Commission of Moses 2
Notes
Transcript
last week, we talked about Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush
we saw how Moses reacted to God: humbly
even though Moses was just a humble shepherd, God greatly used him
additionally, we discussed the major theme of deliverance from this whole narrative
We left off at the point where God told Moses that He would strike Egypt, and the Pharoah would release the hebrews
He gave the whole plan to Moses, showing that God had it all prepared and under control, it simply would take the obedience of Moses.
And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
God has infinite power to change hearts and minds to bring about His plan
Neither will God have His people embark on a plan and be unprepared
God taking those who are in the lowest position, and raising them up with the spoils of the Egyptians
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
We see even after God has told Moses all these great things that He will do for the hebrews, Moses still doubts God
it’s a problem of a lack of faith, we see this kind of stuff from many people from the Bible
it’s easy for us to do these things as well, sometimes we doubt things that God has said, whatever it may be
but if we’re doubting something that God has said, whether it be about comfort, or whatever it may be, thats an US problem not a God problem
For one thing, God is completely holy, and is therefore completely truthful to His Word
we see His many fulfilled promises throughout the Bible
For another thing, God is completely and utterly powerful, there is no way that God is not able to carryh out His promises
so even in situations which seem impossible, we must remember how much greater God is than man, and how much more He can do
in fact, by God turning Moses’ staff into the serpent, He demonstrates His amazing power over the natural world
in fact, there are tales from Egyptian culture which talks about a snake which is turned into a staff - what God does here would be a reversal of this, showing His true dominion over the gods of Egypt
We have every reason to be faithful in God and what He’s said to us and promises us
God says nothing to Moses about his doubt at this time, God is having patience with Moses, as well as mercy
however, this mercy cannot be abused
And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.
God further continues to deal with humanities doubt, trying to work with humanity
think of the love of God, that He would bother going out of His way to have mercy on and deal with humanity on something that they should simply just believe Him over
reminds one of the life of Jesus
also, how God has mercy and patience with each and every one of us
And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
all of this doubt finally comes to a head, makes moses reach a point where He directly questions God and suggests that he couldn’t do what God is asking Him to do
Moses fails to realize that God is going to work through him to accomplish great things
the same could be said for some of us, we migth feel like we could never accomplish some things for God on our own.
We have no excuses for ever not doing the work that God wants us to do
each of us have our purpose from God, and in doing this stuff, we are not doing it alone
could paul have done all that he did without have had God working through him and helping him?
same with Moses, perhaps he couldn’t have succeeded on his own, but God proved to be with him the entire time.
God even helps to overcome the speech issue that Moses has
so many biblical figures were just regular, simple guys who God could accomplish great things through
the apostles, the prophet amos, so on and so forth
God lifts up the regular guy, accomplishing so much more thorugh them than any of them could have done on their own
people are just flawed people without God, but with God, all things are possible
and if God is with us, who can be against us
there is no reason for any of us to not be able to accomplish great things for God, as each of us have great potential, should we just lean on Him and not doubt Him
And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?
This leaves everyone without excuse
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
Not only will the way Moses was made by God be good enough, but God would also be working through him at the same time
so we are left with no excuses for why we won’t or don’t do as much as we should, or anything at all.
And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.
“send somebody else”
we read this and it doesn’t sound very good to us, almost as if moses is being defiant when God has asked him to do something
it’s easy to think “how can you not do something when God is directly asking you to?”
but we do it all the time
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
God had much mercy and patience with Moses, but Moses continued being obstinate
even though God had told him that He is the one who made moses and made him well on top of the fact that God would be with him
However, even through all the resistance that Moses has given God during this passage, God continues to have patience with Moses
God gives Moses the help that he needs in order to feel comfortable doing this mission, gave him the thing he needed in order to go
This is the first mention of Aaron in the OT, also underscored is his tribe
And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.
“just like I’m telling you what to say, you will tell aaron what to say”
God here reiterates again the fact that He will be with them and working through them
shows how much God cares about his people, that He is concerned with how they are doing and feeling about the task ahead of them
think of the things that God is asking them to do, it would be completely unreasonable to ask just a human on his own to do it
this is why God keeps reassuring moses, because while it’s a big task, a bigger God will be with him and working through him
God can march 2 guys into egypt, and just from that, lead an entire nation out of the most powerful empire in the world at that point.
this was a very prosperous era in the history of egypt, but God shows that nations worth of effort is not even close to a match for him
just like God worked through moses and aaron to cause so much change, we saw similar change worked through paul
Paul would go out into the Roman empire, which was unrivaled arguably until colonial times, and cause the empire to be Christianized in a short amount of time.
David would go and face goliath
abraham would go on a great journey and be the start of something great at an unlikely age
joseph and his rise to greatness
Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilding from nothing
God enables each of us to do some great work in this world, to be world changing
it’s just how do we react: do we take up our cross and follow God’s direction? or do we just live our life and let the world around us languish
if each of us did real work every single day, if we dedicated our lives to the work of God like the disciples did, so much good could be done
there were many outside of the Bible who were great faith heroes as well, so there isn’t one good reason why each of us couldn’t be great faith heroes
Abraham was old when he started his mission from God, moses couldn’t speak well, the prophet amos was just an old country boy farmer, but were all important biblical figures
And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.
lastly in this passage, we see some imagery for what has been talked about in the passage - the rod here symbolizes God’s power
we think of moments like when the red sea was parted, moses lifts up the rod and the sea is parted
So ultimately, there is always this reminder that God is there, and it’s Him that is working through those who are following His direction
no matter what kind of shape the person is in, whether old, whether young, whether not able to speak, or whatever it may be
just like God told moses how “hey, I made you, I know what I’m doing”, the same could be said about every single person sitting here today
we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together by God in the womb, all with our purpose
it is just on us to decide to carry out this purpose, WITHOUT EXCUSE, because none of us have an excuse
there have even been many disabled believers over time, theres an early historical Christian named didymus the blind who was influential in his day and surely there have been many more
we are without excuse, moses was 80 when he started the journey to Egypt to free the hebrews, abraham was an old man
There is no reason why we can’t start today, we can absolutely start today and still accomplish great things for God
so are we going to be resistant to God, like moses tried to be in this passage, or are we just going to take up our cross and follow God’s direction
if God is with us, who can be against us