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A doubtful deliverer
Exodus 3:11-4:17
Introduction
1. Revision – Audience with the Almighty & the call to know him and serve him.
a. What Moses is called to: v10 “So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
2. You and I are not Moses.
3. Grand ideas of calling – applies at the level faithful service of ordinary church members.
4. IN terms of…
a. Faithfulness in witness to a neighbour or relative in obedience to 1 Peter 3:15
b. Faithfulness and obedience to Romans 12:?? Let love be genuine – caring for someone less than rewarding in a way that is honouring to the Lord.
c. Faitful service – teaching the word of God to children in a JC class week by week.
5. Moses is a doubtful deliverer.
a. Five clear objections or doubts about his suitability.
b. Not only is he wracked with doubts about his own suitability for the job in hand, he seems a surprising choice to us. A eighty year old man with a record and a distinct lack of self confidence.
Objection 1: Who am I? 11-12
1. Moses objection is “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”? (v11) Moses has a sense of inadequacy for the task ahead.
2. God’s response v12 is “I will be with you.”
3. Very important that we notice that God does not answer Moses question. God’s response is not to answer Moses’ question, but to promise, I will be with you.
a. God does not deny Moses’ inadequacy, and he certainly does not question Moses self evaluation, and encourage him to evaluate himself in a more positive way.
b. God has not called Moses because he is adequate for the task.
c. Nor does God promise his presence if Moses can become adequate for the task ahead.
d. Application: Important as we seek to serve God in the ministries that he has given us to do that we notice that God promises his presence to one who knows that he is inadequate for the ministry that God has for him.
i. Mat 28:19-20“And Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.” As you go, that I am with you.
ii. Acts 18:9-10 AC 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." (In Corinth)
iii. 2 Tim 4:16-17 2TI 4:16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.
But God has more to say…
4. The Sign. V12 “…And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
a. This is an odd sign. When you have gone to Egypt, persuaded Pharaoh, left Egypt, and get back here – you (all) will worship me on this mountain – then that will be a sign to you that I have sent you.
b. ** I am calling you to leave your work, your home to go and learn a language on the other side of the world, prepare a NT in that language – and the sign that I have sent you will be when the NT rolls off the printing press.
c. Lord if you are sending me I need to know now.
d. We forget that just because God’s call is clearly heard, does not mean that everything will go smoothly and well.
i. If Moses asks “Who am I?” now as he meets God at the burning bush, what will he ask years from this time, when he finds himself, with a disgruntled and rebellious people wandering in the wilderness hundreds and hundreds of miles from the road that leads from Egypt to the land flowing with milk and honey that God had promised? (It was probably a bit of a shock that God was telling him that he was coming back here)
ii. When you leave your work, your home to go and learn a language on the other side of the world, prepare a NT in that language – and just before its about to be printed the house in which the manuscript is stored burns down, and you loose pretty much everything you have to start over – Which is what happened to William Carey – It’s then that you need to know that God has sent you.[1]
5. What God is saying through this When it all looks so very different to what you anticipated, and you cannot see what God is doing, I will be with you.
Objection 2: What shall I tell them? 13-22
1. We need to notice what we are told – its tempting to impose the question “Who are you?” on this objection, but that’s not quite what is going on.
2. EX 3:13 "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, `What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?"
3. Moses anticipates a question with an answer he did not know.
4. Should this be understood in the context of Egyptian polytheism? This was the context in which Moses was raised, and the context in which Israel sinned (Ezekiel 20:4-10)
5. The Egypt in which Moses was raised and in which Israel was enslaved was a culture that thought not so much in terms of ‘God’ as ‘gods’
6. God’s answer is one that sets him apart from the morass of deities that have been part of Moses’ culture.
a. EX 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.’ "
7. The answer to all of Moses questions and insecurities is the God who is there. – and his message.
8. Application. What will I say?
a. Attentiveness to God’s self revelation
b. Faithfully pass on the message that God has given.
Objection 3: What if they do not believe me? 1-9
1. Moses objection: EX 4:1 "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, `The LORD did not appear to you’?" Moses is concerned about ineffectiveness. à “But what if it doesn’t work?
2. God’s response is three signs. (NB the first 2 are specifically referred to as signs.)
a. Staff à snake à staff. The snake is a symbol of Egyptian imperial power. As Moses throws down his staff, it becomes a snake. God tells Moses to “Reach out your hand and grasp it by the tail.” As Moses grasps this dangerous and unpredictable beast, symbolic of Egyptian power, in obedience to the word of God, it turns once again into a staff.
i. A sign through which God declares “I am in control of Egypt.”
b. Clean à leperous à clean. In obedience to the word of God, Moses is to place his clean hand into his cloak. When he removes it it is leperous – afflicted with the Egyptian disease – Once again – in response to the word of God, Moses places his hand inside his cloak and removes it clean.
i. A sign through which God declares “I am in control of Egypts troubles & I can make those afflicted with the uncleanness of Egypt clean.
c. Nile à water à blood. When he gets to Egypt – again in response to the word of God – Take some Nile water, pour it out on the ground and it will turn to blood.
i. I am in control of that which is recognised to give Egypt life.
d. Application. POINTà God’s power to persuade goes with Moses. As Moses goes back to Egypt he will need to be a faithful messenger – but persuasion is not his job, God goes with him, and in particular God’s power to persuade goes with him.
i. Application. AS we seek to share Christ with people, don’t we need to remember that people are not spiritually misinformed, but spiritually dead?
ii. 2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
iii. Not better argument – but heaing of spiritual blindness – the Need for God to go with us. The need forr a faithful message. The need for fervent prayer.
e. Interesting question – At the burning bush when Moses enacted the first two signs – whose benefit was it for? – For Israel and for Egypt – but here and now for Moses.
i. God gracious to deal with Moses insecurities. Jesus at Lazarus funeral – contrast between his dealing with Mary’s questions and objections and his dealing with Lazarus’ deadness.
Objection 4: I have never been eloquent. 10-12
1. Moses objection: "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." Moses is saying that he does not have the necessary skill for the task that God has called him to.
a. The answer is not…
i. (In the first instance) Aaron
ii. Your Egyptian education. Moses upbringing might well have exposed him to training in Egyptian rhetoric, but the answer to Moses’ objection is not found in Moses, but in God.
iii. All the way through the series of objections, Moses is listening to the wrong “I” The I that is himself rather than the “I” that is I am.
iv. Notice how he addresses God here “O Lord” not “O LORD.” Oh sovereign Lord and master. Almost akin to saying… “You made me, but you didn’t make me right”
v. God’s answer is once again to take Moses back to the “I” that he is.
vi. “I will help you speak and teach you what to say.” Application I will teach you = ongoing relationship. Day to day discovery of the truth in v12 in dependence on God.
Objection 5: Please send someone else. 13-17
1. Moses objection. "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." The word “else” there is strictly speaking an interpretation. Literal “Send by whose hand you will send”
2. Is Moses asking God to send another, in which case he means “not me” or is he saying a kind of grudging “have it your way”?
3. Either way Moses’ response is not a trusting yes.
4. The LORD’s anger burned against Moses. Why? There comes a place where doubt and insecurity – becomes disobedience and unbelief.
a. We do need to be careful lest the insecurites and inadequacies we feel are masking something else. – a disobedient and unbelieving heart.
b. Disobedient – in truth he doesn’t want to go
c. Unbelieving – isn’t he calling into question the reliability of God’s promises?
5. Even as his anger burns, he is gracious. Aaron will speak and Moses will be “as God” to him.
Conclusion
“Please send someone else” Moses is a doubtful deliverer.
The someone else / the one the LORD will send. An adequate redeemer, A redeemer who will say “I am” rather than “Who am I?” A redeemer who will be able to say “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. The one who in word and deed will proclaim the in breaking of the kingdom. The one ideally suited to his task. The God man who has no need to say “send someone else” The one who will be able to say “it is finished.”
[1] It was hard to begin all over again the books that had taken him years to translate; but Carey found that he could do the work much better the second time. Other good also came out of this trouble. The fire made Carey famous through Europe, and men all over the world wished to help as far as possible to replace the loss. The actual loss in money, which was £10,000, was made up in England in fifty days. http://www.wholesomewords.org/children/bcarey11.html
