Sept

October 1, 2000

Exodus 1-14

Moses, the Man of God?

Introduction

Illustration – A young woman brings her fiancé home to meet her parents for the first time. After dinner, her father invites the young man into his study to find out more about him. "So what are your plans?" the father asks. "I am a Bible scholar," the young man replies. "A Bible scholar. Hmm. Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in?" "I will study," the young man replied, "and God will provide for us." "And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring like she deserves?" "I will concentrate on my studies, and God will provide for us." "And children? How will you support children?" "Don’t worry, sir. God will provide." Every time the father asks a question, the young man replies that God will provide. Afterward, the mother asks, "How did it go, honey?" The father answers, "He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God."
Context – You know, statements like the young man’s seem stupid to us. How could anyone be that naïve? But maybe he’s stumbled on a truth – that we need to trust in God to meet our needs no matter what we are up against. Let’s turn to Exodus chapter 3 to take a look at someone faced with this dilemma.

Scripture Passages

Exodus 3:1-6 - 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. ²There 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. ³So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up." ⁴When 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." ⁵"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." ⁶Then 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.

Exodus 3:11-14 - But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" ¹²And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." ¹³Moses said 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?" ¹⁴God 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.’"

Exodus 4:1-7 - Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?" ²Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. ³The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. ⁴Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ⁵"This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you." ⁶Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. ⁷"Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Exodus 4:10-17 - Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." ¹¹The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹²Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." ¹³But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." ¹⁴Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. ¹⁵You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. ¹⁶He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. ¹⁷But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."

Exodus 4:24-31 - At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. ²⁵But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. ²⁶So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.) ²⁷The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform. ²⁹Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, ³¹and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Moses Before the Deliverance

Moses quickly lost his sense of holy fear, or awe, of God.

Exodus 3:6 tells us that Moses covered his face because he was afraid even to look at God.
But in Exodus 4:13, Moses told God to send someone else.
By his questioning everything the Lord told Him, Moses was disrespecting the Creator of the universe.

Moses didn’t really listen to God.

Moses got hung up on the first phrase the Lord said in 3:7 – God wanted to send Moses back into danger by sending him back to Pharaoh.
Moses refused to listen to the wonderful promises God was making to deliver His people, and in doing so he was in essence calling God a liar!

Moses made excuses for his desire not to go, instead of simply being obedient.

In verse 11, Moses asks "Who am I, that I should go?"
When that didn’t work, in verse 13 he asks God, "Who are you?"
Then, in 4:1, Moses tries to externalize his refusal to go. He asks, "What if they don’t believe me?" Moses is simply trying to divert attention from his own refusal to his people.
In verse 10, Moses in effect says to God, "You don’t know me. I can’t do it."
Finally, in verse 13, Moses finally cuts to the chase. "I don’t want to go!"
God was pretty patient with Moses, giving him chance after chance to repent, but finally even His patience wore out. Verses 14-17 tells us that God made provision for Moses’ brother to go with him, but in verses 24-26 we see that Moses would be dead without his wife’s intervention

Moses did not have faith to believe that God could use him to rescue the Israelites.

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.

At that time, Moses wasn’t sure of what was hope for or certain of what he couldn’t see. He lacked faith to believe that God could and would use him to rescue Israel from slavery.

Illustration – Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?, was asked, "What stands in the way of people finding their mission?" Bolles replied: Prior agendas. For example, my wife, Carol, is a well-known career counselor in her own right. She was meeting with a client who worked in the rubber industry – let’s call him George. George told her in their first session, "I’ve got to get out of the rubber industry." So she gave him some homework to do before their next session. He came back the next week, and he hadn’t done a lick of homework. My wife, rich with intuition, asked him, "What will happen if you don’t get out of the rubber industry?" George said, "My wife will divorce me." Carol said, "Do you want your wife to divorce you?" He couldn’t keep the smile off of his face. She knew then that he would never change his job until it had given him what he wanted: a divorce, with his wife taking the initiative – and the guilt. Based on his behavior, my wife named this "the doctrine of prior agenda." You can’t help people change or find their mission when they have a conflicting prior agenda. Daniel Pink adds, People will never change until they truly want to. Moses didn’t want that kind of change in his life, and until he did, he would continually be in conflict with God’s mission for him. But maybe by obeying God, his desires for his own life could change.

The Change in Moses

But in chapter 5, verses 22-23 we see the same old Moses. Yes, he obeyed by going to Egypt with Aaron. Yes, he did take God’s instructions to Pharaoh. But nothing happened. In fact Pharaoh became angry and punished all the Israelites.

Verse 22 - Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? ²³Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."
God’s response in 6:1 - Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country."
Apparently God was waiting for something to happen before He acted. He was waiting for Moses to obey, not for Moses to have faith. Because Moses obeyed, God told him that NOW he would see God’s own mighty hand!

We begin to see a change in Moses.

Exodus 7:6-7 - Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. ⁷Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron, in spite of their ages, obeyed. They began a pattern of obedience. And that’s when things really began to happen.
Chapter 8 verses 10-13 - Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God. ¹¹The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile." ¹²After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³And the LORD did what Moses asked. All of a sudden, Moses when from merely listening to God, arguing, then doing what God commanded, to telling Pharaoh that God would listen to Moses’ prayer, praying that prayer, and God listened to him! That is a huge turnaround! What caused it? Chapter 7 verse 20 - Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. No more arguing, just obeying. That obedience, coupled with witnessing God’s power, brought faith. That is where the change began!
Exodus 14 shows us the faith that had grown in Moses in just a short time. Pharaoh’s army had the Israelites trapped against the Red Sea. They were grumbling. Verses 13-14 show us Moses’ response - Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Moses believe what God told him, acted on that faith, and the nation was delivered.

Sometimes the most difficult thing we can do is simply obey God in the faith that He knows what He is doing. Sometimes it’s all we can do to muster the strength and courage to simply obey. That’s okay. The faith will come later. But it’s important to remember that, just as we sometimes have to act on faith, sometimes we have to act and then the faith will come later. Some say that is hypocrisy. As we have seen from Moses, it’s not. It is simple obedience. Simple, but not easy.
Illustration – Henri Nouwen wrote about some friends of his who were trapeze artist, the Flying Roudellas. They told him that there’s a special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air. One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen, "The flyer must never try to catch the catcher." The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait. All Moses wanted to do was wait. He didn’t want to jump into the air. But when he finally did, and then waited for God to provide the results, God did great things in his life and in the lives of his people.

Conclusion

Is there something in your life that God is calling you to do, but you haven’t because you don’t have the faith? Now is the time to simply obey. God will help take care of the faith end of things. As we see from Moses, God will honor your obedience.
Again we come to the time to make a choice. If there is something God is calling you to step out in faith on, and you’re not doing it because you don’t have faith, now is the time to choose. You can choose to be out of God’s will like Moses would have been if he’d stayed in the desert, or you can choose to be obedient even if you don’t have all the faith you’d like to. It’s your choice. We’re going to spend a few moments in silence to give ourselves a chance to sort through our lives, and to give the Holy Spirit a chance to continue to speak to us.
With every head bowed and every eye closed, if God’s calling you to do something out of obedience to Him, come forward now and pray.
Let’s pray.