Sermon Tone Analysis
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Big Idea
Tension: How does God prepare Moses for Pharaoh’s hardened heart?
Resolution: By reminding him of his covenant.
Exegetical Idea: God prepares Moses for Pharaoh’s hardened heart by reminding him of the covenant he made with Israel.
Theological Idea: God’s eternal covenant in Christ is the sustenance we need to endure evil.
Homiletical Idea: God’s promises in Christ prepares us to endure.
Intro:
“They didn’t teach me this in in school.”
That is probably one of the most common phrases out of people mouth.
THere are just so many things that we come across, problems to solve, situations to address, that we don’t really know what to do.
Nobody taught us “how” to do this.
There are manhy times as a pastor where I run up against a wall and I think, “Wow, they didn’ tteach me what to do about that.”
Today we are going to see Moses in an episode of his life where I imagine he said, “They didn’t teach me this in school.”
Moses’ education of course was a brief episode at teh burning bush, but that was enough to compel him to go and lead Israel out of Egypt.
There was still much that he did not know.
Of course just like the young student, if he would reflect for a minute, would probably realize that while he didn’t learn something explicitly in school, he was prepared for it in a variety of ways.
So Moses is going to see that maybe he hasn’t been trained for exactly how to deal with these situations.
But he has been prepared for it by God.
So today we’re goign to look at three ways that God prepares Moses, and three crises that Moses has to face early in his ministry.
We will be in to start today, .
WE have been walkign through the book of Exodus the last month or so as a chruch.
And we talkeda bout how God brought MOses to the land of Midian as an exile, and how MOses made a home for himself.
Then last week we talked about how Moses was caleld by God.
He got this huge revelation of who God was.
He saw that God is on the one hand, utterly, terribly, hugely, transcendent.
Then on teh other, he saw that God is also immenent.
God is both holy and love.
God is both other and near.
God is both self-existent and covenant-keeping.
And that’s going to be important for us today.
Then Moses gets this mission to go and to lead Israel out of the land of Egypt, so after some handwringing, Moses eventually agrees and he goes.
God’s covenant
1. Firstborn Son
“Go in peace” (vs.
18-20): So Moses first goes to his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
Now, Jethro has been so good and kind to Moses.
He has taken him into his house, and he has given him his daughter, and he has given him a vocation.
This is a man who has been very good to Moses.
And Moses asks leave to go and help out his people.
And Jethro says, “Go in peace.”
Here is Jethro, doing what priests do which is to be a mediator between God andman, and he says, “go in peace.”
Jethro is being very fatherly, very loving.
Then we see here that Moses puts his own wife and children on the donkey and heads towards Egypt.
We see here that the theme of fatherhood is very strong in thi spassage.
Hardening the heart (21): Now, God speaks to Moses.
And God says, “Moses, do everythign I told you to do before Pharaoh.
But just so you know, Pharaoh is going to harden his heart.”
Now, we will spend quite some time dealing with this issue of Pharaoh hardening his heart in the weeks to come.
But for now, God says to Moses, Moses, there is trouble ahead.
It will be difficult.
It will be hard.
“Firstborn Son” (vs 22-23) Then God says so Moses, when that happens, here’s what you need to know.
Israel is my firstborn son.
Now, there are two things about this description which are important.
First, Israel is like a son to God.
Just like Jethro has told Moses, “go in peace,” so God has said to Israel, “Come in peace.”
God has given them a proper relationship to him.
God has adopted them into his family, they are his people.
But he also calls Israel the firstborn.
What he means is that he has given to them the lion’s share of his blessing.
That they are unique and special to him.
that they are teh recipients of the divine promise.
There is something about Israel that was uniquely important to God.
And God says, Moses, when Pharaoh won’t allow Israel, my firstborn son to leave, I will kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son to make it happen.
WHat this is referring to, of course, is the final plague.
Where Yahweh slays all the firstborn children among the Egyptians, especially important is Pharaoh’s own son.
God will destroy them because Pharaoh will not allow Israel to go.
God will show once and for all who is the real God.So here, God is making known to Moses his love and his zeal for his own people.
He is saying that God will stop at absolutely nothing to bring them home.
So here, God is making known to Moses his love and his zeal for his own people.
He is saying that God will stop at absolutely nothing to
2. Bridegroom of Blood
So, now, we come to one of the strangest stories of the entire Bible.
And I’m just going to warn you, it gets weird.
But I think we will see that it is actually a blessing.
So it says here starting in 24....
So what we have just seen is that God meets Moses on the way to slay him.
And Zipporah, teh wife of Moses, circumcises Moses’ son Gershom, and touches Moses’ feet with the foreskin, and the angel passes over Moses, and she says you are a “bridegroom of blood” to me.
Yes, we did read that right.
ANd I know that some of you are just hoping that I’m going to pass over that… eya, sorry.
A couple of things.
God reminds Moses of his covenant with Israel: The first thing that we have to see here is that God reminds Moses of his covenant with Israel.
In , God had made a covenant with Israel, and the sign of that covenant was that every male in the Israelite household was to be circumcised on teh 8th day.
Because of that circumcision, they are under God’s protection.
Gershom was not circumcised: Now, Moses, for whatever reason, had not chosen to circumcise his son.
Therefore, Moses was disobedient to God’s law and God’s commandment.
So, God was “seeking to kill him.”
Now, we have to notice how gracious God is here.
Because God does not do this all at once, instead God gives Moses a chance to repent.
He gives Moses a chance to turn back to him and to not sin against him in this way.
Bridegroom of blood: So Zipporah realizes what is going on here.
So she circumcises their son and she touches Moses’ feet with it and says, “you are a bridegroom of blood.”
Now, this is one of the most confusing parts of teh whole story.
Now, I was reading a Jewish commentary this week, and she makes the case that part of the meaning of the word “bridegroom” probably has something to do with protection.
And I think that could be true.
There are several points as you are reading through the Bible where you see “bridegroom”, in particular, associated with protection (jeremiah 33:11; ).
So, when we are reading this and she says, “you are a bridegroom of blood,” what she is saying is that, “you are saved or protected by teh blood.”
Passover: So here, is what we need to see.
The book of Exodus is trying to get us to look forward to what is going to happen.
So, when we look at this one episode in light of the whole story of Exodus, it comes into relief.
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