What is in your hand

Well, once again, good morning.
If you would turn in your Bibles to Exodus three and four, we’re
going to be in two chapters this morning. So we’re going to do
a little overview. No way we could possibly do everything
that’s in there. But we want to take a look this
morning at the call of Moses. And when one gets to preach every
once every so often, The challenge is to pick a passage. And you really want to pick one
that’s going to have an effect on people, because this is your
shot, and you really want to change lives. I’m exaggerating
just a bit. But you want to make the most
out of your opportunity. And then, so you pick a passage,
and you’ve done your study. You’ve put it all together. And
then you start getting thoughts. The people of PBC, they’re extremely
mature in their faith. They already know this. They
don’t need to hear this. And that’s just the enemy trying
to get you. And I’ve preached enough here
to know that’s not the truth. Not that you’re not mature, but
people need to be reminded. I mean, I’ve preached before,
and unless you’re lying to me, you come up and say, hey, I really
needed to hear that. And that’s great to hear. But today, I want to look at
the call of Moses. And I want us, as we’re looking
through Moses, how he deals with the call, I want us to look at
ourselves also, how we let things get in the way of what God might
want us to do, how we overanalyze things and let our fears get
in the way of doing things for God, how we take our eyes off
of him and put them on ourselves. I said most of you already will
know these things. You’ve heard the story of Moses
several times, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to be reminded
And maybe we can find some courage and be encouraged to serve God. And while we’re looking at this
passage and thinking, how could Moses possibly try to get out
of what God is asking him to do? Remember yourself. So if you’d open your Bibles,
we’re in Exodus 3. We’re going to read through most
of chapter 4. So this is going to be a little
longer reading than normal. Now Moses was pastoring the flock
of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he
led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to
Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a 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 burned up.
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to
him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he 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.
He also said, 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. The Lord says, I have
surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and
have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters.
For I am aware of their sufferings, so I have come down to deliver
them from the power of the Egyptians and 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 and the Hittite and the Amorite
and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now behold,
the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore,
I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing
them. Therefore, come now and I will
send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons
of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am
I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons
of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will
be with you. And this shall be the sign to
you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the
people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.
Then Moses said to God, behold, I am going to the sons of Israel.
And I will say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to
you. Now they may say to me, what is his name? What shall
I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I
am. And he said thus you shall say
to the sons of Israel the I am has sent me to you 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. And this is my memorial name
to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me saying,
I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you
in Egypt. So I said, I will bring you up
out of the affliction of Egypt. to the land of the Canaanite,
and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite,
and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey. They will
pay heed to what you say. And you, with the elders of Israel,
will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, the
Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now please
let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may
sacrifice to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt
will not permit you to go except under compulsion. So I will stretch
out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles, which I
shall do in the midst of it. And after that, he will let you
go. I will grant this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall be that when you
go you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of
her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house articles of
silver and articles of gold and clothing and you will put them
on your sons and daughters thus you will plunder the Egyptians.”
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. The Lord said to him, what is
that in your hand? And he said, a staff. And he
said, throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground,
and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. But the
Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand and grasp it by its
tail. So he stretched out his hand
and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. That they
may believe the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you.
The Lord furthermore said to him, now put your hand into your
bosom. So he put his hand into his bosom,
and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
Then he said, put your hand into your bosom again. So he put his
hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out, behold,
it was restored like the rest of his flesh. If they will not
believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe
the witness of the last sign. But if they will not believe
even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall
take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.
And the water which you take from the Nile will become blood
on the dry ground. Then Moses said, please, Lord,
I have never been eloquent, nor recently, nor in time past, nor
since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech
and slow of tongue. 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? Now then,
go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what
you are to say. But he said, Lord, please now
send the message by whomever you will. Then the anger of the
Lord burned against Moses, and he said, is there not your brother
Aaron, the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently,
and 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 and put
the words in his mouth, and I, even I, will be with your mouth
and his mouth and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover,
he shall speak for you to the people, and he will be as a mouth
for you, and you will be as God to him. You shall take in your
hand this staff with which you shall perform the signs.” Then
Moses departed and returned to Jericho. His father-in-law said
to him, please let me go that I may return to my brethren who
are in Egypt and see if they are still alive. And Jethro said
to Moses, go in peace. Now the Lord said to Moses and
Midian, go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking
your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his
sons and mounted them on a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also 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 shall
say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, let my son
go that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him
go. Behold, I will kill your son,
your firstborn. One commentator said, Moses is
one of the most interesting characters in the word of God I think that
one of the reasons we can relate to Moses is because Moses was
called by God, yet he seemed very reluctant to serve God,
even though God promised his presence and success. At the
end of Genesis, we see Joseph, remember Joseph, sold into slavery
and became basically the right-hand man in Pharaoh’s house or Potiphar’s
house. And he was put in charge of food
distribution before and during the time of the famine in Egypt. He had Pharaoh’s favor. And upon
Pharaoh’s blessing, Jacob, or Israel, Joseph’s father, came
to Egypt to be by Joseph. When he did that, 70 people came. 70 people came up to Egypt. We
read in Exodus 1, that they were fruitful and increased mightily. Oh boy, did they. So much so
that the Egyptians began to worry about the Israelites becoming
too big and fighting against them. So they made life difficult
for the Israelites. They afflicted them with hard
labor. Now, just as a point of information,
when the Israelites left Egypt, we read that there were 600,000
men. So that’s not counting women and children. So conservatively,
we could say that there’s probably 2 million, 2.5 million people
leaving Egypt. Pretty big group. Because they were growing and
growing and growing and becoming a threat, the king of Egypt at
that time gave orders to the Hebrew midwives that if the Hebrew
women deliver a male child, The midwives are to put the males
to death. But the midwives feared God and
did not do what the king had told them. The midwives made
up a story as to why they were not obeying his orders, saying
that the Israelite women deliver too fast and we can’t get there
in time. So the king of Egypt declared that all males born
to Hebrew women were to be thrown in the Nile. These are the conditions
that Moses was born into. Now, if you would turn to Acts
7. Acts 7, and we’re going to be
in verse 18 in just a second. So we know of Moses’ birth. He
was born when the persecution of the Israelites was at a high
point, placed in a basket among the reeds of the Nile, and the
daughter of Pharaoh found him and took him in. Pharaoh’s daughter
hires Moses’ real mother, to wean him, to act as his nurse. And in Acts 7 verse 18, this
is Stephen the martyr giving his speech, we read, until another
king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. It was he who
shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers. So the one pharaoh has died.
The next king doesn’t know anything about Joseph and that relationship
and and how what a powerful person Joseph was. He just knows the
Israelites are growing and growing and he wants to do something
about it. So he really he inflicts hard labor on them. It was he
who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our
fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the
Nile so that they would not survive. At this time Moses was born and
he was beautiful to God. He was nurtured for three months
in his father’s home. Verse 22, Moses which educated
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was proficient in speaking
and action. John MacArthur put it this way,
the formal education at that time meant Moses would have learned
reading, writing, arithmetic, and perhaps one or more languages
of the land of Canaan. He would also have participated
in various outdoor sports, archery, horseback riding, which were
favorites of that dynasty court. Back to Acts, verse 23. But when he was approaching the
age of 40, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the
sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being
treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed
man by fatally striking the Egyptian. Verse 25. And he thought that
his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance
through him. But they did not understand.
And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were
fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace by
saying, men, you are brothers. Why are you injuring each other?
But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away,
saying, who made you a ruler and judge over us? You do not
intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?
At this remark, Moses fled and became a stranger in the land
of Midian, where he fathered two sons. God was already preparing
Moses for what he would be calling him to do 40 years later. And it seems from verse 25 of
Acts 7 that Moses had that in his mind too. Furthermore, we
read in Hebrews 11, Hall of Faith. Hebrews 11 verse 23, By faith
Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his
parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they
were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he
had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of
God than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin, considering
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Now Matthew Henry
said this about this. He, Moses, was willing to take
his lot with the people of God here, though it was a suffering
lot, that he might have his portion with them hereafter, rather to
enjoy all the sensual, sinful pleasures of Pharaoh’s court,
which would be but for a season. and would then be punished with
everlasting misery. See how Moses weighed matters
in one scale. He put the worst of religion,
the reproaches of Christ, in the scale and the best of the
world, the treasures of Egypt. And in his judgment, directed
by faith, the worst of religion weighed down the best of the
world. At the end of chapter 2 of Exodus,
we see that God said that where it says that God remembered his
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of
Israel and took notice of them. Now we know God does not forget.
When he says it, when it says that God remembered, it just
means he’s ready to take action. So that’s the scene as Moses
comes to the burning bush. Now Moses’ life can be broken
into three 40-year periods. Probably you know that. 40 years
living in Pharaoh’s court, 40 years in Midian, 40 years leading
the Israelites. Let’s notice something right
here. The opportunities for service are not dependent upon age. Moses is 80 when God appears
to him. There is not a mandatory retirement
age from serving. I recently heard about a lady
who led a women’s Bible study. She was highly regarded for her
Bible knowledge. She was just short of 100 years
old when she stopped and died shortly thereafter. So Moses is pastoring his flock
and then comes upon the burning bush. Notice this. God’s call
or opportunities can happen at any time. He’s just out with
the flocks doing his everyday thing. David was bringing some
snacks to his brothers when he came upon Goliath. And he took offense at what Goliath
was doing. And he said, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should taunt the armies of the living God? Just out bringing
a snack and noticed an opportunity and took it. We have to be ready,
aware, and looking or even expecting opportunities. So while Moses
is with the sheep, he sees something that is out of the ordinary.
He sees a bush that is burning, but not consumed. He turns aside
to see this, as scripture calls it, this marvelous sight. And
we would do the same thing. And as he’s coming to the bush,
God calls out his name and tells him to take off his shoes because
the ground is holy. God identifies him as the God
of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And immediately Moses
hit his face because he didn’t want to look at God. So right
here, we noticed that Moses recognizes that this is God speaking to
him. And then God explains the mission. I have surely seen the
affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed
to their cry because of their taskmasters. I am aware of their
suffering, so I have come down to deliver them from the power
of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good
and spacious land. Goes on to tell him, I’ve seen
the oppressions with which Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore
come now and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring
my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. And it’s here that
Moses starts the questions. five of them. Now, we don’t know
much about the 40 years in Midian, what happened there. He became
a shepherd and that’s what he was doing. We know he got married, had a
couple sons, and maybe, maybe Moses is thinking, it’s been
40 years. I’m older. I haven’t been in Egypt for a
long time. Maybe God’s changed his mind
as to who should do this. And isn’t that what you and I
might do? Have you ever had somebody approach you and say, hey, didn’t
you used to do so and so, or don’t you know about this and
such? And you say, well, yeah, but
that was five, 10, 20 years ago. You raise questions like that.
Well, Moses is 80. And that was 40 years ago that he was back
in Egypt. We’d have the questions, too.
Do they roll off our tongue just like they did for Moses? And
before we get on Moses for all the questions, recognize that
God is very gracious up to a point. So the question we should ask
ourselves, are we asking for information’s sake? Or are we
just displaying a lack of faith? God really doesn’t get angry
until the end. Are we more concerned with the
reaction of others than doing what God wants us to do? So as
we go through the questions, excuses that Moses gives to God,
I want to encourage you with four Ps. Four Ps that we have when we
serve God. Number one, when God calls us,
we have his presence. Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh and that I should bring out the sons of Israel out of
Egypt? I am going to Pharaoh. I haven’t
been in there 40 years. I’m a shepherd and I’m going
to go to Pharaoh. This, I believe, is kind of a
natural and logical response. But God’s response is certainly
I will be with you. God assures him that he will
be with Moses. God redirects his attention away
from Moses or for who Moses is or is not to who will be with
him. God’s answer is to assure him
that he will not be doing this on his own. Moses, you don’t
think I’m going to be sending you to do this alone, do you?
Certainly, I will be with you. One wrote, note those that are
weak in themselves may yet do wonders being strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might and those that are most diffident,
now diffident meaning modest, unconfident, unassertive, insecure. Those that are most diffident
of themselves may be most confident in God. God’s presence puts an
honor upon the worthless, wisdom and strength into the weak and
foolish, makes the great difficulties dwindle to nothing, and is enough
to answer all objections. Now, like I say, it’s so easy,
even though God has identified himself, and we are told in verse
six that he was afraid to look at God. He knows it’s God asking,
would we hesitate? Would we have more questions?
When God’s people serve him, when we do what God has asked
us to do, we don’t do it alone. We go with his presence promised. We see in the Bible promises
of God being with his people. Joshua 1 5. No man will be able
to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have
been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake
you. 2nd Corinthians 6 16 for we are
the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell
in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. There’s a pastor in Michigan
who wrote this. We pray, Oh Lord, be with them. There’s a way to say that very
carelessly and thoughtlessly to just throw it out. But if
you have this understanding that there are a few better things
that you can pray than that, There is nothing more important
than you can pray for each other than for God’s presence to go
with them. It is not who you are or aren’t. It is who is with you that counts. We have his presence. Secondly,
we have his power. Moses’ second question. Behold,
I’m going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, the God
of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me,
what is his name? What shall I say to them? At first, Moses’ hesitancy, his
question could be considered legitimate and excusable. Even
with the promise of God’s presence with him, he wants to know who
he should say sent him. After all, the last encounter
he had with the Israelites, they were rejecting him. They may
ask Moses what the name of this God who has sent you. They may
ask to test Moses, which would not be a surprise. Or, as one
pointed out, out of a lack of knowledge. They had been in bondage
in Egypt a long time. In all probability, they had
become ignorant of God for a lack of teachers, a loss of the Sabbath. So they would ask who this God
is that is sending you to do this. When given an assignment, I want
to be equipped. I want to be organized. I want
to go through all the possible outcomes. I want all the answers
that may occur to the questions that may occur. Any barriers
I want to, I want to have taken care of that I may encounter. However, for a large part, that
is not how serving God is. We don’t always have the answers.
It can be difficult. God’s word tells us that. We
are walking a narrow road. The world hates God, so it’ll
hate us. Now also, well God’s answer is,
I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the Israelites,
I am has sent you. Now there are other I am statements
in scripture. We see it in Revelation where
the glorified Christ is encountering John and says, I am the Alpha
and the Omega. The one who is and who is to
come. In John, we have eight I am statements. We have, I am
the bread of life. We have, I am the light of the
world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd, which
we’ve been hearing about the last three weeks. I am the resurrection
and the life. I am the way, the truth and the
life. I am the vine. You are the branches. If you’re counting, that’s only
seven. I have one more, and I’ll get to it in a minute. But back
to God’s answer. God answers Moses first with
a name, I am who I am, but it also tells us about his nature.
I am God, and there is no other. In Hebrew, the phrase, ayah,
asher, ayah, which is I am who I am, the first I am is a first
person common singular. It could be used in any number
of normal situations. I am driving the car. I am walking
the dog. I am his brother. However, when it is used as a
standalone statement, It is the ultimate statement. It points
us to God’s self-existence and his self-sufficiency, that he
has always been and always will be, that he is, as one wrote,
eternal and unchanging, the inexhaustible fountain of being, that he is
faithful and unchangeable to his promise. Now even the greatest,
most powerful, most confident, most wise, most wealthy, most
whatever person is dependent on God. They must say, by the
grace of God, such and such will happen. Or if God wills, I will
do this. God is not dependent upon anyone. God’s absolute being furthermore
means that he is constant. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. It means he is the absolute standard
of truth, goodness, and beauty. There’s no law book to which
he looks to know what is right, no almanac to establish facts,
no guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself
is the standard of what is right, what is true, and what is beautiful. In 2 Samuel, we read about David’s
encounter with Goliath. You come to me with a sword and
spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
you have taunted. He comes in the power of God. Now, the eighth I Am statement
comes in John 8, 58. And Jesus is having a conversation
with the Jewish leaders, and one of them says, you’re not
even 50 years old, you know Abraham? And he says, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was born, I am. Jesus telling him that I am God. I am the preexistent self-sufficient
God. That name says it all. But in
addition, God tells Moses to tell the Israelite leaders that
he is the God of their fathers, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
something he had already said to Moses at the burning bush.
It would be a more recognizable name to the Israelites. They
would know their ancestors or should know their ancestors. And it’s a name that should remind
them of the promises that were made to them. that God would
bring them to a land, a good and spacious land filled with
milk and honey. We have access to the amazing
power to use for God’s purposes and glory. The I Am is with us. The I Am created the world out
of nothing. The I Am parted the Red Sea.
The I Am brought forth water from a rock The I Am caused the
walls of Jericho to fall down when people shouted. The I Am caused the sun to go
backwards. The I Am raised Jesus from the dead. Paul wrote in
Ephesians now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly
beyond all that we can ask or think, according to the power
that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. So when we are called, when we
serve him, we have the presence of the one who has no constraints
on him, the one who is not bound by any laws of physics, the one
on whom everything that exists depends on. So we have his presence. We have his power. We have provision. Not only does God guarantee Moses
his presence and his power, God promises Moses that he will tell
Moses what to say and what will play out. Provision is defined
as providing or supplying something for use. First thing we might
think of is something tangible, water, food, clothing, shelter. God has promised to provide those
things for us, but here we see that God will give Moses the
words and he’s told him the outcome. He first tells Moses what to
say to the Israelites and how that will turn out. And then
he tells Moses what to say to Pharaoh and what will happen
there. Again, in chapter 3 of Exodus, verse 14, Behold, God
said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say
to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. 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. My memorial name to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers
has appeared to you and they will heed what you say. Tell them that, they’ll believe
you. This is what you’re going to
tell them. They will listen to you. Secondly, he tells Moses
about Pharaoh. Again, in verse 18 of Exodus. They will pay heed to
what you say. And you, with the elders of Israel,
will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, the
Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, so now please
let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may
sacrifice to the Lord our God. But I know that the king of Egypt
will not permit you to go under compulsion, except under compulsion.
So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my
miracles, which I shall do in the midst of it. After that,
after that, he will let you go. God will not send us out without
giving us what we need and what he wants us to do. Moses, the
Israelite leaders will listen to you, and Pharaoh at first
won’t. But he will, after I perform
miracles. But Moses still isn’t comfortable.
Yeah, but what if they don’t believe me? Well. Again, Matthew
Henry says, Moses objects that in all probability, the people
would not harken to his voice. That is, they would not take
his word unless he showed them some sign which he had not been
yet instructed to do. The objection cannot be justified
because it contradicts what God had said when he said, they will
pay heed to you. However, God is gracious and
merciful and provides two miracles to Moses, but the rod and then
putting his hand in and having it become leprous and then back
to normal. However, even in spite of this
information, Moses begins and offers another excuse. Moses
points out what God already knows, that Moses is not very eloquent.
And God answers him with, who has made man’s mouth? Or who
makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I? Now then,
go, I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you
are to say.” John MacArthur wrote in response to this objection,
this response is a pointed and inappropriate response. If not
impolite, criticism that somehow in all the discussion, God, the
I am, has overlooked Moses’ speech disability. When Moses came to
the burning bush, God called out Moses. He knows who he’s
calling. He knows who he was sending.
And then in Moses’ last attempt, he practically begs God to choose
someone else. That is just saying, I don’t
want to do this. Verse 13, but he said, please,
Lord, now send the message by whomever you will. We may have
questions. And God is gracious in those.
However, here, God’s anger is aroused as Moses continues to
be reluctant to do what God has called him to do. And he’s promised
him his presence and power. And he’s provided him what he
needs. The questions now go from informational
to a lack of faith. We can read this and say, good
grief, Moses. You should know better. But again,
let’s look at ourselves and see how God has prepared you. God has prepared you. And if
you’re younger, he is preparing you for what you will do later.
But he has prepared you for what he wants you to do. Do we still
hesitate? Also, we have all of scripture. Several more examples of the
amazing things that God has done through individuals, yet aren’t
we the same way? Don’t we come up with the same
excuses? I’ve talked with somebody who
I would have thought, I mean, this person was exuded God in
everything they did. And they struggle in serving
God at times in one way or another. Do we rationalize that what we
do would not have too much effect? Suppose I only talk to one or
two people. So we don’t know what God’s plan is. Maybe one
or two people will only be affected by what you say, but that’s not
for us to judge. However, in spite of Moses’ last
objection, Our ever-gracious, merciful God provides yet another
remedy by providing Aaron for him. Yes, God is angry, but he
provided another way for Moses to carry out the plan. Psalm
30, verse 5 says, for his anger is but for a moment, but his
favor is for a lifetime. He also tells Moses, hey, You’re
not going to go out empty handed. He provides from the Egyptians. The women will ask their neighbors
and the women in the house for articles of silver, articles
of gold and clothing, and they will just give it to you. And
you will take those with you. We know how the Lord sustained
them for 40 years. You read that in Deuteronomy.
Has God ever failed to provide you with what you need? I did
not say what you want, I said what you need. Paul writes in Philippians, but
I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I
am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have
sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your
needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I may
be kind of butchering this quote, but Ron has said many times,
God’s work done in God’s ways will not lack God’s provision.
When we serve God, he will supply what we need. So lastly, we have
his presence, we have his power, we have his provision, and we
have his purpose. But we may not know what it is.
Moses, it’s explained to Moses what he’s going to do. He’s made
a promise to Abraham and he confirmed it with Isaac and Jacob and he’s
going to take the Israelites and he’s going to bring them
to a land all their own. Now, it may seem like I’m just
trying to throw Moses under the bus here and I’m not. Not my
intention at all. My point was to show you that
even heroes of the Bible sometimes struggled. They were hesitant
to serve God. Does Jonah ring a bell? He jumped
out of a boat to get away from what God wanted him to do. It
was meant as an encouragement to us. The fact that in spite
of his attempts to get out of what God wanted him to do, Moses
did it. Earlier we read from Hebrews
11, but I did not read the last three verses that were attributed
to Moses. And we find those in Hebrews
11, 27. And it says, by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the
wrath of the king. Now this was when he was taking
the Israelites out. It was not after the first 40
years. But by faith he left Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him
who was unseen. By faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the
firstborn would not touch them. By faith they passed through
the Red Sea as though they were passing through on dry land and
the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. I don’t know
what God is calling you to do in the next days, weeks, months,
years. At a minimum, he has called us
to share with others about him. He’s called us to testify about
what Jesus Christ has done and to give an account for the hope
that we have. And for many of us, sometimes this even brings
a hesitation. But remember, it’s not your job
to convert somebody. That’s what God will do. And no matter what people say,
they can’t refute your story. It’s your story. You lived it. heard that we’re in unique times
and we are in unique times. I mean, we’re in a, our country
is, we have, we live in a country, we also live in a state where
the leaders of those two things would love nothing better than
to shut down churches and to shut down the worship of God.
So I think there’s going to be many unique and new opportunities
to serve in the forthcoming days. Earlier I said that service can
happen anytime and that service is not dependent upon age. I
want to add one more service does not mean it has to be some
huge task like Moses was asked to do. It may be as simple as
providing a need for somebody. It may be. I know somebody here
who has shared Christ over ping pong. It could be changing a tire for
somebody that leads to a conversation. We don’t know what God will do
with it. We are just called to be faithful.
When we serve God, we have his purpose. We don’t know always
what it will be, but also many in scripture didn’t know, they
didn’t see their promises, the promises made to them fulfilled. We know his overall plans, but
the details are not always clear. But that doesn’t mean we are
to take them as less important because we think it’s less significant. If he calls us to do it, it’s
important. When we serve, we will hit roadblocks. Pharaoh won’t let you go at first,
but then I’ll show him some miracles and he will let you go. We’re
going to hit roadblocks, but that’s promised. It’s not supposed
to be easy, but we just need to be faithful. We’ll hit roadblocks
when we share with others. The other person may disregard
us. They may mock or slander us to
others. You won’t believe what so-and-so said to me about God. You may be called intolerant. We do not know how God is going
to work. We could just be a link in the
chain. But what he calls us to do is important. I sent out a
song last week, and I’m frankly surprised that a number of you
have come up thinking that we were going to sing that song. It’s a classic song and it’s
a story of the account of Moses. And, uh, there’s not, I probably
the only one I know of about Moses and it’s, it’s kind of
fun and there’s different moods and things of music. What I wanted,
what gets me, and this is why I entitled the sermon, what’s
in your hand. It gets me when God tells Moses
to pick up the rod again. Up to then, it’s kind of fun.
He was running, running from a hot rod, running scared of what God’s
going to do. And then he says, pick it up. And he picks it up, and the music
changes. All of a sudden, it’s kind of
eerie. It’s kind of out of this world
alien-ish thing, like ding. And it’s Moses being shocked.
It’s a rod again. Then the music comes to a comfortable,
flowing, easy mode. Do you know what it means? It means the rod of Moses became
the rod of God. What do you hold in your hand
today? Is it just a rod, or is it a
staff? Or is it the rod of God? God
told Moses to take the staff with him. Take in your hand the
rod of God, which is proof of God’s presence, power, and provision
right in his hands. John Calvin begins his classic
institutes of the Christian religion with this. Nearly all the wisdom
we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom, consists of
two parts. The knowledge of God and of ourselves. Do we have sufficient knowledge
of who God is? We can think, God, yeah. But
it’s so much more than our mind can comprehend. Oswald Chambers,
in My Atmosphere’s Highest, says, do I turn to what God says, or
do I turn to my own fears? Are you concentrating on what
you are or are not, or what you can’t do? Look upward to who
is with you and what he can do. Are you willing to throw the
staff your security down to allow God to use you? Or are you bound
to looking inward to yourself? Therefore, since we have so great
a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every
encumbrance. And the sin which so easily entangles
us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we do hesitate sometimes to serve
you. Sometimes we’re reluctant, thinking maybe, oh, it’s not
that important, or I’m really not good at this. But help us
to look to you, and help us to be eager to serve you. Help us
to look at it this way. that what grace it is that you
would allow us to be part of your plan, that you would use
us to carry out something you want carried out. Thank you,
oh God, for having mercy on us. Thank you for preparing us, and
I pray that we would be faithful in using what you have given
us in the coming days to serve you. And we pray these things
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.