One of the greatest pictures of the coming Advent when Christ would show up in person in our world, is found in the well-known story of the Exodus. Fast forward 400 years from the time of Joseph and we discover that God’s chosen people, the people of Abraham, are in bondage in Egypt. Moses, one of those chosen people who was unwittingly adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, raised in the palace, but now a felon running from the law after killing an Egyptian who was abusing a Jew, encounters God at a burning bush that burns but does not burn up. The Lord called Moses from the burning bush and Moses said “Here I am.” The story is found in Exodus 3. 

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Here we see the heart of God. First, He is a God that cares about His people. From heaven He had heard the cries of the people at the hands of their slave drivers and was going to do something about it. Second, He is a God who rescues those in bondage and brings healing. Third, He is a God who sends an individual to make that rescue possible. In these words to Moses and the subsequent exodus from bondage in Egypt to the land of Canaan, God gave us one of the most powerful pictures of the Advent, where God would send His Son to rescue us from our bondage to sin and give us eternal life.

Moses was not impressed with his assignment and offers to God all the reasons that he is the wrong guy to lead this rescue mission. In their conversation, Moses says to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”

Who is this God who rescues us? He is Yahweh, “I am.” The all powerful, all present, all loving, all Holy, all caring God of the universe who would rescue the Israelites from bondage, and you and I from our bondage of sin. This is the God of the Advent. The one who would personally come to be the “I am” in our own lives. He is our “I am” who hears from heaven, intervenes in our lives, forgives our sin, and has made us family. 

Father, thank you for being my ‘I am.” My all powerful, all present, all loving, all Holy, and all caring God who has rescued me from my sin and made me family. Thank you for being my bondage breaker. Help me to better understand your heart for me and your purpose for my redeemed life. Amen.