[Only One God] Exodus 4:1-31 | "Send Someone Else"
[Exodus] Only One God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 125 viewsSunday, March 20, 2022. Exodus 4:1-31 | "Send Someone Else" In this text, Moses continues to question God's call to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Moses doubts his credibility, his capability, and ultimately God's choice of him for this task. Let's listen and learn what this exchange teaches about the fallible people God chooses and uses for His glory! This message preaches from Exodus 4:1-31. The title of this sermon: "Send Someone Else."
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I. The Reading
I. The Reading
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”
3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—
5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”
20 So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son,
23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
[ Scripture Reading ~ 8 min ]
Say Amen
Say Amen
If you receive this word by faith, as the word of God and not the word of man, would you Say Amen? Amen!
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
The LORD chooses a man named Moses, and the LORD uses this man named Moses, to communicate God’s word to the people of Israel so that the people believe and worship God.
The last verse of this chapter, Chapter 4:31 says —
31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
The people believed; and when they heard — they bowed their heads and worshiped.
This calls to mind the wonderful verses of Romans 10 —
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Moses is God’s chosen preacher, sent by God to preach good news to the people of Israel. And when the people hear, the people believe! And when the people believe, the people worship.
Church, as we read this Old Testament passage from the Book of the Law, we are reminded that the Bible is one book, beginning to end, with one story — one gospel — about only one God who never changes.
The God of Moses is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit dwelling in all who believe, is our God and Father too - the same God.
God still saves His people and makes His salvation known through the preaching of His Word.
God desires that when His messengers are sent out, and His Word is preached, that His Word be believed so that we are led as hearers into faith, believing and worshiping God.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
May what we hear today, from the proclaimed Word of God, lead us as a people to faith in Christ — to believe God and worship God, not because of a fallible human spokesperson, but rather because of what this Word is that is proclaimed to us — the infallible, living Word of God!
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
Our faith as hearers, does not come from the messenger, but from the sender of the message and the message itself.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
If we back up to the beginning of Exodus, Chapter 4, we find God’s sent preacher, Moses, still in conversation with God, still questioning God, still debating God and doubting that the people will believe.
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
Moses is concerned with his own credibility.
Moses is concerned with his own credibility.
Moses thinks the people’s faith rests upon him as a preacher — upon him as a messenger — upon his credibility or persuasiveness — rather than upon God as the author and sender of that message through him.
He says to the Lord —
“But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice....”
And yet God is not concerned with Moses’ credibility or believability or persuadability or Moses’ voice. Moses is just the human messenger.
What matters is that God chose Him and God is sending Him.
Preachers wrongly take upon themselves unnecessary burdens and responsibilities.
The preacher is not responsible for the results of preaching or how the people will respond to the message. The preacher is responsible for delivering the message, faithfully and obediently.
If the Word belongs to God, then the results belong to God too.
The power in preaching never resides in the preacher but always in the Word that is preached.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The word of God is powerful and effective. The messenger is just the messenger.
So —
Moses has to learn that God is not sending Moses to convince the people to believe because of Moses’ credibility. God is sending Moses to deliver God’s Word — God’s credibility. The convincing work belongs to God.
God will convince God’s people to believe.
The Word of God is never separated from the God of the Word.
God is going with Moses because God sent Moses. The results belong to God.
And to show Moses this, and to show the people this, God graciously gives Moses signs to confirm His Word so that the people will believe.
Victor Hamilton says it this way:
In the first sign, something supportive (a staff) becomes something serpentine (a snake) and then back again. [Hamilton, E:EC]
God tells Moses to take the staff in his hand, throw it down on the ground and it becomes a serpent. Then God says for Moses to put out his hand and catch it by the tail so
5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
Hamilton says —
In the second sign, something healthy (an unblemished hand) becomes something harmful (a diseased hand), and then back again. [Hamilton, E:EC]
The LORD tells Moses to put his hand inside his cloak and when Moses pulls it out his hand is leprous like snow. God tells Moses to put his hand back in and when he takes it out again, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
Hamilton says of this third and last sign, of which there is no reversal here —
Something pure (the waters of the Nile) is to become something putrid (blood). [Hamilton, E:EC]
The Nile was a source of life in Egypt, and should the people not believe the source of life — God’s Word, God’s salvation — then the end is death: blood on the dry ground (see NET note).
God does not give Moses a reversal for this sign at this time, and the imagery is clear —
The blood will be upon their own heads if they reject the message at its source — which is God.
Moses thinks the people’s faith rests upon him as a preacher — upon him as a messenger — upon his credibility or persuasiveness — rather than upon the power of God as the author and sender of that message through him.
God is not concerned with Moses’ credibility or Moses’ believability or Moses’s persuasiveness or Moses’ voice.
Moses is just the human messenger. What matters is that God chose Him and God is sending Him with God’s Word to God’s people.
Moses’ concerns then shift from his credibility to his capability.
Moses’ concerns then shift from his credibility to his capability.
Look with me at verse 10:
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
Literally, Moses is saying I am “heavy of mouth” and “heavy of tongue.” Moses can’t speak well.
Does the ability of the people to believe God’s Word rest in Moses’ own capability to deliver that message to them?
Do the results depend upon presentation, charisma, charm, eloquence?
Paul said to the Corinthians:
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Moses still fundamentally misunderstands his assignment.
God is not sending Moses to deliver a TED Talk, to showcase his speaking ability or his great presentation.
God is sending Moses, faults and all, to speak for God.
To get out of the way so that God’s Word would be heard for what it is — the word of God and not the word of man.
Moses wrongly thinks that if God calls him to speak, God will fix his speaking problem.
God doesn’t fix Moses’ speaking problems!
Look again at verse 10:
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
Sometimes we say that God doesn’t call the equipped, God equips the called.
What we mean by that, is that God doesn’t look for the best and brightest and then selects His servants from the cream of the crop, the Ivy League, as if God is assembling his administration’s cabinet.
(We don’t have to read the Gospels very long to see that this is not true - just look at the twelve Jesus chose to follow Him!)
Instead —
God chooses whom God wills to choose and equips them with what they need to do what God has called them to do!
Church —
God can and will use each one of you who are called by Him no matter what your capabilities are.
No matter your experience, no matter your education, no matter what you think you have earned in life. God doesn’t need or require any of that.
God’s call does not require you to meet the prerequisites of a job description.
God’s reward is not commensurate with your education or experience.
God’s equipping is not like what we think.
God doesn’t call a poor speaker to speak for God and then make Him a great speaker.
God doesn’t call a wealthy man and make Him a giver.
God doesn’t call a tall and handsome man and make him a king.
That’s not to say God’ can’t — but God normally doesn’t.
Instead, —
God makes common fisherman — fishers of men.
God takes the least in his father’s house, a man from the weakest clan, and calls him a “mighty man of valor” (Gideon).
God anoints the youngest son, keeping the flocks, ruddy in appearance, as the great king (David).
God uses young Jeremiah to prophecy. God uses young Timothy to pastor.
God sends Moses with his heavy mouth and heavy tongue as God’s spokesperson, God’s preacher — God’s prophet.
Church —
Do you want to give God glory in your life?
Then be willing to obey God radically, in the areas of your life you feel the weakest — the most inadequate, the least capable, the most uncomfortable.
For that is an area that you can get out of the way, and God can then receive all the glory. That’s in part what it means to glorify God — for you and I to get out of the way!
If you are serving God in an area that you are particularly strong in, then you are open to pride and self-exaltation and God will not be glorified in that. That doesn’t require faith.
God doesn’t ask us to serve Him by our strengths. Quite the contrary - God asks us to serve Him with our weaknesses.
For in our weaknesses God is made strong!
We serve God in response to His various callings, gifting, activities and services as the Lord gives, through His Spirit. Not by what we take and collect for ourselves.
Does the ability of the people to believe God’s Word rest in Moses’ own capability to deliver that message to them?
Do the results depend upon presentation, charisma, charm, eloquence — upon Moses’ speaking ability?
NO!
God did not call Moses because of what Moses has to offer God by way of his speech.
God does not call people because of what people have to offer God. We have nothing to offer God!
7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
God calls us by His grace for His purposes, and equips us with everything we need in His presence.
Look at how the Lord creatively answered Moses’ concern about Moses’ capability:
11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Moses thought he was disqualified because of his poor speaking ability — but Moses was so self-focused that he didn’t realize that God called him that way for a reason — so that God would be with his mouth — so that God would teach him what he should speak.
And I pray that you hear this gospel proclamation, Church — if God has redeemed you, God desires to use you, each one of you, and God’s grace is sufficient to overcome any weakness you have, through His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ present IN you.
You may not be called to serve in the way you want to serve! But God will call you to serve in the way He needs you to serve.
I suggest that so many of you are content on letting other people serve God, the same people, over and over, because you have judged them by human measure to have human capabilities or experience or education.
All the while, you are robbing God by your faithlessness to obey, and you are robbing us as the Church of God’s divine working through you in our midst..
This Church needs you to obey God and serve Him in the works He has prepared and assigned and gifted for you to do.
That doesn’t mean it is a free for all and you can do whatever you want to do. It means each one of us must seek the Lord for what He would have us to do that we might obey.
What is God calling you to do? What are you saying “No” to, because, like Moses, you feel incapable?
Moses at first, is concerned with his own credibility, as if the message depends on his persuasiveness to be believed.
It does not!
Moses is then concerned with his own capability, as if the message depends on his ability to speak well in order to be believed.
Again, it does not!
Lastly, Moses is concerned with God’s choice.
Lastly, Moses is concerned with God’s choice.
Look with me at verse 13:
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
God has been patient with Moses, as Moses is honest with God conversing about his insecurities and inadequacies. God has been gracious with Moses, to give him signs, to give him assurance of His presence.
But this last concern of Moses crosses a line.
For now, Moses is not questioning God about Moses, but Moses is questioning God about God’s choice.
“Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
Moses is questioning God’s choice. God’s calling. God’s judgment. God’s sovereignty. God’s will.
And God responds in a new way — in a way that God has not responded yet to any human being as recorded thus far in the pages of Scripture.
God gets angry at Moses.
God gets angry at a human being.
14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
And this is the end of the conversation.
God will not send someone else at this time.
God chose Moses. God is sending Moses. And Moses will be sent.
The calling of God is an amazing thing, for those that have experienced it. I have experienced it. It is a trembling thing. It’s a vulnerable thing.
Many try to run away from God’s call, but remember the story of Jonah?
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
. . .
That’s was God’s call, God’s assignment, God’s sending of Jonah for a specific task.
But Jonah turns around and runs the other way, trying to escape from God.
Perhaps Jonah needed more education before he could obey?
No problem. God gave enrolled Jonah in some immediate classes.
Jonah gets schooled in meteorology, as a storm overtakes a ship he’s sailing on.
Jonah gets schooled in marine biology, as he examines the inside of a fish.
And finally, Jonah learns some theology — that you cannot outrun God, that you cannot escape God, that God is with us in the storms, God is with us in the belly of a fish, and God is with us when the third chapter later, when on the way to preach the word of the LORD to Nineveh!
God chose Jonah, God chose Moses, and God chooses people today too.
But there is one more choice this text compels us to think about.
When Moses said “Oh, Lord, please send someone else,” it is a pathetic last attempt to dodge God’s call. But could it also be prophetic?
And this brings us to:
The [Christ] Conclusion
The [Christ] Conclusion
God was not going to send someone else then, because God was going to send someone else later.
God’s calling and sending of Moses was not about Moses, as Moses might have thought, but was part of a chain of events that would culminate in God’s calling and sending of His own Son — Jesus, the Savior of the world!
God was going to send someone else — His Chosen One, whom Moses was preparing the people of God for. God was going to send Jesus.
Unlike Moses who was a prophet, Jesus was The Prophet.
Jesus was not just a preacher, he was THE Preacher: both the message and the messenger. The Word become flesh. When Jesus spoke, He was not speaking on His own, but was speaking the very Word of God!
And God confirmed His Word through His Son with signs.
Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus healed leapers. Jesus crushed the head of the serpent to confirm the Word of God spoken beforehand.
Jesus poured out his own blood, by giving his life on the cross in place for ours on account of our sin,
so that if we reject the Word — if we reject the blood, we have no hope of eternal life and will suffer the direct anger and wrath of God as sinners without a savior.
If we reject God’s grace, then we are left to save ourselves by our own ability, and will fail.
But today, we may be assured in our hearing by faith.
Today, we may believe and continue to believe in God’s chosen — Jesus.
Today we may receive and continue to receive God’s grace and eternal life through the indwelling Spirit of the resurrected Christ!
In sharing in this Lord’s Supper, we remember that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day He was raised - the sign of all signs that we receive by faith, having heard God’s Word, that leads us also to bow our heads and worship God!
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down)
7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, as we share together the bread and the cup of the Lord’s table.
Communion
Communion