Shownotes
When everything seemed hopeless and like there was no-one to help the Israelites, their God came. He came with compassion, faithfulness, justice and mercy. He came and gave hope that would not disappoint. Join me as we explore the amazing arrival of the faithful God in Exodus 3 and 4.
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Transcripts
G'day. I'm Dave Whittingham and welcome to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Thanks for your patience in this episode coming out a little bit later.
Speaker:I've had some big personal things in the last week, so it's taken a bit longer.
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Speaker:checking God out.
Speaker:This is for everyone.
Speaker:We all benefit from soaking ourselves in the truth about the faithful God.
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Speaker:As I prepare, you can sign up to my monthly news and prayer letter at my website,
Speaker:faithfulgod.net.
Speaker:That's faithfulgod.net dot.
Speaker:We're going to see really powerfully today that all of God's work relies on God, not
Speaker:humans.
Speaker:I feel that intensely as I write these
Speaker:episodes.
Speaker:So I'd really love you to pray.
Speaker:In the last couple of weeks I've put a new page on that website.
Speaker:It's aimed particularly at people who don't yet follow Jesus, but who want to know more.
Speaker:If that's you or if you know someone like that, you can send them there.
Speaker:It's in the about dropdown menu.
Speaker:There's a page about me and my ministry and
Speaker:there's a page about Christianity.
Speaker:I really hope it's helpful.
Speaker:Send me any feedback through the contact page.
Speaker:I'm keen to make it as useful as I can.
Speaker:I've said before that I love it when you send in questions.
Speaker:I'm really keen to answer them.
Speaker:After listening to the Easter series, I got a
Speaker:great question from Becky.
Speaker:G'day, Becky.
Speaker:Lovely to hear from you.
Speaker:I'm actually going to answer that question on
Speaker:a bonus episode in the next few days.
Speaker:That seemed a better way forward than popping
Speaker:it in here.
Speaker:I might also discuss a couple of other things
Speaker:that come up in the passage today on that episode.
Speaker:It'll just be a short episode, but a bit different to what we normally do.
Speaker:Make sure you're following the show on whatever listening platform you're on so
Speaker:you're ready when the bonus episode comes out.
Speaker:Before we get into exodus today, I wanted to
Speaker:talk about hope.
Speaker:Hope is really wonderful, isn't it?
Speaker:It's the promise or expectation of something better.
Speaker:A light at the end of the tunnel, a rest at the end of hard work.
Speaker:Happiness after a time of grief.
Speaker:You really know how precious hope is.
Speaker:When all hope seems lost, when dreams are shattered or plans are destroyed.
Speaker:Sometimes people put their hope in things that can never fulfil the dreams that people place
Speaker:in them.
Speaker:It's a sort of desperate or naive attempt, a
Speaker:forlorn hope that things will get better.
Speaker:When the Bible speaks about hope, it's much
Speaker:better than that.
Speaker:The hope is guaranteed.
Speaker:A promise that can't be broken, a reliable rock that can never be moved by the storms of
Speaker:life and time.
Speaker:And it's that sort of hope that we're going to
Speaker:see today, a guaranteed hope of joy and peace and freedom and justice.
Speaker:However you're feeling today, I trust that there's good news ahead as you listen.
Speaker:And so I present to you our next episode of stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Towards the end of the last episode, things seemed to be getting hopeless for the
Speaker:Israelites.
Speaker:They were stuck in brutal slavery in Egypt.
Speaker:They seemed to have forgotten their God.
Speaker:And the man who looked like he was going to be
Speaker:their savior, Moses, he's run away to a Foreign country.
Speaker:He's settled down, started a family, and has no plans to return to EGypt, where he's wanted
Speaker:for murder.
Speaker:There was a ray of light, though, right at the
Speaker:end of Exodus chapter two.
Speaker:We were told that God heard the groaning of
Speaker:his people, remembered his promises to AbrahaM, ISAaC and JaCob.
Speaker:He saw his people, and he knew exactly what to do.
Speaker:In other words, the hope of the ISraELites is God, even if they dont know it yet.
Speaker:At the start of chapter three, we find Moses in his new role of shepherding.
Speaker:Hes shepherding his father in laws flock.
Speaker:Remember, his new family are MidiaNites who
Speaker:are nomadic people.
Speaker:They go where the Grass is good.
Speaker:And we find Moses taking his father in laW's Flock across the wilderness of the Sinai
Speaker:peninsula to get them to the western side.
Speaker:And he arrives at a mountain, Mount Horeb.
Speaker:This is another biblical place that has two names.
Speaker:Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai.
Speaker:When he arrives, we see one of the most famous
Speaker:events in the Bible.
Speaker:The event starts with something that doesnt
Speaker:usually get mentioned.
Speaker:Ill read it from verse two, where in Exodus
Speaker:chapter three, verse two, it says, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire
Speaker:within a bush.
Speaker:That would certainly be enough to capture your
Speaker:attention.
Speaker:You can imagine that making it into the letter
Speaker:back home.
Speaker:Hi, honey.
Speaker:How are the kids? The sheep here are fine.
Speaker:The grass is green.
Speaker:I saw the angel of the Lord appear in a flame
Speaker:of fire within a bush.
Speaker:Now that his attention has been captured by
Speaker:that.
Speaker:Moses looks closer at the bush.
Speaker:He sees that the fire is still going, but the bush isnt burning up.
Speaker:This is something he just has to take a closer look at.
Speaker:He walks up to the bush and thats when God calls out to him from within the bush.
Speaker:He calls out, Moses, Moses.
Speaker:And Moses answers, here I am.
Speaker:I mean, what else do you say when a strange voice is calling out to you from within a
Speaker:burning bush that doesn't burn up? It's interesting though.
Speaker:At this stage, God knows Moses by name.
Speaker:In fact, God's been guiding and directing and
Speaker:protecting Moses his entire life.
Speaker:But Moses doesnt know God yet.
Speaker:God lays the groundwork for how this conversation is going to go.
Speaker:In verse five, he says, do not come closer.
Speaker:Remove the sandals from your feet, for the
Speaker:place where you are standing is holy ground.
Speaker:In other words, this is not a chat between
Speaker:equals.
Speaker:Moses has to come with deference and respect.
Speaker:Once thats worked out, God introduces himself.
Speaker:The way he does it is really important.
Speaker:Listen to what God says in verse six.
Speaker:He says, I am the God of your father, the God
Speaker:of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Speaker:Why introduce himself that way? As the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:Hes not saying, hey, remember, youre an israelite, not a midianite or an egyptian.
Speaker:He talks about these three men because they're the men God made his big promises to.
Speaker:Way back in Genesis, chapter twelve, verse one, God had called out to Abraham for the
Speaker:first time.
Speaker:And he said, go.
Speaker:Go from your land, your relatives and your father's house to the land.
Speaker:I will show you.
Speaker:I will make you into a great nation.
Speaker:I will bless you.
Speaker:I will make your name great and you will be a
Speaker:blessing.
Speaker:I will bless those who bless you.
Speaker:I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt.
Speaker:And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Speaker:In other words, leave behind everything youve ever relied on for comfort and security.
Speaker:And ill give you something much better.
Speaker:I'll give you the best comfort and security.
Speaker:I'll give you a huge family, a brand new land, lots of blessings.
Speaker:Most importantly, the whole world will be blessed through you.
Speaker:God reaffirmed this promise to Abraham's son Isaac, and to his son Jacob.
Speaker:The rest of the Bible is the story of how God faithfully keeps those promises, culminating
Speaker:in Jesus.
Speaker:Sometimes people will say they believe in God
Speaker:or a God.
Speaker:But if it's not the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Speaker:Jacob, if it's not the God who made these promises, then it's a different God.
Speaker:It means they don't really know God.
Speaker:As Moses realizes who he's talking to, he
Speaker:becomes terrified.
Speaker:We're told that he hides his face because he's
Speaker:afraid to look at God.
Speaker:Then God tells him why he's come.
Speaker:The words he says are good news.
Speaker:They're words of hope and joy, words of a
Speaker:compassionate God who's here to end the suffering of his people.
Speaker:Just like in our last episode, God describes what he's done and what he will do with four
Speaker:strong statements.
Speaker:He says that he's seen, he's heard, he knows,
Speaker:and he's come.
Speaker:In verse seven, God says what he's seen.
Speaker:He says, I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt.
Speaker:God isn't some distant God who occasionally glances down on the planet and thinks, oh, I
Speaker:hope they're having a nice time.
Speaker:No. God's seen every lash of the whip, every
Speaker:bent back, every son that's been thrown into the nile.
Speaker:And he hasn't just seen it on mute.
Speaker:He's also heard.
Speaker:God says that he's heard them crying out because of their oppressors.
Speaker:And then to emphasise the point, he says, I know about their sufferings.
Speaker:Have you ever had anyone treat your pain like it's a small thing, like you should just get
Speaker:over it? Or maybe you've been in pain and you try and
Speaker:get help, but no one's listening.
Speaker:It's a horrible feeling.
Speaker:God is not like that.
Speaker:God's seen his people's misery.
Speaker:He's heard their cries for help.
Speaker:He knows their suffering.
Speaker:And then he says three of the most wonderful words in all the world.
Speaker:He says, I have come.
Speaker:God's arrived.
Speaker:He's not talking about something way off in the future.
Speaker:He's not saying, get out your diary and let's book in a date.
Speaker:He's here now.
Speaker:He's here to do something amazing.
Speaker:He's here to fulfill the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to take his people
Speaker:from the land of slavery to the land of blessing, from the place of suffering to the
Speaker:place of rest.
Speaker:He says in verse eight, I have come down to
Speaker:rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and
Speaker:spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Speaker:The territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Speaker:This is the land God had taken Abraham to.
Speaker:Hed told Abraham that his family wouldnt get
Speaker:the land for a while because the people who live there already, their sin hadn't reached
Speaker:its full amount yet.
Speaker:In other words, God isn't some colonialist
Speaker:stealing land from the natives.
Speaker:He's given the Canaanites, hethites, Amorites,
Speaker:perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Speaker:Hundreds of years to turn away from their sin.
Speaker:But now enough's enough.
Speaker:They've run out of chances and God's going to
Speaker:deal with them and their sin.
Speaker:So there's a few things going on here.
Speaker:There's God's faithfulness.
Speaker:He's come to fulfil his promises.
Speaker:There's God's justice, but there's also God's compassion.
Speaker:We shouldn't think that these are all separate things.
Speaker:They're all on display here.
Speaker:They're all part of the character of God.
Speaker:Listen to how God speaks compassionately about his people.
Speaker:In verse nine he says to Moses, so because the Israelites cry for help has come to me and I
Speaker:have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
Speaker:Therefore go.
Speaker:I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may
Speaker:lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
Speaker:God loves his people, he is faithful to his
Speaker:people and he is going to save his people, using Moses to lead them out of Egypt.
Speaker:Moses though isn't so keen on the idea.
Speaker:He's not thinking about God or the Israelites.
Speaker:He's thinking about himself.
Speaker:He puts on this great display of false
Speaker:humility and he says in verse eleven, who am I?
Speaker:That I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
Speaker:On the surface thats a reasonable question.
Speaker:It had seemed like he would have made a great
Speaker:saviour back when he was living in the royal palace, when he was the adopted son of the
Speaker:kings daughter.
Speaker:Now though hes a fugitive with a death
Speaker:sentence hanging over his head.
Speaker:How could he possibly convince Pharaoh to let
Speaker:the people go? In replying God shows him that that's entirely
Speaker:the wrong question because Moses isn't the savior, God is.
Speaker:It isn't Moses power or words that'll get the people out.
Speaker:It's God.
Speaker:It doesn't matter really who he uses.
Speaker:Throughout the Bible, God uses all sorts of unexpected people.
Speaker:He uses a boy David to slay the giant Goliath.
Speaker:He uses a murderer saul to take the gospel to
Speaker:the whole roman empire.
Speaker:The gutless wonder.
Speaker:Gideon leads an army to a mighty victory.
Speaker:God uses prostitutes, pagan kings.
Speaker:He even uses a donkey.
Speaker:Who Moses is, that's irrelevant.
Speaker:God will be with him and that's what makes all the difference.
Speaker:In verse twelve, God says, I will certainly be with you.
Speaker:And this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you.
Speaker:When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God on this mountain.
Speaker:Spoiler alert.
Speaker:That actually happens.
Speaker:Moses will bring more than a million Israelites out of Egypt to Mount Sinai to
Speaker:worship God.
Speaker:It won't happen because Moses is powerful.
Speaker:It'll happen because God's powerful.
Speaker:Moses comes back with another question in
Speaker:verse 13.
Speaker:If I go to the Israelites and say to them, the
Speaker:God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name?
Speaker:What should I tell them? We've already seen in exodus that names in the
Speaker:Bible are important.
Speaker:They often tell you something about the person
Speaker:Moses name means to draw out because he was drawn out of the water.
Speaker:It also points to how God will use him to draw his people out of Egypt.
Speaker:Moses son is Gershom, which means stranger or foreigner, because Moses wasn't in his own
Speaker:land with his own people.
Speaker:It's a big thing to ask God his name.
Speaker:Moses is asking God to reveal something about himself, to let him in on some personal
Speaker:information, to expose himself.
Speaker:It's a great kindness from God that he's
Speaker:actually willing to do it.
Speaker:Here's what God says.
Speaker:God replied to Moses, I am who I am.
Speaker:This is what you are to say to the Israelites,
Speaker:I am has sent me to you.
Speaker:What on earth does that mean?
Speaker:When I first read it as a teenager, I thought it was a big statement about God's existence.
Speaker:I am like I exist.
Speaker:I'm the real God.
Speaker:There aren't any others, which is a true statement about God, and it may be part of the
Speaker:meaning, but I don't think that's the key to it.
Speaker:I think it's a name that begs for more information.
Speaker:In fact, I think it invites you to find out more information.
Speaker:I am what? What are you?
Speaker:Who are you? What's significant about you?
Speaker:Part of the reason for me thinking like that is the other way it can be translated.
Speaker:Most modern bibles will have the footnote that says, it can be translated as, I will be who I
Speaker:will be.
Speaker:It draws you forward into the future.
Speaker:It's like God saying, watch this space.
Speaker:You're about to see who I am by what I do,
Speaker:what I say.
Speaker:In fact, discovering who God is is what Exodus
Speaker:is all about.
Speaker:The Israelites need to realize who their God
Speaker:is.
Speaker:The Egyptians need to know who this God is.
Speaker:We'll see that in the next episode.
Speaker:When Moses tells Pharaoh that his God says to
Speaker:let his people go, the reason pharaoh says no is because he doesn't know this God.
Speaker:He's going to find out, though.
Speaker:We need to know this God too.
Speaker:Not by summing him up in one simple word, but by watching and learning, seeing what he says
Speaker:and what he does.
Speaker:I should put the brakes on and point out
Speaker:something here.
Speaker:It's the sort of thing where if you know it,
Speaker:you know it, and if you don't, you like what on earth's going on there, you can get
Speaker:confused.
Speaker:So I think it's worth just a quick aside.
Speaker:If you're reading the passage in your bible, you'll notice that I am is put in capital
Speaker:letters.
Speaker:You'll also see in the next section that the
Speaker:word Lord is written in capital letters.
Speaker:That's because they're almost the same word.
Speaker:The Lord is the name Yahweh.
Speaker:And Yahweh is another form of I am.
Speaker:It means he is.
Speaker:If you're someone who loves grammar, the one
Speaker:of them's first person I am and the other's third person he is.
Speaker:And you'll see that lord in capital letters all throughout your old testament.
Speaker:It's this name he is or I am.
Speaker:If you see Lord in lowercase letters, it just
Speaker:means lord.
Speaker:I won't go into the detail of why it's
Speaker:translated as Lord in capital letters.
Speaker:Now, if you're interested, I'll give you a bit
Speaker:of the history in the coming bonus episode.
Speaker:Anyway, that's the aside.
Speaker:So God is God will be what? We need more information.
Speaker:Thankfully, there's more to God's name in verse 15.
Speaker:This is what we read.
Speaker:God also said to Moses, say this to the
Speaker:ISraelites, the Lord, capital letters.
Speaker:So Yahweh or he is the Lord, the God of your
Speaker:ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of JaCob has sent me to
Speaker:you.
Speaker:This is my name forever.
Speaker:This is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
Speaker:Amazingly, God actually pins his name to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:His name isn't just Yahweh, he's Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:Why does he do that? Well, remember, these are the men who receive
Speaker:the great promises of God.
Speaker:New land, huge family, lots of blessings, the
Speaker:whole world blessed through them.
Speaker:Those are really big promises.
Speaker:And by pinning his name to those three men, hes actually pinning his name, his reputation,
Speaker:his character on those promises.
Speaker:When you hear his name, if he doesnt keep his
Speaker:promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then his name will forever be associated with
Speaker:unfaithfulness, weakness, lies but if he does keep the promises, everyone will know that
Speaker:this is the God of power, the God of truth, the God who is faithful, the God who can be
Speaker:relied on in any and every situation.
Speaker:One of the great things about having a
Speaker:faithful God is the hope he gives.
Speaker:When he makes promises to do things, you can
Speaker:trust him.
Speaker:When he says he cares about you and your
Speaker:suffering, that he wants to help you and save you, you can trust him.
Speaker:And that's exactly what God does.
Speaker:In verse 16 he says to Moses, go and assemble
Speaker:the elders of Israel and say to them, the Lord Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of
Speaker:Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has appeared to me and said, I have paid close attention to you
Speaker:and to what has been done to you in Egypt.
Speaker:And I have promised you that I will bring you
Speaker:up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, perizzites,
Speaker:Hivites and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Speaker:They will listen to what you say.
Speaker:Of course if they do listen, if they do
Speaker:believe and trust that God is faithful, they should be able to act on that trust.
Speaker:So God says to Moses in verse 18, then you along with the elders of Israel must go to the
Speaker:king of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
Speaker:Now please let us go on a three day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the
Speaker:Lord our God.
Speaker:Thats a pretty brave thing gods asking of
Speaker:them.
Speaker:Just walk up to Pharaoh, king of Egypt and ask
Speaker:him if you and the rest of the slaves can just pop off unsupervised for a few days.
Speaker:Of course bravery.
Speaker:Courage is what flows from trusting God.
Speaker:When the Bible tells us to be strong and courageous its not saying try and be really
Speaker:tough and powerful and then do the brave thing.
Speaker:It's saying the complete opposite.
Speaker:Recognize that you don't have the power.
Speaker:But God does and he's faithful.
Speaker:Trust him and be brave.
Speaker:That's what he's asking them here.
Speaker:Trust him and go and ask this of pharaoh.
Speaker:The request that God asked them to make seems to my ears at least a bit odd.
Speaker:We'll see it a few times in the next few episodes.
Speaker:Why only ask to go on a three day trip? God's already said he's going to take them to
Speaker:a new land.
Speaker:Is he asking them to lie to Pharaoh?
Speaker:No. I think what's happening is a kind of bargaining.
Speaker:They ask for something small but then the demand gets bigger and bigger.
Speaker:But even then, it's pretty obvious what's being asked.
Speaker:Pharaoh seems to know right from the beginning that if these guys leave for a three day trip,
Speaker:they're never coming back.
Speaker:God wants there to be clear expectations
Speaker:though.
Speaker:It's not like Pharaoh's just going to roll
Speaker:over.
Speaker:He is, after all, the ruler of the most
Speaker:powerful empire in the world.
Speaker:God says in verse 19, however, I know that the
Speaker:king of Egypt will not allow you to go even under force from a strong hand.
Speaker:But when I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles that I will perform
Speaker:in it, after that, he will let you go.
Speaker:And they are not going to shuffle out like
Speaker:slaves.
Speaker:They are going to leave like a conquering
Speaker:army.
Speaker:Remember, the Egyptians had been worried that
Speaker:the Israelites would join with their enemies, fight against them and then leave the country.
Speaker:Well, they do join with Yahweh, Egypts enemy, and they will leave.
Speaker:They won't do the fighting.
Speaker:God does that.
Speaker:But they do get to share in the victory.
Speaker:In verse 21, God says, and I will give these
Speaker:people such favour with the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty handed.
Speaker:Each woman will ask her neighbour and any woman staying in her house for silver and
Speaker:gold, jewellery and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters.
Speaker:So you will plunder the Egyptians.
Speaker:Do you remember which Israelites the Egyptians
Speaker:were most afraid of? The men.
Speaker:They're the ones who usually fight in the army.
Speaker:That's why they threw the baby boys in the river, so they wouldn't grow up to be enemy
Speaker:soldiers who plunder them.
Speaker:But the Israelites aren't going to escape
Speaker:because their men are great warriors swinging swords.
Speaker:They're going to escape because of God.
Speaker:And so did you see who would do the
Speaker:plundering? Not the hebrew men.
Speaker:After winning a great battle, it'll be the women who don't have to fight.
Speaker:They just have to ask their neighbours.
Speaker:And the neighbours will rush to hand over all
Speaker:their gold and silver and jewellery.
Speaker:And it's not because the women are better at
Speaker:persuading people.
Speaker:No. Just like we've seen all along, it'll all
Speaker:happen because God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the faithful God,
Speaker:will make it happen.
Speaker:Moses, though, hmm, he still isn't really
Speaker:convinced.
Speaker:We'll see how worried he is in the second
Speaker:half.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:In the first half we've seen God make amazing promises.
Speaker:Promises of power and salvation and hope.
Speaker:He's staked his name and reputation on those
Speaker:promises.
Speaker:Moses has already asked a couple of nervous
Speaker:questions.
Speaker:Now we're going to see him get more and more
Speaker:nervous and find ways to get out of this job.
Speaker:So in chapter four, verse one, he asks God,
Speaker:what if they won't believe me and will not obey me, but say, the Lord did not appear to
Speaker:you.
Speaker:Again, it sounds like a reasonable question,
Speaker:like a player asking a coach in training, what do I do if this happens?
Speaker:We'll see in a moment that there's a bit more behind it, though, to help give him a bit of
Speaker:backbone and to help the Israelites as well.
Speaker:God gives Moses some signs to perform.
Speaker:The signs are kind of double edged.
Speaker:They bring great fear and great comfort.
Speaker:They're deadly and they show life.
Speaker:They're a mixture of terror and joy, because
Speaker:God can bring all those things if you're with him, hope, life, joy, if you're against him,
Speaker:fear, terror, death.
Speaker:In verse two, we're told the Lord asked him,
Speaker:Moses, what is that in your hand? A staff.
Speaker:He replied, throw it on the ground.
Speaker:He said, so Moses threw it on the ground.
Speaker:It became a snake and he ran from it.
Speaker:This is the deadly part.
Speaker:Moses is terrified.
Speaker:By the way, if you do find yourself close to a
Speaker:snake, don't run like Moses did.
Speaker:Stay still because they can't see you.
Speaker:Trust me.
Speaker:I'm australian.
Speaker:Australia is home to 20 of the top 25 most deadly snakes, including all of the top
Speaker:eleven.
Speaker:Two comedians even wrote a great tourism ad,
Speaker:come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed.
Speaker:You can find it on YouTube.
Speaker:Anyway, that's the end of my public service
Speaker:announcement.
Speaker:I've read this passage about the staff
Speaker:becoming a snake so many times.
Speaker:Perhaps you have as well.
Speaker:It's easy to pass over what's just happened.
Speaker:Somehow God's transformed the molecules of a
Speaker:dead piece of wood into those of a living, deadly snake.
Speaker:It's the power of the creator God.
Speaker:The snake shows the deadly side.
Speaker:But then we read, the Lord told Moses, stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.
Speaker:So he stretched out his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand.
Speaker:And then God says, this will take place so that they will believe that the Lord Yahweh,
Speaker:the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Speaker:Jacob, has appeared to you.
Speaker:God's really emphasizing his name.
Speaker:This will prove that the powerful promise maker and promise keeper has appeared to you.
Speaker:Then Yahweh gives him another sign in verse six.
Speaker:Put your hand inside your cloak.
Speaker:So he, Moses, put his hand inside his cloak,
Speaker:and when he took it out.
Speaker:His hand was diseased, resembling snow again.
Speaker:That'd be pretty terrifying to have your hand suddenly become rotten with disease.
Speaker:Then God says, put your hand back inside your cloak.
Speaker:So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like
Speaker:the rest of his skin.
Speaker:It's a great picture of safety, salvation,
Speaker:healing.
Speaker:Finally, God gives him one more sign in verse
Speaker:eight.
Speaker:If they will not believe you and will not
Speaker:respond to the evidence of the first sign, they may believe the evidence of the second
Speaker:sign.
Speaker:And if they don't believe even these two
Speaker:signs, or listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry
Speaker:ground.
Speaker:The water you take from the Nile will become
Speaker:blood on the ground.
Speaker:It's interesting that there's no second half
Speaker:to that sign.
Speaker:Water turning to blood is pretty terrifying.
Speaker:Where's the relief? Or the blood going back into water?
Speaker:Perhaps this third sign serves as a warning to the people.
Speaker:Like, really, you don't believe those other two signs?
Speaker:Is it really that hard or are you just being stubborn?
Speaker:Be very careful not to keep being stubborn.
Speaker:God's been really kind in giving these signs.
Speaker:Don't push him.
Speaker:It's like when the Pharisees ask Jesus to show
Speaker:them a sign when they've already seen so many.
Speaker:It gives a pretty good insight into what's
Speaker:going on in their hearts.
Speaker:They're actually hard hearted and refusing to
Speaker:believe.
Speaker:It's a deadly mistake to mess around with God,
Speaker:though.
Speaker:And this sign of the water into blood is a bit
Speaker:of a hint towards that.
Speaker:Moses, he's doing a bit of messing around.
Speaker:In spite of these signs, in spite of God's patience and generosity, Moses is still
Speaker:looking for an excuse to get out of this.
Speaker:He's getting pretty desperate now.
Speaker:In verse ten, he says, please, lord, I have never been eloquent, either in the past or
Speaker:recently or since.
Speaker:You've been speaking to your servant.
Speaker:Because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish again.
Speaker:It sounds like Moses just wants God's plans to succeed.
Speaker:He's just offering some feedback, suggesting that God should find a better speaker for the
Speaker:job.
Speaker:Surely God doesn't want to be stuck with
Speaker:Moses.
Speaker:Who's he still thinking about, though?
Speaker:He's still thinking about himself.
Speaker:He hasn't learned a thing.
Speaker:It's not about him.
Speaker:It's about God.
Speaker:God's the one with all the power.
Speaker:God's the one with the words.
Speaker:Moses just has to do what he's told and trust that God's got it sorted.
Speaker:You can hear God's frustration coming out in his reply.
Speaker:In verse eleven, God says, who placed a mouth on humans?
Speaker:Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind?
Speaker:Is it not I, the Lord? Now go.
Speaker:I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.
Speaker:He's saying, Moses, do you have any idea who you're speaking to?
Speaker:You're complaining about your ability to speak.
Speaker:Who controls that ability? If you're with Yahweh, there isn't going to be
Speaker:a problem.
Speaker:Well, finally, Moses has run out of excuses,
Speaker:but he's still terrified.
Speaker:His eyes still aren't fixed on God.
Speaker:And so finally he says explicitly what he's been hinting at all along.
Speaker:In verse 13, he begs God, please Lord, send someone else.
Speaker:Its the most honest thing hes said so far.
Speaker:Now, at this point, im kind of ready to agree
Speaker:with Moses.
Speaker:I mean, hes such a disappointment, isnt he?
Speaker:Is this really the guy you want leading gods people?
Speaker:Is he really the great man to do this job? Hes a quivering, useless mess on the ground.
Speaker:Hes really a bit of an embarrassment.
Speaker:I could think that.
Speaker:But if I did, I'd be making exactly the same mistake as Moses, because it isn't about Moses
Speaker:at all.
Speaker:If you also listen to stories of a faithful
Speaker:God for kids, you'll have heard me emphasise something over the last couple of episodes.
Speaker:It's that God often does his most powerful work when people and situations seem at their
Speaker:worst.
Speaker:When God and his people look weak, that's when
Speaker:you know you're about to see God's amazing power.
Speaker:Moses looks really weak.
Speaker:Here you may have a picture of Moses as a
Speaker:really great man.
Speaker:And it's true that in the future he's going to
Speaker:do some amazing things.
Speaker:He's going to show amazing trust in God.
Speaker:But when you get to the point of reading those things, don't think, how amazing is Moses.
Speaker:Remember how Moses starts off as a scared, faithless wreck?
Speaker:So the fact that he's so different in the future, that's a sign of God's powerful work
Speaker:in him.
Speaker:We shouldn't say, how amazing is Moses.
Speaker:We've got to say, how amazing is God.
Speaker:Right now, God's really angry with Moses.
Speaker:Yahweh has given him such honor and privilege as the prophet of the living God, and Moses
Speaker:has thrown it back and said he doesn't want it.
Speaker:God doesn't give up, though he offers him a concession.
Speaker:He's going to let Moses brother, Aaron do all the talking.
Speaker:In doing that, though, God actually gives Moses even more honour, even more glory.
Speaker:See if you can hear it.
Speaker:In verse 14, we read.
Speaker:Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, isn't Aaron the Levite, your brother?
Speaker:I know that he can speak well.
Speaker:And also, he is on his way now to meet you.
Speaker:He will rejoice when he sees you.
Speaker:You will speak with him and tell him what to
Speaker:say.
Speaker:I will help both you and him to speak and will
Speaker:teach you both what to do.
Speaker:He will speak to the people for you, he will
Speaker:serve as a mouth for you, and you will serve as God to him.
Speaker:And take this staff in your hand that you will perform the signs with.
Speaker:Did you hear the great honour that God gave to Moses?
Speaker:Aaron's going to be his mouthpiece, his spokesman, or another way of saying it is.
Speaker:Aaron's going to be his prophet.
Speaker:God chooses prophets to be his mouthpiece and
Speaker:spokesman on earth.
Speaker:So if Aaron is Moses prophet, that makes Moses
Speaker:like God.
Speaker:Yahweh hasn't chucked Moses out on his ear.
Speaker:No, he's actually doubled down.
Speaker:He's invited this useless, faithless,
Speaker:quivering mess to share in his godly glory.
Speaker:Isn't that astounding?
Speaker:You can look at this passage and say, wow, Moses must be really great to get that honour.
Speaker:But it's so obviously not true, is it? All you can do is stand back and marvel at the
Speaker:greatness and kindness and mercy of God, that he would give such an honour and privilege to
Speaker:such an unworthy servant.
Speaker:Do you know that that honour that God gives to
Speaker:Moses, inviting him to be in some way like God, is actually available to everyone who
Speaker:puts their trust in Jesus? If you read through John's gospel the whole
Speaker:way through, Jesus speaks about God, his father.
Speaker:Jesus is God, the son.
Speaker:He's one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker:There's a beautiful mystery there of perfect relationship, perfect unity.
Speaker:They're all God, three persons in one God.
Speaker:After Jesus resurrection, though, in chapter
Speaker:20, verse 17, Jesus sends Mary with a message to his disciples.
Speaker:He says, go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my father and your father,
Speaker:to my God and your God.
Speaker:In Jesus death and resurrection.
Speaker:His death that took our punishment for our sin, unworthy sinners that we were, and his
Speaker:resurrection to take up his throne as king of the universe.
Speaker:The awesomeness of what he's won for us becomes clear.
Speaker:When we trust Jesus as our king and savior, we aren't just forgiven.
Speaker:We don't just become his servants.
Speaker:We're actually adopted into his family, into
Speaker:his royal family, into the family of the living God, Jesus and God the father and the
Speaker:holy spirit invite us to share in his godness, not because were great, but because hes great.
Speaker:Well, Moses finally gets on board with the plan.
Speaker:He heads back home and gets his father in laws permission and blessing to return to Egypt.
Speaker:In case there are any lingering worries about going back to the place where he's wanted for
Speaker:murder.
Speaker:God says in verse 19, return to Egypt for all
Speaker:the men who wanted to kill you are dead.
Speaker:And then we so Moses took his wife and sons,
Speaker:put them on a donkey and returned to the land of Egypt.
Speaker:And Moses took God's staff in his hand.
Speaker:As he travels back, God gives Moses some more
Speaker:information about what to expect.
Speaker:God talks about how he's going to use his
Speaker:power.
Speaker:It's an aspect of God's power that some people
Speaker:find uncomfortable.
Speaker:Let me read to you from verse 21.
Speaker:The Lord instructed Moses, when you go back to Egypt, make sure you do before pharaoh all the
Speaker:wonders that I have put within your power.
Speaker:But I will harden his heart so that he won't
Speaker:let the people go.
Speaker:And you will say to Pharaoh, this is what the
Speaker:Lord says.
Speaker:Israel is my firstborn son.
Speaker:I told you let my son go so that he may worship me.
Speaker:But you refuse to let him go.
Speaker:Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son.
Speaker:Let's not try and step around what God's saying here.
Speaker:He's saying, Moses, I'm going to give you power to do all sorts of wonders.
Speaker:And you'd think that there'd be enough to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but
Speaker:he won't.
Speaker:And the reason he won't is because God will
Speaker:harden his heart.
Speaker:God will hold him in stubbornness.
Speaker:He'll keep him blind to the foolishness of fighting against God.
Speaker:Then, because Israel's so precious to God, like his firstborn son, then God will take the
Speaker:life of Pharaoh's firstborn son.
Speaker:What's happening here?
Speaker:Why is God speaking like this? If I was a wimp, I'd just tell you to go and
Speaker:read romans nine and leave it at that.
Speaker:So just go and read romans nine.
Speaker:But I dont think I should just leave it at that.
Speaker:We need to remember here that pharaoh is not some innocent guy who God is forcing into
Speaker:badness.
Speaker:God doesnt put the evil into pharaohs heart.
Speaker:Its already there.
Speaker:And although he isnt the pharaoh who commanded
Speaker:the baby boys to be thrown into the river, he has continued the policy of slavery and
Speaker:oppression of God's people.
Speaker:He's accepted and approved of the policies of
Speaker:the past.
Speaker:Also, just like anyone who's ever sinned,
Speaker:including you and me, he has no right to God's mercy.
Speaker:There's nothing in him that deserves it or can earn it.
Speaker:Rather, he deserves to be punished by God.
Speaker:And that's exactly what God's doing.
Speaker:The punishment isnt that God puts evil in pharaohs heart.
Speaker:Thats already there.
Speaker:Its that God keeps pharaoh in the foolishness
Speaker:of his sin.
Speaker:Romans nine tells us that he does that to show
Speaker:his justice.
Speaker:He really cares about and deals with whats
Speaker:right and wrong.
Speaker:Remember, dont mess with God.
Speaker:Just in case youre wondering if that really matters to God, you only have to read what
Speaker:happens on the way back to Egypt.
Speaker:God actually almost kills Moses for
Speaker:disobedience.
Speaker:In verse 24, were told on the trip at an
Speaker:overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him, Moses and intended to put him
Speaker:to death.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:After going through all that stuff back at Mount Sinai, what's happened?
Speaker:What's Moses done? It's something that we might be tempted to
Speaker:write off, as small as not important.
Speaker:It's something that Moses hasn't done.
Speaker:He hasn't circumcised his son.
Speaker:Now, God has not commanded christians to do
Speaker:this.
Speaker:If you're a parent and you haven't done that,
Speaker:don't panic.
Speaker:But God did command the Israelites to do it.
Speaker:It was a visible reminder of a time when Abraham, their forefather, had used that
Speaker:particular part of his body because he didn't trust God.
Speaker:He didn't believe God's promise that he would give him a baby through his wife Sarah, who
Speaker:was getting really old.
Speaker:And so he'd had a son by another woman.
Speaker:That's why God told him and all his male descendants to chop a bit off.
Speaker:It was a reminder of his failure, but also a reminder to always trust God.
Speaker:Moses has ignored God.
Speaker:That's the heart of what sin is.
Speaker:I don't need to listen to God.
Speaker:I can decide what's best.
Speaker:And if you try and shut out the God who gives life, you deserve death.
Speaker:Romans 623 says, the wages of sin is death.
Speaker:What we earn is death.
Speaker:Moses is saved from death, though not because he deserves it, but because his quick thinking
Speaker:wife sheds blood to save him.
Speaker:Verse 25 says, so Zipporah, that's his wife,
Speaker:took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, threw it at Moses feet and said, you're a
Speaker:bridegroom of blood to me.
Speaker:So he, God left him alone at that time.
Speaker:She said, you're a bridegroom of blood, referring to the circumcision.
Speaker:Don't mess with God.
Speaker:Sin, ignoring God deserves death.
Speaker:This passage, though, is a tiny pointer to say, there is a way to not get what you
Speaker:deserve.
Speaker:And it has to do with the shedding of blood.
Speaker:Ultimately, it's Jesus who sheds his blood on our behalf.
Speaker:So we don't get what we deserve.
Speaker:We're given life, even when we deserve death.
Speaker:All these things that we're learning about God, his power, his justice, his authority to
Speaker:judge, to give life and death, his graciousness in saving unworthy people, these
Speaker:are all fundamental to God's character.
Speaker:His name.
Speaker:I am Yahweh.
Speaker:He is.
Speaker:We're seeing that filled out.
Speaker:He is fair, he is powerful, he is forgiving,
Speaker:he's just, he's faithful in keeping his promises to Abraham, Isaac and JaCob.
Speaker:And it's this God, the God who can't be messed with, beaten, tricked, overthrown.
Speaker:The God who wont be stopped from saving his people.
Speaker:This God has come, which gives the Israelites hope.
Speaker:A hope that doesnt rest on a dream, or a desire or wishful thinking.
Speaker:A hope that rests on the character of the faithful God.
Speaker:So we read in verse 27.
Speaker:Now, the Lord had said to Aaron, go and meet
Speaker:moses in the wilderness.
Speaker:So he went and met him at the mountain of God
Speaker:and kissed him.
Speaker:Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent
Speaker:him to say, and about all the signs he had commanded him to do.
Speaker:Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.
Speaker:Aaron repeated everything the Lord had said to Moses and performed the signs before the
Speaker:people.
Speaker:The people believed.
Speaker:And when they heard that the Lord had paid attention to them, and that he had seen their
Speaker:misery, they knelt low and worshipped.
Speaker:Just imagine that moment of relief.
Speaker:The people know they've been heard.
Speaker:They know they've been seen.
Speaker:They know that Yahweh, their God, cares for them, and they know that he's come to save
Speaker:them.
Speaker:What about us?
Speaker:What grounds do we have for hope? We who sin, we who live in a world of
Speaker:suffering and oppression, of relationship breakdowns and harsh words and disease and
Speaker:hatred and death, where we have exactly the same grounds for hope as they did?
Speaker:God's name points to his character, his faithfulness, his commitment to his promises.
Speaker:Remember, the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob weren't limited to the Israelites.
Speaker:They started there, but they were global in focus.
Speaker:God said he was going to bless the whole world through them.
Speaker:The way he's done.
Speaker:That was both completely unexpected, and it
Speaker:makes total sense because if you're in a hopeless state, if things are awful and you
Speaker:have no way of getting yourself out, if you're completely and utterly helpless, who would you
Speaker:want to hear your cry, know your suffering, and come to help?
Speaker:Wouldn't it be the powerful, faithful God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who created
Speaker:the world, who can take on a superpower like Egypt and win?
Speaker:Who can turn a lump of wood into a snake and back into wood as easily as flicking on a
Speaker:light switch? And God has come in the person of Jesus
Speaker:Christ.
Speaker:Throughout the Old Testament, there are
Speaker:prophecies that God would send a man, a king, a savior, to help his people, a descendant of
Speaker:Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who was going to bless the world.
Speaker:There were also heaps of prophecies saying that God himself would turn up.
Speaker:No one really put those two things together, God and human.
Speaker:But in Jesus, they all come true.
Speaker:People looked at him.
Speaker:They watched what he said and did, and they didn't get it.
Speaker:They couldn't make the connection for why he had so much power and authority.
Speaker:But in a debate with some jewish leaders, Jesus makes it really clear.
Speaker:He says to them, truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am now.
Speaker:Jesus doesn't have bad grammar.
Speaker:He's saying that God, the one who spoke to
Speaker:Moses from the bush, who rescued his people from Egypt and gave them a good land, that's
Speaker:me.
Speaker:If we want to know God, the same God who spoke
Speaker:to Moses, the same God who faithfully keeps his promises, the God who gives real hope that
Speaker:never disappoints, then we need to know Jesus.
Speaker:God in the flesh, the great I am.
Speaker:Throughout John's gospel, Jesus again fills in that name with more detail.
Speaker:He says, I am the good shepherd.
Speaker:He looks after his people, cares for his
Speaker:people, binds up the wounded, rescues those who are going astray, lays down his life for
Speaker:his people like a good shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep.
Speaker:He says, I am the light of the world.
Speaker:He reveals what's really real.
Speaker:Without him, we're stumbling in the dark through this world.
Speaker:With him, we see what's good and bad, right and wrong, real and fake.
Speaker:Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.
Speaker:Without Jesus, we're cut off from God, bound by death, destined for hell for all eternity.
Speaker:But when we trust Jesus, just like God was asking Moses to trust him and listen to him
Speaker:and follow him, then he gives us life, true life, real life, joined to the creator of the
Speaker:universe, eternal life with new bodies.
Speaker:When Christ returns, new life, washed clean of
Speaker:guilt and sin and shame.
Speaker:He'll take us to a new land, a land where
Speaker:there's no more death or suffering or crying or pain.
Speaker:A new heaven and earth.
Speaker:He gives us new life with the true and living
Speaker:God, the faithful God who gives real, never failing, everlasting hope.
Speaker:Back in Egypt, Moses and the Israelites are about to place their lives into the hands of
Speaker:that God.
Speaker:They're going to speak to Pharaoh and ask what
Speaker:seems impossible.
Speaker:They're going to ask him for their freedom.
Speaker:But that's a story.
Speaker:The next time.
Speaker:See you then.
Speaker:I want to thank everyone who's made this show
Speaker:possible with their generous support.
Speaker:If you want to keep hearing more of these
Speaker:stories, and if you want other people to hear about this great God, please consider
Speaker:supporting me financially if you're able.
Speaker:If you go to the support page of Faithfulgod,
Speaker:you can either give a one off donation or become a regular supporter.
Speaker:I want to keep this show free for anyone who cant afford it.
Speaker:So if you can, please help out.
Speaker:Theres a link to the support page in the show
Speaker:notes.
Speaker:Also on the website you can sign up for news
Speaker:and prayer points and you can find links to follow the show on Facebook, Instagram and X.
Speaker:Bye for now.
