Handling Conflict

Intro:

We are starting a new series on the life of Moses. We will specifically look at different lessons God teaches Moses throughout his life.

But before we just into the first one, let’s get a little backstory on Moses, and what is going on at the time.

We start at the end of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

There was this guy name Joseph. God used him to save his brothers and family from a famine… And all of Egypt. It’s kind of crazy. Well, then we go into Exodus. And years and years passed. During that time, it says two things happened:

One, the children of Israel increased a lot.

Two, there arose a new king over Egypt, one who didn’t knew Joseph.

So there is a new guy in charge of Egypt. And he is looking around and sees a bunch of non Egyptians. And he says, “Hold up, wait a minute. There are more Israelites and they are mightier than we are. If we get into a war with our enemies, and they take our enemies side, we be in trouble!”

So he decides to set taskmasters over them and enslaves them. Make them build things for Pharaoh.

But the more he pushed the Israelites, the more they grew.

So he comes up with a plan B: He got these midwives together, and he told them if there are babies, kill the boys, let the girls live.

But, the midwives feared God and didn’t obey.

So… Plan C: Pharaoh said take every son of the Israelites that are born and chuck them into the Nile river.

What a bad time to be born for the boys.

Enter Moses.

Moses was born, but his mom hid him for three months. Then she put him in a basket, and put him among the reeds by the river bank. Then his sister #GoodBigSister stood a distance away to see what would happen to him.

Well, Pharaoh’s daughter sent to the river with some of handmaids, and she say the basket. She opened it up and found baby Moses crying. She took pity on him and knowing it was a Hebrew baby decided to keep him.

Then, Moses’ sister came up and ask if Pharaoh’s daughter wanted her to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter was like “Brilliant!”.

So Moses’ mom helped raise Moses and got paid for it!

And Moses grew up as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son.

So that is the back story.

Now, let’s jump into the passage for tonight. Turn to Exodus chapter two.

Exodus 2:11–15 “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.”

How did Moses respond to conflict?

There are two ways we respond to conflict. We lash out.

When conflict comes our way, we have a tendency to lash out. To attack.

We something that is threatening us, our peace, our comfort, our friends, our time on the xbox, our space, our freedom, our… You fill in the blank. When that something threatens the things we care about, our response is often to attack the thing that is causing the threat.

You might be thinking, “Caleb, I haven’t killed anyone. Clearly I don’t respond this way.”

Attacking doesn’t just mean killing.

You could attack by physically hurting someone. But you can also attack by yelling at someone. You can attack by throwing a fit. You can attack debating someone until they give up. You can attack by pestering someone until they change their mind. You can attack by guilt tripping someone.

There are so many ways you can attack the situation and the people involve until the problem is removed.

And this is what Moses does. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of HIS people. He looks around, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian, kills him, and then hides him in the sand.

2. But there is a second way we respond to conflict. We run away.

Believe it or not, Moses actually does both responses in this passage. Look at it in verse thirteen.

Moses becomes afraid, which makes sense, Pharaoh hears of it and sought to kill Moses. What does Moses do? He runs!

Now, you can try to escape your conflict in multiple ways. One way is by physically running. But there are other ways you can try to escape your problems. Denial, denying that there is even a conflict or problem. Just agreeing with the person who is upset at you so they will just drop it or leave you alone. Pulling away from people. Saying “Everything is fine.” Filling your life with other things to distract you.

Both of these responses offer the same thing: Temporary solutions.

You might be thinking “Caleb, the Egyptian the Moses kills would disagree.”

You see, what I mean is that it doesn’t actually fix the problem. We know that because then Moses has a second response to the problem by running away.

3. And that leads into the third response. Yes, there is three. We need to seek to make peace God’s way.

Numbers 16:1–5 “Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him.”

There are different ways we can seek to make peace God’s way.

Sometimes we are called to overlook.

Sometimes, we are called to seek reconciliation.

Sometimes, we are called to negotiate.

Sometimes, we are called to mediate.

Sometimes, we are called to arbitrate.

And sometimes we are called to have and hold accountability.

What is encouraging, is Moses didn’t respond with conflict in the correct way. He messed up… Twice.

But, God still uses him.

I want to take some time and have you answer these two questions:

One, how do you respond to conflict?

Two, how should you replace how you respond to conflict?