God's Terrible Timing

Exodus 2:11-22

Sometimes God takes longer

At 40, Moses, the man of two worlds, is the perfect leader for God's plan. God misses the Hollywood perfect moment for Moses leading Israel in a Spartacus revolution. Instead, Moses is banished to live another 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness. God again turns Moses' persecution into preparation for His plan... and the timing of that plan transcends our expectation. Sometimes God takes longer.

Intro - Anna's Terrible Timing

Sometimes, when we are getting ready for church, I get stressed out. Or ticked off. I will have all of the kids ready to go and in the car. I will have the car warmed up. We are ready to go. It is time to go. That is a great combination... except the one person who isn't ready to go.

Anna is still inside. And she is still still inside. She has been still inside for 5... 10... 15... minutes. We have been married for 13 years now, and we have found a solution to this frustration. I drive away, she follows later in the truck.

Anyhow... that brings us to Moses.

Moses Chooses a side

Exodus 2:11. As we go through these narrative chapters, I will be referencing the text and covering the story of the text, and I encourage you to follow along in the Scripture. It will sometimes be up on the slides.

Moses was born, as we learned last week, under persecution from Pharaoh. God turned that persecution into preparation for His plan. Moses was Hebrew but raised Egyptian, a man of two worlds.

Steven, the first martyr, inspired by the Holy Spirit summarizes Moses' story this way:

Acts 7:21-22 21and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

We pick up today with the Moses who is now "mighty in his words and deeds."

Exodus 2:11-22

He is kind of sitting on the fence between Hebrew and Egyptian.

As we all can imagine, sitting on the fence is incredibly painful. And the time comes when Moses has to choose. There is this slight tension between the Hebrews and Egyptians because... at this point, the Egyptians had now enslaved the Hebrew people.

He watched their hard labor, he looked upon their burdens.

The man of two worlds, Moses, born Hebrew and raised Egyptian, he chooses one: "his people... are the Hebrew people." He sees one of his people being beaten. Now perhaps Moses had chosen long ago, identified with his people long ago. Perhaps the persecution and enslavement of his people had bothered him for years. But this was a watershed moment. And Moses acts.

"he looked around..." He looks left, he looks right, this is premeditated, here. This is the moment: and he kills the Egyptian, properly an overseer over the Hebrew slave.

No witnesses... except probably the witness: the man he saved.

Later, another scene of violence, but this time his own people are fighting each other. Moses goes to intercede...

Alternate direction

And you all know the story:

Moses adjudicates and intervenes with wisdom. He unites his people under His leadership. They see and value his Egyptian education but they know he is their people in heart and blood.

The people rally behind Moses' leadership and all of Pharaoh's fears come true. The united people of Israel outnumber the Egyptians, and Moses has been trained in war and was himself mighty in deeds! Their rebellion became a revolution, casting off the chains of Pharaoh and taking the nation of Egypt for God.

The people of Israel now rule Egypt and have vacation homes in Israel! Escape the summer heat in the Holy Land.

Maybe not...

Now is this crazy imagination? No, this is what Moses seems to have thought would happen. That isn't just me making it up, Steven, inspired by God, taught this as he surveyed God's work..

Acts 7:23-2523 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Actual Story

So what actually happened?

Who do you think you are "big Egypt boy!" Oh, looky here, prince of Egypt, come to rescue us poor downtrodden Hebrew people.

The bitterness and resentment. We could dismiss this and condemn the Hebrew people, but here was Moses who had been getting a free-pass for 40 years. We have been in the trenches, you have been in the palace. "You think you're better than me?"

And Moses' little rescue operation from the previous day probably had some unforeseen consequences. An Egyptian overseer had gone missing, who do you think they were likely to blame?

And when the Egyptian NSA comes around to find out who did it, what reason do they have to protect Moses at their own cost.

Moses chose to cast his lot with his people, he put himself at risk for them, he killed an Egyptian for them... he expected his brothers to understand. Instead, they rejected him. They did not understand. Indeed, for some pretty understandable reasons, they had some bitterness and resentment against Moses.

So Moses fled to Midian (probably modern day Saudi Arabia, or the Saudi peninsula) for another 40 years.

Midianites were descended from Abraham through his wife after Sarah, Keturah. Northwestern Arabia or modern day Saudi Arabia. So Moses went to spend 40 years of Arabian nights.

Still quick to act against oppression (at well). Imposing enough to drive off a group of shepherds (to whom the well was pretty important) and do the work that seven girls were planning to do.

Notice that the girls identified him as an "Egyptian". That is what he looked like, what he dressed like, and probably how he sounded. To make his banishment complete, Moses comes to live with a priest of a foreign God, Jethro, also called here Reuel (or friend of God). And he marries a foreign woman.

He is completely rejected by his people, by both peoples, a total exile.

Persecution into Preparation Revisited

Now we can see that God again turns Moses' persecution into preparation.

From princeling of the greatest nation of his world to the obscurity of criminal exile in the Sinai wilderness... an alien in a foreign land. But he is an exile being prepared to lead a nation in exile.

Moses is sent out into the wilderness to take care of a bunch of smelly, unruly, sheep. Sound familiar? This is incredible preparation for Moses' ministry to come, it taught him how to live in the wilderness, taught him the lay of the land he was to lead the people of Israel through... it prepared him.

God's Terrible Timing

But Moses didn't know his own story. If he ever had a sense of special calling. If he ever thought his own name was significant, if he thought he was specially qualified to free His people because he was Hebrew and Egyptian... those expectations were dashed that day.

I imagine what Moses thought: God didn't show up that day. God wasn't there. Everything went wrong. Opportunity completely lost. Moses was betrayed and rejected by both worlds: Hebrew and Egyptian. And Moses is going to, by all reasonable expectation, live out the rest of his days as a shepherd in the wilderness. Not a whole lot of people making radical life changes at 80 with an expectation of 40 more years.

He left, he fled, and even though in Hebrews 11 we find out that even in banishment Moses still trusted God... still we know he felt rejected and abandoned. What did he name his son?

Gershom. Sounds like Hebrew for "foreigner" or "exile".

And God had missed such an opportunity. God showed terrible timing. The story I just told could have happened, it could have gone that way, and it would have been awesome!

But God took so stinkin' long!

In hindsight, we know all the reasons. God's primary purpose was not avoiding pain and discomfort.

God's primary purpose was the salvation of His people. All his people. First shaping a leader, then rescuing a nation, then shaping that nation, a remnant, then a remnant, and then the long-awaited Messiah and then all nations!

God's timing was eternal. He had this huge vision, this plan spanning millennia.

We can sum this up this way.

Sometimes... God takes longer

Sometimes God takes longer... but it's better

Sometimes I am waiting forever for Anna to get ready. She is inside the house and I simply don't know what she is doing. But I wait. And even when I don't wait and drive to church... I am waiting there...

Sometimes Anna takes longer... but it's better.

When I wait for Anna, not only does she look good (and she looks good), but she has her arms full of all the stuff I forgot. Clothes for kids, my Bible or my sermon, lunch, our worship music and set. I haven't forgotten to wear pants to church yet, but if I had, you would all be thankful that Anna took a little longer.

We can all be thankful that Anna is taking the bigger picture, filling in the missing details, catching the unexpected and the unplanned for. It is better. I have to wait... but it's better.

Sometimes God takes longer... but it's better

That can be incredibly hard to hear. How hard was it for Moses? I have waited 40 years! I have watched my people through ever greater suffering. From persecution at my birth to forced labor and slavery! I have waited and waited and moments have come and gone. Opportunities have passed by. I have seized the moment and everything was ready...

And God took longer...

We like things instantly. We like drive-thru and K-cup coffee. If a webpage takes longer than 3 seconds to load, you are gone. How long does God take, what is His perspective? It is not good news for our sense of timing:

Moses writes this, later in life, Psalm 90

3 You turn people back to dust,    saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”4 A thousand years in your sight    are like a day that has just gone by,    or like a watch in the night.

Isn't that pleasant?

And even our total failure is part of God's plan. The passing of a generation is part of God's plan.

Perhaps Moses had to know that, no matter how well prepared he was, it was totally God who would deliver his people. One who had tried by themselves and failed spectacularly may know the difference between their own success and God's success through them.

God took longer. Sometimes God takes longer... but its better

Consider what you are praying for. Consider what you are waiting for. Maybe you have been waiting a few days, maybe you just thought of something this morning. Maybe you have been waiting for God to move or answer for years.

Sometimes... God takes longer.

We can "theologize" that and say, as we can say in retrospect with Moses, that God isn't silent and doing nothing but preparing you for exactly the answer or ministry or next step of His plan. But from our immediate perspective, it just looks like this:

Sometimes God takes longer. But this we trust: It is better.

In closing, the final words of Moses' Psalm 90

12 Teach us to number our days,    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

13 Relent, Lord! How long will it be?    Have compassion on your servants.14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,    for as many years as we have seen trouble.16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,    your splendor to their children.

17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;    establish the work of our hands for us—    yes, establish the work of our hands.

God, take as long as you want. May your favor rest on us. Establishing, rescuing, perfecting the work of our hands for us.