Exodus
“The Road To Redemption”
Outline:
I.) Chp. 1-18 Let My People Go
1.) Chp. 1-4 The making of a man of God
2.) Chp. 5-10 God verses the gods
3.) Chp. 11-15:21 Moving day
4.) Chp. 15:22-18 Under His care
II.) Chp. 19-24 A special treasure, a holy nation
1.) Chp. 19 Time to meet your maker
2.) Chp. 20-23 What does God want from us?
3.) Chp. 24 Sprinkled in the blood
III.) Chp. 25-40 Living among His people
1.) Chp. 25-31 A place to dwell among them
2.) Chp. 32-34 Oh, that rule!
3.) Chp. 35-39 Time to build
4.) Chp. 40 Filled with Gods glory
Exodus
“The Road To Redemption”
I.) Chp. 1-18 Let My People Go
1.) Chp. 1-4 The making of a man of God
1: 1-22
“Stuck In Egypt”
Outline:
I.) Intro.
II.) Vs. 1-7 Keeping His Promise
III.) Vs. 8-14 Another brick in the wall
IV.) Vs. 15-22 Enmity between Gods people, & the devil
I.) Intro.
It has been said that history is nothing more then His —- story! We saw this when we went through the book Genesis. That book started with God & the birth of creation, yet strangely Genesis records more of mans failure then it does Gods success. Look, for a moment, at the final verse in Genesis (50: 26), as we read that Joseph died, & was put in a coffin. That is the end result of man living apart from God, a wooden box in a land not where God attends him to be. Since the third chapter of Genesis, we read that death came upon creation because of mans sin. Folks, we live in the realm of death soon are later we all will have to deal with it. Even this week my family is coming to grips with the reality of losing a loved one, our little dog has doggie cancer. As bleak & dim as death is, it still serves as a teacher. Death teaches us that apart from God, our lives are a failure. As great a foe as death is there is still something that conquers death. God has overcome death, in fact right after mans failure He began to purchase man kind back from the jaws of death as we read in Gen. 3:21 “…for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” “So!”, you ask? Well we are told in Heb. 9:22 that “…without shedding of blood there is no remission.” So God knew all along of mans rebellion & even after the fall shed the blood of a innocent animal to make a covering for their sins.
The name Exodus was given at the time of it’s translation into Greek. The word means “exit, way out, road out or departure”. The Hebrew title follows the pattern of naming a book off of the first few words of the book, “These are the names..”. Thus the rabbis call it “The Book of Names” this is the title of the book in Hebrew. How fitting this is in light of the book as a whole. You see Exodus is all about God creating a “road out for man kind from deaths bondage; so the road is a road towards redemption.” There are three main sections to the book:
I.) Chp. 1-18 Let My People Go: In this section we shall see that it is all about God getting His People out of Egypt.His people out of bondageH The main focus is the Lord raising up a man to be a deliver, & the processes by which God will use Him to free his people.
II.) Chp. 19-24 A special treasure, a holy nation: The next section deals with God revealing His attributes to His people. So we will see that God does not just call His people out of something He call them to something as well.
III.) Chp. 25-40 Living among His people: Finally, we will discover Gods purpose for all people which is to dwell with them in fellowship. We shall see this in Gods commanding them to build a tabernacle.
In this we see a parallel to all of us in that God desires to free us from sin, calls us to Himself that He might dwell with us!
The author of the book is none other then the main figure of the book, Moses. His life is broken apart in this book in groups of forty years.
I.) Chp. 2:1-15: His first forty years are seen in Pharaoh’s place. So for forty years he thought he was something when he was nothing.
II.) Chp. 2:16 – 4:31: His second forty years were spent in the desert of Midian. So he spent the next forty years think he was nothing when he was something.
III.) Chp. 5-40: His last forty years he in the wilderness as the leader of God’s people. So the last forty years he realized that God delights in using nothing to accomplish something.
The book also reminds us of four great events which point to events in a believers life as well:
I.) The Passover: The judgment of God upon sin, passover the people of God because the shedding of innocent blood. Of coarse this speaks of our conversion when we confessed our need for Jesus & His blood was sprinkled on the door posts of our heart.
II.) The crossing of the Red sea: This is where God took a bunch of people & made them His people. We speak of this work when we say that we are a new creation. Now this happens at the same time of our conversion when we brought out of the bondage with the world & into His kingdom.
III.) The giving of the law: Here God brought to His people at Mount Sinai the realization of His character of Holiness. For the believer this is our growing process as we get into His word & realize more & more who He is.
IV.) The construction of the tabernacle: This is Gods provision for dwelling with man. It is here that we see that God desires to dwell with us in spite of us & it is all based upon what He has done for us.
II.) Vs. 1-7 Keeping His Promise
Vs. 1 The word “now” is not how this book starts in the original language, rather it starts off “And”. So? Well what this shows us is this is nothing more then the sequel to Genesis. So Moses goes back to give us some important information as to where he left off in Genesis.
Let me make several points here that are needed to fill in the gaps:
A.) These seven verse fill in a time frame of over 430 years. The reason this is important is that this was not some arbitrary time frame it was an exact time frame according to Gods plan to reach the world. Turn with me now to Gen. 15: 13 “Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.” But why this four hundred year period & why after words did God allow them to go through persecution?
1.) Clearly, God used Egypt to bless Israel, not only in protecting them from the famine, but also in protecting them from dwelling in the land of the Amoroites, who were far more superior in number. They were given you will remember the land of Goshen. So God causes a famine to send them to a nation that was fiercely prejudice as they believed themselves as racially superior towards all people. In fact if you go back to Genesis 46: 34 Joseph’s told his family to tell the Pharaoh, “Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
2.) Further more God had a plan that needed to be carried out towards the Amorites. Gen. 15-16 “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” What an amazing statement this is. God removes His people from a land in order to prepare them for a time when they will go back into the land to remove those who are an abomination to Him.
When they left the land of promise they were 70 strong, when they re-entered the land 430 years later they were over 2 million strong. God had promised that He would greatly multiply His people & He kept His promise.
Vs. 2-5 Notice that the name Jacob is used & not Israel. Jacob means “he grasps the heel”. Israel means, “He struggles with God”. Yet when you get to verse 7 the descendants are called the children of Israel. So? Well as we can clearly see the work of God in the life of the people of God. Folks, we often see things only from one perspective, God sees through the lens of eternity. He sees us from deceivers to overcomes!
Next we are given he manes of those who were Israel’s son’s:
1.) Vs. 2-3a Leah’s & Jacob’s first six son’s in order of their birth.
2.) Vs. 3b, 5 Then you have Rachel’s second son Benjamin whom she died during child birth. Joseph is not mentioned here for he is already in Egypt (verse 5).
3.) Vs. 4 Then we are given the two sons through Rachel’s maid servant Bilhah Dan & Naphtali. Lastley, we have Gad & Asher the two boys from Zilpah Leah’s maid servant.
Do you realize that it took 50 years for the clan to grow from 5 to 70, yet with a standard growth rate of 6% in 430 years they would grow to over 2 million.
Vs. 6-7 Here we see that Egypt became a birth place for the nation. Folks, it is good to recognize that God has a plan for you, but it is equally important that your realize that this plan will have some turns in it that you would never have expected. I can see Abram looking up into the sky hear the Lord tell him that his descendants would one day number as the stars in the sky, then also hear that this was going to be through slavery in a nation not their own. May, I just say the obvious? LIFE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! We are not to make sense out of life, folks, our peace comes not from the journey but rather who it is we are walking with! With all of this blessing it is difficult to understand the need to be delivered, until we read the rest of this chapter.
III.) Vs. 8-14 Another brick in the wall
Vs. 8 When Stephen told this story in Acts 7 he says that the people grew and multiplied in Egypt “till another king arose who did not know Joseph.” The word another in the Greek means another of a different kind. The Pharaoh that was in power during Joseph’s time was Egyptian, but according to Isa. 52: 4 the Pharaoh of this time was Assyrian he was a different nationality altogether & during the time he came into power he ran out the Hykos who ruled during Joseph’s time out.
Vs. 9-10 It appears that Gods blessing upon the Israelites became obvious to all. I think at times you can tell God is blessing in the direct proportion to how much warfare you are experiencing! All to often I hear Christians say things like, “I don’t know what I’ve done wrong that God is punishing me for.” Hey, perhaps it is not that you have done anything but rather that God is preparing you for something still greater!
The fear & jealousy of the people of the Pharaoh was obvious, they were concerned that their enemies would exploit the blessing of Israel & join forces, making a security risk.
Vs. 11-12 The first phase of the enemies plan is given to us here, oppression. So we read here that they sat taskmasters over them. They put the Israelite men into work crews forcing them into slave labor. Two cites are listed as having been built be the forced labor of the Israelites were treasure cites made of brick which the Israelites made with straw supplied by the Egyptians. The pyramids were not built by the Israelites as they had already been in existence by this time.
The more they afflicted them the more they grew. Folks that is the way it often goes the more the world tries to put down the believer the more they are blessed & prosper.
Vs. 13-14 when they saw that that was not having the desired results they removed the straw from the process. The idea here of the enemy is that of preoccupation with the things of the world. Take the children of God away from the blessings of God & into the things of the world that enslave them. Man is that not true today, we are so enslaved to the things of the world, you think not? I saw a thing on the economic blessing of America & how we now have more middle class citizens in the U.S. then ever before, yet they are all living from pay check to pay check. Most people are less then one week away from poverty! That is what the Pharaoh did here, just got them preoccupied with the things of Egypt.
IV.) Vs. 15-22 Enmity between Gods people, & the devil
Vs. 15 Here we are told of the second phase of the enemies plan, “killing all the male Jewish boys.” This is not new Satan tried it through Cain as he killed his brother, Herod would try it in Jesus’ time killing all the male children two years old & under, of coarse Hitler & Stalin tried it as well. There has always been enmity between Gods seed & Satan’s seed.
So God rose up two midwives who were probably over all the other midwives. Now most often midwives were chosen because they were barren themselves. These two gal named “beauty & splendor”. It always amazes me that God seems to place people that seem to be insignificant or perhaps thought of as cursed to be used for His purposes. Have you ever wondered about why God has chosen you? Perhaps its not for what you have but what you don’t have.
Vs. 16-17 The fear of the Lord was the reason why they did not do as Pharaoh had requested. The question often comes up here is it all right that they lied to Pharaoh.
1.) We don’t know that they lied to Pharaoh. Verse 19 tells us that they told them that the Hebrew women delivered faster then did the Egyptian women so the children were already born prior to their arrival. It could be that they just decided not to arrive in any hurry, thus what they said was true.
2.) Second there is a higher law to obey & that is Gods. Clearly what God rewards here is not the way in which they acted but rather the reason why they acted, (verse 21). It was that they feared God that the Lord looked upon.
Notice the twofold blessing here:
1.) Vs. 20 First the nation was blessed by the obedience of these two ladies. Folks when we choose to obey God no matter who we are the Nation is blessed because of our obedience. Mothers never think of your role as unimportant, because of your obedience this nation will have a future.
2.) Vs. 21 Look at this carefully here were two ladies that traditionally we believe were barren, yet because they feared God were blessed with children. Do you see the point? What was it that Pharaoh was putting to death? Male children! The Lord places these gals right with the rest of the mother there in Egypt. Folks a lot of times God brings us through things to test our hearts then blesses us with what it was that test our heart to begin with. May I just say that there are no wasted days in the class room of Gods grace, every day is vital that you pay attention!
Vs. 22 Here was the last of Satan’s plan & it involved the Egyptians. To get the nation to be involved with the killing of the Israelite boys.
In all of this what we see is the reasons that led up to God bring forth a redeemer. And the fact that He uses ordinary people.
Exodus
1.) Chp. 1-4 The making of a man of God
2: 1-25
“Taken From The Water”
Outline:
I.) Intro.
II.) Vs. 1-10 On The Water
III.) Vs. 11-15 Without Water
IV.) Vs. 16-25 Drawing Water
I.) Intro.
There is a twofold danger in looking at Bible hero’s, or for that matter any person we greatly admire.
1.) First is what I call deifying them. What I mean by that is when we only look at their success & not their failures. We can see this to the extreme in some churches where they refer to certain men & women of the Bible as “Saint so & so”. You can even pick up in some commentaries the excusing away of bad behavior. When we fall into this danger we elevate the man above God & begin to worship the creation or the instrument above the creator.
2.) The second danger is equally bad yet it is the opposite. This is what I call demonizing the hero. You can see this attitude on the hearts of the Pharisee’s as they attributed the actions of Jesus to the Devil. Many biographies of hero’s only point out their short comings to the exclusion of what they did right. The danger in this is pride in our own self’s.
The Bible does not make this mistake of it’s hero’s of the faith we see them warts & all. It is for this reason that I approach today’s study with great caution & prayer. What I desire for us is that we will at once be overwhelmed with the since of awe not of Moses the instrument, but rather at God the Master who played so well with the instrument of His choice. Next it is my prayer that we will see the instrument not special or unique because of the qualities of the materials used but rather, unique because of it’s willingness to allow the master to make the changes necessary to get the sound right for the song He wished to play. With out any more metaphors, we can both worship God & look at ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Master.
There are in this chapter three incidents in the life of Moses which show us the hand of God & the hand of Moses.
a.) First, the birth of Moses.
b.) Second, his attempt to deliver his brethren.
c.) Third, his life in Midian.
II.) Vs. 1-10 On The Water
Vs. 1 It is amazing to me that as Moses sat down & wrote his own story that he does so with out much fan fare. We are not even told the names of his parents until the sixth chapter. There in verses 18-20 we are told that Moses fathers name was Amram which meant “High people” & his mother’s name Jochebed which means “Jehovah glorified”. It is there in the 6th chapter that we are told that Amram married his aunt on his father’s side thus they were both descendants of Levi.
Vs. 2 The scene is now set for the birth of the deliver. We left off in chapter 1 with the command of Pharaoh that every new born boy be cast into the river. That then serves as the context of the birth of Moses.
We are not told here that Moses’ parents already had two children, the sister of verse four, Miriam whom we are not even told her name until chapter 15, was most likely 12 years older. And also Aaron who we are not told his name until the 4th chapter, who was three years older (Ex. 7:7) & born before the decree of Pharaoh.
Why does God not see fit to include the names of the family members tell later? Well it is my opinion that God is saying to us that what is important for the making of the instrument of God is the character of the servants not their family back ground, something that is further illustrated in the second verse. I’m always amazed at the Britts over their worship of the Royal family. It is not the blood line that makes an instrument of God it is rather God’s blood line. OK, you say why then does the Bible declare the fact in verse two that Moses’ mother declared him as beautiful? Clearly she saw some wonderful qualities in Moses at his birth that caused her to notice.
In all the verses which describe the his birth we are told something similar:
Ex. 2:2 “She saw he was beautiful”
Acts 7:20 “well pleasing to God;”
Heb. 11:23 “because they saw he was a beautiful child;”
But what exactly does this mean? Does it mean as some suggest that Moses was a “beautiful baby” & that it was the outward qualities of Moses that spurred the faith of his parents to hide him some three months? Or does it mean that some how they were told by God that Moses was to be an instrument of God therefore he was worthy of saving?
The key to understanding of this lies in the original language & how that word is used else where. Literally the verse reads that “she saw that he was good”. The word is used frequently in the O.T. specifically in the writings of Moses where it carries the idea of goodness as the result of being made or declared good by God. In fact it is the same word that is used in the creation account where God declared what He had created “good”.
Stephen’s words in the Acts 7:20 passage points to this fact where we are told again that Moses was, “well pleasing to God.” It was not that Moses parents recognized some in ward or out ward significance’s in Moses, but rather they recognized that Moses was Gods child that is what prompted them to faith.
So? Folks God does not value us based upon outward or inward qualities He does so because of Who He is & the fact that He created us. Simply put we are special to Him because we are His creation. Moses parents acted in faith because they saw him as God saw him.
Vs. 3 This brings me to another point that is often over looked. The faith spoken here & else where is that of the hiding of Moses for three months & not that of placing him in the basket & into the Nile. Again go to Heb. 11: 23 and read with me, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” The high point of faith that the author of Hebrews points to is not the placing of Moses into the water but rather the hiding of him for three months. The passage on faith in Heb. 11 does not even mention the placing of Moses into the basket & on to the river. Acts 7: 18-21 is the same where we read, “he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.” In fact as Stephen tells this story he use a word to describe the act of the parents as “putting Moses out to die” So? What this suggests to me is that the remarkable story of Pharaoh’s daughter saving Moses has much more to do with God’s faithfulness & goodness then it does the faith of Moses parents. That encourages me, for God is the One who is faithful, He is the savior of His people, all the more we ought to look to Him & not the faith of others!
Moses was placed where other baby boys were placed right by the river bank. Now Moses mother fulfilled the intent of Pharaoh’s law but not the letter of it. The word “basket” is the same word used for Noah’s craft, “Ark”. There is then from a parents perspective hope, yet desperation as they placed their three month old son in a basket. They made sure that it would float & we are told that Miriam watched but not the Mom. Oh the pain of human sorrow. She could not bear the thought of watching her child float down stream, but neither could she stand the thought of not knowing what had become of her son.
Vs. 4-10 He is where the story takes a interesting twist. As Moses floats along in his ark & his sister looks on who would be the worst person to find baby Moses? Why it would have to be the family of Pharaoh who made the decree to begin with, that would mean instant death. Yet we are told that it was Pharaoh’s daughter who went down to wash that the ark came floating towards. Can you imagine Miriam’s horror? “Oh God no not this woman! Please God not this woman!”
Yet we are told in verse 6 that at Moses weeping her heart was melted. Yet she clearly knew that this was a Hebrew child. It is hear that I want to stop & marvel at God, who takes the worst of possible situations & turns them into a glorious blessing. We are so tempted to rule God out based upon the situation rather then trusting in His ability. We read of Paul’s words in Eph. 6:20 “to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” The salvation of Moses would be enough to serve as an example of Eph. 6:20 yet there is still more.
Vs. 7-9 We are told that Miriam sprang into action seeing the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter & suggest her mother as nurse maid. So not only is Moses saved from certain death he goes back to stay with his family for some years for which they are paid. Man is God ever good!
Vs. 10 It gets better yet! Here we are told in verse ten that Pharaoh’s daughter names the child Moses which means “because I drew him out of the water.” So well now think of this for a moment. All Hebrew male children are being drowned in the Nile river under direct command of the Pharaoh. Yet the daughter of the Pharaoh saves a Hebrew male child in direct disobedience to his command & names the Hebrew male child “drawn from the water.” So, folks it is not a leap of faith here to see that no doubt the command was abolished for if not then the daughter herself would have to been put to death.
Simply put God delivers the deliver & in so doing delivers all the male children in Egypt. Wow! What does that suggest to us? Well it shows us that even if we are the instrument of God it is God who is doing it all. Folks, the key for us by way of application to being an instrument of reaching the world is to simply allow God to so move us by way of His Holy Spirit the way He sees best. What if Moses would have had the mind set of an adult & looked out of his little ship to that he was heading strait for the last person he wanted to be heading for. I can tell you right now that he would of started paddling the opposite direction. The fact that he was an infant saved his life & the lives of the nation. Man, I’m always trying to see where I’m heading & what God is here saying to us this morning is not to worry about that as long as you are riding with Him!
Now, I want to take up some back ground study here before we get into the next section. You see there is a 40 year gap between the 10th verse & the 11th verse. And if we are not careful here we lose sight of all that Moses does right as well as what he does wrong. So lets finish this morning with some N.T. verse that will tell us what happened during those forty years.
1.) Acts 7: 22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” Sometime after he was weaned, Moses went to school. Now Egypt was the most technological nation of it’s time. In fact, the sciences, arts & engineering of that time has not been able to be duplicated even to our own day. Moses became equipped with all the wisdom that Egypt possessed. Now we are told in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus that Pharaoh had no sons & that his daughter’s first son would of been heir to the throne. We are also told by him that Moses had become quite the war hero. It would be easy if I were Moses here & say, “Man I can be a deliverer of my people in a few years when I’m made the new Pharaoh.
2.) Heb. 11:24-26 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Here then we are told that Moses at some period of time refused his position & rather choice his people. Folks, Moses did not lose his status as the future Pharaoh, he rather gave it up. Wow, what an important work God was doing!
3.) Acts 7:23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” There came a point in time where Moses began to realize Gods call upon his life, but this was after he had made his decision to follow the people of God.
It is here that we would come into the 11th verse. So? Well again may I just say that God was at work during those 40 years, & God is at work right here & now in your life he desires to equip you for that which He has called you. Are you aware right now that He is doing just that? So do not despise the days of small things!
Exodus
1.) Chp. 1-4 The making of a man of God
2: 1-25
“Taken From The Water”
(Part 2)
Outline:
I.) Intro.
II.) Vs. 11-15 Without Water
III.) Vs. 16-25 Drawing Water
I.) Intro.
We now come to the second & third events in the early life of Moses. By way of review we saw that it was not Moses up bringing or characteristics that set him apart to be a deliver, rather it was clearly Gods handy work. As we saw last week there is a gap not filled in by the text of some forty years. And according to Steven’s words in Acts 7: 22 “..Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” So the intellectual development of the man Moses, clearly was influenced by the time he spent in the courts of Egypt, as he was trained & raised in their culture. In fact according to verse 19 Jethro’s daughters all mistook him for an Egyptian which can only mean that he looked like an Egyptian, talked like an Egyptian & acted like an Egyptian. When Moses went any where being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter he would hear the words of his personal body guards as he stepped out of princely chariot, “bow the knee” & every body would have to bow the knee.
Yet with that said at some time according to the author of Hebrews Moses “when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” There is little doubt that Moses parents had told him of his heritage
as well as the promises of God towards the Israelites. What’s remarkable here is that at some point in time Moses was going to be recognized as the next Pharaoh of Egypt, to which we are told here in Hebrews that he refused. What was it Moses turned down? Wealth, power, popularity. So Moses turned down all the best that Egypt had to offer, for all the worst it had to give! He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Suffering was not put upon him, rather he made a conscious choice to leave the lap of luxury for a life of hardship. Folks, in this world people don’t go with losers, they stay with winners, Moses wanted to be with the loser’s & he left everything to be on their team.
Those are the facts but Why? The WHY will tell us much more about his spiritual development; “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Simply put, Moses placed the right value on the right things. There was a point in Moses spiritual development that he backed up his belief by how he choose to live his life, “reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” And as we are told in Hebrews, he looked to his reward.
Folks, that is the background to what takes place now in Moses. Here is a guy who has been living under the worlds way of thinking & doing things, he makes a conscious choice to become a believer & follower of the Lord at great cost to him self, yet joyful knowing the riches in Christ. But how will that all play out in every day life?
II.) Vs. 11-15 Without Water
Vs. 11 In Acts 7:23 we read Steven’s account of this, “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” There ought to be in every believers life a time when just saying you are a Christian is not enough, when just going to church once or twice a week isn’t doing it. Some times this is gradual, as you begin to pull away from the things of Egypt, to others it is almost instantaneous. Moses had grown, not just physically but spiritually as well & just understanding the truths about his people was not enough, he had to go see for him self.
Now notice what it was that Moses observed, he noticed their burdens & we are told here that their burdens are best explained as that of an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Now we don’t know how it came to be but Moses could not stand for the oppression of his people not even one of them.
Vs. 12 So with all the training of the Egyptians behind him & a passion for what God wants Moses does what a lot of us immature Christians try to do, conquer the world with the principals of the world.
What is it in your life right now that is oppressing you? What of the old nature are you battling with? Are you trying to conquer the flesh with the flesh? All your going to end up doing is burying it in the sand & what you think you have gotten a hold of is really going to be very visible to all.
On a Christian front I see this all the time. The Church having the right desire, “to reach a fallen people in bondage to the world”, yet they do so by employing the worlds ways.
“We want to reach college age folks for Jesus!”, Two ladies told me on Friday. “Great!” I said, “How are you going to do this?” “Well”, they said “We are having a special event that we would like you to tell all your folks about its called a Gymboree & its going to be a lot of fun, There’s going to be prizes just for showing up, food, & crazy games.” Yet on their flier I noticed that Jesus’ name is not mentioned, neither is the Bible or prayer. Now I’ve got to wonder how Jesus ever reached people with out having a gymboree?
Is there something wrong with doing fun events? No! I don’t think so at all, but if the only way the Church thinks that it can reach people is by doing fun events then it has missed the boat. The world has been in the entertainment business a lot longer then we have & they know how to appeal to the flesh. What brought me out of the world of sin & bondage was not entertainment it was TRUTH! And my Bible says that faith comes by hearing & hearing by the Word of God. So if I want to reach college kids or any body else then to me it must be about Jesus & His Word.
Now notice here, Moses “looks this way & that way, & saw no one”. Simply put here Moses acted with premeditation. Oh this was an act of passion, but it was also an act of forethought. Moses was trying to fulfill the call on his life by the energy of his own flesh. He had mans wisdom & mans power & all it did was kill & bury. If what Moses had done was what the Lord wanted why did he attempt to hide it? So you see Moses knew that this was not of the Lord.
Again I always wonder why the Church has to feel as if they need to make Jesus more presentable? “We got to make Him just a little more exciting & fun to be around other wise no one will want to come to Church you know?” You see I’m not interested in getting people to come to church, I’m interested in getting them closer to Jesus & He is the most exciting & fun person I’ve ever spent time with.
Now Steven in Acts again gives us insight into Moses thinking in killing the Egyptian, “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” Now lets see if we get the picture here? Egyptian’s persecuting Hebrews, Egyptian prince who is Hebrew yet looks & acts like a Egyptian kills an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. “Yeh, that does it for me and the rest of the three million sheepherders turned brick layers were ready to follow you! Oh by the way what was your name? Moses? Well you only have a few million more to kill & we are right behind you!”
Vs. 13 Now Moses goes out the next day & sees two Hebrews fighting one of them oppressing the other & stops the fight. The word in verse 11 rendered “beating” & the one here rendered “striking” is the same word. Yet this time it is not two different people they are both Hebrews & Moses can’t understand why the one would beat the other. Moses, has not learned that you can not lead people that you are not amongst. It is a simple truth, but a profound one, “You can’t lead people if you are not following God.” Did you notice the way in which Steven words this, “that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” Yes, God would deliver them but it would be His hand working through an X Egyptian prince turned shepherd. Now follow me closely on this one, what was it that the people did while they were in Egypt? Why they were shepherds! Moses had to learn how to follow before he could learn how to lead!
Vs. 14 Look at their response to Moses attempt, “Who made you Prince & Judge over us.” How funny! Moses was the prince & judge over all of Egypt which would include them as well, yet the example Moses had shown them was that of killing an Egyptian. The bottom line is that Moses came in as an Egyptian trying to lead the people by the ways of the Egyptians but they could only by led by the ways of a shepherd.
Now what this speaks to me us that you can have all the credentials, but that does not make you a man that can lead others only God can do that & it is always the way of humility not power & authority!
Now what was lacking in all of this? Passion? Effort? Forethought? No Moses had all of this what he did not utilize was the Holy Spirit. You can never do the work of God in the energy of the flesh it will only kill!
Simply put all the training to lead Egyptians did nothing to lead Hebrews. Again we read that Moses looked this way & that way but he did not look up towards God. Had he done so he would of found out that God was going to deliver His people His way in His time. Folks, it is great to have sincere motives but if those motives in God given ones are not tempered by total dependence upon God the end result wile be death.
Vs. 15 Often you can learn a lot more about a person in defeat & failure then you can victory & what we learn about Moses is that God has more work to do in his life. Look here at what Moses does with his failure:
a.) vs. 14b Moses feared: The self confidant Moses is now afraid. Folks, when we get out of the plan of God all our confidence goes. Now I’m not so sure that this is a bad thing for our confidence is not to be in ourselves but rather in the Lord.
b.) vs. 15 So Moses flees from his Grandfather: Now notice this, all the passion for his people left him when he failed. Folks, simply put he quit & ran! Man does that ever sound like me. I see this a lot with Christians, we even have a word for it “burnout”. It happens when people with a passion for something do it with all they have only to not achieve what they wanted fast enough. Moses failed & his failure was because he attempted to Gods work in his power now he has lost his taste for Gods call. Yet God is not done with him.
Now we read here that Moses fled to Midian. This land here was most likely chosen by Moses for several reasons:
1.) It was the land of Abraham’s younger sons through Keturah his wife after Sarah died. They settled on the southeastern Sinai in what today we would call west central Arabia.
2.) The people of that land the Midianits were monotheistic & believed in the same God as the Hebrew people did. In fact his father in laws name (Ruel) means friend of God.
3.) The land of the Cananites had an extradite treaty with Egypt, so that Moses knew that if he had fled their he would of been brought back to justice.
Now Moses must of felt as one big failure at this time, a big loser. He had abandoned his people, his call, his way of life. He left with nothing but the clothes on his back. I think that all of at times experience Midian. The name Midian means “strife” & I think here that the strife was that warring in Moses members. And at the time we find ourselves there we are certain that we will be there for the rest of our lives, but the desert is part of Gods plan. For it is out in the desert that Egypt & it’s ways get strip off of us. I have come to realize that though I may not like the strife in the desert it is here that victory is won! If you are in Midian right now, learn the lessons of it for you won’t be leaving it until you do. You see Moses came to Midian a prince but he would leave it a shepherd. He came to it a son of the queen he would leave it a son of a slave. He came to it wealthy, he left poor. He came to it a mighty warrior, he left it a meek man. Oh may we thank God for the Mididan experiences in life as they fit us for service.
III.) Vs. 16-25 Drawing Water
Vs. 15b Now symbolically I like this picture. Moses failed because he went away from dependence upon the Holy Spirit & right after this failure he ends at a well of water. Nothing like blowing it to make us realize that we need the Holy Spirit. The word “dwell” means to make your home there or to settle there. Folks, may I just make a point here before I move on. The key to Christian living is sitting down & making your home by the well of the Holy Spirit. As I’ve heard pastor Chuck put it, “We need to keep ourselves under the spout where the Sprit comes out!”
Vs. 16-17 Now I love this for God does not put Moses on the shelve here. No you see old Jethro had seven daughter & no sons, so they would get to the well real early & remove the stone that covered the well & start watering the sheep only to bullied by the other shepherds who would come later. Now it appears that this was an every day occurrence, until Moses steeped in to deliver them. So you see God is showing Moses that His call on his life is still their but that he needs to learn how to lead. The word here “helped” means to deliver in the Hebrew. And how did he do that? Well you see he took it upon himself & killed one of them! No, he just stood up, the root word here means to “abide”. Do you get it? Moses abided by the well! So? Simply put Moses just refused to move from the place of the well he stood his ground. I love the simplicity of the victory it was not about Moses kicking some bully shepherd tails, no he just abided by the Holy Sprit & let Him do the work.
Vs. 18-20 So The daughters tell Jethro the story & he gets dinner & more out of it. Do you see here in verse 19 what Moses does? He drew water for all of them the ladies & the sheep. Man Moses is starting change already & it’s only been a short time. He has gone from doing it his way to doing it Gods way & more then that he has become a servant. People will follow a servant before they will ever follow a prince. Then in verse 20 Moses is so humbled out he does not even ask for anything in return.
Vs. 21-22 Yet we see in the taking of Zipporah “lady bird” & the naming of his son Gershom, “an alien here” Moses still has more to learn & it will take 40 more years for he to be prepared. Moses though of himself still as an Egyptian & time would pass & he would see himself not as an Egyptian but as an Hebrew longing to take his people home to Canaan.
It appears at this point in the story that Moses the baby deliver has faded into obscurity until we read the final verses. Not only was God preparing Moses he was busy preparing the people to be delivered as well.
Vs. 23-25 When Moses left they fought with each other & in time they only cry to God. That suggest to me that they moved form trying to do things by themselves to realizing only God could save them! Notice the basis of God hearing their cry’s, the covenant between Abraham & Him. Folks, it was not their faithfulness that came into Gods heart it was His own agreement He made with Abraham their for-father.
As we close this morning I pray that in the life of Moses you will see God at work in your life & that in so doing it will encourage to keep up the goof fight of faith, for God is at work. There is a true statement that each of us as Christians should remind ourselves & that is we are all “UNDER HIS CONSTRUCTION”!
Exodus
1.) Chp. 1-4 The making of a man of God
3: 1-10
“University of Fire Bush”
Outline:
I.) Intro.
II.) Vs. 1-4a A Burning Question
III.) Vs. 4b-10 A Holy Answer
I.) Intro.
I have said this before, “I love history.” To me the stories of people’s lives are always incredible. How do people become who & what they are? What are the events in their lives that motivated them to become the persons that they are? Now I must admit I have selfish reasons as to why I love history; you see I’m looking for little nuggets for my own history. Those little insights that happened in some one else’s life that I can apply in mine.
It is for these reasons that the story of Moses is so interesting to me; what were the key events that led Moses to become who he became? What we have before us today may just be the greatest turning point in his life. Further more if we can understand just what that was it may be the greatest turning point in your life as well.
One of the greatest mysteries about God is why He so chooses to limit himself by using human means. I mean if God wanted to deliver Israel out of Egypt why not just say so? We are talking about the God who spoke & everything leaped into existence. Instead, he uses this man named Moses, but why? Could it be that the important part is not the use of the man but rather the revealing of who God is to the man? Could it be that God wants to reveal who He is to man kind, so that in the act of using a man they will come to know the God who sent him?
The story is told of a seven year old about to make his first jump from the high dive at the local community pool. Though only 10 feet into the air to the little boy it looked like a 100 feet. The boy stood there & shook at the edge of the diving board obviously afraid to jump. The life guard seeing the line begin to pile up behind him started to encourage the boy to jump. Yet, all of the attention just made the boy more aware of his fear & failure. Moments passed & out of no where a large man stood up & walked over to the high dive, excusing himself he climbed the latter & slowly walked out on the board. As he approached the scared little boy he grabbed his hands & looked him in the eyes & simply said four little words that changed that little boys life. Now I want to leave you hanging for just a moment as you search the story of your life to see what would of caused you to over come your fear & failure. The man, you see, was the boys father & all he had to say was, “Scott, let’s Jump together!” And they did just that! This morning we shall see that God the Father comes to Moses at the high point of his life grabs his hand & says, “Moses, lets jump together!” As simple as that story is Moses first must know who His Heavenly Father is.
II.) Vs. 1-4a A Burning Question
Vs. 1 Now again we need to draw from the N.T. accounts of this story to get the full picture. In Acts 7: 30 we read the words of Steven where he gives some important information, “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.” So from the point that Moses entered the land of Midian to the story here before us another 40 years has passed. We know that Moses was 40 when he left Egypt so simple math tells us that he is now 80.
We are constantly told of the importance of education in preparing people for their careers. Moses has spent the first 40 years being educated at the best schools of Egypt in fact we are told that Moses schooling had made him, “..mighty in words and deeds.” There is little doubt that this education had done much to prepare him to lead Egypt, but that being the case it had done nothing to prepare him to lead Israel. So God put him back in school at Midian for 40 years. Now you will remember what Midian means, “strife”. Simply put God sent Moses through the school of hard knocks. Wow! Here is one of those little gems, “Before we can be prepared for His service we need to be striped of what we think we know.” In Moses case it took him 40 years in the school of hard knocks. Could the schooling of been shorter? Perhaps, but if Moses is anything like me he spent the first 35 years complaining about being in this dumb school any way. I believe we can always shorten our stay some what in the school of hard knocks, if we will just be still & remember the words of Paul who said, “..I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
So what did Moses actually do while he was at this school? Well, he learned how to be a shepherd of another mans flock! Here we are given another name for Ruel Moses father in law, “Jethro” which means “excellence or superiority”. Most likely this was his title. Now lets just get a glimpse of this stripping away processes. Moses was use to hearing the words “bow the knee” because he was royalty. People waited on him hand & foot now he waited alone on a bunch smelly old sheep. Hear is another one of those gems, “Much of Gods training is in the monotonous every day things which we learn in silence with out our knowing.” So what exactly did he learn?
1.) He learned that people like those sheep weren’t his they belonged to one superior. You will remember that Moses had acted before in away that was like a prince & a judge, now he was just a shepherd for his father in law.
2.) He learned that to lead people you must be among them, all the time! You see Moses spent allot of time alone with those sheep. No doubt over the coarse of those forty years he had done just about everything you can with those sheep. Simply put, Moses learned more from the sheep then he ever taught them!
3.) He learned to listen in the wilderness. Ask any teacher who their best students are & they will always tell you the ones that listen! Folks, the wilderness of Mididan is one of the most desolate places on earth. There are no tress & very little wild life. Moses spent most of those 40 years in silence with exception to the bleating of sheep. Any person who lead others must be one who listens!
So we are told here that Moses led the flock to the back of the desert, to where he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Now the word “Horeb” means “desolate wasteland”. And if you were to go over there you would easily see why it is just a barren dry land scape. Now that probably could some up Moses last 40 years as well a time when nothing was happening, his life felt as if it was dry, barren & worst of all alone. Yet what Moses was unaware is that he was about to get his “Masters degree” at the University of Burning Bush!
Folks, if you were to do a word study of this Mountain you will found some interesting stuff. First of Horeb, is the name of the mountain range, but their is a particular peak here that is called Sinai. Now it is also the place a few 100 years later God will meet with Elijah & commission him, as well as the place many believe that Paul got commissioned with the gospel. So? Well is it not interesting that such desolate mountain range would be called the “mountain of God”? I mean the last place in the world you would expect to meet God is a dry barren lonely place, yet it seems that God often met his servants there.
Here is another one of those gems, “God shows up in our loneliest most desolate times.” We are always looking for God in the times of great success & he is there, but it seems to me that He is much more real when we are out in the desolate times of our lives!
Vs. 2 Now there are some great things right here in Moses in counter with God at the burning bush.
1.) The word for bush here is a very interesting one as it means a thorn bush. So? Well you will remember that back in Gen. 3:18 because of mans disobedience God said, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” This old bush is a product of mans sin & rebellion.
2.) If you look up this Hebrew word for “bush” you will find it only two other places. In Deut. 33:16 we read that, “With the precious things of the earth and its fullness, And the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush.” That word bush is the same word as used here but the interesting thing with the passage is the word “dwelt” it is the word shekinah. So? Well it was the angel of the Lord or the shekinah glory of the Lord that Moses saw with his eyes. I believe that the angel of the Lord was none other then a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus. Further more we are told in 1 Corin. 4 that “..glory of Christ, who is the image of God, ..& .. that the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.” Simply put Jesus is the glory of God.
3.) All of this leads me to the conclusion that it was none other then Gods grace that Moses was learning as he observed the bush on fire yet not consumed. Fire in scripture is always a symbol of judgment. So rightly Gods judgment upon human sin yet the bush not being consumed speaks of Gods grace.
Vs. 3-4a Notice that God does not speak with Moses until He has Moses’ attention. As I said above Moses has to learn how to listen & give his attention to another. I see a lot of people who make the continual mistakes in their lives not because they don’t know the right things to do but rather because they don’t do as Moses did here & “turn aside to see the great sight, why the bush does not burn.” Do you see this it was the grace of God that halted Moses & made his want to know more! Folks, take some time to get aquatinted with Gods grace. And His grace will only burn bright when we see it aflame in the wilderness of our falleness. We spend far to much of our time protecting our failures instead of admitting them.
Let me give you another gem, “God dwells in the majesty of simplicity!” Say what? Think of this God choosing to reveal Himself & his character in a bush on fire yet not consumed! Man we are always looking for some magical experience, but God chooses the simplest of things to reveal who He is. You can say that in Gods university, every thing is the class room! Are you prepared to learn?
III.) Vs. 4b-10 A Holy Answer
Vs. 4-6 Here we shall see several things in God conversation that He reveals to Moses about Himself. Perhaps Moses over the last 40 years had begun to think: God does not care about me, He has no place for me but Moses is about to learn that God does care & does have a plan. Yet Moses is first going to learn something’s about God.
1.) Vs. 4 God calls Moses twice by name. So? Well God had not forgotten about Moses or the call He had placed upon his life. Folks, no matter if you are in the land of strife by the hill of desolation God still knows your name. There is the opening song of the T.V. sitcom Cheers, where they say a place where everyone knows your name. How much greater is it that now matter where you are at God still remembers your name! There is nothing to make you feel smaller then someone not remembering your name. Moses, had not heard his name to often in the last 40 years how sweet the sound of it when the Lord from the midst of the His grace called it forth twice.
Look at Moses instant response, here I am. I love that! Moses must of felt as though he had been warming the bench for 40 years, but now the coach has called you into the game & he is ready to play.
2.) Vs. 5 God is Holy: But more then that Moses needs to approach God reverently. Moses needed to understand that you approach God not on being worthy to do so. You a servant always took off his sandals upon entering the masters house. Moses was entering the Masters house. Gods is not the “The man upstairs”, “My good buddy” or anything else He is our creator & we are His creation. Verse 6 makes it plain that Moses understood his falleness & Gods holiness. Why was this important? Well for one of Moses was to lead he needed to understand that he was to follow!
3.) Vs. 6 Notice here how God choose to reveal Himself. He reveals Himself as the God who keeps His promises. That is why He tells Moses who he was the God of. You see God had made promises to these forefathers & he was now going to keep His promises through Moses. We all like to make good deals, but the trouble is that they don’t always turn out the way we thought they would, not so with God when He makes a promise to you He always keeps it.
4.) Vs. 7 God is compassionate: He has seen all of the cry’s of His people. He new their hardships, felt their sorrows. Folks do you realize that Jesus is aquatinted with all your life? He went through everything that you have. You never to wonder if Jesus can relate to what you are going through the Bible says He is, yet with out sin. You have a bad day? Tell Him He understands!
5.) Vs. 8 God is faithful: Man look at this God is not just about lighting the burden He is about blessing your socks off. Our God wants to do far more then just deliver you out of bondage He wants to bring you into a place flowing with milk & honey.
6.) Vs. 9 God is a God of action: In verse 8 He declares that He is coming down & here in verse 9 He says why, “He has seen the oppression”. I love the fact that God is not just all knowing He is all powerful as well.
Vs. 10 Now Moses was no doubt being blessed by Gods revelation of His character, but here God tells Moses that He is going to be used as an instrument. I love this God has revealed who He is & now He tells Moses, “Lets jump together.” Folks, life is not a spectator sport! It’s time to jump, but your not jumping alone, your jumping with God!
So what does Moses learn here? He learns that most important qualification of a servant of God is kn