Moses: Learning To Trust The God Who Leads - Part 4
Exodus 4:1-17, 7:1-6
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, I pray that you've been enjoying our Moses series so far as we're taking a deeper look into Moses' life and how God has been doing work and still does work. Over the course of Moses' entire life, not just at the beginning, but really from infancy to the very end, God continues to work in Moses, forming Moses, leading Moses. And we're seeing how Moses learns to put his faith and trust in God. I want to point out that today is Communion Sunday, so we're going to be taking communion later. And every time we receive this, we're saying yes to a God who uses broken, hesitant, unqualified people. He invites to his table not just the confident and not just the polished, but people like Moses, who were hiding in a desert, not confident, and shelling out excuses to God. And if God can use Moses to give words, to stand before Pharaoh, and to give instruction, then it serves as a reminder that it's never about having it all together before we come to the Lord's table. So we'll partake together later, but I just want to encourage you to put your heart before God and to have his heart for you at the forefront of your mind this morning.
Last week, Pastor Chris spoke on Moses being called by God from the burning bush. And we learned that God laid it all out for him: the instruction, the step-by-step, the mission. And today I want to continue right after that in chapter four and take a deeper look at Moses' response. We'll have a little bit of overlap, but I really want to focus in on what's going on in Moses' heart and in his mind as he has just been called by God to something amazing. And we'll see if he's gung ho and all about it or if he's a little reserved and has some other feelings. So we're going to start in Exodus chapter four. If you want to turn there, it'll be on the screens as well. I'm going to go ahead and read chapter four, verses one through seventeen. It says this.
And Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you?'" Then the Lord said to him, "What is in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out, took it by the tail, took hold of the snake, and turned it back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the Lord, "is so 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." Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous. It had become as white as snow. "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile, pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground." And Moses said to the Lord, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The Lord said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else." Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses, and he said, "What about your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth, and I will help both of you speak, and I will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth, and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it." So God called.
And as we see in our passage, Moses answers, maybe not in the way that we imagine the great leader Moses responding. He's very reluctant, and he refuses to be the voice of God initially. He even tries to disqualify himself. Whether it's from his identity issues, his insecurity, or just his lack of trust in God, he tries to back out. I don't know if you've ever been in a situation, maybe called from God, or maybe just in a situation in life where you've tried to get out of it by disqualifying yourself. Maybe you say, "Hey, you don't know this about me, but I'm really not suited for the job that you're wanting me to do. Or I can't do it. I'm just not able to." I did this when I was in junior high. I played soccer growing up, and I transferred schools. It was junior-high soccer, but it was still very overwhelming to me. I was on this new team, and the coach had this plan. He was like, "I'm going to put you in." For the first, I want to say, three or four games, I just kept giving him excuses, like, "Well, my knee, my knee's not good. I'm a seventh grader with a bad knee, so I don't know if you can play me. I don't know if that's okay." For the first game, I was very adamant, and he didn't play me. And then finally he said, "Hey, you're going in." I was like, "Oh, I'll give you what I can. It's going to be maybe a minute or two. You're going to have to sub me right back out." But sure, I'll go. And I played, and I was fine. I did something, and he gave me this look after I cleared the ball. He kinda had this look, like, "I know. I knew this whole time. You're just saying these things." And I, and he could see the confidence grow. But I was trying to get myself out of that job. I was like, "I don't want to play. I'm going to give you all the excuses as to why I can't play." And Moses is telling God, as if God doesn't know. He's like, "Hey, you know, I can't really speak well. That's not my thing. I really think you should find someone else."
Moses is reluctant and refuses to be the voice of God. In verse one, we see his doubt, right? Burning bush, and he says, "What if they do not believe me?" And God meets Moses where he's at. And he—the small interaction shows to me how amazing God is. You can tell that Moses is starting to reel. He's starting to backpedal. Maybe, maybe physically, he's starting to back up a little bit. "God, I don't know." His head is spinning, again full of self-doubt. And I love that God gets him out of his head. On a personal communication level, watch what God does here. It's masterful work. God gets Moses out of thinking, from spiraling, and shifts his attention to something physical. He says, "What's in your hand?" You can just see, like, "Oh, you know, I was in my head, but oh, it's a staff. I have a staff in my hand." And I read that second half of that verse like Moses snapping out of it. Even though he continues to doubt, now his attention is on something, and God has called him to something. He's like, "Let me just work with you right here." God meets Moses' doubt with a plan.
So in verses three through nine, God's laying this out for him, step by step. You have a staff; it's going to turn into a snake. And it's going to go back to a staff. That's going to be a sign that this is divine. This is divine power. If they don't believe that, we have the hand that becomes leprous, which is a disease that there was nothing to do about in that time. There's nothing. But you're going to put your hand back in, and it's going to come back out restored. Again, something that could only happen by divine power. And if they still don't believe, then we'll do the Nile. We'll do the water that turns into blood. So God is giving him these signs to perform to the people so that they'll believe. And how does Moses respond? Is he like, "Okay, got it? No, now I'm good. Now I'm good. That was enough. That was all I needed, God." No. In verse ten, he responds, and all that and says, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent." He comes up with another excuse. He's like, "I just don't think it's me. I still don't think it's me." He's timid. He's doubtful. Moses' doubt is winning over his belief in God. In that moment, what's going on inside of him? And now he uses his speech as the reason for not wanting to go. And his speech may have been a legit concern. Maybe he's telling the truth and saying, "I just, I'm not very good talking in front of people." But I think it's also safe to say that Moses clearly just doesn't want to obey God yet.
And the tone shifts here, I think. Because I think God kind of reads the first part of his plan as coming alongside Moses and saying, "Hey, it's okay. I've got you. Here's the plan." And now maybe God kind of brings Moses in front of him and is like, "Hey, who do you think made people with mouths and tongues and gave the ability to speak?" God is trying to show him that whatever he thinks is too big, it is not too big for God: "I can handle whatever I'm dealing with. Whoever I'm using, whatever they have with them, I can handle it." And God counters that with verse eleven, right? "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" I just love that in this moment God is telling him that he has power over all of that. And in a way, he's saying, "I'm the creator. I made you. And I have power to use whoever you are, inside and out, for my purposes."
Verse twelve, God addresses everything that Moses has brought up. He's not eloquent in speech; it's impenetrable. He says, "I'll help you speak. I'll teach you what to say." God is saying, "I'll give you everything you need." And now do we think Moses is saying, "All right, all right. You've addressed all of my doubts. I'm on board now. You got it, God." No. In verse thirteen, he says, "Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else." Three times Moses denies God. Three times Moses rejects God's call. Three times Moses' doubt is too much, and he ultimately does not trust God yet. And he says, "Please send someone else."
We say this often in our preaching, but repetition in the Bible is important. It should ring like alarm bells for us that something is going off here. And in this case, it's emphasizing just how much Moses doesn't trust God and doesn't want to obey the call. Moses has reached the bottom of his downward spiral. He just kept going down and down in his anxiety until he landed there, and he didn't think he was good enough. And he clearly also thinks that God isn't powerful enough to help him to do what God says he'll do. But God doesn't give up on Moses. He's not happy, but he doesn't give up on him. And like another repetitive moment in Scripture, Peter in the New Testament denies Christ three times, and then the rooster crows, and Jesus doesn't give up on him. Right? To Peter, Jesus empowers and loves Peter and says that Peter will be the rock on which the church is built. God wants Moses to feel some conviction over this lack of faith and trust, but doesn't let Moses leave. God knows who Moses can be and how he can learn to trust him more. God has chosen Moses to be the leader of his people. And not even Moses will get away from God's plans.
Verse fourteen shows us that now God gets angry. We'll find out later in our series that it takes a lot to get God angry, so we know that Moses has really crossed the line here. And even though God is angry, he remains committed to Moses. And he sets up this new plan and brings in Aaron. "What about your brother Aaron? He can speak. He doesn't have this speech impediment, whatever it is. He'll be a part of the plan. I'll tell you, you'll tell Aaron, and Aaron will tell the people and speak to Pharaoh." So once again, we have Moses being met by God where he is. And Moses keeps moving. First, he's like really close to the bush and he's listening to God. And then maybe not physically, but in his mind, he's moving farther and farther away from God: "God, it's not me. God, it's not me." And God keeps coming to him and says, "No, I've got something for that. We'll do this instead, but you're still a part of this plan." It reminds me of what God does for Adam and Eve in the garden. Even though they rebelled against God, even though they brought sin into the world, even though they could no longer dwell with God the way that he intended, God still showed them compassion. And he didn't abandon them. He provided for them. And he still gave them love, grace, and provision. So God is doing the same for Moses here, providing for Moses, not abandoning Moses. He has plans that include Moses, and they will continue to work in Moses' heart and mind for the future.
Just looking at this interaction, I find it so comforting that God's anger does not mean the end of the relationship. But rather, it brings holy provision. Think of it: whenever you get angry with someone, or someone's angry with you, you've been on one side, and there's space, right? There's a divide that sometimes occurs, and maybe even to the point where that relationship is broken. And you're like, "I'm done. I've had it. We're no longer going to be together. This is not happening." But even in God's anger, he continues to reach out and provide whatever that person needs. God does not disqualify Moses. God does not end the call and say, "All right, you rejected. I'm moving on." God meets Moses where he is, continues to draw Moses in, and invites him to be a part of his redemptive plan.
I mentioned this in the first week, but I think it's worth mentioning again that this plan of God, and the work that he is going to do to develop Moses' faith and trust in him, is the precursor and foreshadows the work that God will have to do with Israel. So Israel, too, will have their own doubts, their own times of not trusting God yet. So I love seeing that we're getting this; we're going to see this now: God doesn't give up. God doesn't stop. And there are going to be moments where Israel really makes God angry. And yet God continues to reach out and says, "But you're my people. I'm committed to you. We're going to continue along the plan." And he does this so that they would come to love and trust and put their faith in him. He does it for Moses, he does it for Israel, and it's the same work that he's doing for us today. That even when we doubt and try to disqualify ourselves, try to get out of what God may be calling us to, God still reaches out and says, "Nope. I'll meet you where you're at. You moved over there now. You've got a whole other set of issues that you're bringing up. I'll meet you there. I'll address all of that. I'm bringing you along." And he does that so that our faith and our trust in him will grow.
So we see in this first part just how reluctant and resistant Moses is. And maybe that resonates with you. Maybe there's been times in your life where you've been reluctant or resistant to follow where the Spirit is calling you to. Well, let's keep following Moses and see how he gets along. I want to move along in the story just to show how much work God does. So I'm going to go through chapters five and six. I'm just going to summarize them. We're not going to read them all together, but I want to share with you what happens.
So in chapter five, Moses and Aaron head down to Egypt. And in this section, we're going to see how Moses blames God for an apparent failure. He's going to learn in this moment. Moses obeys God; that's good. He gathers all the elders of Israel. Aaron talks to Moses, Moses talks to Aaron, and Aaron tells Israel everything. They perform the signs. And do we know how the people respond? Well, they respond positively. They worship God. So far, everything is going according to the plan, just as God said it could go. And the people of Israel feel seen and heard because, if you remember from Exodus one, they had been crying out to God in their slavery, in their state, and saying, "God, do you see us? Help us." And can you imagine this moment where this guy from the desert comes and says, "I've heard from God," and he performs these signs? And for the first time, generations of slaves crying out with no answer, and now they see and hear from God. And God says, "I've heard you. I've heard your cries, and I have a plan." And I just imagine the hopes swelling within them in this moment. I was just like, "Oh my goodness, God is real. God is real, and he's going to do something. He's going to do something for us. We don't have to live in this state of slavery anymore." So it's a huge moment. I think Moses is on a high right now. He's like, "This is so good. Man, God, yes, you told me to go. The people of Israel worshiped."
So then they go to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh has the opposite reaction. He disregards Moses and Aaron completely and even makes the work harder for Israel. It used to be that straw was given to the Israelites to make bricks for the buildings, but now Pharaoh says, "You have to go get your own straw, but you still have to make the same amount of bricks." So he has doubled their work with the same expectation. This is not what Israel had in mind. This is not what Moses had in mind. And so Moses in this moment was met with resistance. And the fallout for him is crushing. The people of Israel, now living in this new reality of harder work, absolutely despise Moses. They turn on him. Once they were like, "Moses, thank you for delivering this message from God." And after he went to Pharaoh, now they're saying, "Moses, you're the worst. You're the absolute worst. You made our lives so much harder. This outsider, the Hebrew-born, Egyptian-raised man who has been in exile, came into our lives and made our lives worse." So if you're keeping tabs on people's faith levels right now, Moses: way down. The people of Israel, coming from a real big high, way down at the bottom. No one really is trusting God or has faith in him that he can do what he says.
Moses begins doubting God again. The people of Israel are doubting Moses and therefore doubting God. Both Moses and the people seemed to have this expectation of immediate success. And just as quickly as they came to trust and worship God, they turned to complain to God. And this is going to be a pattern. If you read Exodus, you see this over and over again. There are these highs: "Oh God, you're the greatest. You delivered us. You did something amazing." And then the next verse, they're saying, "God, we were better off in Egypt. We should have kept being slaves." It's just the cycle, and it starts here. And how many of us have done this or something similar? Maybe we've prayed a prayer and seen God move, felt that rush of faith. And then one hard week later in our lives, we're doubting that God is with us. And the whiplash of our faith just moves us farther from trusting in him to really just doubting him, saying, "God, did you even hear me?" We forget the good week that we had, and that last hard week is the only thing that we can see when we look at God. Well, Moses in his whiplash, he blames God for this apparent failure.
And in chapter five, verse twenty-two, it says, "Moses returned to the Lord and said, 'Why, Lord? Why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?'" Oof, Moses. This is a man. Before we get all on his case, which we should, because this is failure, he is feeling crushed. He's feeling possibly even betrayed, set up for failure. He's saying, "God, was this your plan all along? I thought that it meant this. And now this is happening, and God, it's your fault." Now, maybe you, too, have experienced moments where you have obeyed God and only for it to immediately seem like it backfired. And you say, "God, I obeyed you, and now my situation is worse. Is this what you had in mind the whole time? Is this what obedience to you looks like? Does my life get worse?" And maybe that makes you hesitant to obey God again. Maybe it makes you angry, or you feel hurt. Moses was already feeling insecure, and then this happens. He's ready to shut it down. He's emotionally detaching from this relationship and this call from God. The Israelites are mad at Moses. Moses then turns and gets frustrated with God.
And so how does God respond? Well, in chapter six, God reassures Moses again and continues to meet Moses where he is. And he does this by restating who he is and what he will do. He doesn't just give Moses information, though. We read it as information. We say, "Okay, this is what God's going to do, this is what is going to happen, this is who God is," but he reassures Moses with his presence and with his personhood. His presence communicates who God is. This is kind of hard for me to explain, but I hope that you get it. That when you have these moments of doubt and you ask God, and then you read Scripture, there is a spiritual moment happening there where God can speak through Scripture. And even though it is just words on a page, it is not just words on a page. It is truth that speaks to our hearts and speaks to our doubt. And in that moment, we can feel the presence of God, saying, "God, you're with me. I don't understand the full picture, but you are with me." God is patiently regrounding Moses, remembering where he is, and saying, "This is who I am; this is what I will do." And he tells Moses to go tell Israel to go back and to tell them, "I'm going to redeem them, not just with words, but with mighty acts. Mighty deeds that will show the people that I am the God above all gods." And so Moses does this.
But in chapter six, the people of Israel don't have ears to hear. It's just too much. What Moses had already done, and the effects of that, and their worst slavery situation, they're not ready to listen again. But God keeps with the plan and says, "Now go to Pharaoh again." And in chapter six, verse twelve, we're feeling for Moses right now. He's hurt. He had to go to Israel, but Israel didn't listen. And God says in chapter six, verse eleven, "Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go out of this country." But Moses said to the Lord, "If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me? Since I speak with faltering lips." And I think we just sense the frustration, like all those emotions that Moses is feeling; he just lays it out there. Like, "God, I don't want to do this. If this didn't work and you told me to go do this, why would this work? Why would me going to Pharaoh do anything?" And as I was reading this week and preparing, I just feel with Moses. He's not right in what he's doing, but I feel with him.
I think we've all had moments where we just do not get it, and we're going to God saying, "God, why? I don't like it. I don't like your plan. I don't think it's going to work. I don't want to obey you." I know it can be tempting to think, "Moses, you've already seen a burning bush; you've seen signs. How much evidence does it take to turn your doubt into obedience?" But, church, don't we find ourselves in that same position? And while God is gracious enough to give us proof, to give us evidence at times, it will always take faith. It will always mean trusting in God. All the evidence added together still doesn't equate to an automatic belief. We will always need faith. It will always require us to put our trust in him, to surrender to him, and to believe that God is who he says he is and that he can do what he says he can do.
I want us to read together kind of the bookend of this moment of transformation in Moses' life. So chapter seven, verses one through six. I'll start actually in chapter six, verse twenty. It says: "Now when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, he said to him, 'I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I tell you.' But Moses said to the Lord, 'Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?' 'See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt, and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my people, the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.' Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded. Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh."
God explains to Moses again that he is God's representative, God's spokesperson. He's going to be the voice of God. And that he's got control over the situation. He says, "Here's what to do." And in verses three and four, God also gives Moses the heads up that Pharaoh will not be receptive to this. He's addressing the part that Moses got tripped up on before. I think Moses was expecting, "As soon as I speak your words, God, they should take immediate effect. And that other party, whoever you're talking to, they should listen." But Moses learns that speaking the truth does not guarantee a receptive audience. He learns that it's not about him. It's about God. And it's not for him to take things personally. He needs to stop thinking that he's the problem that could ruin God's plan. And he learns that speaking the truth, the words given to him, does not guarantee that it will be heard, received, or obeyed. And that's hard for Moses.
And I think that can be hard for us. When we have something that we know is the truth and we state it, we expect that truth to take immediate effect: "Because this is so, therefore you should immediately get in line." He's spoken the truth multiple times now, to the people of Israel, to Pharaoh, and nothing has changed. In fact, things got worse. And now the people of Israel won't even listen to him. And it made Moses want to quit. Have you ever been in Moses' position? Have you ever felt like your words, your influence, should equate to more change around you, and it just doesn't? Have you ever been offended or so dismayed when your words of truth have fallen on deaf ears? And you would start to internalize those things and say, "Am I the problem? They're the problem. Something's the problem. There's a problem here. Is it me? Is it them?" But we need to recognize that we may not have a receptive audience. And that's not in our control. That may not be up to us. And we may have to not care about that. Our obedience to God is what matters. We cannot control other people, and we are not responsible for how it is received. We are responsible for our actions, and our actions are to obey what God has called us to do.
In Moses' case, he may have viewed success as Pharaoh heeding God's word and saying, "Oh, of course, let me just go ahead and free all these people right now." But what will happen, by God's way and with Pharaoh hardening his heart, is in verse five, when it says, "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." Things have to go the way that they're going to go, because God has a plan. And what Moses didn't factor in at all is that through this foreseen failure, God's name is actually going to be spread. The people of the world are going to know who Yahweh is. Even though Pharaoh will deny and reject God, his people will learn about Yahweh. God explicitly predicts the resistance and the outcome ahead of time. And this isn't God making the most of an unexpected setback. I want us to catch that. This is not God saying, "I know my plan is going to get messed up and I got to adapt." No. God is telling Moses, "This will go badly, and it's part of the plan. I'm not surprised that Pharaoh is going to reject you, Moses. And Moses, you should learn to not be surprised either. But trust that I know what I'm doing."
And then we read in verse six, and I want to mark this as the bookend, right? So Moses has been reluctant and resistant, but in verse six, without complaining, without pushback, and without trying to disqualify himself, Moses obeys God. And he goes. Moses learns that obeying God means trusting God. Moses is officially in the process of being formed to who God wants him to be. And this is one of the most prominent ways that God works in the life of Moses and in the lives of us today. Obeying God doesn't mean we understand how it all plays out. Obeying God doesn't require that it goes in a successful way by the way we define success. Obeying God means trusting and following God. And in our obedience to God, in our trusting God, the Spirit works in our heart, mind, and soul, and we are formed to be more like him. So the next time God calls, we're more ready to say yes.
So as we close, I just want to ask us this: Are we obeying God? Or is there a lack of trust that is keeping us from obeying God? Are you trying to disqualify yourself from what God is calling you toward? Because as we learned with Moses, if God's called you, he's not letting you off the hook. And the sooner we get that, probably the easier it is for us. This week I want to encourage you to trust and obey God. And maybe that area where you are feeling resistance, maybe where you are hesitant or leery about following God, maybe that's where God's saying, "That's the biggest step of faith that I need you to take right now." Moses learned to be the voice of God to the people, to the nation of Israel, and to the nations around Israel. And he learned that it wasn't about him. He was right. He wasn't qualified. He wasn't even eager to serve, but he learned that to be the voice of God, the first step was to trust God and obey God. The best way that Moses was to serve God was to obey him and trust him. And that's the biggest way that we can serve God today. To be a voice of truth, to be a loving neighbor, to be a source of compassion in a hostile world, to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people in your lives, the best thing that we can do is to obey and trust God in every moment, in every day, and in every situation. So will you obey and trust God this week?
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord. And whatever we have on our hearts, whatever your Spirit is speaking to us right now, Lord, I pray that we would lay that back before you. God, if there are situations that you're calling us to that we are hesitant about, whether we are insecure, whether we feel unable to do it, or maybe we're just doubting you, God, and saying, "God, I don't know about your plan," I pray that you would help us in our faith. That you would help us to trust you, to know that it is not about us. And that if you are calling us to something, to someone, to a situation, whatever it may be, that you will provide. God, help us where our faith is weak, where we need more. Give us more faith. God, give us confidence in moments where we sense your Spirit calling and we need to take a step of faith. Help us to trust you. And that in our obedience, in our trust, you would continue to form us to be more like you. And that you would use us for your kingdom, for your good, and for your glory. Help us to learn from Moses.