He single-handedly saved the Jewish nation on several occasions.
His life foreshadows that of Jesus, and he’s like Him in many ways. He predicted Jesus would come.
He makes an appearance in the Bible many years after his death.
His body is buried by God himself – an honor we read about no one else.
Still, he was more humble than any man on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 34:10-12
…no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt--to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Call that the first point if you must. It’s a simple point: The main character of Exodus 3 is no small-name. Moses is among the most important of people in Judeo-Christian history.
But Moses wasn’t always the hero he became. In fact, he had to go through some pretty major changes to get there, and looking at him this morning gives us another occasion to see a changed heart that became a changed life.
His life takes up too much space to look at much of it, so we’re looking at just one small part of it…a critical time when he set the course for the rest of his life.
Moses was just walking along, working, doing what he did, and suddenly there’s this burning bush and God’s there speaking with him. Here’s the fun part: That could be you this morning. Just like Moses didn’t expect to have God show up and change everything, you may have come here expecting nothing particularly significant to happen today. I hope you’re wrong. Let’s look at the change that made an exiled shepherd into the leader of a whole nation.
I. Change Means Putting Our Past To Use Rather Than Being Ruled By It
We all have something in common this morning. We all have a past. Some of ours are shorter than others, but we all have one. The place we allow the past to have in our lives can be crucial to how we’re handling the present.
We’re looking at Moses near the middle of his life today. Remember, he was born the son of slaves in Egypt. As a baby, he managed to escape the death sentence that Pharaoh had extended over all the Hebrew boys. In fact, he ended up being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. Like the movie says, he was a “prince of Egypt.”
If you were to chart his life, it would have basically 3 parts, each one 40 years long: 40 years in Egypt living in the palace, 40 years in Midian as a shepherd, 40 years leading Israel in the desert.
(Acts 7:23 - "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.
Exodus 7:7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died...)
Today’s text starts with Moses at age 80. That means 2/3 of his life has been preparation – almost 40 years of knowing what it’s like to live in the palace; years of education and wealth; years of comfort; years of getting to understand the inside of Egyptian politics. Then came the day that Moses visited his people and he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Word got out, and Moses got out of Dodge – he placed himself under a self-imposed exile – aka, he ran away so he wouldn’t be killed. He ran east, to the desert area of Midian. There, he lived the life of a refugee. He married a woman of the area, and took on a vocation – shepherd. 40 years of life in the desert. No more cushy palace life. 40 years of education in the wilderness of hard knocks; years of learning to live in the wild; years of preparation for what was to come; years he probably wondered what he was supposed to be doing with all he had experienced.
It will turn out that Moses’ first 80 years were grooming him to be a leader that God would use. The 1mil or so people of Israel who were going to leave Egypt needed the right man to lead them. How would you advertise to fill that position? I imagine the classified ad would read something like:
“Wanted: experienced Hebrew man to lead a newly-freed slave nation of about 1mil people. Must have thorough education, be able to understand Egyptian royalty, language, culture, and politics. Survival experience in the desert of Sinai also a must. Would prefer a man who understands leading and who has the patience to help a nation find its way.
Moses’ first 80 years were excellent preparation for his 40 years as the leader of Israel. Not only would God use him to hold the nation together through multiple crises, but He would also use him to write the first 5 books of the Bible.
Now, here’s why we’re spending some time on this: Moses had a lot of past before he really began doing much that was noteworthy. His first 80 years are covered in the first 2 chapters of the book. There’s no reason to believe that Moses wasn’t going to just spend his life as a family man and shepherd of Midian. Most likely, Egypt wasn’t in his future plans. His picture was on every post office wall there. Just the same, his people were in suffering there. Then along comes God and says, “It’s time for a change.” Moses had a decision to make. He could have let his past rule who he was, or he could choose to use it for the Lord’s purposes. Hebrews 11 says
Hebrews 11:24-26
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
There are other stories of people who also put their past to use, rather than use it as an excuse…
• David was a boy. Goliath was a giant. In David’s past, he had been a shepherd and a musician, not a warrior like Goliath. But David looked at his past as a shepherd and told King Saul “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." He put his past to use, rather than using it to excuse him from doing what needed to be done.
• Esther was a poor girl who had been orphaned. Suddenly, she found herself as the likely candidate for the next queen of Persia. She could have looked at her past and said, “Boy, I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that anymore!” Instead, she looked at it and said, “I can remember my people, who need me.”
• Luke was a physician. His training made him an intelligent person for his day. He could have said, “I don’t want that education to go to waste! No need to become a missionary! I have money to make!” Instead, he used his education to become a researcher and writer of 2 NT books.
• Paul had been an enemy of the Church. Rather than letting his past become an excuse to do nothing, Paul said that he was an example of God’s great patience and grace.
• Paul was writing to the Gentiles in Ephesus. He reminds them that they were formerly outcasts – without God without hope in the world. But rather than taking that past as a reason to be less, he uses it as a reminder that God has done great things for them now. They could say, “We know what it’s like not to belong, but now we do because of Jesus!”
Too many are letting their past rule them, rather than putting it to good use. Something happened, and you use it as a reason to be less, to expect less of yourself. The fact is, it’s probably a reason to expect more from yourself. Jesus said,
Luke 7:41-42 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
In Haiti, there’s an orphanage being run by a man named Prospere. It’s an enormous task, taking care of 30 some kids. Why does he do it? Where does he find the motivation to keep on with such a difficult task? You see, Prospere was once an orphan too. He was one of the first orphans helped through this same orphanage. I suppose he could say, “See, I had a rough past. I can’t be expected to do much.” Instead, he’s the most logical person to do the work. He’s been there, he knows it, and he cares.
Widows and older couples, you’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? Some of you are lonely. Some of you are growing old and not liking it. You had a lot of years as a married person. Guess whom you’re now equipped to help! There are several couples just starting out in marriage, in parenting, and you’re the people most equipped to encourage and mentor them.
There are support groups in our area – one that uses our building – that gather to help people with addictive behaviors. They gather together and encourage each other. Why? Because people who have formerly been addicted are the best help to people who are currently addicted.
2 Corinthians 1:4
[God] comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Maybe you’ve lost a child, or been through cancer, been abused, or have had financial struggles in the past. You can let that hold you down, give you an excuse not to do anything…or you can put your past to use. That’s what God was doing with Moses, and I believe that’s what He chooses to do with us.
II. Change Happens When We Submit To God’s Instruction, Not When He Conforms To Us
Did you notice the imperatives in this scene?
Exodus 3:5,10
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."… So now, go. I am sending you…"
What was happening in Moses’ life was about to change, but it wasn’t God Who was going to change. It was Moses.
I’m simply saying that God calls us to change – to repent – and that involves looking at what He wants and commands, and then changing to what He calls us to be. Paul said,
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Your body – a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Someone has said that the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar! That may be true, but I think that the larger problem is we misspell “altar” in the first place.
Get it right – “the a-l-t-a-r” is a place of sacrifice. It’s about giving, changing me, placing God ahead of myself. It’s not spelled “a-l-t-e-r”. We’re not in this to change God.
Jerry Falwell died this past week. I was driving home and heard Michael Savage on the radio. He was playing an interview he had done with Jerry Falwell some time in the past. Savage was going through some questions, and Falwell was basically stating what he believed to be true about Christianity. He quoted Scripture and talked about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but only through Jesus. Savage pressed the question – “You mean, good Jewish people, good Muslim people, good Buddhists – they’re less of a person because they don’t accept Jesus?” Falwell simply repeated what he’d been saying, quoted Jesus when He said, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.” Well, Michael Savage remained polite, but he concluded that that view was just too narrow and intolerant – that he doesn’t believe in a God Who would exclude from heaven people who do lots of good things. He just couldn’t accept that. The problem with Mr. Savage’s view is that he’s wrong! He’s trying to set the terms by which we’ll approach with God Almighty! In Savage’s world, God’s going to have to fit into our mold for Him.
But God doesn’t approach us and say, “I want so much for you to love Me, I’ll become anything you want. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy.” God calls for us to change. That means we have to look at what He says and step in line with it. He’s not the One changing.
III. A Truly Changed Heart Is Measurable By A Changed Life
To fully appreciate how much Moses was in the process of changing, you have to read on in ch 3-4. As soon as God told him he was to return to Egypt, Moses’ creative genius kicked in – only it was in reverse. Right away he had a whole list of reasons he wasn’t the man God was looking for! “What if they don’t listen to me? What will I tell them Your name is? I’m not much of a public speaker, Lord!” Finally, he just pleads with God to send someone else, and God got angry.
I wonder how many of us sound like Moses. “I want you to leave where you’re at and do something else. Time to just do what I’m telling you to do.” And we fire back a list of reasons we can’t change. I wonder how many of us have done that to the point where we anger God.
God is calling for change. When it happens, it’s because of a decision to change…a change of heart. Then what? Different speech, attitude, actions.
You see, Moses changed from being “the excuse king” to boldly going before Pharaoh’s throne and demanding to let Israel go. 10X Moses approached the stubborn king, and 10X he wasn’t making excuses about speaking. Moses had clearly changed.
Don’t tell me you’ve changed if your life is telling otherwise. Don’t tell your friends you’re a Christian – not if being a Christian doesn’t have bearing on the life you’re living. Don’t just talk the talk. Let your changed life speak for your changed heart.
1 John 1:6-7
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
The next time you consider all that Moses did, go back to Exodus 3 and 4 and look at what Moses was before he was the great leader he became. I know that Moses had a change of heart. It showed in what he did.
IV. Change Is Something God Wants For You
Moses was sent to cause change. That’s what leaders do – they initiate change where it’s needed. God was listening to Israel’s suffering.
Exodus 3:7-9
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. 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. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
So, go.
God wanted things to change. His people were being treated unjustly, and He had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendents many years before. God wanted circumstances to change.
Before you get all bent out of shape that God wants you to change, think about what He wants for you.
• You’re addicted to pornography. It ruins your mind, your relationships, your future. Yeah, God wants you to change.
• You’re selfish. You spend your days, your emotions, your energies, stepping on everyone else, and you’re never satisfied. Yeah, God wants you to change.
• You’re lonely. It eats away inside you. You’ve curled up into your own little world to the point where you don’t spend time with other people. Yeah, God wants you to change too.
• You’re in debt. It’s threatening your marriage. It’s stealing your sleep at night. It’s ruining your joy. Yeah, God would like that changed.
• You’re a habitual liar. Cheating, deceit, cover-ups – it’s just a way of life for you. It has you always looking over your shoulder. You don’t trust anyone else – how could you? You’ve pretty well decided that on one else deserves to know the truth. So, everyone else is a few notches lower than you. As long as they’re easily fooled, they deserve to be, don’t they? So, you live from lie to lie, hardly able to distinguish what’s real anymore. Yeah, God wants that changed.
Fill in the blank. Fill it in with anything that doesn’t fit with where God wants you, and, as you do, know this: changing that is something God wants for you.
Conclusion:
Here’s one more lesson to learn about changing from this text: you can’t spend time in the presence of God and just go on like nothing has happened.
Moses had some idea of how significant it was to have a visit from God. Shoes off, head bowed, face covered. You don’t act like nothing’s going on while you’re there with God in front of you. But after the bush stops burning, after you’re headed back across the desert, things aren’t the same either. Moses was changed.
So, what has happened here today? Hopefully, we’ve spent some time in God’s presence. Hopefully, we’ve had a right heart in His presence, and now, as we leave here, we’re not going to leave just like we were before.
It’s time to decide what you’ll do with God’s invitation to change this morning…
