1. Moses
What
lessons can we learn from Moses as we meet him in Exodus
2–5? Several.
* Use
opportunities. God placed Moses, a child of slaveray , in the palace of his
people’s oppressors. There he was “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22).
We too need to take opportunities to grow, and to develop within our own
culture.
* Dream
dreams. Moses had a vision of himself as his people’s deliverer. When he
killed the Egyptian taskmaster he supposed “that his own people would realize
that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not” (Acts 7:25). Not all of us are called to fulfill our
early dreams. But the desire to do great things for God, and to dare great
things to help those for whom He cares, is admirable in us as well as in Moses.
But we must make sure we are not fulfilling our will instead of God. Sometimes what we want to do is not what God
is wanting of us.
* Accept
discipline. The Jews didn’t share Moses’ vision of himself as a hero.
Pharaoh heard what he had done, and Moses fled. For 40 years he lived as a
simple shepherd in a backward land. The image of the hero faded under the
stress of everyday life. Finally Moses learned to accept himself as a “nobody.”
We too need this kind of discipline. God does not want to break our spirits.
But He cannot use pride. When we accept ourselves as nobodies, only then can we
become somebodies whom God can use. We
are nobodies until we have Christ.
Matthew
20:25-28; “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [1]
* Face
limitations. At the burning bush Moses carried his “nobodyness” too far. At
80 God spoke to him, and announced that the youthful dream would be fulfilled.
Now Moses hesitated. He saw so many reasons why he could not do what he had
once planned to do.
“What
if they do not believe me?”
“Lord,
I have never been eloquent.”
“Lord,
please send someone else.”
Each
of these objections indicates clearly that Moses now was all too aware of his
inadequacy. From “I can” he had swung to “I can’t.”
It’s
important that we face our own limitations, but remember that the natural
abilities we have were given to us by God and we are to trust those abilities
to serve God. We can be too overwhelmed by our weaknesses. We need to remember
God, and shift our gaze from ourselves to Him.
It ‘s not about our weakness, but His strength.
Matthew
21:-21-22; 21 Jesus replied, “I tell you the
truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to
the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into
the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If
you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” [2]
Rush
Limbaugh: “Talent on loan from God. Often misunderstood by hypercritical and
sensitive types to mean (I think) I am God.
On the contrary, I believe I am what I am because of the grace of God
and that my time on earth, as is everyone’s, is temporary. We are all on loan from God, you see.”
* Accept
God’s commission. In the call to Moses, God had announced His purpose. “I
am sending you … to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Ex. 3:10). For each objection, God had a promise:
“The
elders of Israel will listen to you.”
“Go,
and I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
God
is well able to do in us what He intends. With the commission of God comes the
presence and power of God that enables us to fulfill it.
1
Corin 2:3-5; I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but
with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith
might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. [3]
* Expect
disappointments. Moses did go as God commanded. And the Hebrews did welcome
him. But, as God had also warned, Pharaoh did not listen. The burdens of the
Hebrews were now increased. The people of Israel turned on Moses, and Moses
turned to God. “Why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You
sent me?”
Every
ministry knows disappointments. No path God asks us to follow will always be
smooth. Learning to accept the disappointments and yet to always turn back to
God is an important aspect of preparation for ministry.
2
Timothy 1:8-9; So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me
his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of
God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of
anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. [4]
Faithful
service (Ex. 15–40). The events immediately following the Lord’s
exhilarating victory over Pharaoh thrust Moses into burdensome spiritual
leadership.
Moses’
basic problem was with the people he had been called to lead. Their character
was all too quickly revealed. When Pharaoh’s army followed Israel to the sea,
the people begged in terror to return to slavery (14:11–12).
Even after the parting of the Red Sea, the people “grumbled against Moses”
within three days because of a lack of water! As the journey toward Sinai
continued, the attitude of the people became more and more sour. The “whole
community murmured” (16:2), and finally
expressed their rebelliousness in an anger so fierce they were ready to stone
Moses himself! (17:4)
As
we look at Moses the man, we need to see him as a person under pressure. Being
a leader means carrying very real and very heavy burdens. Yet this stage of
Moses’ life also has helpful lessons for us.
Exodus 17:4 shows Moses
crying out in frustration. “What am I to do with these people?”
What
a fascinating question. What shall I do? Moses was about to learn a vital lesson. He
had begun to look at himself as the only one God uses, the one who had to
provide all the solutions. He was alone, and indispensable. “What shall I do?”
All
too often this is the cry of the ordained in our churches. Somehow the pastor
and people alike come to feel that the ministry is one person’s task, and his
or her responsibility alone. No wonder it seems impossible. It is!
God’s
instructions to Moses give us insights. “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with
you some of the elders of Israel” (v. 5). Then
God told Moses to strike a rock: “I will stand there before you,” God told him,
“and water shall come out of it.”
Here
are two ways that Moses was not alone. God was there before him. And some of
the elders of Israel were there with him.
Ministry in the Christian
church is a shared responsibility. Even when members of a congregation are not
yet spiritually mature, no leader is to bear the burden alone. The people of
God are dependent on God, but interdependent on each other.[5]
God
told Moses what had happened, and invited intercession with these words: “Now
leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them. … Then I will make you
into a great nation” (v. 10). God expressed His
commitment to judge sin, and offered Moses an even greater place in history
than he now fills! What did Moses do?
Moses
prayed.
The
striking prayer is recorded in verses Ex. 32:11–14.
Moses called on God to glorify Himself by remembering His covenant promises to
Abraham. Moses was looking to God and seeking His glory. He wanted to see God
glorified in His people, and to this end he prayed for them.
This
too teaches us. In our lives we will see much which might appropriately anger
or disgust us. Yet on the mountain, when Moses’ eyes were fixed on God, he
prayed. We too are to keep our eyes on God and to pray, and not to keep our
eyes on the sins of others. The New Testament says it. “For man’s anger does
not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James
1:20). Keeping close to the Lord, we will be protected, as Moses was,
from an anger which might keep us from helping others. By keeping close to the
Lord, we will also rely on Him, and express our concern for others in
intercessory prayer.
A
faithful life (Num.—Deut.). Moses led
Israel for 40 years. And 38 of those years were spent leading a doomed
generation through the wilderness—waiting. Two incidents selected from Exodus
have helped us sense something of the lesson Moses learned of ministry’s
burdens.
In
many ways, Moses seems to have been a failure. He failed to bring Israel into
the land. He saw the generation that left Egypt wander aimlessly in the desert
and, one by one, die. In all that time Moses saw little change in their
responsiveness to God or to himself.
There
are limits to the responsibility of leaders. These limits are imposed by the
very freedom God Himself gives all men to turn to Him, or to turn away. Moses’
ministry could bring Israel to the point of decision. Moses performed this
ministry well. But Moses could not decide for them. One generation turned from
God. And one generation turned to God. It was their own choice.
It
was not through Moses’ failure that the first generation turned away. Nor was
it by Moses’ skill and success that the second turned to the Lord.
The
point, of course, is simple. Moses was called to be faithful to God and to
fulfill his commission. He was not called to “succeed” or to “fail.” And so the
New Testament commendation of Moses focuses not on what Moses accomplished, but
on his faithfulness. “Moses … faithfully discharged his duty in the household
of God” (Heb. 3:2, ph). It was Moses’ faithfulness to his task which counted
with God all along.
It’s the same for us today.
Where there is faithfulness, failure does not bring blame. And it should not
bring a sense of guilt! Where faithfulness is, success does not bring glory.
Our responsibility is limited. We are called merely to bring others to the
place where they can freely choose.[6]
2. Pharaoh
The
Pharaoh’s hard heart. This question
has been a favorite one for speculation. In some verses the Bible says God
hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In others Pharaoh hardened his heart. Do these
phrases mean that God moved the Pharaoh to sin against his will? Was God the
source of Pharaoh’s evil?
Exodus 3:19 reports that God
told Moses that He knew Pharaoh would not let Israel go unless compelled.
Certainly Pharaoh’s first reaction to Moses (Ex. 5)
is a spontaneous one … one that gives us solid evidence that Pharaoh by nature
was not responsive to God. And yet in 7:3–4 God
told Moses that He would “harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply My
miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.” What is this
hardening? And what does it all mean?
Explanations
have varied. Some point to the Hebrew view of causation, which tends to trace
responsibility back to God, ignoring intervening acts or choices by men. Others
have suggested that God refers to the natural result of revelation: when God
speaks to responsive hearts, they melt before Him. When God speaks to
unresponsive hearts, they harden. Thus the same sun’s growing heat will melt
wax, yet harden clay.
The
Hebrew word most frequently used in this setting means “to be or become strong.” We might paraphrase, “God strengthened
Pharaoh’s resolve to resist.” This paraphrase would have one advantage. It
would make very clear the fact that God did not force Pharaoh to act against
his own conscience or against his will.
But
even this would not resolve the problem. God does say to Pharaoh, “I have
raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My
name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (9:16).
God could have acted differently than He did. Yet He let Pharaoh, whose
rebellion and mistreatment of Israel merited death, live. He let the Pharaoh
live that he might be used by God for His own glory.
But
this is just the fear that strikes many of us when we read these chapters. It’s
not the theological debate between free will and God’s sovereignty that
troubles us. It’s a far more personal issue. It’s the doubt and the uncertainty
that lead us to ask, “Will God use me? Am I a pawn to Him, or does He care?”
The continual response of
Scripture to this question is reassuring. Yes, God does care. He reached down
in compassion to deliver Israel. He Himself stepped into our world—and was
jerked upward on a wooden cross—because He does care. To all who respond with
faith to His message, God commits Himself, even as He committed Himself to
Abraham in a covenant oath. I can know, I do know, that I am not a pawn to God.
He loves me for myself. He cares, and because God cares He has lifted me to
freedom in Jesus Christ.[7]
[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed.
Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mt 20:25-28
[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed.
Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mt 21:21-22
[3] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed.
Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. 1 Co 2:3-5
[4] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed.
Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. 2 Ti 1:8-9
[5] Richards, Larry ; Richards,
Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1987, S.
76
[6] Richards, Larry ; Richards,
Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1987, S.
78
[7] Richards, Larry ; Richards,
Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1987, S.
84
