Foreigners and Aliens
Exodus: Called Out • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsMoses flees from his sin and runs to another country to try to escape the consequences of his sin. For many of us, this tells the all too familiar story of how we have dealt with our sin for many years. We have run to find refuge in a fresh start where no one would be aware of our past failures. God though desires to write a very different story with our lives. God desires for us to run to Him in our sin that He might send us back into our current circumstances with a new identity. God makes us foreigners and aliens in our familiar surrounding because in Him, He makes us new, new citizens of heaven and new creations in Him.
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Transcript
The Problem with Man
The Problem with Man
One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
“And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Moses is a gifted man who has not only great strength but also an empathetic heart.
Moses is mighty in word and deed. Acts 7:22
He is a cultural elite and has excelled in all of the teachings available in the land of Egypt.
Moses is empathetic and courageous as he challenges the social norms of the day. He takes the side of the Hebrews when faced with a confrontation. He embarrasses Pharaoh as he stands against his edicts.
Moses begins to take on the role of deliverer even without any specific leading by the Lord.
With all of this prestige, clout and positioning, Moses fails to fulfill the very thing that his heart desired him to accomplish. He beats a taskmaster to death.
We all believe that if we had the ability, we would respond and change the world. The truth is that all of our ability will always fall short of our reaching of our true desires and gains.
Our ingenuity makes us believe that we are able, but we prove ourselves wrong time and time again. Our ingenuity always falls short. All of our medical advances can not take death off the table. All of our parenting classes fails when our child’s will does not desire to be conquered.
The problem with mankind is that we are not God. This should be freeing news
God’s Solution
God’s Solution
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
God steps in and fulfills what all of our ingenuity can not fulfill.
God at times draws us out of our ingenuity that we might stand in His presence.
Look at what Moses found in the wilderness. A family, a purpose, hope and a future.
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
God never stops working and he never stop hearing.
Where are we trying to be God and where are we trusting God?