Bringing the Word of God at The King's Church
Talk by Robin Hawkins
"Moses Returns!"
Exodus 4:18 to 5:8
God is kind of hard to say 'No' to! Moses has at last discovered this, and stopped arguing. Now he asks Jethro for his permission to go back to Egypt, and Jethro gives his blessing freely. We might ask if Moses needed Jethro's permission. He didn't really - God had called him - but it was a gracious gesture on Moses' part. It showed a respect for authority which had taken him only 40yrs to learn!
V. 19 is quoted by Matthew in 2:20. "Go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead. In linking Jesus to Moses, Matthew was telling his readers that just as Moses had been a great deliverer of God's people, so too was Jesus an even greater one - their long-awaited Messiah.
There's a couple of things in v.21. Firstly, Yahweh reiterates to Moses what he is to do when he gets back to Egypt. "Perform before Pharoah all the wonders I have given you the power to do." However, Moses doesn't do it like he's been told. He marches into Pharaoh's presence, and declares, "Yahweh, the God of Israel says, "Let My people go". Pharoah isn't too impressed with this command, and roundly refuses. So Moses asks again, a bit more humbly this time; but he still doesn't do the miracles that God told him to do. The nett result was a backlash from Pharoah that affected all the people of Israel. Suddenly they have this additional workload put on them - and guess what, it's all Moses' fault!
We need to learn from this that if God tells us to do something, and to do it in a particular way, it's asking for trouble if we try and do it a different way. One of the major lessons we'll learn in Exodus is that God demands and expects obedience to the letter, but also expects it to be done in good grace. There's a touch of the old Moses here in this cocky demand that is quickly slapped down. When we raise our children, a good parent will not only teach absolute obedience, but will expect that obedience without, sighs, rolling of the eyeballs, or tantrums. God expects no less, and the lessons with the Children of Israel start here with Moses.
I wan to come back to the rest of V. 21 later. And vs 22-23, we'll cover when we get to ch. 13. Let's go on and look at vs. 24-26, which have caused a lot of puzzlement, "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him..." It starts to make more sense when we realise that the verb "was about to kill him" was the word that would be used if someone got a serious illness from which they could die.
Clearly too, there was tension between Moses and Zipporah about Moses' religion, and in particular, the need for circumcision. She was disgusted by the idea, and they had probably argued about it. So far, Zipporah had won the argument, and Moses had given way. But when Moses became dangerously ill, she realised she had offended Yahweh, and performed the operation herself. Note that God held Moses accountable on this matter. He was head of his household. He should have taken a firmer lead, and not compromised. How could Moses lead a covenant people if he was not going to obey its basic requirements?
In two week's time at the Men's Breakfast, as we explore Christian Manhood, we're going to look at this whole area of leadership and taking responsibility. I commend this morning to you. Wives, it might be in your interests to make sure your husbands are there!
So Moses survives that encounter, and learns another lesson about obedience and leadership. In v.27, we find the Lord telling Aaron to go out into the desert and meet the brother he hadn't seen in 40yrs. And Aaron just goes. No argument or debate. "Is this really You, God?" "How will I find him?" "Is he really still alive?" He just goes - out into that vast wilderness, and eventually meets him at Mt Sinai/Mt Horeb - the Mountain of God. Not only this, but he accepts what Moses says about meeting God - again without question. This kind of pliancy is good up to a point. Just remember though, it was Aaron who made the golden calf while Moses was up the mountain - just because the people wanted him to. I think Aaron needed to be a tad more discerning, and not quite so suggestible!
Anyway, they gathered the Elders of Israel and told them what God had said, and they believed it and bowed in worship before Yahweh. Had they realised what it was going to cost them, they might have been a bit more hesitant. I think some of us might have been hesitant too, if we'd realised at the time what it was going to cost us to follow Jesus. God, in His mercy, doesn't show us the future. But He holds it in His hand, and leads us, one day at a time, encouraging us to draw strength from Him for all the demands of each day. This was the lesson the Elders of Israel, and indeed all the Israelites, had yet to learn as they were about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of history.
Key to that adventure was gong to be Pharaoh's reaction. In v.21 God had said, "I will harden his heart so that he will not let my people go." This statement is not a one-off passing comment. It comes 18x in Exodus in three different ways. Sometimes it says, "Pharaoh's heart was hardened." Other times, "Pharoah hardened his own heart." Yet others say, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
The question is, Did Pharaoh have no choice in his action, since God had hardened his heart? And if so, is it fair for God to punish him for what he could not control? It is one thing for "Pharaoh to harden his own heart", but when that's deliberately imposed on him, it seems to us unfair. That's the charge against God! He's being unfair - but of course we know God is absolutely fair. We've seen that already when He wouldn't let the Israelites into the Promised Land until the existing inhabitants deserved to be thrown out. So what's going on?
We need to put ourselves in the place of Pharaoh. He was an absolute ruler. Nobody told him to do anything. He had an economy built on slave labour, and the most powerful army in the known world. Then this quasi-princeling from the Hebrews comes up and says, "You've got to let your slaves go. Our God's said so!" Well, what would you say? "On yer bike mate!" would probably express the gist of it! So Pharaoh digs his heels in, and having taken a stance, he's far too proud to change his mind. So he hardens his heart even more. Even when he sees the mighty miracles that God does, his pride is such that he still refuses. So in the end, God gives him over to it. It is an awesome judgement that comes upon those who have so determined over a period of time not to repent and believe, that suddenly they find that they can't repent. The bottom line is that "God hardens no man's heart who has not first hardened it himself."
Adversity can have one of two effects on us. It will either send us running to God, or make us shake our fist at Him. I've known people so embittered by circumstance, that it's as if a barrier has come down over their eyes. To start with, they wouldn't believe, and now they can't. I was blessed in that, at the age of 18, adversity drew me to God. It took a major car accident that I caused, the failure of my A levels, and the dashing of career ambitions to get me to go to go to one of those long charismatic prayer-meetings Mum & Dad used to go to. It was a step towards God, and although the subsequent ones were not easily taken, He didn't let me go after that first step.
This is serious business. It has eternal consequences. To refuse to listen to what God's saying - whatever it's about - is to lay another brick in our wall of resistance to God's grace. It may not always be about salvation. It may be about our fruitfulness as Believers, and hence our reward in Eternity. That's the reason little decisions - responses to everyday instructions from the Holy Spirit - are important. Our obedience to the everyday calls of God equip us to respond faithfully when the big calls come.
Let's look at some of these everyday calls as I finish:
- To repent. Keep short a/c's with God. As soon as you sense some sin in your life, repent of it, be genuinely sorry, and ask God's forgiveness and cleansing.
- To give a cup of water in Jesus' Name.
- To speak up for that colleague or neighbour who is being maligned by gossip.
- To give a portion of your income regularly, as God has called each one of us to do. We do that firstly by giving to our local church because they are the ones who feed you spiritually.
- To witness for Christ every time the opportunity arises.
- To live holy lives, set apart for God's work, and refusing to participate in immorality, cheating, gossip, unfaithfulness, deceit, fornication and lying.
The Psalmist cries out: "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart.." Let's not be too ready to condemn Pharaoh until we are sure we are not resisting Him ourselves in some area. Let's take a few moments to think about this.
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1