G'day and welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids, the podcast where we discover who

God really is and what he's really like.

Thanks for being really patient for this

episode.

I had a few things come up last week that took

up much more time than I'd hoped, but we're here now.

If you have any questions about today's episode, don't forget to go to faithfulgod.net

and send them in.

Or I'd love you to write in and tell me when

you listen to this podcast.

Is it in the car?

After dinner? In the bath?

While fighting crocodiles or chasing elephants?

Do you listen by yourself with your family? With some astronauts?

Go to the contact page of faithfulgod.net and tell me how you listen to the podcast.

Adults, if you're listening, don't forget there's a deep dive episode over on stories of

a faithful God that'll help you go a bit further and deeper in knowing God.

There's also our first ever bonus episode there where I chat with my friend and minister

about a few things.

Now on with the show, have you ever been

scared or in trouble and you needed someone to help you?

Maybe you got lost at the shops or you hurt yourself?

Maybe something big's happened in your life, like school is really hard, or you have to

move house, or there are really hard things happening with people in your home.

We all go through hard things at times, and when they come, sometimes you might feel

really alone, like there's no one there to help you, and that can be really hard.

Other times, though, there's someone who sees you and listens to you and understands what

you're going through, and they come to help.

That can be the best feeling in the world.

At the end of the last episode, things were really bad for the Israelites.

They were stuck in Egypt, being treated really horribly as slaves.

They cried out for help even though they didn't seem to know who to cry to.

Today, someone sees them and listens to them and comes to help.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.

Earlier on, it had looked like Moses was going to be the great savior of his people.

He was a Hebrew or Israelite who joined the egyptian royal family.

He had power and greatness.

But then it all went wrong.

He had to run away because people wanted him dead.

He's ended up as a shepherd, living with different people in a different land.

It turns out Moses is not the savior the Israelites need.

One day, Moses decides he needs to get his father in law's sheep to some fresh grass.

So he leads them across the desert to a place where there's some good food.

He gets to a mountain.

And you know what?

Until I started this podcast, I don't think it had ever really clicked for me.

Just how many people and places in the Bible have more than one name?

The mountain he gets to is called Mount Horeb, but you might know it by its other name, Mount

Sinai.

What happens next is one of the most famous

parts of the whole Bible.

It starts when Moses sees something rather

strange.

I'll read it from Exodus, chapter three, verse

two.

It says there at Mount Sinai, the angel of the

Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire coming out of a bush.

As if that's not weird enough, Moses keeps looking at the bush.

It's still on fire, but it isn't burning or going black.

And Moses is like, whaaat? I gotta check this out.

I mean, he spends his whole day looking at sheep, right?

Anything different would be interesting, but this is pretty weird and amazing.

Even though he wants to get in really close, as he moves towards it, it turns out that the

first thing he has to do is stop.

Let me read it to you.

From verse four, the Lord saw Moses, was coming to look at the bush, so God called to

him from the bush, Moses, Moses.

And Moses said, here I am.

Then God said, do not come any closer.

Take off your sandals.

You are standing on holy ground.

You say, Moses can't just walk up to God like

a friend, or like he's an interesting thing to look at, which Moses actually realizes as soon

as he understands who's speaking to him.

In verse six, God says, I am the God of your

ancestors.

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and

the God of Jacob.

Moses covered his face because he was afraid

to look at God.

God is so different and better and more

important than us.

And Moses reacts in exactly the right way.

What's God doing here? Has he come to punish Moses for his sin?

Thankfully, no. Instead, he's come in kindness and care.

He's come to help.

He's come to save you.

See, even if the Israelites back in Egypt felt like no one had heard them, God has.

And he cares about them.

He's their God.

The God who spoke to the first three Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The God who made promises to them about saving them and taking them to a new land.

God says he's seen his people, he's heard his people, he's concerned for his people.

In verse seven, the Lord said, I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt, and

I have heard their cries when the egyptian slave masters hurt them.

I am concerned about their pain.

Remember we talked about how great it is when

someone gets it? They understand what you're going through and

don't just ignore you.

Well, God seen and understood and is concerned

about his people.

And he doesn't just sit back and worry.

No, what he says next is like the best news in the whole world.

In verse eight, he says these amazing words.

I have come.

That's a shiver down the spine moment.

The God of the universe has arrived.

What's he gonna do? This is what he says.

He says, I have come down to save them from the Egyptians.

I will bring them out of that land.

I will lead them to a good land with lots of

room.

This is a land where much food grows.

This is the land of these people.

The Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites,

perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

He's going to take them from slavery to

freedom, from having virtually nothing to having heaps, from being owned by other people

to being people who own land, good land.

Land perfect for farming and enjoying and

working and resting.

God had told Abraham that his descendants

would be in Egypt for about 400 years, but then he'd save them.

And now that times come, because he loves them and cares for them and hates them being

treated so badly, he says in verse nine, I have heard the cries of the people of Israel.

I have seen the way the Egyptians have made life hard for them.

He even has a special job for Moses.

In verse ten, God says to him, so now I am

sending you to the king of Egypt.

Go bring my people, the Israelites, out of

Egypt.

Oh, so exciting.

Except Moses isn't so sure.

He kind of looks around and says, ah, me,

really? Who am I?

I can't do that.

In verse eleven, Moses says, I am not a great

man.

Why should I be the one to go to the king and

lead the Israelites out of Egypt? And he's kind of right, isn't he?

He had been a great man back in Egypt, but now he's wanted for murder there.

Now he's a nothing, a nobody, a stranger in a faraway country.

And God's like, yeah, I know.

What's your point?

Because it doesn't matter who Moses is.

He isn't the savior.

God is.

God's the one who's going to do all this.

Throughout the Bible, God uses all sorts of people.

He uses kids, sinners, nobodies at one stage, he even makes a donkey talk and uses the

donkey.

It's not that they're great, it's that God's

great.

So God says in verse twelve, I will be with

you.

This will be the proof that I'm sending you.

You will lead the people out of Egypt.

Then all of you will worship me on this

mountain.

Spoiler alert, that actually happens.

So Moses has asked, who am I? And God's replied, it doesn't matter.

I'm going to be with you.

So Moses asks, okay, so who are you?

Then in verse 13, he says, when I go to the Israelites, I'll say to them, the God of your

ancestors sent me to you.

What if the people say, yeah, what is his

name? What should I tell them?

Names in the Bible often have special meanings.

They tell you something about the person.

The name Jesus means God saves.

Moses isn't just asking for a name.

He's asking for God to tell him something

really important about himself.

And because God wants his people to know him,

he answers in verse 14, he says, I am who I am.

When you go to the people of Israel, tell them I am sent me to you.

Right.

What on earth does that mean?

Well, partly it could mean I am like I exist.

I'm not.

Pretend I'm real.

I think there's more to it than that, though.

I think it invites us to ask for more information, like I am what I am who.

What's important about you? God.

Thankfully, God's going to show what's important about him throughout Exodus hell,

show the Israelites hell, show the Egyptians hell.

Even show us.

One thing he wants us to remember right from

the beginning, though, is that hes a great promise maker.

Remember, he made wonderful promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them a big

family and new land and lots of blessings.

He also made a promise to them that we're

actually a part of.

He said he'll bless the whole world through

them.

And God wants everyone to remember that he's

made those promises.

So he joins those guys to his name, makes them

part of his name.

In verse 15, he says to Moses, this is what

you should tell the people.

The Lord is the God of your ancestors.

He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And he sent me to you.

This will always be my name.

This is how people from now on will know me.

God doesn't just want to be remembered as a

promise maker, though.

He wants people to know that he's the promise

keeper, the powerful promise keeper, the powerful promise keeper who cares for his

people.

So he repeats who he is, how much he cares for

them and how he's going to save them, just like he promised.

But then he adds another promise to show his power and how much he cares for them.

He wants his people to know that they're not just going to sneak out the back door of

Egypt.

They're going to leave like a victorious army.

In those days, when an army defeated a country or city, they'd go in and grab all the gold

and jewels and expensive stuff they could find.

It's called plundering.

Except the Israelites won't have to do any

fighting.

God will do the fighting for them.

And he'll be so successful that the Egyptians are just going to give them all their

treasure.

Let me read it to you from verse 19.

God tells Moses to ask the king to let them go.

Then he says, but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go.

Only a great power will force him to let you go.

So I will use my great power against Egypt.

I will make miracles happen in that land.

After I do this, he will let you go.

And I will cause the egyptian people to think

well of the people of Israel.

So when you leave, they will give gifts to

your people.

Each hebrew woman will ask her egyptian

neighbour and any egyptian woman living in her house for gifts.

Ask for silver, gold and clothing.

You will put those gifts on your children.

When you leave Egypt.

In this way, you will take with you the riches

of the Egyptians.

God is going to prove himself to be the

powerful promise keeper who cares for his people.

Do you know that the Bible says that we were slaves, all humans everywhere?

Not slaves to Egypt or any other people or country.

No. Something much worse than that.

Much more deadly.

The Bible says that we were slaves to sin, slaves to rebelling against God.

We had no way of stopping ourselves from sinning, no way of stopping being selfish.

There weren't any people who could rescue us.

It's caused so much pain and sadness in this

world because everyone wants to be in charge.

Everyone wants to be God.

Everyone wants to tell others what to do instead of listening to the true God.

And in the end, if that kept going, God would have to deal with us, give us what we deserve

forever.

Everything looked lost and hopeless until God

came.

God, the son, came to earth.

Jesus, he didn't have to, but he'd promised to.

God is the promise maker and the promise keeper.

Jesus came with power to defeat sin and defeat death and free us from slavery.

God is the powerful promise keeper.

Jesus came to save us when we were hurt and

lost and couldn't help ourselves.

God is the powerful promise keeper who cares

for his people.

Jesus has lots of names and titles, but there

was one name that really made people sit up and listen.

He said to a group of people before Abraham was I am.

He's saying that God who spoke to Moses from the bush called I am the one who rescued his

people, who did all those amazing things.

I'm him.

How good is it that God came to powerfully save, just like he'd promised?

If you trust Jesus as your king and savior, you are saved forever.

Back on Mount Sinai, Moses had just heard all the wonderful things that God's going to do

through him.

There's just one problem.

Moses doesn't want to go, but that's a story for next time.

Don't forget to go to faithfulgod.net and tell me how you listen to the show.

Bye for now.

Thanks so much for listening, adults.

If you think this podcast is helpful for your kids and for others, please show your

appreciation by donating some money to help keep the show going.

You can donate@faithfulgod.net that's faithfulgod.net dot.

Thanks so much to everyone who already has donated.

You make all this possible.

Also, kids and adults, I'd love you to go to

the website and send me a message.

Tell me how you're finding the show.

And don't forget to follow stories of a faithful God on Facebook, Instagram and x. Bye

for now.

Rain.