Have you ever thought about just how transparent Moses was about himself when he wrote the book of Exodus? Under the inspiration of the Spirit, Moses wrote about everything surround the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt. He shared the good the bad and the ugly. Many times in the book he shared his failures right along with his successes. He even shared things that might have been considered embarrassing for a man of his importance. But he shared them nonetheless. Moses was extremely transparent about himself when writing the book of Exodus.
Now why would the Lord want him to be so transparent? Why would the Lord want him to write about his own personal failures?
Remember, Moses wrote this, and the other of the first five books of the Bible, towards the end of Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The people that would benefit from these writings the most would be people that weren’t there during the exodus. The coming generations of people would be able to read about Moses’ and Israel’s struggles with faith and obedience towards God.
What good would it do for us if the book of Exodus only reflected the good and faithful things that Moses did? Well, we’d see an individual that we couldn’t relate to. We’d see someone who has no problems with their faith and it wouldn’t speak much to us.
[“Sinless” youth speaker story.]
It helps us when we hear of sinners that struggle and grow and overcome sin in their lives. We can relate to that. We learn from that. We realize that we’re not just some hopeless, isolated person. We’re all wrestling with one issue or another.
God inspires Moses to be transparent in his writings so as people read about the exodus they see how God can take a reluctant, insecure, exile and turn him into a great man of faith.
And you know what, if being transparent was good enough for Moses, it’s good enough for us as well. As we pass on our faith to the coming generations, we need to be transparent as we tell our stories. People won’t listen to a know-it-all. But they’ll listen to a real person who’s gone through the same struggles they’re experiencing.
So let’s look at some of Moses’ struggles. Turn with me to Exodus chapter five. This chapter begins right after Moses and Aaron had met with the leaders of the Hebrews in Egypt. They spoke God’s Word to them, they performed the signs in front of them, the people immediately got on board and even had a little worship service right there for the Lord.
So Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh armed with the support of the people and the message and power of the Lord. But things don’t go to well.
I. Moses shares his failure
[Read Exodus 5:1-18.]
Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and ask that he let the people go a three-days journey to be able to worship God. (The Jews couldn’t worship there in Egypt like they wanted to because it involved the sacrifice of certain animals that were sacred to the Egyptians.)
Pharaoh responded with a big, fat “no”! First he said he didn’t know of the Hebrew God they were referring to. Now, he obviously knew that the Jews worshipped their God, but to the Egyptians he was a god and he probably viewed himself as a god. So he wouldn’t recognize the authority of the Hebrew God since he was a god himself.
He also saw this as the Hebrews trying to get some time off of work and accused them of being lazy. So to punish them he decided that instead of having the straw brought to them to make the bricks for his empire, they’d have to harvest the straw themselves and still make just as many bricks every day as before. The Jews obviously couldn’t keep up and were severely punished for not keeping up with Pharaoh’s unrealistic goals.
At the time Moses saw this as a personal failure. Not only would Pharaoh not release the Jews, but he made their lives even more miserable than before.
But Moses should have actually been encouraged by this. God had told him that Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go. This was to be expected! This should have reminded him of God’s ability to know the future. This should have strengthened his faith. But he saw it as a failure.
Well, the Hebrew people saw it as a failure too.
II. Moses shares his doubts
[Read Exodus 5:19-23.]
Wow! Not only did the people turn on Moses, but Moses kind-of turned on the Lord here. “You have not delivered your people at all.”
Not really a moment you want recorded in a book for eternity. Can you see Moses as he’s writing this down look upward and say, “Lord, do I really have to write this?” But yes, we need to see that this great man of faith still had to deal with doubts at times. Even when he didn’t need to.
[Read Exodus 4:28-31.]
Everyone knew it would turn out this way, yet when it actually happened they all started to doubt.
[President Bush announcing war in Iraq story.]
When Moses shares his doubts with us, it helps us relate to a person who’s much like us. We know we shouldn’t, but sometimes we still doubt ourselves and even God.
But what does the God of love do when His people doubt? He speaks to them.
III. Moses shares his encouragement from God
[Read Exodus 6:1-8.]
Moses is at his lowest point spiritually but he can still hear the voice of God. As a loving Father God speaks to Moses and reminds him of just who He is and just what He will do. He reminds him of:
- the covenant He made with his ancestors
- how He appeared and spoke to them like He is to him
- that He cares about the sufferings of His people
- that He is Israel’s “redeemer” as referred to in verse 3
- that He will deliver Israel to worship
God will speak to His people when they doubt if they’ll just keep listening. It’s been said that, "Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ’s strongest disciples." God will answer our doubts with His Word if we’ll just seek Him in the moments of despair.
Moses was down to his last drop of faith, but the Lord spoke to him and gave him all the encouragement he needed. So off he goes back to the leaders of Israel to tell them of what God had said and that everything would be okay. But again, it doesn’t go so good.
IV. Moses shares his second failure
[Read Exodus 6:9.]
Now this must have been discouraging. God told him to speak to the Jews, he does what God says, but they don’t even listen to him. You think Moses might have said, “Hey, you wanna see the miracles again? Look, staff to snake, snake to staff, staff to snake. Good hand, bad hand, good hand, bad hand, etc.”
They just didn’t want to listen. Things had gotten worse for them ever since Moses showed up and they didn’t want any more of his crazy ideas.
Moses again saw himself as the problem. Now the first time he failed, before he started to doubt God, he said, “O Lord, why did you ever send me”; (v23). He saw himself as the failure. Well nothing’s changed. He still thinks it’s somehow his fault that things are turning out this way. So the next thing we see is:
V. Moses shares his self-blame
[Read Exodus 6:9-12.]
“Maybe I didn’t say the right words. Maybe I stumbled over my words too much. Maybe I wasn’t as convincing as I could have been. If I only would have said this or that. Etc…”
Moses thought it was his lack of oratory skills that caused the Jews to turn a deaf ear to his words. He blames himself for the Jews reaction to his message. But it really wasn’t his fault. Just a short time before this they were inspired to worship the Lord because of Moses’ message. But now, they’re more focused on their circumstances than their God. It wasn’t Moses’ fault – it was the people’s fault. Yet Moses still blamed himself.
Have you ever done that? Ever blamed yourself for something that wasn’t your fault?
[Girl at BBV who blamed herself for her parent’s marriage problems story.]
Once we explained to her that it wasn’t her fault it was like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. She thought it was all her fault and acted accordingly.
Moses thinks these failures are all his fault and is acting accordingly. But here comes our loving God again with just what Moses needed to get back on track.
VI. Moses shares his direction from God
[Read Exodus 6:13.]
God gets Moses and Aaron together and gives them a “charge” or a command to deliver Israel from the hand of the Egyptians. It’s like the Lord was saying, “Enough of this pity-party, do what I’ve told you to do!” And you know what, sometimes we need that kind of direction.
[Kids taking medicine example.]
Sometimes we just need a little kick in the pants to get us moving in the right direction.
God gave Moses and Aaron just what they needed to get motivated to persevere through future confrontations with Pharaoh. In the next few chapters we’re going to see a very determined Moses and Aaron obeying the Lord’s command no matter how difficult it was.
[Read Exodus 7:6.]
But to get to that point of surrender, Moses had to deal with his doubts and allow the Lord to build his faith. Through his writings he allows us to look at this very personal process. Transparently, Moses shows us how God got him from point a, reluctance, to point b, obedience. And we’re all better from knowing his story.
All of us have a story to tell. A story of how God moves us from point a to point b. We need to transparently share with the coming generations of how God has worked in our lives. Now we don’t need to share every little detail of our failings. But we do need to be transparent so people can identify themselves and their struggles with us and our victory over similar struggles.
Who needs to hear your story? Who needs to know that you aren’t perfect? Who needs to know that God loves and even uses imperfect people? Transparently tell your story!
