you are. It's who's with us that really
25:03
makes the difference. Another objection that Moses
25:05
raised was, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the
25:08
God of your Father's has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is
25:11
his name? Then what shall I tell them?
25:13
God responds, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to
25:19
the Israelites. I am has sent me to you.
25:23
Now you've probably noticed that in our Bibles, that phrase I am,
25:28
that I am is all capitalized. And this is to signal to us that
25:32
it's a divine name that we're talking about.
25:36
In Hebrew, what we have translated as I am means
25:40
unchanging, eternal, I will be. God is always present.
25:45
He's fully with us. And this divine name turns out
25:49
to be very important in the Savior's mortal life.
25:53
You might remember that one day Jesus was in Jerusalem debating
25:57
with some religious leaders. He said, whoever belongs to God,
26:01
here's what God says. The reason you do not hear is
26:05
that you do not belong to God. Sometimes we only picture Jesus
26:09
saying really nice things, but sometimes Jesus speaks very
26:13
sternly. The Jewish authorities didn't
26:14
like this. They responded saying, aren't we
26:16
right? And say that you are a Samaritan
26:18
and demon possessed. Jesus responded.
26:20
I am not possessed by a demon, but I honor my Father and you
26:24
dishonor me. Truly, I tell you, whoever obeys
26:28
my word will never see death. The Jewish authorities respond.
26:32
Now we know that you are demon possessed.
26:34
Abraham died and so did the prophets.
26:36
Yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste
26:40
death. Are you greater than our father
26:42
Abraham? He died and so did the prophets.
26:45
Who do you think you are? Jesus said.
26:47
Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day.
26:51
He saw it and was glad. Now if you think about it, this
26:54
statement almost doesn't make sense, right?
26:56
How would Abraham have seen Jesus?
27:00
And that's what the Jewish authorities pick up on.
27:01
They say you're not even 50 years old, you've seen Abraham.
27:05
Abraham lived 2000 years ago. You're crazy.
27:08
But then the Savior said, truly, I tell you, before Abraham was
27:14
born, I am. Jesus is reaching back to Exodus
27:19
chapter 3. He's not claiming to be a great
27:22
teacher. He's not claiming to be a really
27:24
nice person. He is taking the very name of
27:27
God upon himself. He's saying I am the one who
27:31
spoke to Moses in the burning Bush and the people understood
27:35
his message. That's why they picked up stones
27:38
to stone him, because in their mind Jesus was committing
27:42
blasphemy. But the I am who promised Moses
27:46
I will be with you was now standing with them in the flesh
27:50
saying, I am now with you, and the great I am is still with us
27:55
today. The Lord told Moses, I will be
27:58
with you. And after his resurrection he
28:01
said to his disciples, I am with you always to the end of the
28:06
age. And I testified that that's true
28:09
about us. He is with, He is the great.
28:12
I am the great Emmanuel. Now, as we've talked today about
28:16
Moses, I'm sure you've seen some similarities between him and
28:20
Jesus Christ. One of the most obvious ones is
28:23
that just like a jealous king tried to kill Moses as an
28:26
infant, a jealous king tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby.
28:31
Perhaps my favorite connection in these chapters between Moses
28:35
and Jesus Christ is found in the fact that Moses left all of
28:40
these wonderful earthly privileges in Pharaoh's house to
28:44
go down and help his people. As we read in the book of
28:47
Hebrews, by faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be
28:50
known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
28:52
He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather
28:56
than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
28:59
He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater
29:03
value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking
29:07
ahead to his reward, Jesus the greater Moses left the glory of
29:12
heaven to take on flesh and dwell among us.
29:16
As the apostle Paul wrote, Christ emptied himself, taking
29:20
the form of a slave, assuming human likeness.
29:23
He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,
29:28
even death on a cross. Moses gave up privilege to
29:33
suffer with his people. Jesus gave up glory to die in
29:39
the place of his people. The great I am came all the way
29:45
down so that we could be lifted all the way up.
29:49
And because of Him, you and I are never alone.
29:52
I hope you felt today that we worship a God who sees, who
29:57
hears, who remembers, and who is concerned about each one of us.
30:02
Because I testify that the great I am is now and always will be
30:07
with us.