Tawa Baptist

God Wrestles

Scripture: Exodus 6:28-7:13

Title: God Wrestles

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God wrestles with Moses – trust
  • God wrestles with Pharaoh – despair
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 6, page 65 toward to front of your pew Bibles

  • Today we continue our series on Moses
  • Last week we heard how Moses & Aaron confronted Pharaoh for the first time and Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go
  • This week Moses & Aaron go back to ask Pharaoh again
  • Our reading this morning begins at verse 28 of Exodus 6 and continues to verse 13 of chapter 7…

[Read Exodus 6:28-7:13]

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

I’ve given this morning’s message the title: God Wrestles, because in today’s Scripture passage we catch a glimpse of the way God wrestles with human will

  • Both Moses’ freewill and Pharaoh’s freewill

God doesn’t programme people to do what he wants, like robots or computers

  • God gives human beings genuine choice and he respects our choices
  • This doesn’t mean God just stands back and lets us have what we want
  • Sometimes God challenges our will – sometimes he wrestles with us
  • But God’s purpose in wrestling is not to overpower us with brute force
  • His purpose is to train our will – to make it stronger and better informed so we will make better choices
  • Wrestling with God exercises our faith

First let us consider how God wrestles with Moses…

God wrestles with Moses – trust:

Just prior to this morning’s reading, in the second half of Exodus 6, the narrator gives us Moses’ & Aaron’s family tree, going back to Jacob

  • Jacob is famous (among other things) for wrestling with God

In Genesis 32, as Jacob was preparing to return home and face his brother Esau, a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak

  • When the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he struck Jacob on the hip and it was thrown out of joint.
  • The man said, ‘Let me go; daylight is coming’
  • ‘I won’t, unless you bless me’, Jacob replied
  • ‘What is your name?’ the man asked
  • ‘Jacob’, he answered
  • ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and with men and you have won; so your name will be Israel’
  • Jacob said, ‘Now tell me your name’
  • But he answered, ‘Why do you want to know my name?”
  • Then he blessed Jacob
  • Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face and I am still alive.’

Moses is like his ancestor Jacob (aka ‘Israel’)

  • Moses doesn’t give in to God’s requests too easily
  • He shows some resistance, so God must wrestle with Moses’ will
  • But God’s wrestling is not violent where Moses is concerned
  • God doesn’t force Moses – God works with him gently to strengthen trust
  • This isn’t WWF or On the Mat, it’s more like Tai Chi – slow and graceful

The first thing God does to strengthen the bond of trust, is to say…

  • ‘I am the Lord’ or ‘I am Yahweh’ in other words
  • It’s interesting that while God did not reveal his name to Jacob – he did reveal it to Moses
  • By sharing His name God is opening up to Moses in vulnerability and intimacy
  • It’s like God is saying, ‘Here I am sharing something personal about myself, something I didn’t even share with your ancestor Jacob, so you know you can trust me Moses’

The next thing God does to create trust is to ask Moses to do something for him

  • He says to Moses, ‘Tell the king of Egypt everything I tell you’
  • Be my spokesman to Pharaoh
  • By asking Moses to speak for him God is trusting Moses with His reputation – when someone shows trust in you it helps you to trust them

Furthermore, God doesn’t beat around the bush in making his request

  • God is open and up front with Moses about what he wants so Moses isn’t left second guessing God’s motivation
  • There is no hidden agenda, no manipulation, no smoke screen
  • Honesty goes a long way in building trust

Moses responds to the Lord by saying…

  • ‘You know I’m such a poor speaker; why should the king listen to me?’
  • This is dejavu – Moses has already had this conversation with Yahweh, at the burning bush
  • It shows us that Moses is still reluctant to do what God says

In reflecting on Moses’ resistance to God’s will, Terence Fretheim observes…

  • “God is clearly not in absolute control of Moses. For all of God’s powers, Moses is not easily persuaded to take up his calling… [but] God relates to Moses in such a way that his will is not overpowered”  [1]

Just as God did not overpower Jacob in the midnight wrestling match, so too God does not overpower Moses in this verbal wrestling match

  • To the contrary, God further strengthens trust by listening to Moses
  • God takes Moses’ concerns seriously and adjusts His plan to accommodate Moses by allowing Aaron to help

The Lord goes on to say to Moses…

  • “I am going to make you like God to the king and your brother Aaron will speak to him as your prophet. Tell Aaron everything I command you and he will tell the king to let the Israelites leave his country”

There is a real tone of affirmation in what God says to Moses here – just as there was affirmation for Jacob

  • God raises up the lowly and humbles the proud
  • Moses is lowly and Pharaoh is proud
  • Moses may not have much faith in his own ability
  • But God certainly believes in him
  • God gives Moses a dignity and a status greater than that of Pharaoh

God wrestled with Moses’ will in a firm but gracious way

  • God did not bellow orders at Moses, nor did He try to manipulate Moses
  • God essentially built trust with Moses
  • And He did this in four main ways…
  • By revealing something personal about himself – His name
  • By asking Moses, in an honest & direct way, to do something for Him
  • By listening to Moses’ concerns and providing Aaron as a helper
  • And fourthly, by raising Moses up with words of affirmation – ‘you will be like God to Pharaoh’
  • In all these ways God showed Moses He was trustworthy and Moses responded by doing what God asked of him

God used a different approach, however, in wrestling with Pharaoh’s will and this is because Pharaoh was stubborn and hard of heart

God wrestles with Pharaoh – despair:

The prophet Amos describes God’s justice like a river

  • Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream [2]

The image of God’s justice flowing like a river is multi-faceted

  • A river is a source of life for the land and creation generally
  • Sometimes the river of God’s justice is flat and calm, moving slowly
  • Other times it is wild and rough, moving quickly
  • Always though it is powerful and deserves respect

In verses 3 & 4 of Exodus 7 the Lord God says to Moses…

  • But I will make the king stubborn, and he will not listen to you, no matter how many terrifying things I do in Egypt. Then I will bring severe punishment on Egypt and lead the tribes of my people out of the land.

If we read that (in isolation) we could come away thinking that God isn’t being fair to Pharaoh

  • Because it sounds like God is determining Pharaoh’s response
  • That would be a false conclusion

As I keep saying, God respects the freewill of human beings – he doesn’t force people against their will

  • So how are we to understand this statement about God making the king stubborn?
  • Because, as we read through the cycle of plagues, we will keep hearing how God hardens Pharaoh’s heart – it comes up again and again

Well, the first thing to say is that the text describes the stubbornness of Pharaoh (his hardness of heart) in three ways…

  • Sometimes it says that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart (e.g. 7:3)
  • And sometimes it reads like Pharaoh hardens his own heart (e.g. 7:14)
  • Then there are other times again where the text couches it in more passive or neutral terms by saying that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened (e.g. 7:13)

This tells us that both Pharaoh himself and God have a hand in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart – so we can’t attribute Pharaoh’s stubbornness entirely to God

  • Pharaoh must take some responsibility also

Put up your hand if you’ve been to Huka Falls

  • Just above the falls there is a gorge which runs for about 800 metres with some pretty significant rapids in it
  • And just above the gorge there is a large wide flat area of relatively slow moving water, so if you are a kayaker you can easily avoid going into the gorge if you wish – but once you enter the gorge there is no turning back
  • The only way out is through the chaos of white water and over the falls

Terence Fretheim makes the point that…

  • [Pharaoh’s situation] …is not unlike a boat on a fast moving river, headed for a gorge or a waterfall. As often in history, human decisions… can bring human affairs to a point where there is no turning back, no possibility of getting the boat to the shore before it goes over the waterfall.
  • In such cases, history’s possibilities are… narrowed to a single one.  [3]

Pharaoh entered the gorge of his own freewill

  • No one forced him to attempt genocide against the Israelites
  • No one forced him to abuse the Hebrew people
  • But once Pharaoh had committed himself to that course of action – there was no turning back – he effectively narrowed his options to a single one
  • Pharaoh was in for a rough ride, but he could have avoided it by treating his subjects with fairness

Okay – so Pharaoh brought this on himself because he was hard hearted in the first place

  • But isn’t God making it worse by hardening Pharaoh’s heart even more?
  • Well, yes and no – first let me explain what hardness of heart is

Hardness of heart is spiritual blindness – spiritual deafness

  • The hard of heart cannot see God’s presence in the world
  • Such blindness results in pride, haughtiness and arrogance
  • To make matters worse those with hardened hearts are not aware of their spiritual blindness and so they are unable to repent and recover [4]

Jesus (quoting the prophets) described the hard of heart in this way saying…

Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing they do not hear or understand

  • In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
  • You will be ever hearing but never understanding
  • You will be ever seeing but never perceiving
  • For this people’s heart has become calloused;
  • They hardly hear with their ears
  • And they have closed their eyes
  • Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them [5]

[Set out one jug of water and two empty glasses on a tray – one glass open and the other covered over with tin foil]

 

Imagine these glasses represent the human heart

  • This glass without the tin foil on it is an open heart
  • And this one with the tin foil over the top is a calloused hard heart
  • Over here I have a jug full of water
  • Imagine that the water in this jug represents understanding

What happens if I pour the water of understanding into the open heart?

  • [Pour the water in from a jug]
  • It goes in – the water of understanding God’s Word fills the open heart

Now what happens if I try to pour the water of understanding into the closed hard heart?

  • [Pour water on the tin foiled glass]
  • It doesn’t go in
  • No matter how much understanding I try to pour into the hard heart, the glass remains empty

Many of the Pharisees had ‘calloused’ hardened hearts

  • They saw Jesus’ miracles and they heard Jesus preach but they still didn’t get it – they couldn’t see that Jesus was from God
  • They misunderstood Jesus so thoroughly that they thought he was the devil

The Jewish theologian, Abraham Heschel, said…

  • “The opposite of freedom is a hard heart” [6]
  • And he was right

We tend to think of freedom as the ability to do whatever we want

  • But that is not freedom – that is just licence

If a hard heart is spiritual blindness, and the opposite of freedom is a hard heart, then it follows that true freedom is spiritual sight

Freedom is the open glass – the one without the tin foil which allows understanding of God’s Word to fill the human heart

So the truly free soul is ‘fit and pliable, open to truth and sensitive God’ [7]

  • The truly free soul recognises God’s presence in the world

By that definition Pharaoh is not free – and the tragedy is he doesn’t realise it

  • Now this may come as bit of a mind bender to many of us
  • We tend to think of Pharaoh as the most free because he gets to boss everyone else around
  • But actually he is the most blind and therefore the least free
  • Pharaoh has a thick layer of tinfoil over his heart

When God says to Moses, I am going to make Pharaoh stubborn – I’m going to harden his heart

  • What it means is that God is going to take away what little freedom (what little sight or understanding) Pharaoh still has
  • As Jesus said, Be careful how you listen; because whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even the little he thinks he has will be taken away from him [8]
  • In other words, if you listen to God’s Word with a hard heart (with the tinfoil on), no understanding will get in and so God will stop pouring
  • But if you listen with an open (sensitive) heart, God will keep pouring the understanding in

God is going to make Pharaoh even more blind so that he won’t be able to see or understand that God is behind the plagues

  • Pharaoh won’t be able to join the dots between his abusing people and God punishing him

As I asked before, how is that helpful?

  • Isn’t God making it worse by hardening Pharaoh’s heart even more?
  • Yes and no

You see, in some cases, the only thing that cures hardness of heart – the only thing that removes the blindness of pride – is despair

  • We think of despair as a bad thing
  • And, to be fair, it is not a pleasant experience
  • But sometimes God uses despair for our salvation
  • Despair is a kind of chemotherapy for the soul
  • Despair restores our sight by killing the cancer of pride
  • (Despair causes the tinfoil to come off the glass of our heart so the water of understanding can get in)
  • Unfortunately despair also kills joy – and so freedom (or spiritual sight & understanding) comes with a price

God loves Pharaoh and wants to set Pharaoh free – which means that God has little choice but to make things worse for Pharaoh

  • Pharaoh has hardened his own heart – now, in order to cure Pharaoh of his blindness and pride, God must make that hardness complete
  • God must bring Pharaoh to the place of utter despair so that Pharaoh can see reality as it is and be free

 

Abraham Heschel puts it this way…

  • It seems the only cure for wilful hardness is to make it absolute. Half –callousness, paired with obstinate conceit, seeks no cure. When hardness is complete, it becomes despair, the end of conceit. Out of despair, out of total inability to believe, prayer bursts forth. [9]

I don’t know how he does it – I only know that he can

  • God can make something out of nothing
  • God can bring order out of chaos
  • God can cause prayer to burst forth out of total dis-belief

“When all pretensions are abandoned, one begins to feel the burden of guilt. It is easier to return from an extreme distance than from the complacency of a good conscience.” [10]

God had to make things harder for Pharaoh so that he would ‘feel the burden of guilt’ and repent

The prodigal son discovered this didn’t he – that it is easier to return from an extreme distance than from the complacency of a good conscience

  • The prodigal son didn’t come to his senses until he hit rock bottom, a long way from home, in total despair
  • Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven  [11]
  • The older son, who never left home – well, his hardness of heart remained because he never tasted despair
  • He was blinded by the complacency of a good conscience
  • Woe to you when all men speak well of you… [12]

The hard truth is: God sometimes wounds us in order to save us

  • He sometimes hurts us in order to heal us
  • It is painful to remove the tinfoil or callous from a heart

As if to prove the point of Pharaoh’s blindness our Scripture reading this morning finishes with Aaron’s stick turning into a snake

  • Pharaoh’s magicians do the same trick, only Aaron’s snake eats their snakes
  • The message couldn’t be clearer – the best Egypt has to offer will be swallowed up, consumed
  • But Pharaoh doesn’t get it – he can’t get it – his hardness of heart prevents him from seeing

If we oppress people and abuse people, like Pharaoh did, we will lose our freedom, we will lose our spiritual sight

  • We will find ourselves in the gorge of God’s justice unable to turn back, quite oblivious to the fact that a pummelling waterfall awaits us

The king remained stubborn and eventually the first born of Egypt died and Pharaoh’s army was swallowed by the (waterfall of the) Red Sea

  • Only then did despair do its work so that Pharaoh’s eyes were opened and the tinfoil was removed from the opening of his heart

Conclusion:

God wrestles, both with Moses and with Pharaoh – although his strategy with Moses is significantly different from his strategy with Pharaoh

In wrestling with Moses, God creates trust

  • He shows faith in Moses and helps Moses to see that He (Yahweh) can be relied on

In wrestling with Pharaoh though, God creates despair

  • The kindest thing God can do with Pharaoh is to remove his pride and conceit so that Pharaoh is free to see reality as it really is

Trust and despair are not God’s only strategies in wrestling with people

  • He has other ways of dealing with people too
  • But however he may deal with us we can be assured, God’s ultimate goal is our healing and salvation – our freedom

[1] Terence Fretheim, ‘Interpretation Commentary on Exodus’, page 102

[2] Amos 5:24

[3] Terence Fretheim, Interpretation Commentary on Exodus, page 101

[4] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, page 244

[5] Matthew 13:13-15

[6] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, page 243

[7] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, page 244

[8] Luke 8:18

[9] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, page 244

[10] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, page 246

[11] Matthew 5:3

[12] Luke 6:26

Tawa Baptist

Bricks Without Straw

Scripture: Exodus 5:1-6:1

 

Title: Bricks without Straw

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Being & having
  • Pharaoh’s having
  • God (& Moses’) Being
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Please turn with me to Exodus 5, page 63 near the beginning of your pew Bibles

  • Today we continue our series on Moses
  • Moses & Aaron have managed to convince the leaders of Israel that God means to deliver the people from their slavery in Egypt
  • Now they confront Pharaoh
  • From verse 1 of Exodus 5 we read…

 

Read Exodus 5:1-6:1

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

Being and having:

In 1970 Richard Bach published his classic novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull about a seagull who rejects the routine of daily squabbles over food in search of freedom in flight

  • While the rest of the flock compete for scraps of food, Jonathan finds joy in being a bird and simply flying
  • Eventually Jonathan’s unwillingness to conform results in his expulsion by the elders

 

There is a quote in the book which says…

 

“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”

 

Unlike his peers Jonathan the Seagull is more interested in being than in having

  • I suppose Richard Bach’s story isn’t so much about seagulls as it is about humankind
  • In competing for resources – in trying to have more than our neighbour – we have somehow lost meaning in life

Being and having – they are two different things

 

To have something is to possess it, to own it, to consume it

  • Some things can’t be had though – or were never designed to be had
  • For example, you can have a car but you can’t have a marriage
  • You can only be in a marriage – you can’t own a husband or a wife
  • Marriage is a relationship and a relationship is a state of being
  • This means a perfect marriage (or a perfect relationship) is not about having all your expectations met
  • A perfect marriage is about being there – with and for one another

 

Or to use another example, you may have money or the ability to sing or something else to offer God but you can’t have worship

  • Worship is not a possession – worship is a state of being
  • This means perfect worship is not about hitting all the right notes or experiencing some magical feeling or giving just the right amount of money
  • Perfect worship is about being there – with and for God
  • Perfect worship could happen here on a Sunday morning or it could happen out in the world during the week

 

This dichotomy between being and having is an ancient tension

  • It goes right back to Adam & Eve in the garden

 

Before eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge Adam & Eve were able to be with God

  • But they couldn’t resist the temptation of having knowledge and so they ate the fruit God warned them against
  • They chose having over being (as we all have) and they suffered the consequences

 

Having is about power & control

  • Being is about truth & freedom
  • God is all about being
  • While Pharaoh is all about having
  • God wants to be in right relationship with his people – the Hebrews
  • Pharaoh, on the other hand, just wants to have the Hebrews – to possess and control them as slaves, as human tools

 

The problem with making having our goal is that we never really have enough

  • But when being is the goal, God finds a way to throw having in
  • Being is a two for one deal

 

Pharaoh’s having:

Pharaoh is used to having things his own way

  • The ancient Egyptians believed their Pharaoh was the son of a god and it seems Pharaoh himself believed this too

 

Despite Pharaoh’s elevated status Moses & Aaron were quite blunt in their approach to the king of Egypt

  • They simply said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, so that they can hold a festival in the desert to honour me.’ ”
  • The Lord God had instructed Moses & Aaron to take the leaders of Israel with them when they confronted Pharaoh, but for whatever reason it appears Israel’s leaders didn’t come
  • It makes little difference though because Pharaoh is all about having and he doesn’t know this God of Israel who is about being
  • Just as God predicted, Pharaoh refused to let Israel go

 

So Moses & Aaron ask again saying, “Allow us to travel for three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t do so, he will kill us with disease or by war”

  • Now that last part about God killing Israel by disease or war – God didn’t actually tell Moses & Aaron to say that
  • Moses & Aaron made that up – perhaps as a way of trying to persuade Pharaoh
  • Maybe they thought Pharaoh would be more inclined to let the people go temporarily if he thought he might lose his free labour permanently
  • But Pharaoh was unmoved – he is not inclined to let go
  • Having and letting go are opposites
  • Pharaoh won’t forgive – he would rather accumulate

 

That same day the king commanded the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen:

  • “Stop giving people straw to make bricks. Make them go and find the straw themselves. But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before… Make these men work harder and keep them busy, so they won’t have time to listen…”

 

Straw was used to reinforce the mud bricks – to hold the bricks together and give them strength

  • Without the straw the mud bricks were more brittle, more likely to fall apart from lack of integrity

 

Pharaoh is a pretty smart dictator – in a variety of ways he takes the straw out of the bricks of Hebrew resistance

 

As Terence Fretheim points out…

  • Pharaoh is running a pyramid scheme whereby the few benefit from the labour of the many
  • By depleting the energy of the oppressed, the threat of organised resistance is lessened
  • One of Pharaoh’s strategies is to keep the people so busy they don’t have the time for complaints or rebellious thoughts
  • By making the work harder Pharaoh is getting the people to think their well-being depends on his goodwill – so don’t mess with the system [1]

 

Another part of Pharaoh’s strategy is to use the Hebrew foremen to create internal divisions among the people

  • Some say the Hebrew foremen were essentially collaborators
  • They served as walking examples of the opportunity to improve your standard of living by supporting Egypt’s system of exploitation [2]
  • Oppressors of every age and culture do this in one way or another
  • The Romans of Jesus’ day used Jews to collect taxes from fellow Jews

Pharaoh also tries to turn the people against Moses & Aaron

  • After being beaten for not meeting their quotas the foremen say to Moses & Aaron, ‘God is going to punish you for making the king hate us’

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. made the observation that…

  • The Pharaoh’s had a favourite and effective strategy to keep their slaves in bondage: keep them fighting among themselves. The divide-and-conquer technique has been a potent weapon in the arsenal of oppression. But when slaves unite, the Red Seas of history open and the Egypt’s of slavery crumble [3]

 

The other thing Pharaoh does, to take the straw out of the bricks of Hebrew resistance, is to blame the Israelites

  • When the Hebrew foremen complain to Pharaoh that they can’t meet their quotas because he has taken away their straw Pharaoh says…
  • ‘No – it’s not my fault. It’s your fault because you are lazy’
  • Of course it is not true that the Israelites are lazy and the Israelites themselves know it’s not true but the Egyptian people will believe Pharaoh’s lie because it serves their purpose
  • It enables them to have the moral high ground (at least in their own imagination)
  • We call this ‘scapegoating’ – blaming the Jews for the problem – getting the Egyptians united around the lie that the Hebrew people deserve what is happening to them because they are lazy & dishonest
  • Scapegoating is quite convenient for dictators really – just blame other people for your mistakes
  • Hitler did this with the Jews just last century

Tiring the people out with busy-ness

  • Creating internal divisions among the people
  • And blaming the Hebrews for their own misfortune
  • These are the three main ways that cunning old Pharaoh tries to undermine the Hebrew resistance
  • These are the strategies for having and keeping what you have

 

God (and Moses’) Being:

It’s interesting isn’t it – that we are not called ‘human havings’, we are called ‘human beings’

  • Being is somehow integral to our humanity

 

Being real, being honest

  • Being loyal, being a friend, being an enemy
  • Being alone, being in community
  • Being in prayer, being pregnant
  • Being on holiday, being wise
  • Being present
  • Being hungry, being warm, being cold
  • Being tired, being sick, being well, being happy, being angry
  • Being alive

 

Being puts us in touch with life – with what is real and true

  • Consequently, being comes with feeling
  • Not superficial feelings (like infatuation or adrenalin) but deep down feelings (like rage and fear and joy and the will to be free), which are always there like tectonic plates of the soul moving underneath to change the landscape on the surface

 

Moses is certainly in touch with some deeper emotion in verse 22 of Exodus 5 where he says to God…

  • “Lord, why do you ill-treat your people? Why did you send me here? Ever since I went to the king to speak for you, he has treated them cruelly. And you have done nothing to help them”

 

Now some people might criticise Moses at this point for complaining to God

  • After all, God did tell Moses more than once that Pharaoh would be stubborn and refuse to let the Israelites go
  • Well, in Moses’ defence, Pharaoh hasn’t just refused to let the people go – Pharaoh has actually made things considerably worse for the people, which I’m not sure Moses was told about

 

In any case, I don’t think we should be too hard on Moses

  • It is one thing to be told you are in for some rough weather
  • But another thing entirely to actually go through the storm

 

The words of the foremen to Moses & Aaron would have really hurt – salt in the wound of failure

  • Just as Pharaoh had blamed the foremen for failing to meet the quotas, so too the foremen pass the blame onto Moses & Aaron
  • It would not have been easy for Moses to hear criticism from the lips of men who collaborated with the Egyptians
  • But Moses allows it – he doesn’t defend himself to them, even though their words are unkind and unfair
  • Leadership can be a pretty lonely experience, especially when things go wrong

 

Another thing to say, to Moses’ credit, is that (unlike Pharaoh and the Hebrew foremen) Moses does not take his frustrations out on other people

  • Moses takes his complaint to God who is big enough to handle it
  • And that in itself is interesting isn’t it
  • Who we complain to says something about who we believe is in charge
  • By taking their complaint to Pharaoh the foremen seem to be acknowledging on some level that Pharaoh is in charge
  • But Moses takes his complaint to God, which tells us that Moses believes God is in charge

 

God is not at all like Pharaoh – and we can see that quite clearly in the contrasting ways in which God & Pharaoh respond to complaints

 

As we’ve already heard, Pharaoh does not want to accept responsibility for the complaint

  • When the Hebrew foremen criticise his policy of withholding straw Pharaoh puts the blame back on them by saying they are lazy
  • The message is: No criticism is allowed under Pharaoh and so you are not free to express how you truly feel
  • If you live under Pharaoh then you must meet certain expectations and behave in a certain way in order to be accepted (or at least not abused)
  • The problem with this is that it creates a kind of false reality because no one feels able to be honest with you

 

Unlike Pharaoh, God is into being and that includes being honest – allowing others to criticise him (even if their criticism isn’t entirely accurate or fair)

  • When Moses complains to God, God allows it
  • God does not disagree with Moses
  • He lets Moses express what he is feeling
  • After all, feeling goes hand in hand with being
  • By the same token God doesn’t give Moses an explanation either
  • Just like he didn’t give Job an explanation for his suffering
  • God doesn’t normally explain our suffering – but he does share it
  • He allows himself to be in the situation with us – he feels our pain

So I reckon Moses is on the right track here

  • By making his complaint to God, Moses is acknowledging that God is in charge
  • And by being honest with God, Moses is relating to God on a being level – not a having level

 

As painful as it was, the foremen’s criticism of Moses & Aaron actually had a positive affect

  • Their rebuke revealed the truth of Moses’ motivation
  • No one could say Moses was in this for public adulation or the glory of it
  • Those foremen did Moses a favour in a way – they took the ego trip out of it for Moses
  • And in so doing they inducted Moses into a deeper dependence on God

 

This is often how God uses failure & disappointment in our life – to purify our motives and strengthen our integrity

  • If things come too easy – then we might think we did it ourselves
  • And if all we hear is praise – then we should be concerned – it could mean we are behaving like Pharaoh and not allowing criticism

 

In verse 1 of Exodus 6, after listening to Moses’ complaint, the Lord responds by saying…

  • “Now you are going to see what I will do to the king. I will force him to let my people go. In fact, I will force him to drive them out of his land”

 

This translation is unfortunate I think

  • It’s not accurate to say that God forces people to do things
  • God doesn’t trample over freewill.
  • A better translation might read…

 

“…Because of my mighty hand [Pharaoh] will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

  • Which means God isn’t forcing Pharaoh to do something – rather he is creating a situation in which Pharaoh will choose to let the people go
  • God will bring Pharaoh to the point of wanting to be rid of the Israelites

Now, God’s personal message to Moses, in all of this, is quite surprising

  • Traditional wisdom says, ‘lower your expectations’
  • Don’t get your hopes up because then you risk being disappointed
  • But God effectively tells Moses to risk hope and raise his expectations

 

What an incredible thing to say to someone who has just tasted failure and disappointment

  • But that’s God for you – God dares us to risk it all, not when we are feeling confident, but when we have lost confidence

 

Returning to Jonathan Livingston Seagull for a moment – it’s like God is saying to Moses…

  • “Don’t believe what your eyes tell you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you’ll see the way to fly.”
  • There is a wisdom in all of us – if only we could unlock it
  • What does Moses already know?
  • That with God nothing is impossible.

 

Conclusion:

Jesus is all about being

  • He wasn’t into having so much

 

In the first instance he was about being human – fully human and all that entails, including being vulnerable

 

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness – he tempted Jesus with having

  • Turn these stones into bread so that you will have something to eat
  • Jump from the roof of the temple so you will have fame
  • Bow down in worship to me so you will have power
  • But Jesus wasn’t interested in having
  • Jesus was satisfied with being God’s Son

 

Much of Jesus’ ministry was about setting people free from having

 

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us

  • That’s about not having to be right – not having the moral high ground
  • That’s about letting go of our hurt and our hate and simply being

 

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

  • That’s about not having to perform – not having to meet Pharaoh’s quota
  • That’s about learning how to be in a relationship with God – finding our fit in his will

 

In Luke 10 when Martha was complaining to Jesus about all the work she was having to do, demanding that Mary help her, Jesus responded…

  • Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.
  • Mary chose being over having and Jesus supported her in that choice

 

We could go on but you get the point…

  • God is about being and Pharaoh [the Satan] is about having
  • Jesus invites us into being with God
  • So choose being – choose the way of Christ

 

[1] Terence Fretheim, Exodus, page 84

[2] Ibid, page 85.

[3] Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘Where do we go from here? Chaos or Community’, page 124.

Tawa Baptist

Moses Returns

Scripture: Exodus 4:18-31

 

Title: Moses Returns

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Assurance
  • Briefing
  • Correction
  • Deployment
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Make peace with your past so it won’t mess up your present

 

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 4, verse 18 – page 63 toward the front of your pew Bibles

  • Today we continue our series on Moses
  • A couple of weeks ago we heard how God spoke to Moses through a flame in a bush, calling him to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of slavery
  • This morning Moses returns to Egypt in obedience to God
  • By returning to Egypt Moses is facing his past

 

From verse 18 of Exodus 4 we read…

 

[Read Exodus 4:18-31]

 

May the Lord meet us in this reading

 

Please turn with me to the back of your newsletter

  • We could think of Moses’ return to Egypt in four parts – A B C D
  • Assurance, briefing, correction & deployment
  • First let us consider how God gives Moses assurance in verses 18-20…

 

Assurance:

When Robyn and I were in our last year at Carey College training for ministry Tawa Baptist called us

  • Robyn & I are not from Wellington – most of our family live in the Waikato & Bay of Plenty
  • We were leaning toward coming to Tawa but hadn’t fully decided – there was still a significant element of faith involved both for us and the church
  • I remember driving along the southern motorway into Auckland around that time and the car in front of us had a personalised number plate which read, ‘2tawa’
  • What are the chances of seeing that on the Auckland motorway?
  • Now we didn’t base our decision to come to Tawa solely on that number plate but it was one thing that gave us assurance to proceed
  • God does things like that at certain crossroads in our lives
  • We might feel like we’ve heard from him but we doubt ourselves a bit and so he (in his grace) gives us assurance – he guides us in the direction we should go

Assurance is different from insurance

  • Assurance is something we can rely on – it will definitely happen
  • By contrast, insurance covers something that may or may not happen
  • So we have car insurance just in case we have an accident and need to replace the car
  • But we have life assurance, because it is certain that we will die one day and when we do our loved ones will get a pay out

 

In verse 18, after Moses has talked with God, he goes back to Jethro, his father-in-law, & asks permission to return to Egypt to see if his relatives are still alive

  • Jethro is Moses’ insurance
  • God is asking Moses to do a big thing here and Moses doesn’t know how the future will pan out
  • He needs to keep his relationship with Jethro good because if everything turns to custard Moses will need a home base to return to
  • So Moses takes care of the relationship by asking Jethro’s permission
  • Moses doesn’t burn his bridges

 

In verse 19, while Moses was still in Midian, the Lord spoke to him again saying: Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead

  • God gives Moses assurance
  • You will remember how Moses had left Egypt in a hurry, after killing an Egyptian slave driver
  • God knew that Moses was a bit anxious about returning to Egypt because of this – Moses was concerned his past might catch up with him
  • So God effectively says to Moses, ‘Now is a good time to return to Egypt, you are no longer an outlaw – no longer a wanted man’

 

Sometimes making peace with our past is simply a matter of time

  • Sometimes we just have to be patient and wait – time has a way of washing away ill feeling

 

With God’s assurance, Moses packs up his family and returns to Egypt on a donkey

  • This reminds us of another holy family travelling by donkey in the opposite direction, from Egypt back to Israel (Jesus, Joseph and Mary)
  • In that story God gave Joseph assurance by sending an angel in a dream to say Herod was dead and it was okay to go back home.

 

Returning to Exodus 4. At the end of verse 20 we are told Moses was carrying the stick God had told him to take

  • This stick is a tangible reminder of God’s assurance to Moses
  • It’s an assurance that Moses can literally hold on to
  • We also have these little tokens of assurance, don’t we
  • Perhaps a favourite Bible that we take with us everywhere
  • Or a cross on a necklace, or prayer beads, or some other physical reminder that we don’t travel alone – God goes with us

 

Briefing:

Every day around the world 11 or 12 people are either killed or injured because of land mines or other explosives left behind after war [1]

  • There are literally hundreds of millions of unexploded mines and bombs, in the world, left over after past wars, just waiting to be disturbed
  • The work of de-miners is a very practical way of making peace with the past so it doesn’t mess up the present

 

Sometimes making peace with our past is simply a matter of time

  • Time heals some wounds but not all wounds
  • There are some things which need special attention
  • Some things which don’t go away with time but in fact become more dangerous – like unexploded bombs
  • Part of the problem is that people don’t always remember where these ordnances are buried
  • If we forget our past then we may find ourselves walking through a mine field in the present
  • Pharaoh forgot Egypt’s past and consequently he led his people into danger

 

After giving Moses assurance to return to Egypt, God then briefs Moses, in verses 21-23

  • In this briefing God tells Moses the plan and what to expect
  • Unfortunately the briefing doesn’t make a lot of sense

 

God says to Moses, you do all the miracles

  • And I will make Pharaoh stubborn so that he won’t let the people go

 

Now, I imagine Moses scratching his head at this point thinking

  • Isn’t the whole idea to get Israel out of Egypt safely?
  • Why is God going to make Pharaoh stubborn so that he won’t let the people go? Hmmmm?

 

Well, it’s like St. Augustine said in the fifth century:

  • “If you understand it, then it is not God”

 

We will explore what it means for God to make Pharaoh stubborn when that comes up again in a few weeks

  • For now it is enough to know that God is giving Moses a heads up that things are not going to flow smoothly
  • He is in for a trying time with Pharaoh
  • God is giving Moses fair warning so he doesn’t become discouraged at the first hurdle

 

God goes on to say to Moses…

  • When the Pharaoh digs his toes in and refuses to let my people go I want you to say from me, ‘Israel is my first born son. I told you to let my son go, so that he might worship me, but you refused. Now I am going to kill your first born son.’

 

That doesn’t sound very nice – why does God want to kill Egypt’s first born?

  • Well, I don’t think God wants to kill anyone
  • The problem is Pharaoh has made some decisions which have limited God’s options

 

Pharaoh isn’t able to make peace with his past because he has forgotten the past

  • He has forgotten how Joseph (a Hebrew) saved Egypt from starvation and made the country rich during a famine
  • For Pharaoh to make peace with his past he would have to admit the injustices of his regime and make reparation
  • Pharaoh’s injustices lie scattered over the land like unexploded mines
  • But Pharaoh doesn’t want to face his own failure as a leader which means God doesn’t have much choice
  • God’s only option is to remind Pharaoh of Egypt’s injustice by visiting on Pharaoh the same treatment he has dealt out to Israel
  • The only way that Pharaoh is going to get the message is if God explodes some of the mines

To make peace with the past we must first remember the past – not as we would have liked it to have been, but as it actually was

 

Two aspects of good news we shouldn’t lose sight of here…

 

Firstly, Israel is God’s son – not Pharaoh’s son

  • Israel belongs to God – not to Pharaoh
  • Pharaoh has no right to hold Israel prisoner

 

Secondly, Israel is not an only child

  • Israel is God’s first born
  • Other nations will (and actually have) become God’s children too, through Christ

 

So the question for us is, ‘whose son, whose daughter, are we?’

  • Do we belong to Pharaoh or do we belong to God?
  • I believe we belong to God – although not everyone realises it
  • You are not the property of the bank or the company or the government
  • You are not a slave to market forces or technology or the opinion of others
  • You belong to God, as his child, and God wants you to be free of Pharaoh
  • (Whatever form Pharaoh may take)

 

Having given Moses assurance to proceed to Egypt

  • And having briefed Moses on what to do and what to expect in Egypt
  • God then corrects Moses in quite an alarming way

 

Correction:

What do you reckon – is one person by themselves better at remembering or are all of us together better at remembering?

 

[Wait for people to respond]

 

Yes – I agree with you – all of us together are better at remembering

  • We remember better together

 

In verse 24 of Exodus 4 we read how the Lord met Moses [on his way to Egypt] and tried to kill him

  • Whaaat? God tried to kill Moses?
  • Why would God do that when he has gone to so much trouble in sending Moses to Egypt to set Israel free?

 

 

Well, Moses’ wife Zipporah seemed to understand

  • Before Moses can face the future he must first make peace with his past
  • Moses needs to get his own house in order before he tries to sort out Pharaoh’s house because it seems Moses has forgotten his past too
  • Fortunately for Moses, Zipporah remembers

 

In Genesis 17 God made some promises to Abraham saying…

  • “You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations. You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you. From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old…”

 

Apparently Moses had not circumcised his own sons as God had instructed the descendants of Abraham

  • Circumcision was the sign of the covenant
  • A covenant is a sacred agreement – it is more than a contract
  • You put your signature on a contract but you cut a covenant
  • Hence the cutting of the foreskin as a sign of the covenant

 

Perhaps another reason God chose circumcision as a sign of the covenant is that the men at least would be regularly reminded of the covenant – every time they went to the toilet or had a bath

  • Perhaps the women didn’t need such regular reminders

 

In any case, God’s covenant with Abraham was incredibly important

  • And, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, God doesn’t like it when we mistreat or ignore or forget what he considers sacred and important
  • By not circumcising his sons Moses had forgotten God’s covenant and God was not pleased – he tried to kill Moses

 

We don’t know exactly what this means – perhaps Moses became really sick and was close to dying

  • The fact that God didn’t kill Moses instantly shows us God’s grace
  • “God leaves room for mediation, [he] allows time for Zipporah to act,” [2] to save Moses – which she does
  • Zipporah cut off the foreskin of her son and touched Moses’ feet with it
  • In this way Zipporah made peace with the past by keeping the covenant
  • And so the Lord spared Moses’ life
  • This is not the first time Moses has been saved by the quick witted courage of a woman

 

Terence Fretheim makes the following observation of Moses’ near death experience…

  • This is a divine demonstration of the seriousness of the matter upon which God & Moses are about to embark: a life-and-death struggle in which Israel’s very life will be imperilled. That Israel or Moses will emerge unscathed is not a foregone conclusion. Israel will be dependent upon God’s decision and action on its behalf, yet Moses’ own obedience is integral to the divine mission. [3]

 

In other words our salvation is a serious matter and we can’t afford to take God for granted

  • Yes, he loves us, but that doesn’t mean anything goes
  • We are dependent on God to save us but at the same time the choices we make matter

 

As Christians we are under a different covenant

  • Ours is not the covenant of Abraham, so we don’t have to be circumcised
  • Ours is the new covenant established by Jesus
  • Later in the service we will share communion and you will hear me talk about the cup of the new covenant
  • We take communion to remember the new covenant with God made possible by Christ’s sacrifice
  • Or said another way, communion reminds us how Jesus enables us to make peace with our past and peace with God – so that we can have hope for the future

 

One of the cool things about communion is that we take it together, or more accurately we remember together – memory is more reliable that way

 

We don’t take communion lightly – it is a serious matter and God is not pleased if we misuse it. As the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians…

  • It follows that if anyone eats the Lord’s bread or drinks from his cup in a way that dishonours him, he is guilty of sin against the Lord’s body & blood. So then, everyone should examine himself first, and then eat the bread and drink from the cup. For if he does not recognise the meaning of the Lord’s body when he eats the bread and drinks from the cup, he brings judgement on himself as he eats and drinks. [4]

 

God has assured Moses it is okay to return to Egypt

  • God has briefed Moses on what to expect when he confronts Pharaoh
  • And God has corrected Moses on his way to Egypt
  • Now God deploys Aaron to go with Moses to Egypt
  • A B C D

 

Deployment:

Verse 27 of Exodus 4 reads…

  • Meanwhile the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to meet Moses.” So he went to meet him at the holy mountain; and when he met him he kissed him.

 

Sometimes making peace with our past is a difficult thing – like defusing an unexploded bomb or some other life & death struggle

  • Other times it is a joyful thing – as it was when Aaron and Moses were finally reunited after probably about 40 years apart

 

Making peace with your past can also mean re-doing things again – only this time properly

  • The first time Moses had tried to save his people he had acted alone – without God and without the people themselves
  • This time though Moses goes with the Lord and with Aaron
  • And he involves all the leaders of Israel – he takes the people with him

 

Aaron does the talking and Moses performs the miracles

  • The people believe and bow down in worship to the Lord for he has come to them and seen how cruelly they are being treated
  • It’ a beautiful thing when God lets us know that he understands our pain
  • Knowing that God understands goes a long way in helping us to make peace with our past

 

 

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve heard that making peace with our past can mean different things

 

Sometimes it means simply letting go – not chasing after the past but allowing time to do the work of healing

  • Waiting for the enemies of bitterness and revenge to die

 

But time won’t fix everything

  • There are some things which need special attention
  • Some things which don’t go away with time but in fact become more dangerous – like unexploded bombs
  • In those cases, to make peace with the past we must first remember the past – not as we would have liked it to have been, but as it actually was
  • If we forget our past (as Pharaoh did) then we may find ourselves walking through a mine field

 

The other thing to keep in mind when it comes to making peace with our past is, we don’t have to do it alone

  • Moses had help to face his past
  • Zipporah helped him to remember the covenant and put things right with God
  • And Aaron helped Moses to approach the task in a proper way, involving the leaders of Israel
  • Moses & Aaron & the Lord worked together to restore hope to the people

 

 

 

 

[1] http://www.maginternational.org/the-problems/landmines-and-unexploded-ordnance/#.VZcQ3xHAKM8

[2] Terence Fretheim, ‘Exodus’, page 79.

[3] Fretheim, page 81.

[4] 1 Corinthians 11:27-29