This morning, we're continuing our look at the story of Exodus. And if you weren't here last week, we dealt with Exodus 3 where God introduced Himself to Moses and Israel for the first time in four hundred years. And there were some very key important things that He wanted to communicate in this one of the biggest moments in this history of Israel. It's a moment where He came and introduced Himself as the I am God, the name that would later be pronounced as Yahweh. It was a moment where God showed three attributes about Himself that He felt was really important for Moses and then for the wider Israel community to know.
Firstly, that God is holy, that He is completely other, that He is completely separate from the fallen, inadequate man Moses as a saviour of Israel, but that He is that He's completely different to any of the Egyptian gods, the Egyptian way of life that these Israelites would have been used to. Firstly, that He is holy. Secondly, that He is compassionate. That out of all the potential gods these Israelites were crying out to in their groaning under slavery in Egypt, it was God who heard and it was God who was concerned about them and that He was going to do something about that. That He was not only holy and other and bigger than anything we know in this world, but that He was intimate and personal and caring.
And then we saw thirdly that He revealed Himself as dependable. He said, I am. And that statement invokes trust because we saw that this God wasn't a God who gave a title or a noun for His name. He gave His name as a verb. I am.
And we saw that even today, can't translate adequately that I am statement or that verb because it could mean I am who I am right now, or it could be translated I am who I was to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will be as faithful to you as I was to them, Or it could be translated, I will be who I will be. You watch and wait, and you will see the power that I will use to rescue you from Egypt. It could be all of those, and it is all of those. He is dependable.
He is faithful. These are the things that God communicated to Moses in that burning bush on that first day where God introduced Himself. Yahweh is a God who is faithful and dependable. But this morning, we're going to look at the flip side of that in Exodus 4, at Moses' response to this God who introduced Himself. How does Moses react to this?
Because we see God not simply introducing Himself and then disappearing into heaven and saying, You deal with that now. He comes to Moses for a reason because Moses has a job to do. He has a job to do. Let's have a look at how that unfolded. Let's turn this morning to Exodus 4, and we're going to read from verses 1-17.
Exodus 4:1-17. This is how Moses responded to this God. 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 and took hold of the snake and it turned 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, it was leprous like 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 miraculous 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 and pour it on dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground. Moses said to the Lord, O 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 man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute?
Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. But Moses said, O Lord, please send someone else to do it. 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 his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will help both of you speak and 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 the staff in your hands so you can perform miraculous signs with it. So far, our reading. If you've been a Christian for a while, you may know or you may remember that God often refers to His children as His flock, as His sheep. We are the sheep of His pasture, the psalmist writes. And that's a nice little image, isn't it?
We imagine beautiful green pastures, beautiful rolling hills from some place like England or something like that and this gentle shepherd looking after his sheep while they sit by still and refreshing waters. But God also refers to us as stubborn asses, stubborn mules. God often lamented Israel as a stiff necked people. In Hosea 4:16, God says, How can I pastor my people like sheep when they are stubborn mules? And we know this is true, don't we, of ourselves?
Some married couples here I see are looking straight at me, not looking to make eye contact to a husband or wife next to them because they know all about stubborn renewals, don't they? Why is it that we are stubborn towards God? This God who is so gracious and so compassionate. Why are we stubborn when we clearly hear God's word spoken to us? Why do we fight and resist Him?
Why do we run from Him? It makes no sense. This morning, we read of that great day where God came and He introduced Himself in a spectacular fashion, spoke directly to Moses. Who wouldn't like God to speak that directly to them? Spoke directly to Moses, gave him His command to a T almost, His purpose, His calling.
And we see that day. That day was the day that Moses the mule dug his hooves in. In chapter 3:10, God spoke to Moses very simply and clearly. He said, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
Simple. A two folded command. Go. I am sending you. And secondly, bring my people out.
Notice that this wasn't a multiple choice arrangement. This wasn't an open forum for, you know, a good bit of banter, trying to refine a good plan, a bit of consultation. This wasn't even an invitation. This was a call. When God calls, whether that is calling us into a relationship with Himself or whether that is a call to a purpose with our lives, He doesn't open the floor for debate.
He calls and that's it. He doesn't hold a blue ribbon panel of consultants open to suggest viable options. He speaks and that is it. At very unique important junctures in our lives, God may say to us, now daughter, now my son, I have this in mind for you. Go.
I'm sending you and I will be with you. You may sense the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart, drawing you into a certain direction, and yet we find ourselves reacting in very very similar ways to the way that Moses reacted. We see in our reading this morning three excuses Moses made when he received the call of God. Let's have a look at them now. Firstly, lame excuse number one.
I don't have all the answers. This actually happens in chapter 3, so we've already dealt with that last week, but we'll just have a look at that again. Verse 13, chapter 3, reads, Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is His name? Then what shall I tell them?
Lord, Moses says, I can't be Your guy. I can't be Your guy. What if they start firing questions at me? I've barely met You, and now I have to go and introduce You to this people of Israel. Moses stops God very early on and said, woah.
Woah. Woah. I barely know You, God. How will I explain theology to other people? Now that might be kind of familiar to us as well.
If you think about it, does this sound familiar? Lord, I can't do that because I just don't know how to handle it. What if someone asks me about the fate of non Christian believers in The Middle East who have never heard the gospel before? How am I gonna react to that? What am I gonna say?
Or what if someone says that science has proven Christianity as false? I don't have a degree in science. I failed grade 10 science at high school. I don't know what to say. I might look really ridiculous in the eyes of other people.
I just don't have all the answers. But the flaw in this excuse, the flaw in this understanding is that it revolves around our sense of authority. Our sense of authority. By whose authority would Moses be speaking? He was thinking his own authority.
He was thinking his own knowledge, what he brought to the table, his study, his wisdom, his experience. Notice, however, how God responds to Moses. He doesn't give Moses a three year degree in theology to sort it out. He simply said in chapter 3, I am who I am. Tell them I am has sent you.
Now before that would have meant anything to the elders of Israel, it meant a whole lot to Moses because he doesn't continue that line of argument. He gets it. Because when God said to Moses, I am sending you, God was saying first to Moses, you may not have all the answers, but you have all of Me. And all of Me is a whole lot. That obviously meant something to Moses.
And this is really important for us to remember as well. When we feel like we don't have the answers to difficult questions, remember that it is not us who need to give the answers. Don't get me wrong. It's good to study. It's good to read and educate yourselves.
It's good to think and reason about all these things, but we don't need all the answers. We simply need to introduce them to the one who does. We don't need the answers. We need to say this is the God who has the answers. Ask Him and He'll sort it out.
We don't speak on our own authority, but on the authority of the God of the promise. The God of the promise who said, I am who I am. I will be who I will be to you. The second lame excuse we see up there is the excuse to resist God's calling. I might not have people's respect.
I may not have people's respect. Verse 1 in chapter 4 begins with Moses saying, what if the people do not believe me or listen to me and say, the Lord did not appear to you? Now I can't help but imagining Moses standing here at this moment being told to go back to Egypt. He had been serving for forty years in a dusty dirty desert in rags of a shepherd. And now he has to walk into the heartland of culture of that day.
The most beautiful parliament house in Australia. Well, maybe Canberra is not a good example. A beautiful place in Sydney with the fashionable people with the nice suits, and he has to walk in there with the stubbies and his thongs. He would have thought this, old rundown shepherd from the backside of the desert, he would have thought, look at this wrinkled face. Look at these dirty clothes.
I'm going to walk right into Egypt looking like a bogan that's just fallen off the back of a ute, and I'm going to tell them that thus says the Lord. What if they don't believe me? But God patiently responds again to this excuse and shows Moses just what He is capable of doing. He tells Moses to throw his staff on the ground, and he does so. And then instantly runs off like a scaredy cat because the staff has become a snake.
And instantly, when Moses grabs the tail of the snake, it becomes a staff again. You can bet that got Moses' attention pretty quickly. But God goes on and He says, all right. Put your hand inside your cloak and remove it. And he did so and it was covered in white leprosy.
Man, what a shock. Over just instantly. Bang. Alright. Put it back in and take it back out.
And it was restored back to his flesh, says, back to normal. God's response to Moses' excuse reassures him that it's not Moses' power, but God's power that will convince Pharaoh and Israel. It's got nothing to do with the humble jar clay that Moses was, but like Paul the Apostle would say, the treasure within, the glory of God, the message of Jesus Christ that will shine through, that will speak, that will move with power. In fact, we see later that a staff turning into a snake or a leprous hand is nothing for the God of the universe who would then later go and fill the land with lice, with grasshoppers, with frogs, with gnats, who would turn the Nile River itself into a river of blood, who would literally turn off the sunlight over the entire land, and who would ultimately snuff out the life of every firstborn male in Egypt. A wriggling snake's staff was just the beginning.
When we wrestle with fears about our status, about what others may think of us, what others may pigeonhole us as, if we fear what our parents may think of us, what our friends may think of us, remember that God holds the power to come through on those promises that we are communicating. Again, we don't have to make sure those promises become true because they are God's promises. And we are holding onto those promises. And He can and He will validate those commands to us. Whether they are our commands or whether they are commands that we communicate to others, God is the one who validates them.
Why remain obedient to God by remaining pure with your girlfriend now? Because God will validate your future relationship with your wife through that. It will be healthier. It will have less baggage. Why give up your well paying job to pursue something with a lower salary, but something that you feel is called to perhaps?
Because God often does visibly do something amazing to validate our obedience to His calling for us. Why sacrifice salary in the eyes of the world? That's crazy. But we are more fulfilled through that. So God shows Moses His power, the power that would validate all that he had to tell the world.
And surely Moses would have been convinced now. This is a God who did something amazing, But unfortunately, Moses wasn't convinced. And we see excuse number three. I don't have the ability. I don't have the ability.
The Living Bible paraphrases verse 10 as this, O Lord, I'm not a good speaker. I have never been and I'm not now, even after You have spoken to me because I have a speech impediment. Now this excuse was based again on the ability or the giftedness of Moses. And he felt like he just simply didn't have the capability of being a spokesperson for this mighty God. He had spent, remember, forty years in the desert.
He had been working with sheep for forty years and they are not talkative. All the response would have been, Bah, ah. Now he had to go to the heartland of culture of that day and persuade a king, persuade a king to let go of hundreds of thousands of his servants. How on earth was he going to do that? Especially if he had a stutter.
Especially if he felt really inadequate to communicate. He was not eloquent. But it's funny, isn't it? When I think of Moses and I'm looking forward to watching this Exodus movie that's out, you can bet your bottom dollar that Christian Bale has got charisma pouring out of every orifice in his body in that. He's confident.
He's strong. Has anyone seen it? Is he? He's pretty yeah. He's a prince of Egypt.
But we don't see this stumbling, bumbling Moses that can hardly put a sentence together. This is the Moses of the Bible. So even in my thinking, I don't think of Moses that way. I think of him as the great leader that he was eventually. The man who led Israel out, who was at the forefront of introducing God, who gave the Ten Commandments, this man who met God.
But there was another man like this who admitted his own limitations, and yet I have a very high view of him as well and his name was Paul the Apostle. And he said in 1 Corinthians 2:12, writing to the church there, I did not come to you brothers with any eloquence or superior wisdom when I proclaim to you the testimony of God. In the context, he's saying, I didn't come to you with suave, scintillating words like the ones you'd be expecting from the Greeks you love to celebrate. You've heard plenty of eloquent speakers, but I wasn't like that. Verse 3 he says, I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling.
Can you believe that? But Paul saw God's perfect reasoning for calling him. Why didn't God choose a more powerful, eloquent speaker? Because he didn't want people to get hung up on the man's speaking style and craft. He didn't want people to walk away saying, I'm impressed.
Wow. What a great communicator. I love how he logically put that together. What an awesome speaker. No.
Paul said verses 4 and 5 of that passage, my message and my preaching was not with persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power among you. So that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power. When the Apostle Paul finished however, people left that place knowing that they had met God. People had heard the simple message of the gospel and were changed. When Moses made this excuse, God patiently again gives him another assurance.
He says, who has made the mouth of man? Who makes a man mute or deaf? Who makes him to see or be blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Go.
I will teach you what to say. I will help you to speak. Now again, we may have experienced this ourselves. We may find ourself in a situation that we've never anticipated before, something that you couldn't have prepared for. But suddenly, out of nowhere, at one of those critical junctures in your life, you are given a response, you are given an insight, you are given a word to speak and communicate that you afterwards realise that you didn't have.
It was just not within you to say that. Some parents may be able to relate to that moment where a child looks up at them for a bit of advice. And, again, you're just feeling the pressure to say something profound here, and you utter a few words that you again realise, wow. That was exactly what was needed in that situation. The God who created the mouth and the soul is able to speak directly into that soul and out of that mouth.
This is the powerful God we have. This is the promise that God made to Moses. The God who can speak into that soul of yours and out of that mouth. Trust God that He can use any ability or any inability for His glory. We simply need to entrust Him with that.
Now lastly, and this is actually not so much an excuse as just a direct objection from Moses. Verse 13, Moses says in chapter 4, Lord, I've heard all these things. Thank you for it, but please just send someone else. He's run out of excuses. He's run out of excuses.
Now he's finally just revealed his cards. He just doesn't wanna do it. Anyone but me, please. But this last response of Moses should be a warning to us because we see that after God patiently reassured Moses and promised him and said it's going to be alright, God becomes angry. God becomes frustrated, and His patience is starting to run very thin.
It seems as though this was not part of God's original plan, and He wanted Moses to be the one to do this job. But seemingly, He allows Aaron to tag along and be part of the leadership that God solely wanted to put on Moses' shoulders. God relents, and we see that through Exodus. It's amazing. This sovereign God who plans and knows everything relents.
Seems like He changes what's happening. And He says okay, go to Aaron. He's actually on his way to you and he will be your spokesperson. He will be your mouthpiece. But we also see the consequences of this because Aaron who now shares this leadership over Israel, would later in Exodus create the golden calf and lead the entire nation of Israel into idolatry and break God's heart.
This was not God's original plan, but He would redeem it. God may point His finger at us and we may immediately turn around to the back row and say, who me? It must be this guy. Why me? I've got debts, Lord.
I'm in no financial position to do this. We may say I've got high blood pressure. I'm a bit overweight. I'm not healthy enough to do this. I've not been to seminary or Bible college.
I've got kids at home, God. Come on. But God knows what He's doing. He's got a purpose. He's chosen you, and He's not going to give up.
He wasn't going to give up on Moses. If He's calling you, He's asking you to pursue something with your life. Be obedient. Do it. And there's just three things I want us to remember in closing.
When God does call us, when God does draw us into a direction or a purpose that He set us. He says firstly that we should be certain that it's God's voice that's calling. And we have to remember that the word of God, the Bible, is the wisdom of God and it won't lead us astray. God's voice isn't all that difficult to hear. We literally have to close our eyes and block our ears to miss God's word this morning.
Secondly, we also have friends in our midst who are great counselors, very wise people may have walked a journey with God a little bit longer than you have. They are also there. This is why God gave the church. They are also there to give advice, to point out any red flags in the direction we feel we're being led into. So be certain it's God's voice doing the calling.
Secondly, be confident in His power. Don't turn aside and say, I'm not strong enough for this. His power, the Bible says, will be made complete in us. You are a jar of clay, remember. And lastly, we are to cherish and pursue the direction that God wants for us because we know that His ways are comfortable and healthy for us.
They are good for us. He won't lead us like a bad shepherd into bad situations. He is a good shepherd. We need to know and remember that His ways are good and healthy for us. In closing, I read a prayer this week that I just wanna share with you regarding a response to God's calling in our lives.
It says, Lord, I am willing. This is the prayer. Lord, I am willing. I am willing to receive what You give. I'm willing to lack what You withhold.
I am willing to relinquish what You take. I'm willing to suffer for what You require. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we come before You to give our stubborn mule spirits to You, Lord, and to ask that You will in turn give us a steadfast spirit, a heart that acknowledges and has confidence in Your leadership and guidance of our lives. Father, there may be many of us here in very different dynamic situations, Lord, regarding jobs and careers, regarding studies and future careers, regarding schooling, friendship circles.
O Lord, so many things. Father, give us the patience to really question and search Your heart, to listen attentively to Your voice and Your guidance, and the courage, Lord, the courage to take up those things that You say to us. Lord, give us the patience to endure the scorn that others may heap upon us because they don't understand. Not many will understand, Lord, when You call. But, father, give us the confidence to trust in You.
Thank you, Lord, that again in Romans 8:28, we know that in all things You work for the good of those who have been called according to Your purposes, that Your purposes are good always, Lord. Help us, Lord, to be obedient. Help us, Lord, to be flexible and mouldable by You. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.