God Calls His Deliverer

Transcript

GRS 2-15
04/17/2005
God Calls His Deliverer
Exodus 3-5
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Exodus together. We have looked through the first couple of chapters, as God is now ready to bring his people Israel out of bondage in Egypt. They went down into Egypt as a family about 70 people and they have come out of Egypt a mighty nation of perhaps about 2 million people. Though we call it the Egyptian bondage, but it was God’s way to protect his people, keep them from being diluted through intermarriages and so on that might have happened to them if they remained in the land of Canaan and then according to his schedule, He is now ready to bring them out, The date of the Exodus will be around 1445-1446 BC. The leader of the people in the Exodus, the man Moses, is being prepared by God for that ministry that God has for him. In the plan of God, Moses was taken into the very household of Pharaoh by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in the royal household for the first forty years of his life and he is going to spend the next forty years as a shepherd in the wilderness region of Median and then he will spend the third forty years of his life as the leader of the nation in the Exodus and then in the wilderness wanderings.

We look and pick up basically at the end of chapter some matters relating to the particular situation of Moses, he had to leave Egypt remember because of conflict, he murdered an Egyptian and the Pharaoh in power sought to kill him. We talked of some of the historical situations going on in Egypt at this time that we know from secular history that may have created the kind of setting that would put Moses’ life at risk for killing an Egyptian. In some ways you think a man raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and thus part of the royal household murders an Egyptian, not a good thing but not something that the Pharaoh himself would try to kill him for and we noted some of the political intrigue going on at this time in the royal household may have contributed to this situation. The book of Hebrews says this was a subtle decision by Moses, Hebrews chapter 11, it was an act of faith in his placing his faith in the God of Israel and identifying with the God of Israel and the people of God, so by faith he turns his back on the wealth and riches of Egypt and chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than endure the pleasures of sin for a season. Keep a piece of paper in Exodus 3 and us go back to Acts 7, we looked at this and I want to refresh your mind in tie it together with the second portion of Moses’ life, which is where we are going.

Acts chapter 7, we have Stevens defense and subsequent martyrdom and in Acts chapter 7 verse 22 Stephen says “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, he was a man of power in words and deeds,” interesting, in the light of what Moses is going to claim before God. When he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brother and then you have the account of his killing the Egyptian and so verse 29 this remark “Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian.” Now verse 23 told us, he was approaching the age of 40 when he killed the Egyptian and had to flee Egypt. Then in verse 29 “Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Median where he became the father of two sons.” We will look a little bit further of that in a moment. Now look at verse 30, after 40 years had passed an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning thorn bush and note where Moses is when the burning bush incident takes place, he is in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. Amen about that. You note, he has spent 40 years in this wilderness region basically as a shepherd, so quite a drastic change in Moses’ life. It is interesting, it is not until two thirds of Moses’ life are past that he enters into the major tasks that now God has been preparing him for.

You can come back to the Book of Exodus, end of chapter 2. First in verse 16 of chapter 2, you remember that when Moses fled to the land of Midian, there he comes in contact with the family of the priest of Median. Now these are relatives, because the Midianites are also the descendants of Abraham. In Genesis chapter 25, after the death of Sarah, Abraham’s first wife, he marries Keturah and one of the sons that are born to Abraham and Keturah is Midian comes the Medianites, so these are relatives if you will of the Israelites because they too are the descendants of Abraham, but not through the son of promise Isaac and he meets the seven daughters, we don’t anything about the priest of Median, what kind of worship system he was representing in carrying out, none of that is unfolded for us here. Moses seems to fit quite well into the family here. In verse 18, I want you to know, when they came to Reuel, their father, (he has met the daughters because they were shepherdesses and helped them by watering the flock) they came to Reuel their father, now we know this man more by the name Jethro, down in chapter 3 verse 1, “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law,” he is going to marry the daughter of Reuel or Jethro. So, I just wanted you to know that he has two names here, we are not told why the two names, not unusual for a man in those days to have two names, but we don’t know the purpose, but just want just you to know we are talking about the same individual of Reuel here and Jethro.

Verse 21, Moses marries one of these 7 daughters of Reuel or Jethro; her name is Zipporah and she gave birth to a son and named him Gershom. In the course of many days the king of Egypt died verse 23 “and the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage and I realize here about 40 years have gone by since Moses came out and intervened on behalf of an Israelite being mistreated by an Egyptian and now God is prepared to use Moses for the role that he has selected him for “The sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, cried out their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God and noted four things that are said about God in verses 24 and 25, God heard their groaning, God remembered His covenant and doesn’t mean He had forgotten it, now He remembered it obviously, but he remembered it from the standpoint now he is ready to act on the basis of the covenant He had established with Abraham and His descendants. Thus to honor it and to intervene on behalf of the people that he has chosen for himself. God saw the sons of Israel. He takes notice of their miserable condition, their crying to him. God took notice of them and I want you to note that, that literally is God knew them. Remember we talk about we talk about God’s foreknowledge in the New Testament and people have great difficulty with the sovereignty of God as it is unfolded in the New Testament and part of the problem comes, we have not taken seriously or studied seriously enough the presentation of God’s sovereignty as it is given in the Old Testament. When it says “God knew them” what do you mean God knew them, of course he knew these are the people he chose for himself, but now he is going to put his favor on them in a special way so that they can receive His blessings in their deliverance.

Alright chapter 3 is the call of Moses. We have learned much about Moses in a summary fashion in the first two chapters, now God is going to intervene in Moses’ life at about 80 years of age to call him out to be the leader of His people at this crucial juncture. Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law. Here he is in his father-in-law’s household and what is he? He is a shepherd, quite a step-down, from living in a house of Pharaoh for 40 years, now he is spent 40 years in evidently, relatively content. He led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, now here is another place that has two names, we know it most familiarly as Mount Sinai, but it is also Horeb or Mount Horeb same place, so we don’t get confused here. What I think we are note here is that for 40 years, Moses has been a shepherd in the region of Mount Sinai, so when it comes time to lead God’s people out of Egypt and they are going to end up spending a lot of time roaming through this area, Moses would be a man who knows it like the back of his hand, I mean as a shepherd he would have roamed as we have seen in other passages/situations in Old Testament scriptures where taking the herds out, you known you may be out several days away from the home as you wander through. Moses spends 40 years wandering over this wilderness region, tending to the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, not wasted time that is obviously shaping his life in a little different way than it shaped it when he lived in the house of Pharaoh. It will prepare Moses to be a very excellent leader of the people when he got out of this wilderness. Obviously God would be their leader, but Moses won’t be in a strange place that he doesn’t know anything about. He is a man who lived and roamed this area for 40 years. It’s called Horeb the mountain of God. Obviously as this is written as Moses writes it after these events Horeb at this point, Mount Sinai doesn’t have this significance yet that it will, but it is identified for as the Mountain of God because this is the place where God will meet with his people. It is the place where He is going to meet with Moses on this occasion.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush and he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire yet the bush was not consumed, so Moses said I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, Why the bush is not burnt up” The first thing that strikes Moses, and obviously the fire catches his attention, but it could have something happened that the bush caught fire, but the fact is you are staring there watching this bush and it is not being consumed by the fire, now this is something strange. The fire was a representation of God’s presence. When he comes down to this site Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 19, there is going to be smoke because God came down in fire on the mountain representing his awesome presence, of the judgment to come with Him, His purifying power. He is here, our God is a consuming fire and He is present in the bush and you will note it’s the angel of the Lord who appeared to him in a blazing fire and the angel of the Lord is what we call a Theophany in the Old Testament. A theophany is two Greek words – the word for God and the word for manifestation of God. When I take the theophanies in the Old Testament are Christophanies, their manifestations of the preincarnate Christ. The angel of the Lord is not an angel on the same level as other angels, but he is the angel of the Lord in that he is the special messenger of the Lord. We know that he is himself deity because note the context in verse 4 “When the Lord saw he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, for who appeared to him in the burning bust, in verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire in the midst of the bush and God spoke to him form the midst of the bush. Verse 6, the angel of the Lord identifies himself. “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so we are talking about deity here. Often we refer to the angel of the Lord as preincarnate Christ as a Theophany in its comparisons like this in the very context that indicate this is not just an angel like Gabriel or Michael who are another angels, this is deity, and the manifestation of deity and it is God present in the bush to speak to Moses. One person made an interesting comment “What began as just another day doing the same old thing turned out to be an absolutely new experience for Moses, the old life of shepherding was ended, the new life of deliverer was beginning.” Moses would just doubt another day of caring for the sheep, another day of wandering in this wilderness, but a life changing day for him.

Moses turns aside to see why the bush is not burned up. Verse 4, when the Lord saw he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said “Moses, Moses.” Now we not only have a bush burning, bush burning and the fire does not consume the bush, but now we have a voice coming out of this fire and Moses said “Here I am.” Then he said, do not come near here, remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground, awesome you are in the presence of the living God. Take your shoes off, sign of respect and reverence. You are in the presence of God. He said also “I am the God of your Father the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,” Then Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. I mean God’s speaking to him, Moses covers his face, he is unworthy to look at the bush any longer now recognizing this is the presence of God before me, He is speaking to me out of this fire. He has his sandals off, his face covered and God tells him “I am ready to act on behalf of my people.”

Verse 7: “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, I have heard their cry, I am aware of their sufferings, so I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. We have been told in the book of Genesis that the iniquity of these people in the land was not yet ripe for judgment, now it is come and God is ready to give this land to His people and that will involve the judgment to be brought upon these people as they are destroyed. I am going to bring you into a land flowing with milk and honey. I mean there is a land that is rich and fertile, a great place for the cows and the goats that will supply the milk. Now honey, there is the flowers and so on and that the bees provide the honey for the sweetness. So it is a rich and prosperous land that they are going to.

Verse 10, “Therefore come now I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.” Moses said, ‘Oh finally something important’ back to Egypt – now I realize why I was prepared in the house of Pharaoh to go back, it is not like that at all. Moses had gotten rather to like it in this quite land of Median, you know sometimes don’t you get that feeling, just like to go, retreat to some quite place. I have got a lot of trouble, lot of turmoil as long as I have enough to get by on and would just – here I am, I mean this hasn’t been bad. Moses is not ready to step up to the task God has for him, interesting in the way it is put in verse 10 “Come now I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.” He doesn’t say I am going to use you to take my people into this land that I just referred to as flowing with milk and honey because as you are aware in Deuteronomy chapter 32 will die and never set a foot in the land the God has promised. The scripture is very precise, you are going to lead my people out. He doesn’t say you will be the one to lead them into the land because God obviously knows the end from the beginning.

Verse 11 is the first of five occasions, five times that Moses tried to make God understand that he wasn’t the right choice. He wasn’t adequate for the task. Verse 11 “Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt, I am not qualified for such a task.” Look down in verse 13 then Moses said to God “Behold I am going to the sons of Israel, I will say to them the God of your fathers hath sent me to you, they will say to me “What is His name?” What shall I say to them? I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to say, I can’t adequately represent you.” Chapter 4 verse 1 then Moses said “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say for they may say the Lord has not appeared to you” You know they won’t pay attention to me, what will I do when they won’t pay attention to me.

Verse 10, then Moses said to the Lord “Please Lord I have never been eloquent neither recently or in times past , I love the way he has put- literally you know I am not a man of words, not yesterday and not in the long past either nor since you have spoken to your servant I mean there had not even been any changes in the course of this conversation “I am slow of speech, slow of tongue” Verse 13, bottom line “Lord send somebody else.” All these are the questions have just been a way of saying “Lord pick somebody else and I will go along with the sheep.” You know there is a good side to what Moses does here. You know Moses was more meek, more humble than any man on the earth we are told in scripture. It is good not to have a confidence in yourself because it was a good side that Moses expresses here. He realizes his own inadequacy to represent the living God, recognizes that it won’t be the power of his personality and his persuasive speech and all of that there is a good thing to recognize. This job won’t get done because I am the man that is prepared to do it and I can get it done, but the downside of this is good for me to recognize by own inadequacy, my own inability to really accomplish anything for God, but then needs to translate immediately into a full confidence in God to use me to get done what he chooses, to get done through me and that’s where there is a breakdown here with Moses. Not wrong to be humble, not wrong to realize your own weaknesses, but then they say that God couldn’t do it through you, that crosses the line, that results in God becoming angry with Moses and the conclusion of this Moses says God please pick someone else in verse 13. Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses and it’s only the grace of God that fire does not come out from that bush and consume him. I mean you think that’s going to be the next thing when you read that first statement, if you couldn’t read the next of it, then the anger of the Lord burnt against Moses and Moses was burned up as fire came out from the bush. Because you don’t tell God what to do, but we all experience the grace of God don’t we. God has graciously chosen Moses as he makes clear here “It’s true Moses you can do it, but that’s not the issue, I am choosing you as to be My representative and I am going to do it and that’s what God has presenting clearly. So let's back up and walk though some of this.

Verse 13, Moses had asked God “Who will I tell them sent me, now God has already identified Himself back in verse 6. “I am the God of your fathers the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but Moses wants full revelation of your Character. Verse 14, God said to Moses “I AM who I AM”- I AM is form of the word we translate Lord YHWH and the fact of the “I AM” stresses that he is the self-existent, eternally existing God. He does not live in the past, He does not live in the future, He is the I AM. He is the self-existent God and this eternal self-existing God is the one who has established a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, He is one now who has come to deliver Israel and Moses would be his representative. Incidentally, over in John chapter 8 verse 58, Jesus stirred the wrath of the Jews of his day at the end of John chapter 8 Jesus is speaking to the Jews and in verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad, so the Jews said to him you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham, Jesus said to them “Truly, Truly I say to you before Abraham was born, I am, before Abraham was I am.” That’s it they are the just the same and I am, before Abraham was born I am. Well they recognize immediately that’s the claim to be the God of the covenant, the eternally self-existent God, the God who revealed himself to Abraham. So, they pick up stones and are ready to stone him, but again in the plan of God he is preserved, so on unfolding of God’s Character here His very being.


Verse, 15 back in Exodus 3, “God furthermore said to Moses thus you shall say to the sons of Israel “The Lord, the God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you, this is my name forever, this is my memorial name to all generations. He is the covenant keeping God so, there is no change. Hundreds of years go by, but nothing changes because this is the I AM. He made the promise to Abraham and it doesn’t matter, it seems like a long time as we mark time, hundreds of years what is that to the I AM and “You tell them I AM has sent you, the God who made the covenant with Abraham and reinforced it with Isaac, reinforced it with Jacob, this is my name forever.” That’s cause of great comfort being like we get it in the New Testament Peter talks about how people will say where is the promise of his coming, all things continue as they were from the beginning, So what? They don’t continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, there have been evidences of His intervention and His judgment. The passing of time doesn’t shake our confidence, does it? He is the ‘I AM’, this is the same God you understand. He is the I AM today just like He was the I AM when Jesus spoke in John 8 and the I AM when he spoke to Moses. So as I saw the scripture, I studied and I say it’s alive, its real, the promises that seem to be given so long ago, when will it happen, don’t worry, the one who is the I AM has promised. His word is secure. This is my name for ever this is my memorial name to all generations. So I fulfill my word and here now ready to bring you into the land I promised. So Moses, is instructed in verse 16 “To go and gather the elders of the people and tell them that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is concerned about you and I am going to bring you up out of Egypt and I am going to bring you into the land flowing with milk and honey and here is what will happen beginning in verse 18, “The people will believe, they will pay heed to what you say. Verse 19, the king of Egypt will be hardened. Verse 20, the Egyptians will be plagued, but the Israelites will be delivered and the Egyptians will be plundered in verse 22. So there is an overview Moses of what’s going to take place. When you go to the Jews, they are going to believe you, that’s the initial response. You go to Pharaoh, his heart is going to be hardened. So you have to bring the plagues on the Egyptian, so that the Israelites will be delivered and in their deliverance they will plunder the Egyptians, they will be out of Egypt. So simple plan, no problem, no problem for us who are reading it as a history, but face it, we are more like Moses, if we can even compare ourselves to him in some way we can, and when you have that sense and confidence of what God would have us do and we know what the word of God says, but they are always what ifs. You know its easy for me to read this account and go over to you the five times Moses has got, but what if this happens, but what if this happen, and if I myself saying what’s wrong with Moses, its the eternal God speaking to him. Is he think God can do what he says, but then I look and say I’ve it down in black and white and I read it and sometimes I waver, I don’t think God can do what he says and so I think were are loaded what if they don’t want hear, what if they do this, what if they respond negatively, what if this. Well, you don’t think God can handle it. Do I think God is stuck, so appreciate the revelation of Moses.

Chapter 4, Gods unfolds more in detail in the plan. There is going to be a provision of the signs that Moses can use to confirm it to the Jews, first nine verses the provision of the signs. Moses said, what if they will not believe me. Listen to what I say because let’s face it, I am going to go there and say, you know what, God appeared to me in a bush and the bush is in the fire and bush wasn’t consumed and God spoke to me out of the bush. And they are going to say yeah, maybe you spent too much time in the sun Moses. The Lord says “What is that in your hand and he says a staff, so now we are going to have the signs given to validate Moses’ ministry. The staff becomes a serpent in verses 2 to 5 “Throw the staff on the ground, it becomes a serpent- Take that serpent by the tail and as soon as Moses does that it becomes a staff again. Verses 6 to 8 “Put your hand inside your robe, take it out - it’s leprous; put it back in, take it out its clean. Verses 6 to 8, then you will be able to take water from the Nile and throw it on the ground; it will turn to blood so those will be the tree signs that you will have.


Verse 10-17 Issue of Moses’ speech. Then Moses said to the Lord. “Please Lord I have never been eloquent neither recently nor in time past, nor since you have spoken to your servant, I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Now in Stephen’s speech we were told that he was powerful in speech and word, in Acts chapter 7 and he would have been trained to speak, but it may be that this wasn’t Moses strong # even with all his training, he was uncomfortable speaking, the words did not come easily and then we would take home and led his classes, in Bible Colleges and Seminary for some people it came easily, and for others it came hard and even after all the classes and all the training for some people, it was still a struggle to speak, so you know there is no discussion here or an argument. You know Moses, you are better than you think you are. You have to develop some self-confidence here, I mean don’t be putting yourself down all the time. Tell yourself you can do it, you know if you have positive thoughts and speak positive words, positive things will happen, that’s what was the Lords response. So, Lords response is it doesn’t matter. Verse 11 – the Lord said to him “Who has made man’s mouth or who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind, is it not I the Lord.” You know we talk about physical causes. God says “He is behind it all and so what’s the issue, so you stumble in your speech, so you are not eloquent and able to persuade people, all I want to do is put my words in your mouth and you go speak. Don’t you think I can enable you to do that? Now then go and I even I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.” What more could you ask. I mean if I had one of the best speakers or preachers say please come with me, I will show you what to say, I will teach you how to do it. I will. Boy what an opportunity. Here God Himself the one who created our tongues gives us the ability to speak, says I will tell you what to say, I will be with your mouth, I mean it can’t fail. Keep your finger there go to Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah Chapter 1, there number of people, Gideon had excuses when God called him so that I can’t do it. Jeremiah is a prophet as Moses was a prophet. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before even you were born I consecrated you, I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Oh wow what an exciting call, not to Jeremiah. Then I said “Alas Lord God behold d I don’t know how to speak because I am a youth. The Lord said to me, “Do not say I am a youth, I mean too young, I haven’t learned enough, I am not yet developed in my speaking ability, because everywhere I send you, you shall go, all that I command you, you shall speak. Down at the end of verse 8 “I am with you,” end of verse 9 “I’ve put my words in your mouth” I mean what more can you want. It doesn’t have to do with natural abilities first and foremost, it has to do with the sovereign purpose of God. You will have to be creative, you don’t have to be unique, you just have to do and say what God instructs you.

Back in Exodus chapter 4, there are no more excuses what you can say to this. Moses response simply is Lord I don’t want to do it, please get someone else. The anger of the Lord burns against Moses, but he does not destroy him. God says “I will give you a helper, is not your brother Aaron the Levite I mean that’s who your brother is, Aaron the Levite. We don’t know what kind of contact Moses had with his family over these 40 years, I mean the Bible tells us nothing. How much contact, what went on we don’t know. Perhaps you know family member like Aaron came out to visit Moses periodically, I don’t know, perhaps there has been a long break, we don’t know. “ Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite, I know that he speaks fluently, moreover, behold he is coming out to meet you, when he sees you he will be glad in his heart, you are to speak to him put the words in his mouth and I even I will be with your mouth and his mouth, I will teach what you are to do moreover he shall speak for you to the people and he will be as mouth for you and you will be his God to him.” So God is going to speak to Moses, Moses will speak to Aaron and Aaron will speak to the people. So God graciously makes provision and you give the staff to Aaron, you take your staff and go with Aaron and you can act and perform the miracles. So Moses departed, goes to his father-in-law and say I have to go back and see how my people are doing, return to my brethren.

And Jethro again we don’t any kind, he has never condemned for false worship so maybe he is carrying on some of the godly tradition like Melchizedek that appeared suddenly in the book of Genesis, Priest of the most High God. The Lord said to Moses in Midian verse 19 “Go back to Egypt, all the men who are seeking you alive or dead.” So Moses took his wife, his sons, mounted them on a donkey, returned to the land of Egypt, Moses took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go, then you will say to Pharaoh thus says the Lord, Israel is my son my first born, so I said to you let my son go that he may serve me, but you refused to let him go, behold I will kill your son your firstborn.” So you are immediately carried to the end there.

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and the climax of that whole series of event. There are going to be a series of great miracles that will take place, but the climax is going to be the death of the firstborn to deliver God’s firstborn Israel. So, you are condensed summary of what’s going to happen here. You are going back to Pharaoh, I will harden his heart. It will be necessary to kill the first born, so that Israel my firstborn will be delivered. Just say something here about what God says at the end of verse 21 “I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” We get troubled by this. First thing I will say is we don’t have to understand everything in scripture, we accept it by faith now we were to understand at the best we can, but I accept it as true even when I don’t fully comprehend it. It will be repeated and I don’t have it counted here. I have got them listed. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, then there is a series of scripture that says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and we look at how do we resolve this, and how to resolve that ultimately, it’s the sovereignty of God that is in control, and before I explain something come back to Romans chapter 9, then I am going to say somethings about these verses. Romans chapter 9 – It is humbling, but we need always to remember God is God and we are not. He is the potter we are the clay. So verse 15 Paul referring to the fact that God said to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Let’s face it, if mercy is deserved it is not mercy because by very definition mercy is something undeserved right. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” God is dealing with fallen sinful human beings who are in rebellion against him. He does not have to show them mercy, He does not have to show them compassion, and I am not saying he doesn’t, but you are not obligated. So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Let us face it, if God chooses to withhold his mercy, we will be like the angels who sinned, they did not receive any mercy, providing forgiveness for them. The scripture says the Pharaoh for this very purpose I have raised you up, why was Pharaoh this particular man sitting on the throne of Egypt. Lord says “I raised you up for this purpose to demonstrate my power in you that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then he has mercy on whom he desires, he hardens whom he desires, say I don’t know if I like that. Who resist his will, we just become fate-less and Paul’s answer is who are you old man who answers back to God. So as well I say I don’t have to understand everything, I just have to submit to it. I cannot challenge God and I may not understand it, but I submit to it. Well they say, can you resolve this whole issue of man’s will and God’s sovereignty, sometimes better than others. Never complain. Then how can you believe in the sovereignty of God, because the scripture says it. Furthermore, the scripture says I am just a lump of clay and the potter is doing as he pleases, and I submit to that, it doesn’t change my responsibility and the lump of clay is fallen humanity, we are not dealing with neutral people that God has hardened, we are dealing with fallen sinners that God has withheld his mercy and grace from, so continue in their opposition to him.

Alright come back to Exodus, having said that, These are the first two scripture that says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, those are promises or prophesies, like you said Moses in Chapter 4 verse 21, “I will harden his heart” in Chapter7 if you want to turn over there verse 3 “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart. So, those two references that God is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart are yet future, they are saying what God will do in the future. Indication then in the next seven references that Pharaoh’s heart being hardened are Pharaoh hardening his own heart, so God says he is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart, then there are seven scriptures that say Pharaoh hardened his own heart. So you have those first two references there. The God says He will do it, but really when you unfold the historical unfolding of it, Pharaoh hardens his own heart seven times before it is said that God hardened his heart. God raised up this man and used his own sinful desires for the accomplishing of His purposes to bring him self-glory in delivering His people of Israel. Pharaoh is held fully responsible as we saw Romans chapter 9, God is presented as fully sovereign. As it sometimes it seems to me that I come closer to resolving these things in my thinking in the scripture and sometimes as I shared with you before it is to me like a mad you know putting two of the wrong ends of the magnets together instead attracting, you get them together and if they are strong enough magnets it seems you will get them like this and all of a sudden it goes like this, now I am out here and out her. I say wait a minute, I thought I had that almost resolved and I don’t that ever will resolve some of these things because the more I think about the personal responsibility, sometimes the less I think about the sovereign control of God. When I think about the sovereign control of God, sometimes I want to overrule the human responsibility, they are both there, my finite mind is not able to put together all of this, what man tend to do is emphasize one to the exclusion of the other and neither is the Biblical, so I am not free to become a fatalist, you know like # wills it, who resisted His will and that’s what is the argument in t Romans 9, but no, I am responsible, Pharaoh is responsible, God holds him accountable and he does hardened his heart and God acts on that hardened heart and further hardens it that’s the picture of the scripture the truth of God is a savor of life to life or death to death. Something is always happening, you never witnessed to one person where something did not happen positively or negatively. The truth of God’s word either hardens or it softens. Then the Pharaoh with hardened heart is further hardened to the point of destruction.

Alright, that’s the situation of what is going to happen with Pharaoh, down in verses 24 and following of Exodus 4 “Came about at a lodging place on the way” and now here it was hard enough to get Moses to go. Now he goes back and collects his wife and children off to Egypt, but on the way they stop in verse 24, “The Lord met Moses and sought to kill him,” No wait a minute, he spend all this time getting Moses to go and now before he ever gets to Egypt you were intervene to kill him, we don’t know what happened, perhaps Moses is struck down with a serious illness here, evidently he is somewhat unable to function, because his wife Zipporah intervenes and she knows what the problem is perhaps God has appeared in a vision, perhaps God has spoken regarding what he views as disobedience and rebellion against Him because what is the sign of the covenant that God has with his people, that every male shall be circumcised, Genesis 17, and Moses sons aren’t circumcised. Zipporah intervenes and the son Gershom that they have at this point, circumcises him, but she is not happy about it. In the end of verse 25, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me, so he let him alone at that time she said you are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. Again we would like to know more details, I mean what happened here, but Zipporah is aware of what the problem and what she has to do to save her husband’s life and what God will require here and its done. I were reminded here that this is the God of the covenant and it is in fulfillment of the covenant promises that He is going to act here and it’s important that Moses demonstrate his responsiveness to the sign of that covenant. Verse 27, God sends Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness, then Moses told Aaron all the words, the signs. They assembled the elders of Israel. Aaron in verse 30 spoke all the words which the Lord has spoken to Moses. He did the signs, throws down the rod, puts his hand in the robe, sprinkles the water from the Nile, the leaders of Israel verse 31 believed and the people that are assembled were heard that the Lord was concerned about the sons of Israel, He had seen their affliction, they bowed low and worshipped. Oh, how exciting, God’s intervening on our behalf. God’s going to act on our behalf, but it is going get worse before it gets better. You sometimes, we finally can become convinced “Yes the Lord is in control, Yes I believe the Lord is really going to work here, but then we are crushed because He doesn’t do what we think He should do right now.

So, we come to chapter 5 and we can highlight chapter 5 rather quickly. The first nine verses are the meeting with Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.” Note the arrogance of Pharaoh, the Pharaoh said “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him. “Obey His voice to let Israel go.” I do not know the Lord, besides I will not let Israel go, just who is this God that you should tell me what to do. I don’t know Him, furthermore, I don’t do what He says. They said “The God of the Hebrews has met with us, let us go and this repeated emphasis, “let my people go” seven times mentioned in these coming chapters. Verse 4, the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work, get back to your labors, I mean you are interfering with the slave labor. So, get back to work and the Pharaoh says to his taskmasters the people in-charge of the Hebrew slaves, “Look they got too much time on their hands, so you know idle time they talk together, they get discontent, you have them continue making bricks, but don’t provide the straw to mix with the mud anymore, but don’t cut back on the quota of bricks either, they have to make the same number of bricks, but instead of you providing the straw, they just have to do the mixing and make the bricks. They have to go out and find the straw, gather it and bring it in, make the bricks and get the same number of bricks made. That will take care of any spare time they have. So, verse 9, “Let the labor be heavier on the man and let there more work added so they will pay no attention to false words. Then people are told, you are not going to get the straw, the code is not reduced.

Verse 14, moreover the foreman of the sons of Israel whose Pharaoh’s taskmaster has set over them were beaten, in other words, there were Jews, that were set over Jews to be slaves administering slaves really. They are beaten when they are asked why haven’t you completed your required amount either yesterday or today and making bricks. The foreman of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh saying why deal with us this way, there is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep beating us, make bricks. Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is of your own people. He said “You are lazy, very lazy, therefore you say let us go and sacrifice to the Lord, Go now and work. You won’t get any straw and you have to keep the quota. The foreman of the sons of Israel saw they were in trouble because they were told you must not reduce the daily amount of bricks I mean would be putting in impossible situation, all we have to look forward to is another beating because every time we failed to meet the quota, we will be punished for it and we can’t meet the quota. When they left Pharaoh’s presence they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, you made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.” So the people are discouraged and you know what and who else is discouraged, Moses. You know he spends all his time debating with the Lord whether he is the really the man to go, when he finally sets off on the trip, before he even gets to Egypt, the Lord intervenes to kill him and he is saved by the intervention of his wife, now he gets down there and presents to the signs and the people of Israel are glad to hear him. Did that immediately turned sour and now the people said you made our life worst and so Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh Lord why have you brought harm to this people, why did you ever send me, ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people and you have not delivered your people at all,” Amen. What I don’t understand and we can understand that. Ever done the best you can and doing what you really believe the Lord would have you to do and it seemed like, it just made a mess and you said Lord I prayed about it, I got wise counsel. I tried to handle it the way you wanted me to and things are worse than have ever been. Lord I should have never done this and that’s is not a good indicator. Moses is right where the Lord wants him, doing right what the Lord wants him to do and it’s not only bad now, it’s going to get badder. Things aren’t as bad as they are going to get. The Lord works His work His way. What all said and done, Israel will out of Egypt just like God promised, but it’s going to be rough going for a while and that’s part of God’s plan. He is the deliverer and he will deliver in His way. You and I are blessed to be able to read the history. Israel is going to a land flowing with mild and honey in God’s time through the tribulations that God wants to bring them through and you and I are God’s people today. We are the Church. We are on a way to glory. Sometimes it’s difficult, sometimes our service for Him brings trial and tribulation to our lives. That’s alright, Lord you are in charge, I am your servant. Things have gotten worse as I have gotten more faithful. Lord it is in your hands and you know that’s the comfort as long as we do what the Lord would have us to do, the consequences are His problem, if I can say it that way. I mean He has to take care of it doesn’t He. I belong to Him and if he chooses to make a mess for us, He has to clean it up. He has to because He said He will in a disrespectful way. So we are in a good position, we learned and we are encouraged and these things are written for our admonition. Only that when learn God’s work of grace in Israel life, but then that we might find encouragement through the study of these old testament scriptures to be faithful in our walk with the Lord and know that His hand is upon us and His sovereign purposes are accomplished and nothing and no one you know how matter, how powerful, and how mighty can prevent the sovereign work of God being done on behalf of His people.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord, that you are gracious and loving God. What a God to be feared, a God to be obeyed, a God to be served. We thank you Lord that we have experienced you mercy and grace. There is no other explanation to be given for the salvation of lost sinners, but your grace. We have been saves not because we deserve it, not because we merit it, but because you have bestowed your mercy and grace upon us and there is no explanation for that except your mercy and grace. Thank you for Moses. Thank you for your patience and grace in using him. Lord may we be encouraged to be faithful to you. A small portion of your work entrusted to us, then you might accomplish what you would in and through us in bringing glory for yourself and preparing us for the glory that you have for your children We praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.