Exodus: Integrity and Judgement
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Today we are in Chapter 4 of Exodus. In just a few hundred words, we have learned much about the hero of the faith, Moses.
We know Moses was:
S.H.A.P.E.d to Deliver
Called to Deliver
IF you missed the Ash Wednesday service, we talked about he first half of chapter 4, and how God assured Moses that while he may not be powerful enough to free the Israelites, God had more than enough power to deliver.
Moses was SHAPED, he was Called, and now he was Assured of God's power to Deliver the Israelites. It looks like he is ready to go…he even thinks he’s ready. But he’s not.
It doesn’t take long to learn something about people does it. At least we think we know them.
But often times it takes quite a while to learn about ourselves.
It doesn’t take long to learn something about people does it. But often times it takes quite a while to learn about ourselves.
It doesn’t take long to learn something about people does it. But often times it takes quite a while to learn about ourselves.
EXAMPLE
Today I pray as we look at the life of Moses we will be able to take away some powerful truths for our own lives.
THE PASSAGE
THE PASSAGE
Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.”
So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,
and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Moses was working in concert with God’s covenant with Abraham.
Moses was working in concert with God’s covenant with Abraham.
God had declared that the Israelites were his people. Back in Genesis, God had made a covenant with Abraham that they would be his people and he would be their God.
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
They are in bondage in Egypt for 400 years, then along comes Moses - SHAPEd and Called to deliver God’s covenant people.
But there is a problem.
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him.
But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.
So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
Moses hasn’t been faithful to the covenant himself.
male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.
Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.
The problem is, Moses hasn’t been faithful to the covenant himself.
Genesis 7:9-
Now you are probably thinking…wow…God is taking this whole circumcision thing pretty seriously…Yes he is.
10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
1-17
Now you are probably thinking…wow…God is taking this whole circumcision thing pretty seriously…Yes he is.
As Isaiah the prophet taught us....My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The covenant may not make sense to us, because we don’ t see things as God sees. But what God wants us to see, he makes very plain. It’s not a puzzle.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
So what are we to do with this? Do we just assume that God can want us dead for any little misstep? Does God want to strike us down as he did Moses because of our mistakes?
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We may not fully understand what God was doing, but what we do know is that what happened to Moses was so that he might be equipped for God’s good work.
There is something here for us today as well. God wants to use this account in Moses life to teach us. Look at what happened after Moses met the covenant:
The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.
Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.
Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites,
and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people,
and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
God blessed him in his obedience
God began to answer the promises that he had made to Moses....Moses began to see the future that God had revealed to him.
God began to answer the promises that he had made to Moses....Moses began to see the future that God had revealed to him.
Pretty amazing thing that has happened here. And we get a ring side seat. We can learn some amazing things from God’s word. But even better, I thing God’s word can teach us amazing things about us.
From the text today I have discovered 3 lessons that combined form one essential truth for us as disciples. Are you ready for that?
Are you sure you are ready for this?
The JUDGMENT of God always begins with the FAMILY of God
Lesson #1
Lesson #1: The JUDGMENT of God always begins with the FAMILY of God
Lesson #1: The JUDGMENT of God always begins with the FAMILY of God
Moses was sent to bring about judgement on Pharaoh. But before he could do that, he had to have his own come to Jesus moment.
The writer of Hebrews said it this way:
For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:
We start with our own family, don’t we expect God to?
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
God wants to use us, we are made for his use. TO be instruments of his love, holiness, and peace. We don’t know how to do that with out being trained for it.
Because we aren’t perfect. We miss the mark. Sometimes we miss the mark a lot. In fact that’s exactly what it means to sin.
Sin is “missing the mark.”
That’s Lesson #2.
I’ve been watching the Olympics. I love that ski and shoot thing they do. I can’t imagine how hard it is to ski cross country then take a rifle and aim it at a target the size of a golf ball some 100 yards away. They get a penalty if they miss the target instead of losing points, they lose time. They have to take a penalty lap for each target they miss. It doesn’t matter by how much or whether it was high or low. A miss is a miss.
That’s what sin is. It’s a miss.
Lesson #2: Sin isn’t just DOING BAD THINGS. It’s also FAILING TO DO THE RIGHT THINGS.
Lesson #2: Sin isn’t just DOING BAD THINGS. It’s also FAILING TO DO THE RIGHT THINGS.
Moses was a Jew. While he didn’t grow up in a Jewish home, he knew the Jewish customs. He knew his sons were to be circumcised. He knew what made them covenant people. He just hadn’t done it.
vs 24-26 are some of the most difficult in the OT to interpret because of all the pronouns used - no proper nouns.
it’s had to understand, but given the context, to me it sounds pretty clear that God was mad at Moses because he had not done what he was supposed to do. So mad in fact that he was about to kill Moses son.
Is that right?
James the brother of Jesus thinks so. He explained it this way:
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Sins of commission vs. Sins of Omission.
Missing the mark is missing the mark. High, Low, just outside, or missing the whole wall. The bulls-eye is still empty. Failing to do good is the same as doing wrong…because the good is still undone.
SO is an assaulter just as guilty as the one who fails to help the abused...
Is the addict just as wrong as the one who fails to help the one orphaned by addiction?
Is the thief just as wrong as the one who fails to serve?
This was something that had to be straightened out. That brings us to Lesson #3
Lesson #3: If we want to be USED by God, we need to OBEY God.
Lesson #3: If we want to be USED by God, we need to OBEY God.
Moses couldn’t be the deliverer of God’s covenant people without being a part of the covenant. He had to straighten this out because he wanted to serve God. He was a bit scared sure…but he was doing something for God. He had to believe that God’s covenant was real.
For us today its the same way. The writer of Hebrews said it this way.
The writer of Hebrews said it this way.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Moses came to understand that he had to be fully invested in the plan of God. It’s the same for us.
is…and he got right with God.
To be used by God in the work of faith, we must share the faith.
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Blessed because God blesses our faithfulness.
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)
He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.
He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.
He loves for us to invest ourselves in his work.
Eternal Truth: We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
Eternal Truth: We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Wonder…being aware of who you are…Being honest with yourself.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Our sins reveal ares in our lives that we are missing the mark. Areas of our lives that need Jesus.
We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
We need to worry a lot more about OUR OWN SINS and a lot less about the SINS OF NON-BELIEVERS.
People need Jesus…not to stop sinning.