I AM Has Sent Me to You

​Advent Midweek 3                                                                                        LSB #’s 341, 765, 350
Text – Exodus 3:14
 
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.’”
 
I AM HAS SENT ME TO YOU
 
 
Henry Ward Beecher was a famous preacher back in the 1800s.  He wrote a prayer that makes a good introduction for tonight, even if it’s in the King’s English.  
We beseech of Thee, O Lord our God,  that Thou wilt grant to every one of us the special
mercies which he needs – strength where weakness prevails, & patience where courage
has failed.  Grant, we pray Thee,  that those who need long-suffering may find themselves
strongly upborne & sustained.  Grant if any are heart-weary & sick from hope deferred  that they may find rest in Thee.[1]
 
Old words – still true  today.    Aren’t there times  you find yourself needing the will to endure?  Days when you can’t find the strength within  to persevere?  “God, I need patience & I need it now!”   All of us go through stretches when we need, as Henry Ward Beecher prayed, a greater spirit of long-suffering.  Maybe you’re going through such a time now.  
Your heavenly Father knows what you are going through.  Immanuel is with you, not just at Christmas  but every day.  Society will put baby Jesus away on December 26th.   Is the birth of Jesus  just a seasonal holiday?   This Advent message is a plea:
Trust that God is coming to you all year long,  especially when you are going through rough times.  With intentional devotion, through Scripture & prayer, the Spirit will indeed give you long-suffering,  & Beecher’s prayer will be answered.  You will find yourself “strongly upborne & sustained.”  
The Bible reading from Exodus tells how God answered the cries of His children when they were suffering in Egypt.  Here’s the background.  When the land of Canaan experienced severe famine, Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt.  He took his family there, refugees treated perhaps as refugees are often treated.   However, when it was revealed that Jacob’s son Joseph was the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt,  those refugees settled there permanently under most favorable conditions.  
But on this side of heaven, good things don’t last forever!  We pick up the story generations later:
“There arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.   And he said to his people: ‘Behold, the people of Israel are too many & too mighty for us.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply...  Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens…  So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves,  & made their lives bitter with hard service…’”  (Ex 1:8–11a, 13-14 ESV)  
 
I can’t imagine!  What do you do  in your times of severe suffering?  The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery & cried out for help: “Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.  And God heard their groaning, & God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, & with Jacob.”  (Exodus 2:23b–24 ESV)    God saw the people of Israel & God knew. 
Jesus tells us, ‘Your heavenly Father knows’ (Matthew 6:32),  but – this is important – the children of Israel did not know  that God was coming to their help.  From what they could see & experience, God was not answering their prayer,  even though He most certainly was.   Unknown to them, God was preparing a great advent  for their rescue.  
“God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.”  (LSB 765:2)   Whether we see it or not,  in our times of suffering, we can trust that our prayers to God are heard & being answered  in His best way.   As the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to write: “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking  I will hear.”  (Isaiah 65:24 ESV) 
Unbeknownst to those suffering people,  God was sending someone to rescue them.  Moses, an Israelite, was one of them,  but he’d gotten into trouble with Pharaoh.  So he fled from Egypt to the land of Midian.  One day, while tending the flock of his father-in-law, Moses saw the famous burning bush: “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”  (Exodus 3:3 ESV)   Yahweh spoke to Moses out of the bush:
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt & have heard their cry because of their taskmasters… & I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.”  (Exodus 3:7–8 ESV)   All well & good, but then God gets personal: “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  (Exodus 3:10 ESV)  
Whoa, thinks Moses.  Could we talk about this?  “If I come to the people of Israel & say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ & they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God answers with a most solemn pronouncement, “I AM who I AM.”  (Exodus 3:14 ESV) 
Their prayer for help, our prayers for help when we need long-suffering, are heard by the God who is “I AM who I AM.”  Everything in this life is transitory.  Your suffering is for a time.  We are mortal.  Only God always is, present tense – forever.  “‘To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?’ says the Holy One.”  (Isaiah 40:25 ESV)    “I AM who I AM.”  
“Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  (Exodus 3:14 ESV)  “I AM has sent me  to you.”  Who is the “me” God sends?  Obviously, it’s Moses.  With signs & wonders, he brought promises of deliverance.  Those promises sustained the people with long-suffering as they hoped for deliverance.  So,  yes!    I AM sent Moses,  but there is another  who is sent.  
Decades later, at the end of his life, Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to Him you shall listen.”  (Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV)   There is another prophet, a prophet greater than Moses, the ultimate “I AM” who will be sent.  
Seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus solemnly says, “I am.”  In John 6, “I am the
bread of life.”  (6:35, 41, 48, 51)   In John 8, “I am the light of the world.”  (8:12)   At John 10, “I am the door of the sheep,” (10:7, 9) & “I am the good shepherd.”  (10:11, 14)   In John 11, “I am the resurrection & the life.” (11:25)  At John 14, “I am the way,  the truth,  & the life.” (14:6)  Finally, in John 15, “I am the true vine.”  (15:1, 5) 
It wasn’t just ‘some god’ who spoke to Moses at the burning bush.  It was the Triune God speaking – the Father, the Son, & the Spirit of the Father & the Son.   The Triune God is a sending God.  The Triune “I AM” sends Jesus to you & to me.  He says, “…the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”  (John 5:36 ESV)  
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  (John 6:29 ESV)   “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, & Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  (John 17:3)   Greater than the exodus Moses led out of Egypt  is the exodus Jesus is leading out of this evil world  that is corrupted by sin. 
“…you were ransomed ... not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  He was known before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead & gave Him glory, so that your faith & hope are in God.”  (1 Peter 1:18-21)  
 
Moses had done signs & wonders to point ancient Israel to God’s promise of deliverance.  When Jesus did signs & wonders, the crowds exclaimed, “…This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”  (John 6:14 ESV)  It is to Him you shall listen.  Faith means  living your daily life aware that  “I AM” comes to you as your “…very present help in trouble.”  (Psalm 46:1) 
Jesus promises, “…I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:20 ESV)   He encourages, “…I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  (Hebrews 13:5 ESV)   Even though you may still be deep in suffering, trusting the promise of Jesus’ presence will bear you up.   “When all things seem against us, / To drive us to despair, / We know one gate is open, / One ear will hear our prayer.”  (LSB 915:4)   “The practice of the presence of God” said 17th century monk Brother Lawrence, “is to find joy in His divine company & to make it a habit of life, speaking humbly & conversing lovingly with Him at all times, every moment, without rule or restriction, above all at times of temptation, distress, dryness & revulsion, & even of faithlessness & sin.”[2]  
Nothing is better for you than the safety & surety of knowing you are in the presence of God.  “The eternal God is your dwelling place, & underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27a ESV)   Let me close, or almost close with a joke you probably have heard.  
Flood waters are rising.  A man is forced up to the roof of his house.  A boat comes to rescue him, but the man says, “No, God will rescue me.”   A helicopter comes; again the man says, “No, God will rescue me.”  The waters keep rising & sweep him away.  He dies.   In heaven he asks God, “Why didn’t you rescue me?”  
God answers, “I sent the boat & the helicopter.  Why didn’t you go with them?”    As Moses was sent by God, as the Father sent Jesus, they now send you & me to bring our Lord’s rescue to others.  Jesus says, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me,  even so I am sending you.”  (John 20:21 ESV)  
Yes, that means evangelism to people who don’t yet know that God sent Jesus into the world to bring us forgiveness & everlasting life.   It also means us encouraging one another at all times,  especially when a fellow believer is going through hard times.  
We share our mutual woes, / Our mutual burdens bear,
And often for each other flows / The sympathizing tear.  (LSB 649:3) 
The Bible is God’s Book of Advents to encourage us.  When we pray for long-suffering in our times of trouble, God comes to bear us up & sustain us.  The I AM at the burning bush, the I AM who is the Son of God – Jesus Christ,  is still coming to us through His Spirit & word.  Advents abound.  
“…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, & endurance produces character, & character produces hope,  & hope does not put us to shame,  because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Roman 5:3–5 ESV)  
“Therefore encourage one another with these words.”  (1 Thessalonians 4:18 ESV)  Amen.
 
God moves in a mysterious way  His wonders to perform;  He plants His footsteps in the sea  & rides upon the storm.      Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,  but trust Him for His grace;  behind a frowning providence  faith sees a smiling face.    You fearful saints,  fresh courage take;  the clouds you so much dread  are big with mercy & will break  in blessings on your head.  Amen.  LSB 765:1-2, 5.


[1] For All the Saints, ed. Frederick J. Schumacher (Delhi, NY: American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1996), vol. 4, 488.

[2] Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1981), 68.