Moses: From Excuses to Exodus
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Throughout the pages of the Bible we find stories of men and women who became regarded as heroes. We all love stories of heroes. Given the fact that Marvel movies have made 31 Billion i think is pretty good evidence for that. The types of heroes that really resonate are the ones we can relate to. The ones we can see ourselves in their origins and their struggles.
When it comes to the heroes of the Bible we have the tendency to think of them as these perfect infallible beings like the fictional characters superman or captain America. But here’s the thing the people that we read about in the Bible were real people just like you and me. They had real struggles, real shortcomings, but they also served a very real God.
For the next few weeks we are going to look at some of the most unlikely heroes of the Bible and see what we can learn about God by looking at each of their stories.
We are going to start this week in exodus chapter 3 with a man who was a fugitive, a murderer, and an outcast, who turned into the leader of God’s people.
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
We pick up Moses’ with Moses living in the wilderness, working for his father in law as a shepherd. He has been forgotten. In his mind he is going to spend the rest of His life with the sheep. Separated from God and his people. But God had other plans.
He reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush. Looking at this story. We got to ask why a burning bush? He is God he can appear however he wants. why choose a burning bush?
Fire is representative of God’s holy presence. it would appear later in exodus as the pillar of fire to signify God is with them, on mt Sini, in the tabernacle, and in the New Testament on the day of pentecost.
Fire is appropriate because we are all drawn in by fire, amazed by fire, but we also tell our kids dont play with fire. Fire is to be taken seriously, and so is God because he is Holy.
And this burning bush it was on fire and it burned but would not burn up. It would not be consumed. This is a picture of the neverending power of the God. The God who is holy, who upholds the whole universe with is righteous right hand, the God who invented time for us. the burning bush shows us that by burning and not being consumed that God never runs out of fuel.
As Moses approaches the fire he reaches a point where God calls out and says. Do not come closer. It shows the gap between a holy God and sinful man. like there comes a point when you get can’t get closer to fire. There comes a point where us a sinful people cannot get closer to God. It is only through Jesus that we are able to draw near to God. Hebrews 10:19
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
Through Jesus we are able to get closer to God than even Moses could.
Moses entered scared, and unsure and we as we will see not very committed. We on the other hand get to enter God’s presence with confidence because we know him, If you are a born again follower of Jesus. We enter God’s presence with reverence but with confidence.
But what I want us to see here this morning is that though we are brought close but we are also sent out.
1. Heroes aren’t Forged they are Sent.
1. Heroes aren’t Forged they are Sent.
God is a sending God. We seem to have this misbelief that these heroes of the Bible that we have spent our lives learning about were these other worldly people who were all super prepared, secure in who they were, and gone through extensive training before their big moment came.
But here’s the reality. While yes God used circumstances to prepare people in the Bible even when they didn’t realize it. What made them heroes is that when the time came and God said go they went. Moses who had no scripture to read, no church or temple to go to, no community to support him. Simply went when God said go. But not at first which we will see but In these verses as God is explaining what he is going to do we see three things about how God sends
First his motive. He had heard his people suffering and was motivated to act,
Second his purpose, his purpose was to transfer his people from a land of slavery to a land where they could freely worship him
Then in verse 10 we see the plan. God said I will send you to bring my people out of Egypt.
When God sends he always has a motive, a purpose, and a plan.
We are not called to try to fulfill out motives with God’s plan or purpose, we don’t have a purpose that superceed’s God’s motives or plan. and we don’t have the pressure of coming up with a fully realized masterplan to fulfill God’s motives and purpose. Our job as believers is simply to Go where we are sent.
Moses didn’t get that yet. He had excuses like we all do. We are going to go quickly through Moses’s excuses. and I want you to see the common theme throughout. Every time Moses brings up a way he is insufficient we will see God is self sufficient. Every time Moses comes at God with an insecurity, doubt, or excuse, God responds with statements about his own sovereignty and power.
2. God is sufficient for the Sent
2. God is sufficient for the Sent
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Moses brings up his lack of credentials. and God says I will be with you. What greater credential can you have? God is sufficient for the sent
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘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,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
Moses is saying what will I even say. You don’t know me but a bush in the desert spoke to me and I am your leader now?
God give Moses his most personal name. He said tell them I AM sent them to you. God is saying he is absolutely central. He is central to your life, your marriage, your career and your ministry. When you dont know what to say you tell people who God is and what he as said. including what he as done in the past, what he is doing now and what he will do in the future.
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Moses says what if no one believes me? What if I go, make this big effort and no one listens. What if no one shows up. God responded by Telling him to throw his staff on the ground turning it it into a snake probably a cobra representing the national god in lower Egypt. and then tells Moses to grab it by the tail, which is the worst place to grab a highly venomous snake. and God turns it back into a staff showing his power of their enemy and enemy.
Then he had Moses put his hand in his cloak and when he pulled it out it had leprosy, an incurable disease for them. but when put his had back in his cloak it was healed. This showed God’s power over sickness and death.
God gave him these signs to say you are worried about if people will listen or not when I said I will be with you and I have power over evil and death. Us today have even greater sign than these. Our sign that shows us that we can trust God, and makes our excuse of no one will listen sound so silly is that our sign is the empty tomb. The God who has revealed himself to us personally as I AM. Is alive today. His name is not I WAS. and I AM will always be with us because the tomb will always be empty. God is sufficient for the sent.
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Moses brings up his lack of communication skills. But he misses the point our fears should not paralyze us but should make us desperate for God’s help. In response God tells Moses he knows about his poor communication. He is the one who made him. God formed Moses on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose. and God has formed you purpose, with purpose and for a purpose. God knew Moses’ weaknesses and he knows yours. it is because of those weaknesses he wants to use you so that he can get the glory. God is sufficient for the sent.
Moses’ last excuse is by far his weakest but also his most honest.
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
This was Moses’ last chance all his excuses had been answered. He had nothing left. His last excuse was to simply express his lack of commitment. God responded by giving him someone to be an encourager to him and be strong where he was weak. again God is sufficient for the sent.
He was sufficient for Moses and he is sufficient for you.
There is one final takeway that whenever I have studied this story I have kept coming back to. Moses is talking to God he knows clearly what he wants him to do and yet he chooses to focus on himself rather than focusing on God.
I grew up thinking if God spoke audibly to me of course I would listen and do exactly what he said no questions asked. The people in the Bible had it easy. You may have had similar thoughts. but stories like this make me think I have given myself too much credit. The bible is full of people hearing directly from God and not listening or being slow to listen.
In the case of Moses in this passage where he is talking to God he says “I” 6 times “me” 3 times, and “my” 3 times. It doesn’t matter what God is saying to you if you are too focused on yourself and what you don’t have to listen.
3. Stop Looking at “I” — Start Trusting the “I AM”
3. Stop Looking at “I” — Start Trusting the “I AM”
The God who used a fugitive to free his people from a world super power, the God who used a murderer to part the red sea and give his people the law. That God. I AM is the same God who speaks to you today through his word. He has the same God with the same motive, purpose and plan that he had back then.
His motive is the same, to free His people from suffering. His purpose is the same to take his people from bondage to freedom, and his plan is the same to send people who will simply say yes, and believe that he is sufficient.
His motive is to free us all from the suffering caused by sin. His purpose is to take us people from the bondage of sin to the freedom of having your sins washed clean. And his plan was to send Jesus so we could get even closer to him than Moses did on that mountain. and to then send us out to tell people who is and what has done so they can experience the closeness to God that we have experienced.
You are the plan. Stop looking at yourself thinking once I fix this major flaw then I will go and do what God wants me to. Maybe the very thing that you think would hold you back. The lack of credibility, the lack of knowledge of what to say, the fears that no one will join you or care, Your own lack of communication skills, shyness, or social anxiety, or even your own lack of commitment.
God knew everything about you when he called you. you knew every past and future mistake. He cant find anything out that would scare him away because he already knows it. And this morning through his word he is telling all of us I know your shortcomings and I still want to send you. Will you go?
That is the call this morning will you go?
Do you want to be a hero for Christ? do you want people to talk about the impact you made on the kingdom years after you are gone? Heroes aren’t forged into perfection and then sent. They simply go where they are sent by their Lord.
What excuses are holding you back from what God is calling you to do? There is no excuse that you can come up with that God isn’t sufficient to cover. He is sufficient for the sent.
The place to start this morning is to take the focus off of you to think your weaknesses could stop or surprise God, and instead look at your weaknesses as places that God’s glory can shine through brighter. We do that by fixing our eyes not on us but on the Great I AM who not only saves us but sends us.
Will you go where you are sent this week?
