God takes US seriously!

Superficial Christianity only works superficially!

Superficial Christianity only gets people messed up.

Sure… it’s all fine… while it’s all fine.

The type Christianity that says “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” .

Some people even go around sharing their “faith” along those lines.

Doing so is safe… and makes everyone happy.

The person sharing is happy because they consider they’re sharing their faith.

The person listening is very happy.

Who wouldn’t be happy being told that anyone rich and powerful loves them and has a wonderful plan for them?

But then trouble strikes.

Tragedy, relationship breakdown, disease, accident… the list is endless.

But now confusion reigns. If God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life… why do I hurt so badly? Why doesn’t God fix it? I don’t understand?

Today in Ex 4 we are going to find some things that may offend some people… that may make some people angry.

We’re also going to look at a couple of the most difficult to understand verses in the OT… and that will humble us.

But we’re also going to peer deep into the heart, passion and purposes of God and that will, I trust, excite us… encourage and bless us… and lead us to worship.

The eternal and sovereign, Creator and Lord who is there, who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures is so much more satisfying and trustworthy and able than the gods we make in our own image to satisfy our own little minds.

The gods we create in our own image are wonderful, benign, grandfatherly and nice… and might leave us to have our fun and play on earth while things are going OK with us.

But the God who is there is much more profound, deep, worthy of our adoration and worship.

Realising who God truly, actually is helps profoundly when our world crumbles and hurts and makes no sense to us.

Did God say that!

If we open to Ex 4:19 we see a summary statement about Moses with his wife, sons, donkey and a stick (staff of God) and returning to Egypt.

Look at vv21-23.

Did you notice: Perform before Pharaoh all the wonders (in vv8-9...to the Israelites...they were signs) now they are “wonders” to Pharaoh.

Signs point somewhere. Wonders amaze and make people shake their heads and wonder… (In the NT we read about the miracles Jesus did being “signs and wonders). One action with two different outcomes.

Israel saw in the miracles of Moses a sign that pointed to God…

whereas Pharaoh sees in Moses miracles a wonder that makes him shake his head in confusion… and get on with business.

Also notice: God said, “I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go!”

Some may say, “Is that fair? I thought God so loved the world that he gave...”

He did.

But God’s much more complex than that!

Look what comes next, v23. Let my son go… you refused (because I hardened your heart), so I will kill your firstborn son!

That’s gotta make us take a breath!

How do we understand this?

The apostle Paul in the NT comments on this… but he only makes it more potentially more offensive and confusing.

In Romans 9 Paul is pondering why God’s people don’t accept God’s Messiah… but then goes on to say that God is under no obligation to choose just Jewish people to be his people, he can choose Gentiles and reject Jews if he so desires.

Rom 9:16-18 “16 It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”

Between here and Ex 14 we are going to read 15 or more times about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

Several times it is said, “Pharaoh hardened his heart”… and we also read “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”.

But here in Ex 4. in the very first occurrence God says, I WILL harden Pharaoh’s heart… then I will kill his firstborn son because he refused me.

Firstly there is the paradox of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

If God sovereignly makes Pharaoh’s heart hard so he refuses God… how can God hold Pharaoh accountable on Judgement Day?

Pharaoh won’t have a let to stand on on JD… because he will agree he made his own heart hard.

He made a choice… for himself… with real consequences…

He didn’t want to hear God’s commands.

He didn’t want to lose his slaves.

He didn’t want to submit to God’s servant Moses.

He was Pharaoh; king, lord, ruler of everything!

No one forced him against his will to oppose God.

That’s the paradox of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

God in his absolute sovereignty over his entire creation has given mankind the responsibility to make real decisions with actual consequences and for which God will hold us to account.

One commentator said this is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be adored.

The exodus of Israel out of Egypt was a special time in human history where God gave an illustration of what he would later do through his Son at Calvary bringing many people out of slavery.

But in another sense it is just making plain what is true at every point in human history: That human beings are not the centre of the universe - but God is. He is the brains, the author, the producer, the director and the main player… and whether it be Pharaoh resisting God’s will or other human beings doing God’s will… it is all for the glory of God.

Jay Adams, commenting on Rom 9:17 says, “Paul is saying that divine judgement on Pharaoh and Israel served God’s own interests. To know this is important because it shifts the focus from man to God.

Does that surprise you? Trouble you? If so, consider why. How would you expect the Creator of all things to act, if not in His own interests?”

No potter feels obligated to use his clay only to make pieces of pottery for his dining table or mantlepiece.

If he wants a chamber pot to put under his bed he’s free to use some of the clay for that purpose.

The clay can’t call the potter to account and tell him he’s obligated to only make beautiful pieces for his mantlepiece.

The potter acts in his own interest… to make things that serve him as he sees fit.

Nor do these lumps of clay (not Pharaoh… nor you and me !) call the Creator to account for making whatsoever he likes for his own purposes!

The Lord was about to kill Moses?

It only gets tougher… look at vv 24-26.

Read vv24-26.

After all that God has just done with Moses! The burning bush… the long conversation… God’s great patience in revealing his plan, revealing his own heart, meeting Moses’ objections, providing Aaron.

Then when Moses goes back to Egypt, he pulls up for the night and God was about to kill him?

We are not told how God was about to kill him.

Maybe Moses gets very sick in the night.

Perhaps prayers are offered by Zipporah… and maybe Moses.

Apparently, the trouble was that Moses son had not been circumcised. Zipporah takes a flint knife and circumcises (presumably) Gershom. And Moses recovers.

But really, is not circumcising Gershom such a deadly sin?

There are as many explanations for these verses are there are commentators and preachers!

And all the ones I read said, “These are some of the hardest and difficult to explain verses in the OT” (That’s a bold claim!)

Perhaps we could just say Moses, like every other human being born of a union of a man and a woman is sinful and deserving of God’s judgement. God is rightly, deeply offended at the propensity of humanity to make up our own minds about what commands of God are worth obeying… and how often we will obey… and how solidly we excuse ourselves from having to inconvenience ourselves by fully obeying every command all the time.

Ultimately, here, we have one hope to reassure us.

Notice that the text says, “the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him”.

Why about to kill him?

Why not just stop his heart on the spot.

Why make it a process?

Why the realisation that the problem was Gershom not having been circumcised?

Why provide another woman, the sixth in Exodus who have rescued Moses at points where he was totally helpless to help himself?

(Shiphrah and Puah, spared him at birth; His mother and sister spared his life when he was born; Pharaoh’s daughter! spared his life from drowning in the river… and now Zipporah spares his life on his deathbed).

We notice… that by the grace and mercy of Almighty God… who “was about to kill him… but Zipporah…)

God did not kill Moses outright but “was about to...” so he could provide the means of recovery and restoration.

God Judges Sin - Really, actually… and severely!

And so we need to do something with all of this.

We may not solve it all now… but we will have to grapple with this again (and again) before Israel meets God at Mt Sinai in a few months.

Don’t forget that we are now dealing with ultimate questions. We are peering deep into the heart of God.

A being infinitely more knowledgeable, wise, powerful, gracious and just than we will ever be.

Are you ready, willing and able to admit that God is far more complex than simply love… that gave (his one and only Son)?

Are you ready, willing and able to acknowledge that God is entirely sovereign Lord of heaven and earth.

No hair falls from a head, no sparrow dies, no blade of grass is eaten by a sheep; no marriage fails or war between nations commences; … that God hasn’t known since before the world began.

He knows… and will use to bring glory to his name.

And it is God’s nature to hate sin and rebellion... and the havoc it wreaks on his creation.

And it is a glorious aspect of God’s character that he is forbearing of our sin! …

And that God rightly acts first and foremost in his own interests.

Rom 9:17 “17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.””

God’s judgement on Pharaoh served God’s interests to show that he is serious about sin and rebellion; he has ordained it to show his infinite justice.

By decreeing that evil exists… not that God ever does evil… but decreeing evil to exist shows forth God’s wrath and power and make known the fame of his name.

And don’t miss this. Because every single one of us has fallen short… God could be true to his nature and judge us all and rightly and justly send us all to suffer away from his goodness and presence for ever.

No slight on his name what’s so ever!

Pharaoh is a unique character at a unique time in human history.

God has raised him up and made a demonstration of him so that we might all know it, talk about it and proclaim the glory of God’s power and righteous judgements.

God’s firstborn son, v22

But there is something else here in these verses that set a tone and direction that is still being fulfilled by God.

God makes his justice and righteous anger known to the world through his decree to allow evil into the world and justly judge it. But God also has brought a nation into being that will show forth the wonder and awe and incredible grace and mercy and glory of God.

God told Moses to Ex 4:22 “22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,”

To the anti-god Pharaoh, Israel was just a bunch of slaves to use, abuse, exploit and murder at will.

To the Lord God, Israel was his firstborn son.

Not only was Pharaoh mistreating God’s son… but in holding them to serve himself he was stopping them from serving/worshipping God.

This is the heart of Exodus. God is exhibiting his power against the superpower of the day to release his son to serve him again.

In the end Israel as God’s firstborn son was not capable of glorifying God by loving, honouring and serving him only.

In the end they ended up in exile, out of the land of promise and under God’s judgement.

God’s Faithful Firstborn Son… Gal 3:26

As the NT opens we read about a young lady who gave birth to her firstborn son and laid him in a manger.

We read that he too fled to Egypt to escape a murderous anti-god tyrant who ordered all the babies to be murdered.

And Matthew tells us that out of Egypt God called his son.

Col 1:15-18 “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

Gal 3:26 “26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,”

Here is our security.

When tragedy strikes, our world falls to bits

Superficial understanding? Deep truths of Scripture growing grappling with the God who is there.

Actually, increasingly knowing the God who is there… Confidence; security… and worship, v31!

Moses performed the signs… they believed… learned that God did care… they worshipped.

Does the sign of the cross point you to Jesus?

Or is it a wonder that confuses you a bit? Why did God bother? I’m not sure. He needn’t have bothered for me!