The Surrender of Moses

Exodus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  49:12
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Today if you would take your copy of God’s Holy Word and turn to Ex. 4:18-31.
Last week saw that Moses, as a servant of God, was slow to believe all that God was willing to do for him and to be to him.
In today's text we see that Moses’ has final surrendered to God’s call.
As we seek to do what God has called us to do, we should seek believe God with all our hearts and to trust YHWH to equip us for task He is sending us to do in His Name.

I. His Decision Manifested.

Exodus 4:18 NKJV
18 So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
His mind is now fully made up to go back to Egypt, not as before, but as one sent of God. However before Moses just ups and goes, we need to notice what Moses does here.
It is interesting that moses’ supernatural call by God Himself did not relieve him of his obligations of responsibilities he had to others. Moses didn’t just run off saying "Tough luck Jethro I’m called by God to go to Egypt. I know I was supposed to manage your flocks and have been doing so for 40 years, but I am called by God now”. No this is not how Moses handles the calling of God toward his other obligations, instead he goes to Jethro makes his peace with him and announces what he’s doing, gets his permission. This is something that we might want to take to heart.
Life is filled with choices. Everyday we make countless choices. When we come to faith and believe God at His word that choice radically alters our life. It is as if we have been called out of the world but called then back into the world to proclaim God’s message of grace.
Have we not been taken out of the Egypt of this world, and are we not sent back into the world (John 17:6–18)?
John 17:14–18 NKJV
14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
To obey this command Moses had to separate himself from the wilderness connection.
Has our decision to be sanctified by God been as clearly declared?

II. His Journey Pursued.

Exodus 4:19–20 NKJV
19 Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.” 20 Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
All he took with him was his family and the rod of God was in his hand.
Poor in this world, but rich in faith. Hold fast the rod of His promise.

III. His Work Explained.

Exodus 4:22–23 NKJV
22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”
The thought here is this: As we go in by faith on the Word of God His mind will be more fully revealed to us.
By simple obedience we grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. God has us on a faith journey. With each step we take towards Him more and more is revealed to us. And what exactly is revealed? God’s Holy Words. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. There is saving faith, but we continue to live by faith not by sight. Trusting God each step of the way.
It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.
Oswald Chambers

IV. His Progress Arrested.

As the story continues, we encounter some of the strangest verses here in Ex. 4:24-26. Out of nowhere, it seems, God “sought to put [Moses] to death” (v. 24)!
It is apparently because his firstborn son was not circumcised (v. 24).
Moses was to keep the requirement given to Abraham, namely circumcising his sons (Genesis 17).
Zipporah seems to have acted faithfully, overcoming her headstrong husband, and Moses’ life was saved by her act.
She did the circumcision instead of Moses here (Exod 4:25). We are not told why that was the case.
We could conclude that she was showing him that we are only right with God through blood and His covenant promises.
God would later make a new covenant in His own blood. The very reason God became flesh.
It is....
The distinguishing feature of a Christian, of a new-covenant believer, is that he or she has undergone “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code”
D. A. Carson
It is a matter of Paul believing, on the basis of the Messiah’s resurrection, that God’s covenant with Israel had been renewed, and that heart-circumcision was, as had always been promised, the proper mark of covenant membership to which physical circumcision had been a kind of advance signpost.
N. T. Wright
Nevertheless, Moses was to be the lawgiver for Israel, and it would not do for the giver of the law to be a lawbreaker. Part of the law would require circumcision (Leviticus 12:3). For Moses to have an uncircumcised son would be blatantly hypocritical—and hypocrisy is never good in a national leader.

V. His Mission Declared.

As the journey to Egypt continued, Aaron was now sent (v. 27).
He was told to meet Moses, and he obeyed God’s call. Aaron and Moses went before the elders of Israel and told them of what God had done in their lives, thus fulfilling what the Lord had commanded them.
Exodus 4:29–31 NKJV
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.
What a story they had for the poor oppressed people of Israel!
It must have been from them the Gospel of God.
So lets conclude by seeing how they responded to the good news received?

1. THEY BELIEVED.

Moses’ big fear was that the people of Isreal would not believe his words which was from God. (4:1)
We never know who will believe or not the Gospel of God but not knowing isn’t the point. The point is we are told by God (commanded) to go and tell the good news message to all people. (Matt. 28:19)
Those who will believe will believe and those who don't will not. It is God who saves by His Words. We are not responsible for those who will believe nor are we responsible to those who will not believe however we are responsible for sharing the Words of the Lord.
“God hath commanded men everywhere to repent” and believe the Gospel (Acts 17:31).
Preach the gospel, the gates of hell shake. Preach the gospel, prodigals return. Preach the gospel to every creature, it is the Master’s mandate and the Master’s power to everyone who believes.—10.23
Charles Spurgeon

2. THEY BOWED.

The bowing of the head may indicate the yielding up of the will. (v. 31c)
Bowing is sign of repentance, humility, and broken spirit (heart).
This should always accompany faith in the Gospel of Christ.
By believing the elders bowed they heads in awe and reverence to YHWH who had visited them and had seen their affliction.

3. THEY WORSHIPED.

Adoration and thanksgiving comes to those who have been favoured with such a great salvation.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
“By grace are ye saved through faith, though not of yourself, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).
Being saved from the pits of hell by the mercy and grace of God…knowing that I am nothing, who am I that God is mindful of me. That God sees me and knows me and was willing to save me from by unholy, unrighteous, sinful self. If that does not lead you into adoration, thanksgiving toward a loving and forgiving God nothing will.
The Israelites had been crying out to God for mercy and deliverance.
And here when they heard that God has heard them and sees them they believed, they bowed and they worshiped.
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