God Knows It…and Still Does It!

3rd Sunday in Lent, 3/24/19


Exodus 3:12-8b 10-15
God Knows It…and Still Does It!


For as long as I have been a pastor, I’ve been asked the following question, “If God knew that the devil would fall away from him, why did he create him in the first place?” A similar question is this one: “If God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, why did he create them?” And, if you think out from that a little further, you might be led to ask, “If God knew this world would become so sinful and evil, why did he create it?”

I don’t have any solid, definitive answers to those questions because, in order to definitively answer those questions, I would need to be able to delve into the depths of the infinite mind of God, which I can’t even begin to do. I try to satisfy such inquiring minds by replying, “I don’t know now. Maybe you and I will know when we reach heaven. But maybe seeking the answer to our questions then won’t matter anymore.“

But they matter to us now. And we can learn something about why our God does the things he does by studying his activity with sinful human beings, as those events are related to us on the pages of Holy Scripture. We have one such event before us this morning.

Most of us, if not all of us, know that God chose Moses to be the leader of the Children of Israel at a very dark time in Israel’s history. Abraham’s descendants were suffering terribly under their cruel Egyptian taskmasters. God appeared to Moses in the wilderness and spoke to him from a burning bush. We have that account from Exodus 3 before us from this morning. Think about it. Sure Moses became a great leader of Israel. He spoke with God like no other human being ever has. But he blew it! He blew it so bad that God didn’t allow him to go into the Promised Land. God knew that would happen, but he still did it. Why? In fact, it’s still true that God knows it…and still does it! Why? Let’s keep that truth and that question in front of us this morning. As we do so, may the Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds to the gracious and loving activity of our God!

Imagine being Moses. Here’s how his day was going: “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” We know from the Bible that Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt. When we meet him on this day, he’s 80 years old. He’s spent the last 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. But this is the day that God wants to begin speaking to Moses and using Moses for a very special purpose: to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. So how does the Lord get the attention of Moses for such a history-changing event? You might think he’d use a deafening clap of thunder or a bone-shattering earthquake.

Not so. You know how it happened. Allow me to read the familiar words: “There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’” The burning bush had its desired effect. It grabbed the attention of Moses.

But why a burning bush and not some other manifestation of the Lord’s special presence? Because the Lord wanted to convey his holiness to Moses. Just to make things clear to Moses, the Lord then instructed Moses, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

And Moses immediately indicated that he received God’s holiness message. Our text states, “At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” The holiness of God stunned Moses.

But apparently not enough. Do you recall how this event progressed? In the next chapter, after the Lord had told Moses of all the powerful things he was going to do, what was Moses’ response? One lousy excuse after another not to do what the Lord was calling him to do. “What if the Children of Israel won’t listen to me?...I can’t speak very well…Send someone else.”

What’s so amazing is that the Lord knew Moses was going to respond exactly as he did! So why would he call Moses for a special purpose in the first place? The short answer for now, is that he is gracious, loving and forgiving.

But recall that the reaction of Moses wasn’t the only reaction under divine consideration here. The main reason the Lord was calling Moses was to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

You recall how that happened, don’t you? The Lord used ten plagues—ten miraculous demonstrations of his almighty power. Each of those plagues was a direct hit on one of the false gods of the Egyptians. And at the end of the tenth plague—the plague of death—Pharaoh let Israel go, just as the Lord had said he would.

But within days after leaving Egypt, a new crisis arose among the Jews. They had Pharoah’s army behind them, chasing them down, and the Red Sea in front of them. They were trapped! And what was the response of the people? Exodus 14 records it for us. “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” Can you believe it?!

But here’s a better question, “If God knew that they would respond this way (and he certainly did), why did he rescue them in the first place?

If he knew that soon they would worship a golden calf and reject him in unbelief, why did choose them as his people? Good question! It’s at the heart of our discussion this morning. For now, let a short answer suffice. Because he is gracious, loving and forgiving.

Fast forward fifteen centuries to the time when Jesus carried out his ministry on this earth. He spent the better part of three years, preaching and teaching and performing miracles. He proclaimed with his word and showed with his miracles that he was the promised Messiah, the world’s only Savior from sin. In this season of Lent we see his astounding willingness to go all the way to Calvary’s cross to suffer and die not only for his own people, but for all people of all time.

And what was the response he got from his own people? In a few weeks we’ll hear their shouts of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” They not only rejected him, they wanted to murder him.

But listen once again to Jesus’ response to their unbelief as we heard it earlier in today’s Gospel. He tells a parable in which the owner of a fig tree wanted to cut down a worthless, fruitless fig tree. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The tree is good for nothing and only a waste of time and effort. But what does the caretaker suggest? “Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”

The caretaker represents Jesus. The fig tree represents his Jewish people. Jesus is patient and loving and forgiving and asks for more time so that his people will repent and seek him as their only Savior from sin.

But look what happened! Their hatred for him only grows, and it leads them to plot his murder and carry it out with the help of the Romans. As we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, he wanted to gather them together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they weren’t willing. And he knew that’s how they would respond. He knew…and yet he still did it. Why? The short answer for now is that he is gracious and loving and forgiving.

So, we see the Lord acting this way with Moses and with his Old Testament people. We see Jesus treating the people of his day in the same way. He knows how they will react…and he does it anyway! Thank God that doesn’t happen with us!

Did you catch the irony? Really?! We think it doesn’t happen with us?!? Let’s be real. We offer God our confession weekly here in church. I hope you do it daily on your own. And our confession is genuine. It flows from a heart that is deeply sorrow for our sins and trusts in Jesus for mercy and forgiveness. Our sincere intent is that we will turn away from those sins which we just confessed with the help of our God. But what do we find, time after time? We’re confessing this week the same sins we confessed last week. But our gracious God doesn’t withhold forgiveness from us. He willingly forgives all our sins. In fact, that’s his deepest desire! He does it even though he knows exactly what sins we’re going to commit even before the day ends. He knows it…and he still does it! Why? Because he is gracious and loving and forgiving. He doesn’t want any of us to die in our sins. He wants everyone to come to faith in Jesus even though he knows the sinful and wicked things we’ll do before he calls us home to heaven.

Bottom line…God didn’t treat Moses or the Children of Israel the way they deserved. Jesus didn’t treat the people who rejected him the way they deserved. And he doesn’t treat us the way we deserve either. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. He forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin. He knows how we’re going to sin, and yet he still forgives us.

Amazing, isn’t it? But why would you expect anything less from the amazing God who calls you his own by faith in Jesus? He knows it…and he still does it. Thank God that’s what he does, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.