Sermon Tone Analysis

Bob (played by Bill Murray) is Dr. Marvin’s lovable but troubled mental patient in the film What About Bob?

He is so needy that he clings to Dr. Marvin at every turn—stopping by his office for unscheduled visits, calling him at home in the evening, showing up unannounced at his house, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

As Dr. Marvin prepares to take a family vacation, he starts to wonder how he is ever going to get rid of Bob.

Finally, in desperation, he tells his patient to do what he is doing himself and take a vacation.

“A vacation from my problems,” says Bob. “What a great idea!”

Sometimes, that does sound like a great idea, doesn’t it?

Driving away from the stack of bills and other financial worries; hopping a bus to escape the stress of family.

Using all your frequent flier miles to run off to Australia—away from work and responsibility—far, far away where no one can find you.

Sounds pretty good sometimes.

I’ve often thought: maybe I should just buy a horse, move to the mountains, and not bother anyone anymore.

You’re probably thinking: “I’ve got a horse you can have.

And I’ll help you pack!”

“A vacation from my problems”—not a bad idea.

In the classic cinematic masterpiece—Mrs.

Doubtfire—Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) and Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) have what appears to be for them a common fight.

At one point in their arguing, Daniel suggests:

Daniel: How about we take a vacation, take the kids, get you away from work, you'll see that you're a different person.

You are.

You're great.

Miranda: [shakes her head sadly] Oh, Daniel, our problems would be just waiting for us when we got back.

Daniel: Well, we'll move.

And hopefully our problems won't follow us.

The trouble is that problems, as a rule, do not take vacations.

Even if we are able to get away from them for a few days, they are still there when we come back.

Problems tend to get worse or they follow us wherever we go, which is what happens in the movie What About Bob?

Bob decides that if he is going to take a vacation from his problems, he might as well take it with his psychiatrist.

So Bob shows up at the Dr. Marvin’s resort and brings his problems right along with him.

Perhaps this is why the Bible never encourages us to take a vacation from our problems.

Taking a vacation wouldn’t help.

And the Bible is very much honest about the difficulties of life in this fallen world.

God, through His Word, would never suggest we waste our time with hopeless solutions.

Instead of running away from our problems, the Bible teaches us to take them to the Lord.

In the middle of everything, I’m sure Moses felt like running away.

I’m sure after his initial venture in front of Pharaoh and the ensuing drama that unfolded, Moses felt like taking his family and returning to Midian.

Dealing with a bunch of stinky sheep is certainly preferable to dealing with a bunch of stinky Israelites whose chief talent was complaining.

But Moses doesn’t run away.

He doesn’t take a vacation.

What does Moses do?

He turns to the Lord.

In light of his incredibly intimidating task (the initial attempt does not go well at all, you might remember; Pharaoh says “No, sir”, the Israelites are burdened with more work), in spite of the fact that the Israelites were calling down curses and judgment upon him, Moses doesn’t run.

He doesn’t book the next flight on Air Egypt.

He doesn’t wallow in despair.

He turns to the Lord.

Moses goes to the Lord in prayer and honestly seeks Him, seeks answers, seeks help.

And God answers Moses by repeating His promise of salvation.

The Lord assures Moses that no matter how desperate the situation becomes, He still has things under control.

The Lord assures Moses that He has not, will not, cannot forget His covenant:

Moses needed to hear this.

He needed to know (we need to know) that God has appeared, that He has established His covenant, that He has heard them in their groaning, and that He has remembered all His promises.

Moses needed to hear these wonderful truths.

These were the answers he needed; maybe not the answers he wanted, but the answers he needed.

Moses needed to hear (we need to hear) these great promises.

But of all the things that the Lord said to Moses, of all the things Moses needed to hear, the most important is only 4 words:

This must be important because of how often the Lord repeats Himself (He says this in verse 2, in verse 6, in verse 7, and in verse 8).

“I am the Lord,” He says—again and again.

More than a dozen times in the book of Exodus, the Lord reminds His servant, reminds His people: “I am the Lord.”

The Lord says this for the first time in Exodus back at the burning bush:

Here in Exodus 6, when Moses starts to doubt and begins to encounter trouble, God repeatedly tells him: “I am the Lord.”

You think maybe Moses needed to hear that?

You think he needed to be reminded of that?

“I am the Lord.”

God certainly gave Moses more than that (He gave Moses plenty of other details about the salvation He would bring), but if He hadn’t said any more than that—“I am the Lord”—it would have been sufficient.

The beginning, middle, and end of the Lord’s message was simply: “I am the Lord.”

This was the most important thing Moses needed to hear.

“I am the Lord” is reassurance that the Lord has everything handled.

It’s comforting to know that although I have nothing covered, there is One who does—always.

I’m certain there are many times where you, if you’re anything like me, could benefit from hearing the Lord say, “I am the Lord.”

God wants His people to understand that the answers to all their problems are to be found in Him.

Every part of salvation depends on His being and His character.

Salvation began with God—it all comes from His grace; and salvation ends with God—because it all returns to His glory.

Whatever difficulties show up in the meantime, God is able to handle because…[He] is the Lord.

“I am the Lord” is God’s way of reminding Moses (reminding us) that He is sufficient.

He is mighty to save.

He is able and good and faithful and just.

Maybe this is why God allowed Moses to fail (and fail hard) the first time he went to Pharaoh.

Think about it: if Pharaoh had released the Israelites the very first time they asked, the people would have given Moses most of the credit (if not all of the credit).

Plus, it wouldn’t be much of a story: “So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go.’

Pharaoh agreed and sent the people away with his best wishes and plenty of Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches for the road.

The end.”

If Pharaoh would have released the Israelites at their first request, Moses would have been given all the credit.

Instead, the mission backfires in a big way.

And Moses gets all the blame.

It was at this moment that everyone knew Moses was unable to lead God’s people to the Promised Land.

Only the Lord could bring them out of Egypt.

And the longer Moses and Pharaoh argue over the fate of Israel, the clearer all this becomes.

(We need 7 chapters of this interaction between Moses and Pharaoh so we get the point—“Let my people go.” “No.”).

God is teaching His people to put all of their trust in Him and Him alone.

That way, when all else fails (and it all will), the one thing they can count on is the One who said “I am the Lord”.

He alone has the ability to save.

What is true for Moses and the Israelites is true for us.

Whatever problems we have, whatever difficulties we face, the most important thing is to know who God is.

We are called to place our trust in the One who says, “I am the Lord.”

When there is trouble in the family and we don’t know how to bring peace, He says, “I am the Lord.”

When a relationship is broken and cannot be mended, He says, “I am the Lord.”

When loss and sorrow and grief consumes, He says, “I am the Lord.”

When nothing seems to go right, and it’s not certain how things will ever work out—even then He says, “I am the Lord.”

—>The One who reassures us by reminding us who He is—“I am the Lord”—is the One we should trust, the One who brings salvation.

We need to trust who He is.

And we need to believe that He will do what He says He will do.

In our text, there are several “I will” statements made by the Lord.