Sermon Tone Analysis

The first 8 verses of Exodus 6 record the Lord’s reassurances to Moses—reassurances of His power, His salvation; reminders that God has appeared, He has made a covenant, He has heard their groaning, and He has remembered His covenant promises to them.

The Lord has promised to deliver them, to redeem them, to adopt them as His children, and to give them an inheritance.

What an amazing assurance from the Lord!

In the midst of doubt and difficulty, the Lord speaks truth; He comforts His people with His character and His many benefits.

Moses goes to report all of the Lord’s amazing assurances and promises to that grumpy, angry, blame-shifting lot of Israelites:

The Israelites aren’t listening because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

Moses’ word to them is being choked-out by the worries of this life.

Listening seems to be a problem; this is Moses’ major hang-up.

“If the Israelites won’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”

And then Moses asks again:

I understand Moses’ discouragement and timidity; I do.

Granted, I’ve never had a task anything like the task the Lord gave to Moses.

But I know what it is to speak with faltering lips; I’ve struggled all my life to varying degrees to speak clearly and plainly and properly.

And I must admit, speech impediment aside, there are many weeks I wonder why anyone would or if anyone should or how anyone could listen to me at all.

I understand Moses’ discouragement and timidity, I do.

Listening is where Moses gets all hung-up.

Well, it’s more the not listening.

The Israelites aren’t listening.

No way is Pharaoh going to listen!

The Lord, at this point, assures Moses that no, Pharaoh absolutely WILL NOT LISTEN—and this (get this!) this is the plan of God; this (get this!), this is entirely the Lord’s doing.

------> If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Exodus 6.

If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

------------------------------------------------------

Moses’ Faltering Lips

We’ve heard Moses complain about his inability to speak well—this is not the first time.

He won’t stop talking about his difficulty speaking.

Like a dog with a bone, this one.

He just won’t let it go.

This might be a summation of what Moses has said earlier, but I wouldn’t doubt it if this is Moses is dredging up his old excuse, using it again and again.

We, too, come up with excuses for not doing what God tells us to do.

And, the bulk of the time, we repeat the same sorry excuses over and over again.

It takes some Christians years to get past their tired old excuses for not giving, not going, not witnessing, not serving.

Moses’ faltering lips aside, our excuses aside, remember: God’s call is always accompanied by God’s gifting.

If God is calling you to do something, He’s going to give you the strength and ability to do it.

He’s not going to ask you to do something and then stand back, pointing and laughing at you when you can’t do it.

Every Sunday is an unmistakable reminder to me that whatever ability I have to preach, it’s from the Lord and not from this introverted fella with a speech problem.

It’s the Lord who helps me say my “Rs” correctly and who gives me the strength to stand here.

The Lord gifts Moses to do what He’s called him to do, and we need to understand this: God is not asking Moses if he wanted to volunteer.

He is ordering Moses to go.

God has the right to tell Moses what to do because He is Lord of Heaven and earth, Lord of all creation, of water, earth, and sky.

He is certainly Lord over Moses.

His commands are not invitations; they are orders to obey.

God’s not asking for you to RSVP “yes” or “no” depending on how you feel.

God’s demanding your obedience.

Moses keeps it up with the excuses.

And the Lord continues to be the loving and gracious God who patiently teaches His servants how to serve.

God listens to Moses.

And He answers his question.

Why would Pharaoh listen to me?

God gives to His prophet Moses divine authority.

Moses would be like God to Pharaoh.

What verse 1 really says in Hebrew is “I have made you God to Pharaoh.”

Moses is God’s representative, His chosen prophet.

When Moses stands before Pharaoh’s throne, he speaks with real divine authority.

God Himself speaks and acts through Moses.

We need to keep in mind that Pharaoh considered himself to be divine—and so did all the Egyptians.

This was basic Egyptian belief: Pharaohs were incarnations of the gods.

So, by making Moses God to Pharaoh, God was putting Pharaoh in his place.

Peter Enns explains:

In Egyptian royal ideology, the pharaoh was considered to be a divine being.

So by calling Moses God, Yahweh is beating Pharaoh at his own game.

It is not the king of Egypt who is god; rather, it is this shepherd and leader of slaves who is God.

And this Moses-God defeats Pharaoh in a manner that leaves no doubt as to the true nature and source of his power: He controls the elements, bugs, livestock, fire from heaven, and the water of the sea; he even has authority over life and death.

Moses is not simply like God to Pharaoh.

He truly is God to Pharaoh in that God is acting through Moses.

Moses, of course, is not divine.

There is only one God.

Moses is simply one of His prophets.

Yet Moses does represent God.

This is one of the Lord’s great mysteries: God has chosen human instruments to carry out His work; God communicates His message through human messengers.

Aaron was the mouthpiece of Moses who was the mouthpiece of God.

When God had something to say, He didn’t shout it from the heavens.

Rather, God spoke through one of His servants on earth.

This is the way God usually (almost always) communicates.

In the OT, the Lord spoke through His servants, the prophets.

And then, at just the right time, God sent Jesus—powerful in word and deed.

Upon Jesus’ ascension into Heaven, He gave His apostles and His people a commission to proclaim the gospel to the nations.

Today, God’s message is communicated through the Church.

The words of the prophets and apostles, the words of Jesus Himself are recorded in the pages of the Bible.

It’s our responsibility to announce them to the world.

This is what preachers do.

When a preacher teaches the Bible faithfully, his voice is the voice of God.

What’s more, God has poured out His spirit on the Church so that both men and women [would] prophesy.

This is what some call the “priesthood of all believers.”

This doesn’t mean that every Christian is called to be a preacher.

But it does mean that every believer is one of God’s messengers.

Every Christian man, woman, youth, and child is called to share the gospel and to speak the truth of the Bible.

Marcus Brownson, a nineteenth century pastor wrote:

Our Lord has no eyes, no feet, no hands to use now but those of His people in His Church which is His body.

Each member has a function and an obligation.…

As it was in the Church of the early days of Christianity, when men, women and even children went everywhere talking of the Savior and of redeeming love, so should it be today.

Evangelism is the office of all believers.

Every believer in Christ holds an office in the Church, the office of witnessing for Christ, and it is the highest, most honorable, most useful office in the world, “the office of all believers.”

This is a weighty responsibility.

As Christians we carry Christ into the world.

We may be the only genuine Christians that some of our friends and family members know.

Their whole understanding of Christianity depends on our testimony.

Therefore, we are Christ to them in the same way that Moses was God to Pharaoh.

To this, we are called to be faithful, as Moses and Aaron were.

Notice how today’s text concludes: