Red Village Church Podcast

Audio Transcript Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Beautiful music. Thank you again for letting us come and be a part. Let me get this thing turned on. The. It's always fun. For 13 years we've been coming. I think it's 13 years we've been coming 600 miles north of where we live. It's always 600 miles every time we do it through Illinois or Iowa. And to see our son and daughter in law who moved here for 12 months. So do the math on that. But I will say that we love Red Village. Becky and I do. This is like our home church in Madison. It's the only church we've been to in Madison, but it's still our home church in Madison. And to see what God has been able to do over the last 13 years that we're aware of and to see. When we started, you were in a gymnasium or a cafeteria, I think in a high school, and they were setting up chairs and tearing down sound equipment. It was pretty amazing. And then you bought this building and renovated it and made it yours. And to see the changes. One of the things that we have noticed when Becky and I first started coming to Red Village, well, it was 13 years ago, so we were 13 years younger and so were a lot of you. And so there was maybe one or two other people that had gray hair in the congregation. And now I'm happy to say that your pastor is graying a little bit. I'm okay with that. Scott, I know he was always, always appreciated seeing Scott and there was a couple other guys. It's like there's, there's one of us, there's. There's somebody else who remembers the 60s and in the 70s, we, you know, we kind of had a kindred spirit. But. But it's also good to see so many people. I'm so excited to be here and, and to be able to see Demetrius get baptized. That was just. That's so cool. So we're looking forward to this. This is Exodus chapter four this morning. If you want to open it up. There's a couple of things I want to do, but I want to say that of all the sermons, this will be a little bit different style. I understand the weight of the pulpit here and the teaching you all get on a regular basis. And Pastor Aaron, I'm so glad that they're a part of this church and get the teaching that they do. You get incredible biblical solid teaching every week. And whether it's Aaron or one of the elders, I understand who I need to follow here. But. But we trust God for the moments and we trust God from the Holy Spirit to fill us. It'll be a little different style than you're used to. I'll move a little bit more. I'm not going to jump around or anything, but I've already moved more than Aaron does, I think maybe. So if you catch me, I'll hug a little bit more than he does, too. And by the way, it's really nice to see the folks from Kansas with the Royals hat. So kudos. So I'll be preaching to this side mostly, and the rest of you over here. You have to be tough to be a Royals fan. I'm just going to tell you, we're good about every 30 years. And I remember from the very beginning watching George Brett and all those others, so. So I know. I realize that for those of you who are Cardinals fan, just remember 1985, we still got you on it. So that's all I had to say on that. So I know we have a lot to do this morning. I do want to say thank you, though. This is probably my favorite passage that I've preached here at Red Village. Now, a couple of summers ago, I got to preach out of James that said, basically, if you have any kind of savings or anything, that it's all going to rot and it's all bad. And it was really an uplifting message and so fun. Really so fun. Last year, I think it was Psalms, and that was kind of a fun one. I appreciated that one. This one is a lot of fun and really not necessarily just the whole passage. It's just such a fun passage. But I've titled it and I've got a title and a subtitle. All right. Now, the subtitle has really nothing to do with the message, but I will tell a story about it. So the title of the message is Just Believe him, the Story of an Unlikely Hero of the Faith. Or the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. All right? And you'll hear a story about that. Some of you already have. And I got to know. I got to keep my time here a little bit. Everybody says just preach what you feel like you need to preach. But I understand that, like my mom said when I went into the ministry, it's always better when you're visiting somebody if they're glad you came, not glad that you leave, Right? So that's my prayer this morning. And truly I'm very humbled to be here. So I always say, I always get nervous preaching here. I Don't know why, but I do. And you all are so accommodating, so welcoming. I'm going to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to do it, and then we're going to jump into this. So, Father, this morning as we. As we start, thank you for the privilege and the honor to be here this morning. Thank you for the family, for all of our family here. I'm so glad. Thank you for the friends that we've made over the years. Thank you for this Pastor, for tia, for this family, for calling them here, for their faithfulness to step out in faith and do something different and something challenging. Thank you for this Word of God that we lift up, that it is living and active, and that it really divides and really come down into the very soul, into the marrow of who we are. He reveals things that need to be revealed. It encourages us, it convicts us, it challenges us. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that says, I will be with you in every season. So when I'm anxious, I know I'm not alone. So, Lord, whatever we have brought to this place, this moment, through the last week or the last day or the last year, the last decade, whatever we brought to this place, if there are things that need to be left here, if there's things that we need to release to you, give us the courage and faith and the assurance that you will take those things from us and yet still love us deeply like you always do. So, Father, as we open up the word of God, may Lord Jesus, we indeed learn these things that you want us to learn today. In the name of Jesus, I do pray. Amen. So I'm going to do a little bit different. I'm just going to read a passage. So we're not going to read. Stand and read the whole thing. I don't want to do that, because then It'd be like 40 minutes, and that's a long time. But it's a little weird there. So we're going to. We're just going to read a little bit. I want to start with this. And It's Exodus, chapter 4, verse 1 through 17. You've been learning about Moses, I hear, from the last three weeks, I guess. But this is just one of those sections that's really an amazing section, and it shows a very pivotal moment in Moses life. All right, so we want to think sometimes, for those of us who are old enough to remember when it came out, remember Charlton Heston in the movie the Ten Commandments? And Moses comes down and. And, you know, it's really very dramatic and all that stuff. And we want to remember it like that. But somehow I think maybe it looked a little bit different in real life. I don't know. As a side note, just so we kind of get a context here on a personal level, I wasn't supposed to be a preacher. Did you know that? I mean, I will at the end of this, but did you know that? Right. I'm not supposed to be a preacher. I was supposed to be a farmer. That's what I grew up doing. I love that. I still do. In Northwest Missouri, where we have real soil, like you guys do up here, down where I'm from, in southwest Missouri, we just have rocks with dirt on it. But where I'm from, we have dirt with no rocks in it. And that's what I wanted to do, and that's what I thought God was calling me to do. So I went through college, and I was about ready to graduate. I had about a year left. And I went to a. Had a plan. I was gonna go do some graduate work and some genetics and do that kind of stuff, and. And I met Becky. That changed some plans, too. In a good way. Really got to keep that up, right? In a very good way. And then. And then I went to a conference, and I felt like God was calling me to preach. And I thought, well, it's very dramatic. I mean, it's very emotional. There were some people you may have heard of. There was, like, Billy Graham preached. He was an evangelist. I don't know if you know him or not. Elizabeth Elliot, Josh McDowell, Bill Bright, some of those cones like this. Howard Hendricks, who's the one who taught Chuck Swindoll, some pretty heavy hitters. So I thought, well, Lord, this is pretty. This is just an emotional decision. I really don't want to follow it if it's emotional. I have a plan. I have a plan. I know what I'm supposed to do. But I did pray. I said, lord, if this is the plan that you want me to do, then somehow encourage it. Somehow do some things, bring some people in to say, this is really what you're supposed to do, Mitch. This is what God wants you to do. All right? And if it's not the plan, then just let that feeling fade out. And I would be good with that. I was really better with that side than I was going into this. Cause I didn't really know anything about the Bible. Just to be fair. I knew hardly anything about it. I'd taken one New Testament class at. At Missouri State, and the guy was weird. I'm Just gonna tell you he was out there. And I didn't even know anything about the Bible. And I thought, this guy's out there. But I took this New Testament survey and that was it. So I was like, lord, I don't know anything about the Bible. I don't really have any history here. I don't have a lot. I had an uncle that was a retired minister, Methodist, and that's about it. And there. There was. So I said, okay, I guess I'll do it. And I'd graduate and wait for Becky. And I thought, well, maybe I ought to learn something about the Bible, Aaron. I thought that was a good idea. So I go to seminary, and one thing leads to another, and then four and a half. Four, not four and a half decades. Four decades in, a year later, here I am. And in a lot of ways, that's where Moses was. You see, he never signed up for this mission when he was growing up in Egypt. He didn't sign up to be the savior, to be the one who lead them out. He didn't sign that up. That wasn't on his plan. And when he was. When he was about, you know, 48, about 40 years old, I suppose, something like that. And when he saw his people being abused, he went down and he murdered that guy, you know, and he did that. And. And then he had to run away from Egypt. And he thought, well, I'm not going to be a preacher. I'm not going to be this prophet. I'm not going to be this person who leads it. Moses didn't have that in his game plan. And then for four decades, for 40 more years, he's out there tending the sheep and tending the goats and the cattle. He's a farmer. He's a rancher, if you will, whatever you want to do. That context. He was in that business, well established. He was about 80 years old when this happened. So. So he didn't sign up for that. So he could stand before you and say, I wasn't supposed to be this person. You ever feel like that? I mean, I do. So when we read this, put it into the context of a person who is being called to do something that he never really thought he should do. All right, so let's go ahead and jump into it. So prior to verse or chapter four, he's out there minding his own business, out kind of in the. In the wilderness, out there, out in the fields. He's a lot of people. He hears a voice. That's not a good thing if you're by yourself. You got to be careful there. And then he hears it coming from, what, this bush? But the bush is on fire, and it's not being consumed. The. That's a little bit weird. Then the voice comes out and starts telling him this directive. Hey, you need to go back to Egypt. And I don't know what you would do, but it would weird me out a little bit. All right? I would just feel. I don't think this is normal. Right. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this. And at this point, what we'd like to hear Moses say is, you know what, Lord? I hear your voice, and send my. Like, here I am. Send me like it says, right? We would like for us to say our hero of the faith that's mentioned what, in seven verses of Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith, we would like for our hero to have said first, you know what? I hear your call, Lord, and I'm heading my way. I'm going to go home, talk to the wife, pack up the minivan, and we're off. But that's not how it worked. This was his response. Moses answered. God said, go. Well, behold, verse one. They will not believe me or listen to my voice. For they will say, the Lord did not appear to you. That's the very first objection. They're not going to believe me. The Lord said to him, what is this in your hand? He said, it's a staff. It's just a walking stick. You know what that is? It's a walking stick. It was a tool of the trade, what they used to guide and to move cattle and sheep and things like that. They were familiar with enough, the sheep and the livestock, you could direct them with that. A lot of things like this. So what's that in your hand? It's a staff, right? Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. Now, I have to be honest, at this point, this is not impressing me about Moses. First of all, he ran from the snake. All right? Now, some of you may do that. I don't know. I mean, that's okay. But we grew up on the farm. The farm. We had a lot of rattlesnakes on our farm and a lot of snakes here and there. And, you know, kind of when you come up on a snake, they don't really like people. So if you let them slither off, it's okay. And if you have to, you know, you can shoo it away if you have to you can do something else that you don't supposed to tell anybody about. So that's all right. All right, so. But he ran from it. And I'm thinking, Moses, you're. You're kind of this guy out here. You're taking care of livestock. You're used to the rule and outside the nature, and you see a snake and you run from it. Now, to be fair, I've never had a stick turn into a snake, so I don't know what I would do. But I did think when I first read this, not first, but this last time. And every time, it's like, really, it could have been better. But anyway, we'll move on. That's just a personal preference. He ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, put your hand. Put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and he caught it by the tail. It became a staff in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. So when I tell Becky, hey, I'm preaching on this passage, and she reads it and. And she reads this passage, and she reads this verse, and it says, put out your hand and catch it by the tail. This is what she said. Huh? I wonder who else would say something like that. This story has nothing to do with the passage, but I gotta tell it because it's the subtitle. All right, so the subtitle is Just Grab the Snake by the Tail. In our yard, back when the boy. When Rob and Autumn were growing up, we had some snakes and stuff once in a while. And there was a nest of garter snakes that had, I don't know, back there by the barn. And Becky has a very strict rule about snakes. If they're in the field behind her house, that's theirs, right? If they cross through the chain link fence, I don't know how they know the difference between there and here. But if they cross it, it's her territory. And she calls my name, and it's a snake call. It's a whole distinct sound. And I know to take the proper tools. Now sometimes, and most of the time, I just try to relocate them, right? I just try to get them out. I know they're good snakes and they're harmless snakes. If I have to, I'll get rid of it other ways because I like Becky more than I like the snakes or opinions. All right? So I'll do what I need to do this particular day. Rob's with me, and I grab a snake and I have it by the tail, right? And Rob says, hey, can I hold a snake? To which I say, being a good father, you want to teach them these lessons, Scott? So being a good father said, sure, just grab the snake by the tail. That's exactly what I said. So he takes the snake by the tail. Now, the snake at this point did what snakes do, but he shouldn't have. So the snake comes up and bites Rob right on the knuckle. Just like that. Just bites him. For no good reason, right? He had no reason to bite Rob. Rob wasn't doing anything. Just holding him, so he bit it. So I had to do two things. I had to pry the snake off of Rob's knuckle. And I knew I was going to have to tell Becky. And she did not blame the snake. She did not blame the snake. I did not bite Rob on the knuckle. I did not tell the snake to bite Rob on the knuckle. All he did was hold it like this, right? So I pry the thing off because it was kind of tight. Pry it off, and I throw it off. And I know I'm gonna have to tell Becky, and I don't know how I'm gonna really do this and put a spin on it. That's good. And you just have to live through it. And we have. Alrighty. So she looks it up and you can get lockjaw. And, I don't know, whatever that does, you know, you can't turn your neck and you don't talk and stuff. Rob wasn't a big talker when he was growing up, so if you wanted to ask him something and get an answer, he'd tell you. But, you know, he figured you probably need to ask the question, right? So. So every once in a while, Becky would say, rob, say something. It's like, mom, I don't have lockjaw. All right? That has really hardly anything to do with the message, I guess, guys, if you. If you pick up a snake by the tail and want to give it to one of your kids, you're on your own. I'm just telling you that you're going to have to respond to that one. He did fine. So no hospital visit that time, so. And it still wasn't my fault. All right, let's move on. Verse 6. That was the first sign again. The Lord said to him, put your hand inside your cloak. And more is like the. You know, the cloak like this, what they wore in the bag in the old Days. And then he did that, and he put his hand inside the cloak. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. I don't know if any of you are in the medical field or if you've seen this. There's still some leprosy around in the world and a little bit around, but it's more like gangrene if you've seen that. And it's awful. It's really awful. It's just a very terrible, terrible look, a terrible smell. It's just something that you just look at and you see, and it's hard to unsee that. So that would be alarming. He comes in and his hand is full of leprosy. So that's going to be alarming. All right, so it's not done, then. And then he said, put your hand back inside your cloak. So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the flesh. That's the second sign. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe this sign. Moses said, what if they don't believe me? That was his objection, right? What if they don't believe me? Well, throw your staff on the. Throw your stick. Throw your staff on the ground. It's going to turn into a snake. Grab the snake by the tail, it'll turn back into the snake. The stick, by the way, it won't bite you. And then do this. That's two signs. All right. But knowing Moses, he said, all right, let's do another one. If they will not believe even these two signs in verse nine, listen to your voice. You shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land. And the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the ground. Now, at this point, you would think, okay, God, Moses would say, okay, I have it now. I trust you. I got it. I'm going to go. Because those are some pretty significant signs. I did not get that when I called into the ministry. Maybe you did, Aaron. I don't know. Maybe you threw their stick on the ground. Hopefully, Tia wasn't around. I don't know what she is. I know where Becky would be. Right? So Moses said to the Lord, oh, my Lord. Not eloquent either in the past or since. You have spoken to your servant. But I am slow of speech and of tongue. What this possibly could mean is that he probably wasn't able to navigate both of those languages very well. It's been 40 years. It could mean that he just didn't feel comfortable talking in front of people. Whatever it was, he was hesitant. Says, I know I'm going to have to talk to people and be in front of them. And it's a little bit scary. I mean, y' all are nice enough people. It's a little bit scary, right? And you know that some of you have this fear of doing this. So he said, I'm slow of speech. I can't do it. He saw three signs. And he says, well, you know, I believe the signs, but I'm just not that quick with my words. And so the Lord said to him, who has made a man's mouth? I mean, it seems like an easy one, doesn't it? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord. So, so God again, dialoguing with Moses, says this. Not only am I giving you the signs, not only am I telling you to do this. And I know you're not confident in your abilities, but here, I made you. I created you. I put the words in your mouth. I put the ability for you to speak. I did this for you. Trust me. And you would think, man, Moses, come on, you got this. So he says in verse 12, now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what to speak. He doesn't even have to come up with the dialogue. He all he has to do is listen to God. God says, say this. And he says that it's not that hard, right? But he says, and this is where it lands, O Lord, oh, my Lord, please send someone else. And God is distinctly calling him to this task. He is very intentional, with purpose, saying, moses, this is yours. And Moses doubles down. They're not going to believe me. I can't speak. I'm going to be in front of the Pharaoh and all these leaders and all these people, and I'm going to embarrass myself or whatever. And then he finally says, just send someone else. This next passage is really interesting. I'm not going to get into it too much today. But it says then in verse 14, then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And that's an interesting phrase. You don't see that a lot. And I'm not going to dive into it a lot, but I know the love of God didn't diminish, and the mercy of God didn't diminish, and the plan of God didn't diminish, and his promise to be with him wasn't gone. He was just Irritated. Sounds like to me, he was giving Moses every chance to say yes. And then all of a sudden, he keeps saying no, right? So then he says, is there not Aaron, your brother, The Levite? He's 83. He's three years older. I know that he can speak. Well, behold, he is coming out to meet you. And when he sees you, he will be glad. In his heart, he's going to be glad to see his brother. So you will speak with him or to him in verse 15 and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your. With your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to say. So Moses arguing with God, dialogue with God, saying, this is that, and this and that. No, I can't do that. I know you're calling me this. I know you're wanting me to do that. I'm not able to do it. They're not going to believe me. They're going to doubt me. I'm not that quick. All that kind of stuff says, all right, I'll send both of you. Really didn't end up that well. When you read the story throughout, he should have just went by himself. That worked, but there were some issues. And then verse 16, he says, he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. Now, what that really, I think infers is that God is going to speak to Moses, and Moses is going to tell God, Aaron. So that's really. He wasn't saying, you're going to be God like the Creator, but you're going to be this. This mediator between me and him. And now take in your hand His. This staff with which you shall do the signs. And then we start. So again, he didn't sign up for the mission. He was 80 years old when this happened. 80 Years old. I'm only 65. I know I look 80, but I'm only 65, right? I'm only 65. So at this point in life, I'm. Here's what he was. He was saying, moses, I have another thing for you to do. I have something else on my mind for you. Now, at this point, what we have to do is we have to ask the question, what do I do in this century with this story? Because it's a little bit out there. I know some shepherds, and I know some ranchers, and I know some farmers, and I know people who have cattle and sheep and some other things, horses. I don't know any who have heard God speak through a bush. I don't know that. So what do we do with this? So one of the first things I think that we need to understand is that God knows you and he still calls you. He knows who you are, and he still calls you. Listen to what Moses did here. He kept reminding God his faults. Do you ever do that? Whenever God's saying, I need you to do this, and you think, well, Lord, but do you remember back in. Well, you probably don't remember back in 1970 something, but back when and when I did this, and I'm just not that good. I mean, there are people who can speak much better than me, Lord. People who know the seminary or know the Bible much better. So when I went to seminary, I didn't know anything. I really didn't. I did find out quickly that you don't ask questions to your professors to prove a point. All right? Because they saw through that, and then they were good to answer in a good way. I'm thinking. I'm never asking a question in class. And I didn't. I don't even want to make eye contact with my professors is what I kind of determined. Especially the Greek and the Hebrew. But he kept reminding him of his faults. I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not old enough. I'm not this or I'm not that. And God knows that. He understood that, but he also reminded God of his mistakes. Don't you remember the time that I got angry and mad and I lost my temper and I killed that guy? It's not great on a resume, really. It's really not. I mean, you can redeem yourself from it. And we know that God can redeem everything. But you go in, you say, I'm going to be the savior of this group of people. I'm going to be the one who leads them from slavery to freedom. Well, what's your resume? Well, not too bad. I had a pretty good upbringing. There was a little hiccup. What happened? Well, I killed the guy. What did you kill him for? Well, he was kind of being honored to some of my people. Well, it's kind of a bad deal, right? So he reminded God of those things. He reminded of his weaknesses. He reminded of the reasons that he was not the best person for the job. Really, Lord. There are other people that are better. There are other people that are more qualified. There are other people that are more comfortable. There are other people that have this in their wheelhouse, have this in their experience. There are other people that I can name. You. Let me give you a list. There's Aaron. He's going to be better than me. He's younger, he's smarter. He's going to be able to teach better. There's people like this that are going to be able to do it better. Don't you want somebody else? And so often when God is calling us or urging us to do something, it may not be, you know, leave your home and go to Egypt. It may be. It may just be, get out of your comfort zone and call somebody. Restore a relationship, Comfort someone in grief or loss or tragedy. Speak to them about the word of God, about salvation. Ask how they're doing. Dive into their life, invite yourself into them. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but there's going to be people better. You're always going to say, lord, there's somebody better. And this is what God said. This is the truth. God knew exactly who Moses was. Listen to this. He knew exactly who Moses was. And then knowing who Moses was, this is what he said. I pick you. That's powerful. I was never a great athlete. You can see that. I was never that big or strong. And whenever you're picking teams on a playground or something, I knew it wasn't going to be the first. I mean, that was a hands down solid truth. I just didn't want to be the last or just not get picked, right? But God says, listen, I see you, I know you, I choose you. Yet we say, lord, you don't really know me or you wouldn't. Yeah, no, he does. Another thing that we understand is that God or Moses was trying to argue about this mission. So we have to understand that God understood the complexity of the mission. It wasn't a simple thing. So for what, for centuries, this group of people had grown in population, grown in power. And then they got a little bit. They intimidated the Pharaoh and the leadership. So the leadership and the government oppressed them and made them slaves. And they were crying out to God to save them. And then God sends this guy who was banished 40 years prior to this to come back to Egypt where he was wanted for murder. Only those people were gone now. It was safe. At this point, he had to go back into this plague and then tell these, probably, I don't know, different variations, but hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. There's a lot of folks, you can pick out what number it was. A lot of people. It was more than just this, right? It was thousands upon thousands. And he said, Listen, I'm back. I'm here to save you. Right? That was the mission. And I don't understand, I mean, I understand Moses hesitation at this point saying, I don't know that I'm up for this. He. Yeah, he is. He is. All right. So Moses reminded God of the people who would doubt. And sometimes when God calls you to do something and you say, I really feel like God is calling me to do this, somebody's gonna say, are you sure? I was fortunate. When I told my mom that dad that I was going into the ministry, it didn't surprise my mom. Mothers are crazy scary like this. I'm just going to tell you. So I graduated of high school. And my brother in law, one of my brother in law said, I think he's going to be a farmer. And my mom said, I think he'll be a good minister. And she never told me that. She never told me that. I don't trust you guys. I don't trust you women. So he reminded of the people who would doubt, but they're ones who believed. And he reminded God of the people who would not be impressed. Can you imagine being the king or the pharaoh or the leader of really literally, legitimately one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful nation at that point in time, certainly in that region. And we see this shepherd who was banished 40 years ago with a staff. He didn't have an army. He has a stick, and he has a brother and a couple of family members and a few other things. And he's bringing some people. And he says, pharaoh, I'm here to take all of your labor, and I want to take them back to where they came from. That's going to be impressive, isn't it? Don't you think? No, that's a complex mission. So Moses reminded him of that. Moses reminded him of the barriers. I don't speak the language that well. It's been four decades. Things have changed. Moses had a list of reasons while this plan wouldn't work. And so often when God calls us to do something, the very first thing we do is say, well, we don't have enough money, we don't have enough resources, we don't have enough volunteers, we don't have enough experience. We don't have this or we don't have that. Like God doesn't know this. And the other thing is God does know it. Because the truth about this is that he knew exactly the complexity of the mission. He knew the difficulties and the barriers. And this is what he said. He said Moses I know who you are. I know all of your faults and all of your mistakes and all of your weaknesses and all of your anxieties. And I know. I know you. I created you and I choose you. I also understand that this is a big deal I'm asking you to do. And God may not be calling you to do something quite to that magnitude, but I have a feeling God's calling you. And the Holy Spirit is urging you to do something outside your comfort zone. And all of a sudden, it's not. It's too much. And then God says, I get it. But I know. I know the complexities of it. I understand that it's good when you're known. It really is. It's good when somebody knows you and believes in you, and God does. So Becky and I have been married 41 years. I say this all the time, whenever she's around or not. And there's nobody on this planet that knows me better than her. Nobody. Not one person. Nobody that knows my weaknesses and my mistakes and my weirdness. And somebody says, oh, golly, you know, he's so good, you ought to live with him. That's what she's thinking, and I get that. But there's nobody I trust more, and there's nobody that I'm more appreciative to look over here is where she usually sits. And I'll tell you, whenever there's big things happening and maybe large events or large funerals or large things like that happening, I always know that she's going to make sure that I see her and that she sees me. You know why? Because I'm better knowing that. Now take that. Magnify that a thousand times or a million times how God knows you. So let's start to wrap this up. Here's another truth. God is capable of doing much more through you, with you, than you could ever imagine. What you're saying is, God, I'm not old enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not strong enough. I'm not rich enough. I don't have enough education. I don't have enough resources. I don't have this. I don't have that. There are other people better than me. And there are. There are people that can preach better than I can, many of them. There are people who can lead better. Yes, that's a fact. There are people, when I was doing electrical work or whatever, or farming people that could do it better. Absolutely. There's not a doubt in my mind about that. And I understand when I follow people and great pastors and in good churches like this, that I have to follow that. And I get to follow that. And I understand that I can't be that way. And I can say, God, there's people who are better than me. And he would say, yeah, but I'm not choosing them, choosing you. So what is God calling you to do? That's the question. Because we have to take the word of God and we have to say, what does it mean for me right now? We want to learn the truth of it and the scripture of it and the theology of it and the history of it. And we want to stand on solid ground. But we also want to take it and apply it to school or to work or to home or to driving down the freeway or whatever it may be. Right? We want to apply it to where it's practically implemented in our life. That's what we are called to do. And I believe that sometimes God calls us or is urging us through the Holy Spirit to do things that are uncomfortable. One person told me, he said, man, when I was reading this passage, I knew that one of my best friends was just killed in a tragic car accident. And. And God was telling me, I need to go and somehow help his widow and help his family, help his children. But I knew that I wasn't able to do that. I wasn't capable of doing that. There's people who know more. I don't know what to say. I'm going to probably make it worse. He said, all I want to do is help, but I have no idea how to do it. And he read this and he heard this, and he said, maybe I could go. Maybe that's it. I don't know. Maybe it's vocational ministry. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's a mission trip. Maybe it's doing vvs. I don't know what to do. With kids, you might say, you don't have to really know that much. They'll tell you when you're doing it wrong. They'll let you know what to do. What task do you think is too much for your abilities? Ask yourself that. Well, God is calling me to this, but I'm not able. I'm not asking you if you're able, if you think you're able. I'm asking you what is it that you think you're not able to do. Just list it, Lord, you're asking me to do this. I'm not able to do that. List it out there. What excuses are you giving God? Well, Lord, you know, I'm not as young As I used to be. That's obvious. I'm not surprising anybody. Well, I'm not as smart as I used to be, probably on all levels. I'm not as quick. I'm not this or I'm not that. At this point, I thought I would know more. Right now, when I answer a question, I don't really even get the question right. Mostly because I don't hear that well. So the answer is not really even relevant to the question. Right. It's entertaining to the family. That's about it. I'm okay with that. All right. I figure I can maybe get some Hearing AIDS another 20 years. Take heart. What task do you think is too much? What excuses are you giving? Have you been like Moses? This is where it gets personal. Have you been like Moses and God is saying, I want you to do this, and you said, send someone else. It's not too late. It's not too late. It really isn't. Take heart. We want to put Moses up on this pedestal and say, boy, when he heard God, he went in reality. When he heard God through a bush that wasn't being consumed, he said, send somebody else. He ended up going, and we know the rest of the story. But if you think it was easy for him, think again. If you think he automatically said, you bet, God, I got it. No, it wasn't like that. So my encouragement to you as I close this, and I'll pray because I know we've got some other things we need to do. We have some other things we need to do. Is this look back on your journey or even where you are right now. I really believe God is calling you and urging you through the Holy Spirit to do some things that are outside your comfort zone that you're just certain that somebody else is better at. And you may very well be right, that you're not comfortable with that. This is. That things are changing and you don't like it. I get that. I don't like change. I was talking to somebody that used to be epic, and we just learned epic in the hospital I worked for as a chaplain. It's like learning German. I'm just going to tell you, nothing is epic. I just, you know, always like it when somebody who calls and says, do you have a password? Like, heck, I don't know if I have a password. All I know is the thing comes on and then I call it when it doesn't. Right. So I don't change. I know all this stuff. But trust God, trust him. Step out at the end of everything. There will be people that can pray with you. So if you have a choice that you need to make about joining the church, about accepting Christ as your savior, about following in baptism, about doing something in the church or in your life that. That you need prayer for, there'll be people up here praying for you. All right, Father, in the name of Jesus, let the Holy Spirit move in us, and let the word of God dwell deeply in us. And not if, but when we are in over our head. Please, Lord, let us look back to a guy named Moses. It didn't come easy for him, either. So, in the name of Jesus, take us where you want us to be. Use us where you want to use us. Let us trust you in the path. And that's that name I pray. Amen. The post Moses Given Powerful Signs – Exodus 4: 1-17 appeared first on Red Village Church.

Audio Transcript How are we this morning? Excellent. All right. It's my privilege to bring the word to you this morning, so let's get into it. Recently I read a story about a young man who never wanted to be a soldier. He had no visions of fame or ambitions of glory. When his father announced that he'd secured him an appointment to West Point, the boy protested. He wanted to be a farmer or perhaps work the river trade. But his father was not a man to be argued with, and so the 17 year old boarded a coach east. Sick with dread, he got off to a rough start. Through a clerical error, his name was copied incorrectly and it would stick permanently. He hated the academy. He finished 21st of 39 cadets, distinguished only in horsemanship and mathematics. The Mexican War found him a reluctant quartermaster, competent, but unnoticed afterward posted to lonely garrisons on the Pacific coast. Far from his wife Julia and the children he barely knew, he began to drink. In 1854, facing either court martial or resignation over his drinking, he resigned his commission in disgrace and went home with empty pockets. What followed were the worst years of his life. He tried farming on land his father in law gave him outside St. Louis, and the crops failed. He hauled firewood through the city streets in a worn army overcoat, occasionally passing former West Point classmates who looked away embarrassment. He pawned his gold watch one Christmas to buy presents for his children. He tried bill collecting and was terrible at it. He tried real estate and failed at that, too. By 1860, at 38 years old, he was working at a clerk in his younger brother's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois, earning $800 a year. He was a man whose life, by every visible measure, had failed. Then Fort Sumter fell. The quiet clerk who couldn't sell harnesses turned out to understand something that most West Point polished generals did not. The war was not about elegant maneuvers or reputation, but about pressing forward relentlessly, accepting losses and refusing to stop. Donaldson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, Appomattox. The failures had taught him things that successful men never learned. What it was to be underestimated, to be written off, to keep moving even when the odds looked long. The boy who didn't want to be a soldier, the the lieutenant who resigned in shame, the farmer who failed, and his brother's store. Hiram Ulysses Grant, or as the West Point Clerk mistakenly wrote, U.S. grant, ended the war as General of the armies, the man who had saved the Union and later President of the United States. It turned out that the long road had been the training. Weeks before his death, Grant wrote the preface to his personal memoirs, saying, man proposes and God disposes. There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice. Most of us at some point will know what it is to be in our own wilderness. We will know what it is to wait, to wait through years that seem to lead nowhere, to feel forgotten by God, to look out at a landscape that gives no sign that he is at work. And we will be tempted in those years to conclude that nothing is happening, that God has misplaced us, that our life is being spent in vain. This morning, as we come to a passage in the Book of Exodus that speaks directly into that experience. It is the story of 40 silent years in the life of Moses and 400 silent years in the life of Israel. It is the story of a God who appears to all human eyes to be doing nothing. And it is the story of how, beneath that silence, he was doing everything. So if you would with me open your Bibles, please, to the Book of Exodus. And this morning we're going to finish chapter two, verses 11 to 25. One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, why do you strike your companion? He answered, who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When he came home to their father, Reuel, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for us and watered the flock. He said to his daughters, then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man. And he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he Said I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. During those many days. The king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. Let's pray. Father. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts this morning be acceptable in your presence. Lord, I pray, after my words are long forgotten, that your word would be remembered. Jesus name. Amen. Exodus is an epic of God's love and redemption of his people. Every scene reads like an action novel. The baby in the basket, the burning bush, the plagues, the angel of death. The parting of the Red Sea, the thunder and lightning around Mount Sinai, the covenant with the Almighty. Before we dive into our text, we must read Exodus rightly. We have to read it Christologically, that is, in relation to Jesus Christ, who is our perfect sacrifice, who saved us out of our bondage to sin and delivered us into a right relationship with God. When Jesus appeared to his disciples on the road to emmaus in Luke 24:27 Records beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. If Jesus started with Moses when describing himself, perhaps we can also we also read it historically. Scholars debate whether the Exodus took place around 1446 BC or around 1260. Good evidence exists for both dates and ancient Israel did not work with an absolute calendar the way we do. But what matters for us this morning is not the precise year, but the fact that it is history, not myth. The renowned Old Testament scholar Nahum Sarna observed that no nation would invent for itself and then faithfully transmit for thousands of years an inglorious origin story of slavery, grumbling and and idolatry. Israel did not flatter itself into existence. This happened. Exodus 2:11 to 25 sits at 1 of the great hinge moments of redemptive history. The book opens with the sons of Jacob settling in Egypt under the protection of Joseph. But there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. What begins as refuge becomes bonding. Hebrews multiplied, and Pharaoh, fearing them, enslaved them and decreed that every male child be cast into the Nile. Into that decree Moses is born. Wes laid out for us last week that Moses mother hides him, his sister watches over him, and then Pharaoh's daughter draws him out of the water. He grows up in the palace, Stephen tells us in Acts 7:22 that he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in his words and deeds. And that is where our passage begins. The structure that we will use this morning breaks down into four movements. Verses 11 to 14 Moses takes matters into his own hands. Verses 15 to 17 Moses flees and is shaped at a well. 18:22 Moses is welcomed and becomes a sojourner. 23 To 25 While Moses tends sheep, Israel groans and God acts. Start with 11 to 14. Moses has grown. Now the infant in the basket has become a man in Pharaoh's court, raised as Egyptian royalty. How much did he know about his true background growing up? Wes mentioned last week that Moses mother was allowed to nurse him. So did they still have a relationship? Certainly possible. There are so many unanswered questions. Did he live with a divided heart for years? Did he spend endless nights pleading with Pharaoh? Was he embarrassed by his background and didn't want to believe it? We have no idea. What we do know is that he was raised to be a prince of Egypt. But by the time he was 40, he knew exactly who he was and who his brothers and sisters truly were. Were. One day he goes out to his brothers, the Hebrews, and he looks on their burdens. And what he sees he cannot unsee. An Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own. He looks this way and that, and when he sees no one watching, he strikes. Strikes the Egyptian down and buries him in the sand. Now this raises a nagging question for me. If Moses was a member of Pharaoh's household in the royal family, so to speak, why would he have feared killing someone? Wouldn't a royal be able to kill a lowly Egyptian taskmaster with little to no reprisal? This goes into the historical context at the time. Exodus 1:8 says, now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Commentators note that this likely indicates a dynastic change. A new royal house with no political or familial loyalty to the previous regime. In fact, during either time period, you believe royal houses at that time were very politically unstable, with different factions having different claims to the crown. The princess who had adopted him was almost certainly aging or dead. And the reigning pharaoh would have viewed an adopted Hebrew with suspicion, not affection. And the man Moses killed was not a slave. He was an Egyptian official, a representative of Pharaoh's economic and political authority. This is crucial. In ancient Egypt, killing a Hebrew slave was something an Egyptian could do with little consequence. But a member of the royal household killing one of Pharaoh's taskmasters. This probably would not have looked so much like murder. It would have looked like the potential beginning of an insurrection. The next day, Moses goes out and this time he finds two Hebrews fighting each other. He steps in to make peace, and the man in the wrong rounds on him with words that must have cut deeply. Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill us as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses is afraid. The secret is out. Beneath these interactions is something deeper that the New Testament helps us understand. The writer of Hebrews tells us this whole episode began in faith. By faith. Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the Reward. That's Hebrews 11:24-26. When Moses walked out of the palace, he was not slumming, he was choosing. He looked at the gold of Egypt on the one hand and the suffering of God's people in the other. And he chose the suffering. That is faith. So what went wrong? Well, it can be summed up in the next phrase. He looked this way. That a long line of preachers have lingered over those words and noticed what was missing. As Chuck Swindoll says, he looked east, he looked west, he looked over his shoulder, but he didn't look up, did he? He looked in both directions horizontally, but he left the vertical completely out of it. Moses was a man with a true call, but a glance still fixed on the ground. Here is the heart of the problem. Moses tried to bring about by his own hand what God had promised to bring about by his covenant. The deliverer was right, the cause was right, the method was wrong, and the time was not yet. And the proof is what he is in what he does next. He hides the body in the sand, as if sand could keep a secret from God. Within a day, the rumor was loose. Within a week, Pharaoh wants him dead. Three things to take from these opening verses. First, a true call from God does not exempt a man from from the discipline of God's timing. Moses had the right cause and the right collar. But he ran ahead. And it will take 40 years in the desert to refine him. Second, hidden sin is a poor investment. Sand is a thin grave. What God means to expose, no man can keep buried. Third, there is mercy for those with juvenile or immature faith. John Calvin's pastoral word on this passage is really helpful. Even the obedience of the saints, stained as it is by sin, is still sometimes acceptable to God through his mercy. So Moses runs, but God was not finished with him. He was only beginning verses 15 through 17. Verse 15 begins with collapse. However noble Moses motives may have been, when he took matters into his own hands, he was outside the will of God. And yet God still had a plan for him. This is one of the great promises of Scripture. God uses sinners for his glory. It's the only kind he has to work with. When you read the heroes of the faith, they read a lot more like a Alcoholics Anonymous meeting than a catalog of superheroes. I can almost see them in a church basement, sitting in a circle on folding chairs, sipping bad coffee, introducing themselves. Hi, I'm Abraham and I'm a liar who pimped out my wife. Hi, I'm Jacob. I'm a deceiver and I'm a thief. How? Hi, I'm Samson and I'm a lust addicted vow breaker. Hi, I'm David. I'm an adulterer and a murderer. Hi, I'm Jonah and I'm a racist runaway. Hi, I'm Peter and I'm a coward who denied my Savior. Hi, I'm Moses and I'm a murderer. When Janet and I lived in Atlanta, we had a pastor who was fond of saying that God doesn't look for ability, he looks for availability. God uses broken people because it's his strength, it's his wisdom, it's his power, and it's for his glory. God would be using Moses, but he had some seasoning yet to experience. Verse 15. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. There's no firm consensus on where exactly Midian was, but the traditional and most widely accepted location is in northwest Arabia, east of the Gulf of Agapa, in what is now northwestern Saudi Arabia. The Midianites appear to have been a semi nomadic people, so Midian may refer to an area where the tribe ranged rather than a specific location. Calvin, commenting here, sees in Moses flight not cowardice, but the sovereign hand of God, breaking a man down before he builds him up. Calvin's instinct is that the Lord put his servant through a long banishment precisely so that he would learn humility and dependence, because the work for which he was designed was greater than human strength could compass. 40 Years of palace training had to be matched by 40 years of desert undoing. Augustine, in a different connection, spoke of being in the region of unlikeness that far country, where the soul learns who it is by losing what it had. Moses, sitting by that well is in the region of unlikeness. Verse 15 ends noting that Moses, obviously exhausted, sat down by a well. One of the beauties of Scripture is the inclusion of what so often to us seems like pointless details. But wells, as it turns out, is an important location in the Bible, specifically, if you are looking for a wife. In Genesis 24, Abraham's servant meets Rebekah, Isaac's future wife, at a well. In Genesis 29, Jacob meets Rachel at a well. This time, who is Moses going to meet? Verses 16 and 17. Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up to save them and watered their flock. Moses is once again faced with injustice. Has he learned anything? A group of young women have come to the well to draw water, and a group of shepherds is going to give them a hard time. Moses, again courageously rises to their defense. Already we see clues that he is learning from his past mistakes. The text does not record that he killed the shepherds, and not only that he served the young women by watering their flock. For the first time, he was learning what it was to be a deliverer. He stands firm for what is just and begins to practice true leadership, which is born out of service. It would have been unthinkable at the time for a man to perform a menial task for women. But Moses stooped to serve. And by learning to serve, he was learning to lead. For all God's leaders are servants. He, in time, the one who is the true and better. Moses would himself kneel and wash 12 pairs of dirty feet and tell his disciples that whoever wants to be great must be a servant of all. Service is always one of the first courses in God's leadership training. Anyone who aspires to spiritual leadership, especially in the church, should begin by finding a place of humble service. If you travel to my alma mater, Wheaton College, one of the most striking little buildings on campus is the Marion E. Wade center, which houses the largest collection of C.S. Lewis writings in the world. Its namesake, Marian Wade, was an American businessman and founder of the large company Servicemaster. Wade was a man of deep faith who established a tradition called six weeks on the front lines. Every future executive at the company would spend six weeks scrubbing floors on hands and knees, doing the work of those they would later lead. Wade believed that those who refused to serve had no business leading. One of the other blessings of servant leadership is that when kids watch authentic service from their parents, it has a tendency to be passed down through the generations. The other founder of Service Master was a gentleman by the name of Ken Hanson. Ken's son, Walter Hanson, when he grew up, would move to Cleveland. He started a little church in his living room. And it grew, and it grew to about a thousand. In 10 years, the church would grow into what is now called Parkside Church. And if that name rings a bell, it would be because it's the church that Alistair Begg just retired from. It's amazing how these things pass down. Moses is being molded. Though he must feel lost and alone, God is right there, directing the most salient detail, refining his champion. God creates this dress rehearsal. The stage is a backwater. Well, the cast is seven anonymous girls, but the script is the same script that would one day be played out at the Red Sea. This is how God so often works. CS Lewis, in his collected letters, wrote that the great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's own or real life. The truth is, of course, that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life, the life God is sending one day by day, Moses thought his real life had ended at the border of Egypt. In fact, his real life was just beginning in Midian. There are seasons of our lives where it seems to have been derailed, where the calling we thought we had has collapsed and we find ourselves sitting by a well in some unfamiliar place. The temptation is to read those seasons as God's absence. But this text invites us to read them as God's curriculum. The God who is going to deliver Israel is at this very moment teaching his deliverer how to stand up for seven helpless women at a watering trough. Nothing in your wilderness is wasted. Turn to verses 18 to 22. The daughters return home and their father called Ruel here or Jethro elsewhere, most likely the same man. So don't get confused. Very common at the time for there to be multiple names for somebody. And he asked why they're early, and they say, an Egyptian delivered us. It's a quietly ironic line. Moses has gone out to deliver Hebrews and was rejected as a meddling Egyptian. He flees to Midian and is received as a generous Egyptian. The man cannot escape his identity, and yet his identity is not what God will make of it. Ruel rebukes his daughters for leaving the man unhosted. Call him that. He may eat bread and Moses is brought in. Verse 21 simply says Moses was content to dwell with the man. The Hebrew verb here ya all carries the sense of consenting, of being willing, even of resigning oneself. Moses is not striving anymore. He has come to the end of his striving. He sits down and he stays. The Book of Acts tells us that 40 years passed between Moses flight to Midian and his encounter with God at the burning bush. D.L. Moody is often quoted as saying Moses spent 40 years in Egypt learning to be something. 40 Years in the desert learning to be nothing. And 40 years in the wilderness proving God to be everything. Philip Reichen notes that whenever we are tempted to grow impatient with God's timetable for our lives, we should remember Moses, who spent two years of preparation for every year of ministry. Zipporah is given to Moses as a wife and a son is born. Moses names him Gershom new meaning I have become an alien in a foreign land. The name comes from the Hebrew verb garash, which means to drive out or expel. It may refer to Moses own experience of being driven out of Egypt. It also sounds like the Hebrew words ger and sham, which is a pun that means an alien there. Every time Moses speaks his son's name, he confesses that he does not belong. Midian is not home. Egypt is not home. He is a man between worlds. The Puritans loved this theme of sojourning. John Owen described the believer as a stranger and a pilgrim traveling through a country not his own, with his heart fixed on a city whose builder and maker is God. Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon called the Christian Pilgrim, in which he said that the true Christian travels on through this world as a wayfaring man and looks not upon any of the enjoyments of this world as his own. GK Chesterton, with his usual paradox, put it this way. How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and and yet at home in it? The answer of Scripture is that we cannot. Not fully, not yet. We are pilgrims. Gershom is the name of every saint. But notice Moses, sojourning is not a punishment, it is a preparation. RC Sproul emphasized that the entire 40 year sojourn in Midian was God's way of thinking. Moses for leadership, a man trained only in Pharaoh's court could not lead Israel through Pharaoh's wilderness. But a man who had himself become a shepherd of sheep in that very wilderness could one day shepherd God's people through it. The geography of Midian is the geography of the Exodus. Route. The skills Moses learned watering Reuel's flock are the skills he would use leading Israel's flock. God was not killing time. God was forging an instrument. And Moses doesn't know he names his son after his displacement. He doesn't name him soon to be deliverer or heir of promise. He names him Sojourner. The man cannot see what God is doing. Alistair Begg has spoken movingly of how God's people are very often in the dark about the brightness of God's plan for them. Moses is in the dark, but the brightness is gathering. If you are a Christian, you are a Gershom. You are a sojourner in a foreign land. The disquiet you feel, the restlessness, the sense that this world is not home is not a defect of your discipleship. It is a feature of it. CS Lewis spoke of this often when he talked about the pilgrim longing in Mere Christianity. He wrote, if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. The long ordinary years in which it seems nothing of eternal weight is happening to you are very likely the years in which God is doing his deepest work. Verses 23 and 20 through 25. And now the camera pulls back, just like in a movie. We get a break from the action in Midian and the screen flashes. Meanwhile, back in Egypt. Verse 23. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. 40 Years have passed. A Pharaoh has died, another has come. Nothing has changed for Israel. They are still in chains. Bricks still must be made, whips still fall. And from those brick fields raises a sound. The text uses the strongest words in Hebrew for it. A groaning, a crying, a shrieking that goes up out of the dust. Where does the cry go? To all human eyes, the cry goes nowhere. Pharaoh doesn't hear it. The Egyptians don't hear it. Moses doesn't hear it. And then come four of the most precious verbs in the Old Testament. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. God heard. God remembered. God saw. God knew. John Piper has called these four verbs the Gospel before the Gospel, the announcement hundreds of years before Bethlehem that the God of heaven is not a deistic clock maker, but a covenant father who hears the groaning of his enslaved children. Each verb carries a war world. God heard, not merely overheard, the Hebrew implies attentive, responsive, hearing the cry that no human ear answered, the cry that seemed to die in the air over the Egyptian sky. The cry arrived at the throne of heaven. The silence of God is never the deafness of God. When his people cry, he hears with the ears of a father. God remembered. This does not mean that God had forgotten and now recalled. To remember in the covenantal sense is to act upon a prior commitment. When Scripture says God remembered Noah, the next thing is that the waters subside. When it says he remembered Hannah, the next thing is that she conceives. When it says he remembered his covenant with Abraham, the next thing is the Exodus. God's remembrance is the prelude to his deliverance, the covenant he made 400 years before. I will be a God to you and to your offspring after you has not faded. He was about to honor it. God saw. The verb is the same verb used in Genesis 1. And God saw that it was good. It is the verb of attentive, evaluating, sight. He saw the bruises, he saw the broken backs. He saw the widows, the unburied babies. There is no suffering of his people that is hidden from him. The Scottish divine Samuel Rutherford, writing from his imprisonment in Aberdeen, often returned to the image of God as the watchman over Israel, who never slumbers, whose people's tears are gathered in heaven long before they fall to the ground. God sees and God knew. Interestingly, the verb stands alone in the Hebrew. There is no object God knew. Some translations may supply one. God knew their condition, but the Hebrew leaves it bare. Why? Perhaps because what God knows here is larger than any object can contain. He knows their pain, he knows their bondage, he knows their names, and he knows what he is about to do. Jonathan Edwards taught that every act of God in history is the unfolding of a purpose conceived before time began. God knew. While Moses sits in Midian thinking he had been forgotten, and while Israel cries in Egypt, thinking that they have been forgotten, neither has been forgotten. God is doing two things at once. In Midian, he is shaping his deliverer. In Egypt, he is hearing their cries. The two threads are converging towards a burning bush in the next chapter. But neither Moses nor Israel can see it. Yet Augustine in his Confessions, wrote this sentence. Thou, O Lord, wert more inward to me than my most inward part and higher than my highest. That is the God of Exodus 2. He is closer to Israel's groaning than the chains on their wrists. He is closer to Moses weariness than the dust on his sandals. He is not far off. He is not distracted, he is at work. Four thoughts to close. First, be still and know that he is God. What we are very often is people who run ahead of God. Moses is not alone in this. Abraham had the promise of a son and and couldn't wait until he took Hagar. And the household of faith has lived with the consequences ever since. Jacob had the blessing already promised to him, but couldn't wait, and so he stole it with a goatskin and a lie. Peter had a lord he loved and couldn't bear to see him arrested. So he drew a sword in Gethsemane and cut off a man's ear. The pattern is older than Moses, and it is as new as this morning. The right cause can be pursued in the wrong way and the wrong time. Bradley Gray puts it bluntly. Nothing good happens when you get ahead of God and take matters into your own hands. Second, the silence of God is not the absence of God. 40 Years passed in Midian and 400 years in Egypt before God spoke from the bush. But not one of those years was empty. God was hearing, he was remembering. He was seeing, he was knowing. If your life feels like a wilderness right now, if you have been sitting by your own well in Midian waiting for a word from heaven that just doesn't come, take this passage and press it to your heart. The silence is not absence. The God who shaped Moses in obscurity is shaping you now. In his 1967 book Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders quoted this anonymous poem. When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man, and skill a man. When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part, when he yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall be amazed. Watch his methods, watch his ways, how he ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects. How his hammer he hammers him and hurts him and with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay which only God understands. While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands, how he bends but never breaks when his good he undertakes, how he uses whom he chooses and with every purpose him by every act induces him to try his splendor out. God knows what he's about. Third, your sojourning has a destination. Moses named his son Gershom because he felt the foreignness of his life. But the foreignness was not the end of the story. It was the prelude to a calling. The writer of Hebrews tells us that all the saints acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They desired a better country. That is a heavenly one. Your pilgrimage is not a pointless one wandering. It is a movement towards a country God has prepared for you. Fourth, and most importantly, the God who heard Israel has heard you in a fuller way still. The end of Exodus 2 is a foreshadowing. The four verbs heard, remembered, saw new, find their final fulfillment not at Sinai, but at Calvary. There the Father heard the cries of his people. There he remembered the covenant he had made before the foundations of the world. There he saw his Son lifted up between heaven and earth, bearing the groaning of every enslaved soul in his own body. And there he knew in a way only the triune God could know the cost of redeeming a people for himself. If God heard Israel groaning under Pharaoh and he sent Moses, how much more has he heard your groaning and sent his son? The exodus from Egypt is the shadow. The exodus from sin and death is the substance. And the same four verbs hover over the cross. Today God hears your cries that come up from the dust of this fallen world. God remembers his covenant with you. God sees you right now in this room, in your struggle, in your brokenness. And God knows exactly what he's doing. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this text. Father, thank you for your covenant with us. That you know us, that you love us, that you see us, that no prayer goes unheard, no silence is a waste. And that wherever we are in our life, whatever burdens we are carrying, that you're right here. That you are molding us and you are creating us in just the way that you had planned for us before the creation of the world. Thank you for who you are. In Jesus name, amen. The post Moses Flees to Midian – Exodus 2: 11-25 appeared first on Red Village Church.