Moses Becomes the Deliverer

Preached 3/14/21

Moses Becomes the Deliverer

As we know from last week, Moses was called by God with the use of a Burning Bush that was not consumed by the fire of God.  From that point on Moses was truly a changed man.  With the Call of God on his heart Moses set out to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from their bondage.  But it would not be a simple task by any measure.

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:5-11

Moses may have reacted the way many of us may have reacted, with doubt or confusion.

There are a couple of other reactions that we might look at to how others responded.  Look at how Isaiah responded – Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8

And then there is Mary, the mother of Jesus – “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.  Luke 1:34-38

Both Isaiah and Mary were given tasks that were unusual and seemingly impossible.  Isaiah said, “Send me.”  Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant… may it be to me as you have said.”  Both were submissive, both wanted to do the Lord’s bidding.  Now, Moses is standing in front of the Burning Bush and he has a job to do for the Lord.

But today I want to go in a different direction.  Instead of concentration on the Pharaoh, and God’s many miracles, let’s look at the miracle of a heart that learns, grows and changes.  The greatest miracle in the world is a heart changed from stone to love; a soul, changed from lost to found; the realization of a Loving and All-Powerful God.

During the whole delivering process Moses had to be continually reminded with Whom he was working.  Moses, like us, had to be reminded several, no many, too many times, Who God was and Who was in charge.

In Exodus God gives Moses reminders of Who He is, many times.  Let’s look at a few of them.

God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord.  I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. Exodus 6:2-3

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. Exodus 6:6-7

And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.‘” Exodus 6:8

Now when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” Exodus 6:28-29

If God were in personal, directly communicating with you, would that not be enough for you?  There are more, but we’ll just look at these.  In every one God repeats Himself and says, “I AM.”

Then, after God tells Moses I AM five times God gave him eight promises, or I WILLs.  All of which, the I AMs and the I WILLs, need to be remembered by us.  You see, the Old Testament was written to be Scripture for those who needed it in the early Church.  Jesus taught from it many times.  And it was written to give us foundations for Who God is and what He can do in our lives.

God is telling US in these I WILLs that He is our God, and He is Sufficient for us, no matter what we face.  Paul tells us, To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

He told Paul and He is telling us that when the storms hit and we don’t want to get out of the boat; when life overwhelms us and we want to hide under the bed; when the diagnosis is what we were afraid of and we think we can’t face it down; when we are weak, He is strong.  And all He wants is for us to turn our eyes toward Him, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.  An active, growing Faith is what Jesus is looking to find in each of us.  As we have read, Faith is required to please God.  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)  If we are looking to please Him, we must begin with Faith.  We begin by looking to Him for Life Eternal, through Faith.  A. W. Tozer has said, “Faith is the gaze of a longing soul on a saving God.”  As our gaze upon God improves, grows, our faith grows, and our life in Christ grows.  The same way Moses’ did.  You depend wholly on God.

Moses had faith, but God had to continually help him with his faith.  Moses, eventually, depended completely on God.  God is calling and waiting for you to do just the same.

Is that the reason for the Exodus?  To show us it can be done?  Did Moses depend on God because of or in spite of the problems?  How about you?  Is your default setting Fear or Faith?

Bostwick UMC 3/14/21