Last week we saw a reluctant Moses getting a theology lesson from God Himself about just who this God was that was calling him to deliver the Jews from Egypt. We saw God teach Moses that He is: Evident, Personal, Holy, Eternal, Omniscient, Caring, Faithful, Present, Particular, Self-existing, and Omnipotent
This week the lesson continues as Moses continues to try and get out of this great task that God has called him to. But this time the attribute of God shown here is something that’s all-encompassing yet mysterious in a way. This time God shows Moses that He is sovereign!
Basically, when we say that God is sovereign, we’re saying that He is the Supreme Ruler of the universe who is in control of everything. Everything! Listen to what President Reagan wrote about this subject in the opening pages of his autobiography, “An American Life”.
I was raised to believe that God had a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all a part of His plan. My mother, a small woman with auburn hair and a sense of optimism that ran as deep as the cosmos, told me that everything in life happened for a purpose. She said all things were part of God’s plan, even the most disheartening setbacks, and in the end, everything worked out for the best. If something went wrong, she said, you didn’t let it get you down: You stepped away from it, stepped over it, and moved on. Later on, she added, something good will happen and you’ll find yourself thinking - "If I hadn’t had that problem back then, then this better thing that did happen wouldn’t have happened to me." After I lost the job at Montgomery Ward, I left home again in search of work. Although I didn’t know it then, I was beginning a journey that would take me a long way from Dixon and fulfill all my dreams and then some. My mother, as usual, was right.
God is sovereign. God is in control. The tough part of understanding this is when we try and correlate His sovereignty as God and our free will as humans. And there is some mystery surrounding how this works. But we will see that the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The sovereign God has given His creation free will.
Let’s look at this through the ongoing story of Moses in Exodus chapter four. Remember, Moses doesn’t really want to do what God’s asking him to do. But now he gets to see that:
I. God is sovereign in nature
[Read Exodus 4:1.]
Now this is actually a legitimate concern. The Jews had been in Egypt for hundreds of years and there’s no record of God speaking to them during this time. Why should the people believe that God had finally appeared to the people at this time through Moses?
[Read Exodus 4:1-9.]
God gives Moses the ability to perform these three signs to convince the people that he was indeed a messenger of God.
He has control over a staff that can turn into a snake and then back again. He has control over disease. And He even has control over Egypt’s main water supply the Nile river. God has given Moses power over these things because God is sovereign over nature.
It’s so amazing how we as humans can lay claim to affecting things like weather patterns and global temperatures. In the seventies people were worried about global cooling. Now people are worried about global warming. I remember that when hurricane Katrina hit some people even blamed that on President Bush and his lack of environmental policies!
God is the One who is sovereign over nature – not us. All through the Scriptures we see God fashioning the earth, bringing a flood, bringing a drought, stopping the sun, calming the sees, multiplying the fish and healing the sick. God is sovereign in nature.
Along those lines, we see how:
II. God is sovereign in creation
He answers another of Moses’ concerns by pointing to the fact that God has made him just as he is. God is sovereign in creation.
[Read Exodus 4:10-12.]
Moses was claiming to not be an eloquent speaker and thus unable to impress Pharaoh when he spoke to him. But God reminds him that He is sovereign over creation and Moses’ speaking abilities, or lack thereof, were designed specifically for him by God.
This should have been enough for Moses. But since Moses continues to question God it’s starting to look like Moses didn’t fear the mission, he just didn’t want to do it.
[Read Exodus 4:13-17.]
God tells Moses that his brother Aaron, who was a Levite, would be Moses’ mouthpiece through the mission. God had created Moses and Aaron to be able to work together and accomplish God’s will. God is sovereign in creation.
So finally Moses is dedicated to going back to Egypt, but he’s got several things he needs to deal with first. But as we’re going to see:
III. God is sovereign in circumstance
[Read Exodus 4:18-20.]
He needed to get his father-in-law’s permission to leave the family business. Then Jethro gives him the green light.
It also looks like he was afraid of the enemies he made forty years ago when he killed that Egyptian. But God encouraged them that they were all dead so no problem there.
But then he had a family to take care of. So armed with the staff of God he loads them up and they travel as a family back to Egypt.
Now these circumstance might have looked like hindrances at one time, but God had them all under control because God is sovereign in circumstances.
[African king loosing his thumb story.]
“God works all things together for good to those who love Him.” Romans 8:28.
So far we’ve seen how God is sovereign in nature, creation and in circumstances. Now let’s go out into the deep water.
IV. God is sovereign in salvation
Basically, in the next few verses God is giving Moses a preview of how this mission will end up. But it also touches on the fact that God is sovereign in salvation.
[Read Exodus 4:21-23.]
So God is telling Moses that basically it’s going to boil down to having to kill Egypt’s firstborn sons before they’ll let you go. And that happens after God ‘hardens’ Pharaoh’s heart.
Now when you first read this it seems like poor Pharaoh doesn’t have a chance here. He’s just a pawn in God’s game of redemption. What if he wanted to become a believer in God? Would he even have had the chance? How can you believe if God hardens your heart?
Well, as we study through the next few chapters, we’re going to see that Pharaoh actually did have a chance to believe. We’re going to see that seven times Pharaoh hardened his own heart before it’s mentioned three times that God hardened his heart. Pharaoh had a chance to believe through the first few plagues that God was real, but instead he hardened his own heart.
You see, everyone has a chance to believe in God. God will make Himself known to those who seek Him. Jesus gave us some insight to this when in Luke 19:10 He said, “I have come to seek and save that which was lost.” Salvation is for all who choose to believe.
II Peter 3:9 says that, “God isn’t willing that any would perish but that all would come to eternal life.”
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”
Romans 10:13 – “For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Hebrews 2:9 – “So that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
I John 2:2 – “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our only, but also for those of the whole world.”
God wants everyone to be saved, yet some will harden their hearts towards Him.
[Read Romans 1:28.]
Once a person has gotten so into sin and has completely abandoned God, God gives his mind over to total depravity. That depravity often begins bringing judgment upon themselves while still on the earth, and of course continues into the afterlife. That’s what happened to Pharaoh. God was giving him chances to believe. But once Pharaoh crossed the point of no return in his own mind, God turned him over to his own depravity and hardened his heart.
So when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He wasn’t choosing salvation or damnation for him – Pharaoh chose that himself just like everyone. We choose whether we believe in the Lord or not. We have free will. God is sovereign over the means of salvation and the process of salvation and the results of salvation, but it’s up to us to make that heart decision to believe.
[My sovereignty in my family illustration.]
God is sovereign over the means of salvation and the process of salvation and the results of salvation, but it’s up to us to make that heart decision to believe. Pharaoh hardened his heart seven times before the Lord hardened it.
But for those of who do believe:
V. God is sovereign in sanctification
Now when I say sanctification, I’m referring to our spiritual growth as a believer. God will grow us spiritually no matter what it takes.
[Read Exodus 4:24-26.]
Now this is a peculiar couple of verses. It seems that God was going to take Moses’ life until his wife circumcised their son. Why would God do such a thing?
First of all, in Genesis 17:10-14 God established the covenant of circumcision for the Jews. They were expected to circumcise their sons or be cut off from the nation and from God. Moses knew about this but for some reason hadn’t follow through on this with his son.
I happen to think that God was trying to get Moses’ attention by bringing a deathly illness upon Moses and his wife recognized that the illness was the chastening hand of God upon her husband. (She knew what had to be done and did it.)
I don’t see God standing there with a knife saying circumcise your son or else. But He did get their attention in dramatic fashion that Moses needed to take his faith more serious. So once he did what he was supposed to do, the journey could continue.
God is sovereign in our sanctification. He will teach us, grow us and mold us through whatever means He deems necessary to help us progress in our faith.
And finally:
VI. God is sovereign in world affairs
[Read Exodus 4:27-31.]
Just like the Lord had said, once Moses and Aaron spoke to the people and performed the signs before them, they believed and rallied around them. God orchestrated this by His sovereign power.
We also saw how the Lord spoke to Aaron beforehand to help him get on the same page with Moses. We don’t know how often the got together while Moses lives away from Egypt. But we do know that while the Lord was speaking to Moses, He was also speaking to Aaron. They needed to work together if they were going to accomplish this great task. God is in charge of world affairs.
Daniel 2:21 – “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to me of understanding.”
God is sovereign in world affairs. Really, He’s sovereign in everything. He’s the supreme ruler of the universe.
So there’s a couple of ways we should react to understanding that God’s in control.
1. Have faith
2. Get on board
[Trying to catch a plane with pregnant Lisette in Atlanta.]
God is sovereign and will include us in what He’s doing in this earth if we’ll just have faith and get on board with Him.
Next week we’ll see Moses and Aaron face-to-face with Pharaoh.
