October 18, 2020 - God Calls Moses
Notes
Transcript
• So last week, we discussed Esau and Jacob, and in discussing these two we learned not only a lot about them, but a lot about God as well.
• One of the main points we focused on was that God uses man to accomplish His purposes...
• ...and to say that God uses man is to say that God uses sinners. (sinful people)
• We saw how Jacob grew up in the shadow of his brother, at least in the eyes of Isaac their father...
• EVEN THOUGH he had been chosen by God to carry on the covenantal promises.
• We saw how much of Jacob's early life was marked by deception and mistrust...
• And that it all culminated to the point where Jacob and his mom Rebekah conspired together to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob rather than Esau.
• As Jacob stood before his dad, Isaac asked him "What is your name?"
• He replied "Esau".
• The trick worked!
• Isaac blessed him.
• Jacob sought the blessing as - - "Esau".
• Later on in his life we saw that Jacob got in a wrestling match with man that lasted all night.
• Neither one could over-take the other.
• Finally the man touched Jacob's hip, and dislocated it.
• The man wanted to leave because the light was coming, but Jacob wasn't having it.
• Jacob held on to him and said he wouldn't let him go until he blessed him.
• The man then asked him a question
• The same question that his father Isaac had asked him when he was dishing out blessing - "What is your name?"
• This time Jacob replied with the truth...
• And God blessed him.
• Maybe Jacob had understood in that moment all of the deception that he had orchestrated...
• ...and realized it was God's blessing that he needed.
• God blessed him.
• And continued to do so.
• In time, Jacob (whose name was now Israel) had 12 sons who would be known as the 12 tribes of Israel.
• Jacob grew up not being the favorite, but that didn't stop him from having a favorite son.
• Joseph was his favorite.
• As you might expect, Joseph's brothers over time became frustrated with Joseph.
• He didn't help his cause along the way...
• HOW - by being the only one to receive a colorful coat from his dad
• by telling his brothers about these dreams that he had which implied that everyone should bow down to him.
• It just built up...
• to the point where his brothers end up selling him into slavery.
• But don't worry, the story has a happy ending.
• God restores him and he eventually made him a great ruler in Egypt.
• And when there was a great famine in the land, Joseph was able to save his whole family.
• They all moved to Egypt.
• And then when jacob lay dying, he called all his sons together to bless them.
• It was thru the nation of Israel that God planned to fulfill His promise to Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to all peoples.
• Jacob's blessing to his son Judah, shows us that his tribe (the Tribe of Judah) would have the right to rule.
• And in doing so he sets up the notion of a King, reigning in Israel.
• Fast forward now to long after the death of Joseph and his brothers - - a new king ruled Egypt.
• Afraid of the increasing numbers of the Israelites, he oppressed them with forced labor...
• ...But the more he did this, the more they multiplied and spread.
• Pharaoh's anger burned within him, and so he ordered the death of all newborn Hebrew boys.
• But God heard his people crying out in suffering, and He answered.
• His answer?
• Did He blow up Pharaoh's palace? No...could have.
• Did He cause all the oppressors to drop over dead? No...could have.
• What did He do?
• He saved one of these Hebrews boys from perishing.
• His name was - - Moses.
• As Moses grew....so did the oppression of his people.
• When Moses was 40 years old, he went to visit his people the Israelites, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew (one of his people)...
• ...so he killed the Egyptian
• ...and ended up fleeing Pharaoh.
• 40 years later...God decides it's time to help his people who are suffering at the hands of Pharaoh...
• ...and He calls upon the same man that He had rescued from Pharaoh as a baby.
• God's purpose in rescuing Moses as a baby was now being put into motion.
• ...80 years after he was pulled from the river.
• And so just as God called Abraham to live by faith, God now is about to call Moses out to live by faith.
• We're actually going to look at the response of Moses thru two different lenses. (from two different angles)
• ...and we're going to walk thru one angle before we get to the other.
• This is our focus for today.
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
• So at this point it had been 40 years since Moses had killed the Egyptian and fled...
• 80 years since he was pulled from the river.
• And God shows up and says this:
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
• So God here is basically reciprocating back to Moses what Moses had felt 40 years earlier...when he had killed the Egyptian.
• Why did Moses kill the Egyptian?
• Because he had heard the Israelites cries.
• Because he had seen their sufferings
• he had seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them.
• So what does God want with Moses?
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
• Isn't God awesome!
• Don't you just love the imperative verb right off the bat.
• "Come!"
• What do I want with you....I want you to come!
• No - "whatcha think?"
• No - "If you feel like it I've got a job for you"
• None of that...
• It was just "Come!"
• How does Moses respond?
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
• So right off the bat we see a contrast between Moses and Abraham.
• God said to Abraham - "Leave your country, your kindred, and your father's house, and go to a land that I will show you later"
• ...and by faith Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going!
• Moses on the other hand says what - "TIMEOUT! - I need more information!" -- "Who am I?"
• No doubt Moses felt overwhelmed at this point.
• He was 80 years old...which even at that time was "old".
• He was a lowly shepherd
• It had been 40 years since he had been in Egypt.
• No doubt he questioned whether he was the right man for the job.
• But God's response was quick:
12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
• God says - I'll be with you!
• Should that have been sufficient?
• The apostle Paul would have said yes!
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
• We all need to remember this.
• God's calling each of us out on mission...and THAT mission – can be SCARY
• He will be with you....don't forget it...
• Well, let's see if it's sufficient for Moses.
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
• It seems pretty obvious at this point that Moses is trying to dot all of his i"s and cross all of his t's...before he makes a decision on what to do here...for God.
• Do we respond this way to God?
• Do I even need to ask?
· How many of us have thought, “well, if God would just audibly tell me what He wants from me, then I’ll do it. I need to hear Him tell me audibly that He wants me to share my faith…THEN I’d do it.”
· Here’s the follow up question –
· How many of us need God to tell us audibly where to go eat after church before we decide?
· None of us right.
· We just go.
· We go without battin an eye…
· YET, when it comes to serving Christ…well…I need to hear Him tell me.
• Moses here is trying to think ahead.
• He's wanting to be prepared for all the questions he "might" receive if he goes.
• Don't we far too often get hung up on the "mights" of this life?
• Well, this might happen God, so sorry....
• Well, they might respond to me this way....sorry.
• "What shall I say?"
• This might be the biggest obstacle that stands between us and lives of service to the Lord.
• "What shall I say?"
• Isn't that question really an indictment on ourselves?
• Why don't we know what to say very often?
• Shouldn't we know what to say?
• Get alone with this book...often
• ...And you'll know what to say.
• And this makes sense...
• How does God respond here to Moses?
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.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
• God tells him what to say.
• You get into His word, and He will tell you what to say.
• But God's not done yet...He tells in even greater detail what to say:
16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,
17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.
20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
• So God just lays it out perfectly for him...
• And so so far,
• ...God has told Moses that He will be with him...
• ...and He's told him exactly what to say...and how they'll respond.
• What does Moses think?
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
• So everything that God has said so far has fallen on deaf ears.
• Do you see what Moses is doing here?
• Let's look back at the original command of God to Moses.
• What did He say?
• "Come...that you may bring my people out of Egypt"
• So God has a desired result in mind, and so he says - "I want my people freed (that's the result), so come...I want you to do it."
• This is what I want to happen, so come...you're gonna do it!
• This is the original command.
• God didn't go into details.
• He didn't go into all the stuff that's going to happen between points A and Z.
• He just said, This is what I want done, so let's go, you're going to do it.
• **The rest is just details" T-Shirts
• What God is saying here in this command is, "Following Me is life...the rest is just details"
• (Don't you worry about the details)
• Well, Moses is worrying about the details.
• He wants to know points B thru Y.
• God gave him A and Z...
• ...he wants to know points B thru Y.
• A lot of times in our walks of faith, God will reveal to us "His desired result" without revealing necessarily the details that will get us there.
• But isn't that where faith comes in?
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
• If we always knew every point, every detail, along the way, we wouldn't need faith.
• We've mentioned it before:
• Faith is on the bridge that is too weak to cross, are you willing to cross it...
• Faith is out on the thin ice
• And so to live by faith, is to check the ice and say - yep, it's thin enough for walkin.
• Moses on the other hand, he's checking the ice here, and he wants to realize - yep, it's thick enough...I guess I'll go.
• But that's not how this is playing out.
• God then gives Moses some powerful signs that he could show the people, lest they say that they didn't believe him...
• But even that doesn't work for Moses...
• ...what does he say next?
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
• So Moses here reveals to us that he's not the best communicator.
• Some people believe that Moses had issues with stuttering...
• ...and so his new concern is that he'll fumble his way thru this job at hand.
• But God's not buying it.
11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
• Did you notice what God's response has been to every one of Moses' concerns?
• Regardless of what the concern has been, God always responds by bringing it all back to - - Himself.
• In all of these doubts, God brings it all back to who He is.
• "Who am i?" Moses said - God said - "I will be with you"
• "What shall i say?" Moses said - God said - "I AM who I AM"
• "What if they don't believe?" Moses said - God then gives Moses powerful signs that point to who He is.
• "But I'm slow of speech and of tongue" Moses said - God says - "Who has made man's mouth?
Who makes it mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"
• God's saying - "Hey, all eyes on me!"
• "No need to sweat the details."
• "Therefore, GO, and I will be your mouth and teach you what you shall speak"
• You can almost feel God's temperature rising here can't you?
God is saying – No matter WHAT struggle you’re walking thru…
· No matter WHAT difficulty is up ahead…the response for the Christian is always – YES it’s hard – BUT GOD!
· Yes this hurts – BUT GOD!
· God wants Moses to understand this!
• But what does Moses say next?
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
• Please send someone else.
· Many commentators will say that this REVEALED that Moses didn’t really WANT to go – and that everything he had said up to this point was an EXCUSE…
· BUT…
· Not sure we can definitively say that –
· WHAT WE DO KNOW – is that Moses was not HOLDING to the “BUT GOD” of this situation…
INSTEAD - He was resting in his own inadequacy...
SLIDE:
Resting in our inadequacy instead of God’s strength leads to walking outside the will of God.
• When Moses responded with:
• "Who am I"
• "What shall I say"
• "What if they don't believe"
• "I'm slow of speech and tongue"
• He was revealing all of his INADEQUACIES…
• And God KNEW – that Moses wanted to REST in those inadequacies…
· By not obeying HIM
• But Moses’ response here didn't go without consequence:
14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
• So the Lord was angered by Moses' lack of desire to TRUST God thru the commands of God.
• He wasn't pleased and so he basically says here - you WILL do this.
• As we've just seen, clearly Moses approached this call of God from an earthly perspective.
• Anything that the Lord said to him, he either doubted or flat-out ignored.
• As I was looking through different commentaries this week, a great deal of them looked at Moses' response here as "the opposite of faith"...
• ...and basically something not to emulate.
· As Christians – when we think about – the OPPOSITE of faith, we know it’s NOT something to pursue…
· We don’t want to pursue – the OPPOSITE of faith!
BUT….
• While it's true that Moses' actions here reveal a lack of desire to serve and OBEY God...
• ...we can absolutely learn a very important lesson from his response.
• While it may seem as though we need to avoid responding to God the way that Moses does here, we need to be careful here not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
· There IS an aspect of Moses’ response that we SHOULD HOLD ONTO…
• When Moses said - "Who am I"...what he was saying was - Who am I that you would use me?"
• AND we JUST WALKED THRU IT = What he was doing here was laying out before God his inadequacy.
• He was saying - "Listen, I can't be the right guy for this...I'm inadequate for the job".
• He heard God call him out...he took an inventory of his abilities, and he thought....no way...Who am I?
• And in him saying this to God, he was actually revealing - that he was the perfect candidate for the job.
· And THIS is the other lens that we’re going to look thru today…
Remember the 1st lens that we looked thru? - - Resting in our inadequacy instead of God’s strength leads to walking outside of God’s will…
SLIDE:
Resting in God’s strength in spite of our inadequacy leads to walking in God’s will.
• God uses people who come to the table with a heart attitude that says "Who am i"...
• Inadequacy is where usefulness to God begins...ALTHOUGH, it will lead us down one of 2 different paths...
• 1) obedience
• 2) disobedience
• We're going to start with disobedience, and in discussing it, see how obedience comes about:
• What we first need to do is understand that disobedience can happen in 2 ways:
• It can happen when I choose not to follow God in obeying His call, or it can happen when I do what God says, BUT do it in the wrong way...
• Either way, I find myself in disobedience, outside of God's will.
• Whenever we walk away from God's will, it's because we put too much confidence in ourselves, NOT because we lack confidence in ourselves.
SLIDE:
When we rely so much on our own abilities, we will either attempt to walk in God’s will, but in our own power, or we’ll shrink away from God’s will, concluding that we’re just not able to do it.
• Either way, we’re outside of God’s will, relying on our own abilities as the measure of whether or not we’ll follow.
Only when we look away from our own abilities will we ever truly be in the will of God for our lives. It’s when we rely solely on Him and His power that we truly follow...with faith in HIM as our foundation.
· This doesn’t mean that God won’t give you a task that USES your abilities…
· We just have to be MINDFUL that we work in HIS strength and not our own
• Now, looking back at Moses, if his inadequacies would have lead him to walk away from the call of God in his life, then that would have revealed that he had put too much confidence in himself...
• ...that he was relying on his own abilities, his own strength...
• ...and ignoring the power of God
• So, when you choose to forgo the call of God in your life (to disobey God's call for you), you are actually putting too much confidence in yourself.
• Your lack of service to God is due to your overflowing confidence in your own abilities.
• Sounds strange don't it?
• Because it seems like, if you were more confident in your abilities, you would do more for Christ.
• If i could just sing, THEN I'd get up there and sing.
• If i could just speak well, THEN i'd go to the foodless ministry and speak
• If i knew more, THEN I would share my faith
• All of this reveals a reliance on man and a disregard for the power of God.
• Usefulness to Christ begins with the fruit of inadequacy...looking completely away from ourselves.
• Why?
• BECAUSE - It's in our weakness that God is strong - this is the foundation of all effective service to God.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
• Because that's where faith blossoms...in our weaknesses.
• And so living by faith is living a life that relies on God...not yourself
• ...not your own abilities
• ...not your bank account
• ...not your communication skills
• ...not your intellect
• Listen how the apostle Paul describes himself.
6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
• And unless you think this is Paul just being self-effacing...
10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
• So for all of the amazing stories we read about the Apostle Paul, it was through his own WEAKNESS that Christ's strength was seen.
• Through all the beatings, the stonings, the imprisonments...Christ's strength seen.
· We see here that PAUL couldn’t speak well – MAYBE HE had the stuttering problem…
· Did it stop him?
• God intervened in his life at the deepest level of his physicality in order to ensure that he would understand that actually it was in the experience of weakness and inadequacy that his greatest usefulness was to be found.
SLIDE: Abiding Faith – know this:
It will be in your confrontation with your own inadequacy that you find God's grace sufficient.
• And so inadequacy is not a barrier to usefulness, rather it's an advantage to usefulness.
*What football team drafts the Quarterback who CAN’T throw the ball?
*What Computer Company hires the guy who doesn’t know what EMAIL is?
*What retail store hires the sales rep who is too shy to talk to customers?
- Usefulness to God starts with inadequacy…
• And so if you want to truly feel the weight of what it means to live by faith in God, then do something for Christ that you are completely inadequate at doing...something that you simply can't do, or are not good at.
• Who are you gonna rely on then?
• Yourself?
• You can't....
• You'll have to rely on Him...
• Do it...and you'll find yourself living by faith in God, on the path of obedience, and glorifying God.
• Why?
• Because the glory doesn't lie in your inadequacy, it lies in the ADEQUACY of Christ, which is revealed in your weakness.
• You don't think you can teach young kids.....you’re exactly who God wants to use in our classrooms
• You don't think you can get up and speak the truths of God to others...Find me this week and let me know you want to tell us all here next week how good God has been to you…
· You’re exactly who God wants to speak.
• What can't you do? - - Do it.
• Rely on Christ.
• Live by Faith.
• Walk by faith, not by sight.
Take hold of the “BUT GOD” of the Christian faith!
Let's Pray...