Moses and Paul

Evening Service - 19/3/06

Exodus 5:1 – 6:1

·     Background

·     Israel is being held in captivity by Pharaoh

·     Moses has only recently been 'commissioned' by God to be His agent of rescue

o  …although he puts up a struggle…

·     Returns to Jethro and makes his excuses

·     God reminds him of his mission

·     Just before we get to our passage, a bizarre story…

4.24-26

§ God is the deliverer of His people

§ Moses is theoretically dispensable

·     Moses and Aaron meet and together deliver God's message to the Israelite leaders

·     The first meeting with Pharaoh

o  exactly as God has told Moses (3.19 & 4.21)

§ the suffering only gets worse

§ bricks without straw (binding material)

·     ‘The grumbling starts’

o  God had said that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened against them

o  but at the first sign of trouble, they lose their hope and stop trusting

§ Moses – ‘you have not rescued your people at all’

Philippians 3:4b- 14

·     Insurance letter

·     Going it alone

o  image of the race / marathon (1 Corinthians, Galatians & Hebrews)

o  v.14 - pressing on towards the goal

·     What is/was Paul looking to achieve?

§ perfection

§ through the Law (vv.4b-6)

§ righteousness

§ through faith in Christ (v.9)

·     Change of focus

o  from perfection to righteousness

o  from observance of the Law to faith in Christ

·     Paul has stopped looking at himself and started to look at Jesus

§ similarities with Moses

§ objections to being sent may appear humble, but actually show a focus on himself

§ Who am I? Who shall I say has sent me? What if they don't believe me? But I'm not a good communicator! Send someone else -I'm not good enough!

·     We might even recognise some of these objections…

·     Poem in ch.2

§ called to be imitators of Jesus

§ servant and child/friend

·     Depending on God for the big things and the little things

o  not removing ourselves from the equation

§ ‘Do it to me now God!’

o  we still have the role of servant and child

§ ‘Here I am, send me!’

·     Big things - choices

o  vocation, family, job, evangelism

·     Little things – choices

o  personality, lifestyle

·     Trust is an issue of dependence

o  trust our parents because we depend on them

o  who we chose to trust is determined by who we depend on

·     Who was the God of Moses?

o  eventually Moses depended on Him enough to see His faithfulness

·     Who was Paul's God?

o  through the apostle's dependence on Him He grew the Church

·     Who is our God?

o  do we give ourselves to Him?

o  do we trust Him implicitly with our lives?

o  do we utterly depend on Him?