Moses: 40 years of thinking he was somebody

1. Introduction.

I have always been fascinated by the life of Moses, and as I have progressed in my Christian journey, I have become even more fascinated by the circumstances surrounding his death. As a kid, I guess we watched The 10 Commandments every year, but as I study the Bible more, I realize that even as great a movie as that was, there were some definite liberties taken with Scripture for dramatic purposes.

Nevertheless, Moses fascinates me. Outside of Jesus Christ, Moses, to me, is the most interesting character in the Bible. Everyone knows something about Moses. As I researched this sermon, I found this to be incredibly amazing.

The Standard Oil Company has made billions of dollars pumping oil out of Egypt. Do you know how they discovered oil in Egypt?

One of the engineers for Standard Oil Company was reading his Bible in the 2nd Chapter of Exodus, and this is the verse that he read.

Exodus 2:3 “But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.”

This engineer reasoned that where there is pitch, there must be oil, and if it was there in Moses’s day, it still had to be there, so Standard Oil sent a geologist and oil expert to Egypt, and guess what? They discovered oil.

Moses lived 120 years on earth, and his life is divided into 3 equal 40 year periods. 40 in the Bible always represents God’s testing of man, so in each of Moses’s three distinct periods of his life, he was being tested by God.

Dwight L. Moody said this about Moses, and this is going to be the basis of our study of Moses:

“Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.” (Dwight L. Moody)

In January, we are going to take each of the three periods of Moses’s life and see what the Bible has to say about this most interesting character.

2. Moses: The way God intervenes in the affairs of man.

The Book of Hebrews tells us that in the Old Testament God spoke through prophets, and even though Moses was not a prophet, he was whom God had chosen to speak to and deliver Israel.

I say this all the time, and I probably do not do a good job of making the point, but God cannot act outside of who He is. God has a plan, and the way God executes that plan leaves many of us scratching our heads, but that is how God operates.

When dealing with man, God almost always chooses or ordains another man to be the instrument He uses to execute His plan.

Before Moses was even born, he had been chosen to execute God’s plan.

Genesis 15:12–14 “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

500 years before Moses was born, God told Abraham that Abraham’s seed was going to be in captivity for 400 years, that God would judge that nation who was holding them captive, and that Abraham’s seed would come out of captivity very wealthy, and God had chosen Moses as His instrument to deliver Abraham’s seed.

I wished we would understand that. If God chooses you for some kind of service, He will equip you with the ability to accomplishes what He has chosen you for. The only thing that limits God in our lives is our doubt.

3. Moses: Part of the eternal conflict between Satan and the Jews.

Satan hates the Jews. It is his goal to destroy and eliminate the Jewish people, and Moses became a pawn in that struggle in more ways than one.

Moses was born during one of the darkest episodes in the history of the world.

Exodus 1:22 “So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.””

Pharaoh ordered all Israelite boys born to be cast into the crocodile-infested Nile River. It is one of the most barbaric decrees of all-time.

Literally, Pharaoh commanded that those little babies be thrown to the crocodiles. It is incredible barbarism, but I want to show you the eternal conflict that was in play.

Do you remember this verse?

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””

In the early days of the world, God told Satan that One would be born of a woman who would destroy him.

The wording literally means that Satan, even though you will think you have mortally wounded Him, it will only be like a stone bruise, but He will destroy you by crushing your head.

From that point forward, Satan set about trying to destroy that One. I believe his first attempt, since Satan is not all-knowing, was convincing Cain to kill Abel. It was obvious to Satan that Cain belonged to him, and it became even more obvious when God rejected Cain and accepted Abel, so Satan seized upon that opportunity to inspire Cain to kill Abel.

His second attempt was convincing Pharaoh to kill all those Israelite boys.

His third attempt was in Bethlehem when he moved on Herod to slaughter all male babies younger that two years of age.

The Book of Revelation tells us about this eternal conflict.

Revelation 12:1–3 “Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.”

Revelation 12:4–5“His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.”

There is so much that I could say here, but I will not. Do you know what verse 3 is telling us?

It is telling us that Satan will use and has used the kingdoms of this world in his attempts to destroy the Promised One.

Egypt, Rome, Greece, Medio-Persia, Babylon, and Nazi Germany are all kingdoms Satan has used to destroy the Jews. It is a great misconception in the church today, but the nations of this world right now at this very moment belong to Satan, and it was a claim that even Jesus Christ did not dispute.

Matthew 4:8–10 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ””

Dear friend, that passage should tell you why we should not expect governments to act in a “Christian” manner. If they belong to Satan, how can they act Christlike?

Satan was using Egypt to keep the promised one from being born, but God had chosen Moses to be the one who deliver Abraham’s seed. Moses in that sense is a type of Jesus Christ who is the Chosen One of God to deliver mankind from the bondage of Satan’s captivity.

4. Moses: Whom God chooses, He delivers and protects.

Imagine the horror of Amram and Jochebed, the parents of Moses.

They did not know God had chosen Moses, but they did know that, if found, Pharaoh would kill their baby boy, but God is able to protect and deliver who He chooses.

It is absolutely incredible how God protected Moses.

First, God provided Moses’s deliverance.

Exodus 2:3–5 “But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.”

You ought to see something incredible in that passage. Something ought to sound very familiar to you.

Genesis 6:14 “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”

Just as Noah was sealed inside and out by the Holy Spirit, so was Moses, and so are you and I.

Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Dear friend, if you are saved, you are sealed, and the crocodiles of this world cannot get to you until God is finished with you on this earth. AMEN!!!!!

Do you know something even more amazing about Moses’s deliverance? It was not an Egyptian soldier that found him. It was not Pharaoh who found him. It was not a magician that found him. He was discovered by the only one of the royal court who would have had compassion on him, Pharaoh’s daughter who evidently had no children of her own.

Do you think that is a coincidence? Dear friend, it is how God operates.

Second, God provided Moses’s protection.

I had never, Billy, thought about this until I got to studying Moses.

Who was Satan using to try to kill the one God had chosen? EGYPT!

Who did God use to protect Moses? EGYPT!!

Exodus 2:9–10 “Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.””

Acts 7:20–22 “At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.”

Not only did God use Egypt to protect Moses, some speculate that Moses was next in line to be Pharaoh. Not only did Egypt protect Moses, unknowingly, it prepared Moses for the task for which God had chosen him.

Verse 22 says that Moses was prepared in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It is an incredible statement to the brilliance of Moses.

Moses would have studied math, chemistry, engineering, architecture, astronomy, poetry, philosophy, and the arts. The Egyptians were ungodly people, but they were not ignorant as they built pyramids that are still standing that are more square than any modern building.

Moses received military training. as a matter of fact, Josephus says that Moses led a very successful campaign against the Ethiopians.

Moses was delivered by God and protected and prepared by Egypt, and Moses, as we all are subject to do, got a little puffed up in all of his abilities as we will see now.

5. Moses: Even though chosen by God, he had to make the decision to follow God.

This is where we have to separate The 10 Commandments the movie from scriptural reality.

Moses knew he was a Hebrew, and I believe he knew the entire time as his Jochebed, his real mother, was selected by Pharaoh’s daughter to raise him.

Acts 7:23–25 ““Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.”

Do you remember me saying that when you study God’s Word that you have to have a whole Bible approach? If what you know about Moses’s first 40 years is just based upon the passage in Ex. Chap 2, you do not get the whole picture.

Moses, because of his training and position, was an arrogant young man, but the Bible says it came to his heart to visit his brethren. What does that mean?

It means that the Holy Spirit had started working on Moses. As a matter of fact by the wording of verse 25, you can surmise that Moses knew God was calling him to be the deliverer of Abraham’s seed, but in his arrogance, he thought the Hebrews should recognize him as their deliverer.

Moses, however, acted in his own volition instead of God’s because he killed the Egyptian, and that is not the kind of deliverance God was going to provide Abraham’s seed.

God was working on Moses. Moses knew God was calling him, and Moses answered God’s call.

Hebrews 11:23–25 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,”

Moses, when he was old enough, made the conscious choice to belong to God and not the world.

Moses even assumes, according to Acts Chap 7, that his brethren would understand how God had chosen him to deliver them, but they did not understand.

Acts 7:26–27 “And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?”

Acts 7:28–29 “Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.”

Moses made one critical mistake. He got out in front of God. Yes, he had made the right choice to disregard the world and embrace who he was, but it was not time to deliver Israel. God’s timing was different from Moses’s timing.

As a matter of fact, the Israelites even mocked Moses, and Moses, similar to Elijah, tucked his tail and ran away from the situation.

Moses had spent the first 40 years of his life becoming a somebody, and now he was about to learn the truth. A truth that he had to learn before God could use him. The truth Moses had to learn was that he was a nobody which is what we will look at next week.