Exodus 1-6
Calling and Commissioning of Moses
Manuscript
A number of years ago, actually, 10 years ago, Marcela and I were on our honeymoon. We were backpacking around the Middle East and on one leg we caught a ship from Israel to the island of Rhodes in Greece. We thought it would be a Greek cruise, after all it was a Greek ship, and it was a cruise – sort of, but the cost of the ticket should have told us it wasn’t really what most people think of as Greek cruise! Anyway – at least the ship was Greek, and it had signs in Greek on it. One sign was like this: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ - by the way – that’s the Greek letters for “Exodos.” There were these signs around the ship saying “Exodus”! Wow – that’s pretty exciting, a Biblical ship! I wondered where the signs for Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers and so on were… and then I realised why there were signs for “Exodus.” They actually weren’t being biblical, because “Exodus” is just the Greek word for “Exit”! They were the exit signs - the exodus signs. Today we start our series on the book of Exodus. And that’s all “Exodus” means – “exit.” Exodus is the story of the exit of the people from Egypt. Not just from the country of Egypt, but their exit from slavery, from oppression, from poverty, in order to become the God’s people. It’s a story about a group of people who lived a long way from us on the other side of the world, and who lived a long time ago – about 3500 years ago.
Now - what does a story about a group of people who lived 3500 years go on the other side of the world have to do with me? Well ,it has a lot to do with you, as we shall see. Exodus is the continuation of the history that we looked at in Genesis last year. Exodus is the history of God’s redemption of a group of people from slavery, who He not only rescued from slavery, but made them His special people. He gave them His laws, His way to live and showed them His character – which we’ll see as we go through Exodus. The history of the redemption of Israel from Egypt was a forerunner, or type, of our redemption in Christ. The people of Israel who He redeemed were the ancestors of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who redeemed us from slavery to sin. And the Law that God gave Israel formed the basis of the ethics that Jesus gave us, which we’ve been recently looking at in the Sermon on the Mount. Exodus is important – and very relevant.
Today we are going to look at the first 6 chapters of Exodus which deal with the birth, calling and preparation of Moses - the man God sovereignly chose to lead his people out of slavery. But before we look at Moses, let’s recap where we’ve been in Genesis and how this leads into Exodus. Remember Genesis begins with God creating the world. God made people to live in perfect fellowship with Him. God made people with everything they needed, and without sorrow, pain or suffering. When God made people, death was not on the agenda. But then – remember what happened? Our forebears Adam and Eve believed the devil instead of God, and obeyed the devil instead of God, and in so doing, sin and death entered the human race. Adam and Eve’s kids weren’t any better. One of their sons killed the other, and the human race just spiralled out of control into a spiral dive of sin. It got so bad that God sent the judgement of Noah’s Flood and then at the Tower of Babel. And even after these fresh starts it didn’t take long for the human race to once more enter the spiral dive of sin. And then, God called a man, a man named Abraham. He gave him a promise – not just for him, but for his descendents – and for all humanity:
Gen 12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
All the families would be blessed, not just the physical descendents of Abraham by birth as we read in Galatians 3:7-9:
Gal 37 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
That is those who are of faith, which includes us when we believe in Christ. And Abraham was the human ancestor of Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sins. God also promised Abraham that his descendents would inherit the land where we was then living – what we now know as the land of Israel. And then through the rest of Genesis we traced the descendents of Abraham. Abraham’s son was Isaac, whose son was Jacob and whose name was changed to Israel, and then Jacob had 12 sons. One of them – Joseph – became prime minister of Egypt, and the whole family moved to Egypt during a time of famine. As Jacob left the land God had promised them in order to move to Israel, God gave Jacob this promise:
Genesis 463 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
And the book of Genesis closed with Jacob and his sons living in Egypt. And the book of Exodus now deals with this promise of God, that in Egypt he would make Israel a great nation and would bring them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. And so the book of Exodus opens. 4 centuries have passed and Israel has grown from about 70 people to a great and mighty people so that the land of Egypt was filled with them. 400 years is a long time and the Egyptians had forgotten how Joseph had delivered them from famine. And the Egyptians became concerned about how numerous the Israelites were, so the Pharaoh – the Egyptian king - decided to enslave the Israelites and make them build their massive building projects. And the Pharaoh also decided to enforce some compulsory family planning for the Hebrews. Pretty draconian family planning really. He ordered that every new born baby boy was to be killed, but that the daughters should live.
Most of you probably know the story, but if you don’t, an Israelite couple had a new baby son born to them. Like any parent, they didn’t want him killed, so they put him in a basket that could float and placed it among the reeds by the river. And so it happened that Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river, saw the basket, looked in and took compassion on the baby. She took the baby boy as her own, and named him Moses. Moses. One of the most famous names in the Bible. Moses who would grow up to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land. Moses – a man used mightily by God. But the Bible doesn’t tell us much about Moses’ childhood.
The next we hear is that he has grown up and one day he is out and about and he sees an Egyptian bashing up a Hebrew slave and so Moses jumps in to defend the Hebrew – and kills the Egyptian. Turns out that someone saw Moses kill the Egyptian and so Moses flees for his life to a land called Midian – which is in today’s Saudi Arabia, a desert land. While in Midian – he lives with the Midianites and marries a Midianite girl and they start a family. Moses becomes a shepherd – herding a flock of sheep. And one day, probably a fair way from home, Moses comes to a mountain – which we now know as Sinai. And while he is there something amazing happens. God appears to Him in the form of a burning bush. Why does God appear to him? Well, while Moses has been in Midian, life for the Hebrews back in Egypt has been going from bad to worse as we read in chapter 2:23-25:
Exodus 223 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
We see four things in these few verses:
1. God heard – He heard the Israelites’ cry for help.
2. God remembered – He remembered His covenant with Abraham and his sons which we looked at in Genesis.
3. God looked – that means He considered what was happening to them.
4. God knew – that means that He was concerned.
And that’s a wonderful comfort to us too. We aren’t’ slaves in Egypt, but we were slaves to sin, and maybe there are some here today who still are slaves to sin. God has heard our cry for help, He remembers His promise and He has sent us a deliver – Jesus Christ. And back then, God saw Israel and determined to do something about their situation. And so He looked for a deliver, who God could use to deliver Israel. And God called Moses for that job. Moses was minding his own business tending sheep, and suddenly Moses sees a burning bush which speaks to Him. And it turns out this is none other than God – the creator of the universe.
God tells Moses that He has seen the suffering of the Israelites, and that He is going to do something about it. He is going to deliver the Israelites from Egypt and their slavery, and bring them to a productive, fruitful land. And that He is going to do this through Moses! 40 years earlier Moses had tried delivering a Hebrew who was being beaten up by an Egyptian. He’d killed the Egyptian – and had to flee for his life. And now God wants Moses to go back. Before he’d been eager to defend his people, but now he isn’t. You see, the problem is, before Moses can even try to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, he has to convince the Israelites themselves that God has sent him! Moses hasn’t lived in Egypt for 40 years – hardly anyone would know who he is. And so Moses ask God
Exodus 311 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
Who am I? Moses has been humbled during his 40 years in the wilderness, and as a humble man, he is now ready to be used by God. We must be humble too before God can use us. And God answers:
Exodus 312 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
So God’s answer to Moses is not something like: “You’ve got the ability!” “You’ve got the potential within you!” “You can do it!” No. God just says: “But I will be with you.” Friends it’s the same with us. God can only use us when we realise that to do anything for Him, we can only do it – because God will be with us.
Exodus 313 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
That’s an interesting question isn’t it? Now when Moses talked about the God of your fathers, he is obviously referring to the covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But remember – they were all 400 years ago. 400 years is a long time. Would the Israelites have remembered these covenants? So Moses asks God for His name. And then we get one of the most profound passages in all of the Bible when God answers Moses by saying:
Exodus 314 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
I am who I am. What a mysterious name! This name that God gives Moses is packed with theology, and it’s not the last time it is used in the Bible. In the next verse God says:
Exodus 315 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
What does God call Himself in this next verse? “The LORD”. And God says that this name – “LORD” – is His name forever. In verse 14 it was “I am,” in verse 15 it is “the LORD” – in capital letters. Now in English “I am” and “LORD” look different, but in Hebrew these two names are very similar. You see- in Hebrew, “I am” isאֶהְיֶה = Aher. And the Hebrew word for “LORD” in verse 15 is יְהוָה . Hebrew only has consonants so in English letters that comes out as YHWH,
and because the Hebrews never pronounced this name we don’t know what the vowels are between the consonants, which is why some say it as “Yahweh” in English and others say “Jehovah.” Yahweh and Jehovah are just different ways of trying to say YHWH in English. Now the “I am” – “Aher” in Hebrew, and YHWH – both come from the verb “to be”. That is – they are related. You could say that “Aher” means “I am,” and “Yahweh” means “He is.” In Exodus 14 we have the only place in the Old Testament where God is called “I am,” but throughout the Bible we see YHWH - “He is”. And in our English Bibles, wherever we see the word LORD – all in capital letters - the Hebrew word is this YHWH – “He is” - it’s everywhere.
Now – what sort of name is “I am” or “He is”? It sounds more like a description rather than a name. And in fact, every name of God in the Bible is a description, just like in English. Our word “God” is not a name, it is a description of who? Of the all powerful, creator who is eternal who .. who…. well, we just run out of words describing who God is……. And the most profound way we can describe God is just by saying that He is who He is. And that’s what God tells Moses here. “I am who I am”. “I just am.” God is just God – the one who always was, always is, always will be. The one whom everything else in this universe derives its existence and meaning. God just is. And the really interesting thing is that Jesus also uses this name for Himself – especially in the Gospel of John. Many times in the Gospel of John He calls Himself “I am” but perhaps the strongest one is in John 8:58 when Jesus says:
John 858 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
What is Jesus saying there? He’s saying – Hey, I am – I am. I’m the one who appeared to Moses at the burning bush 1500 years ago. I’m the one who made the promises to Abraham. I’m the one who was around even before Abraham. Jesus is saying – I am – I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac of Jacob! I’m God! What a statement from Jesus! The Jews understood perfectly well what Jesus was saying – we can see that from their reaction:
John 859 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
They picked up stones to throw at Jesus because they thought Jesus was blaspheming by calling Himself God. They were right – Jesus was calling Himself God – the LORD, Yahweh, I am. But Jesus wasn’t blaspheming, because Jesus wasn’t pretending to be God. He really was God – really is God! Using the name that God revealed to Moses here on the mountain.
And so Moses is ready to go the leaders of Israel, and to Pharaoh. Moses is now humble, just an insignificant man. But He is acting as emissary of God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the great I AM. But Moses is still uncertain – perhaps a bit too uncertain! It’s one thing to be uncertain of our own abilities, which is quite appropriate, but it’s another thing to be uncertain when the great I AM says He is going with you! But God is gracious with Moses and gives Him signs to perform to the Israelite leaders to prove that God really is with him. So Moses sets out for Egypt and then something strange happens on the way. We read
Exodus 424 At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.
God sent Moses to Egypt – why did He try and kill Him on the way?
Exodus 425 Then Zipporah (that’s Moses’ wife) took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
The problem was that Moses had not circumcised his son. About 500 years earlier God had given an instruction to Abraham:
Genesis 17 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
and
12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations.
Now it would be another sermon to explain circumcision, but the fact is that Moses was supposed to have circumcised his son when he was 8 days old – and he hadn’t! He had neglected the clear command of God We don’t know why – whether he didn’t like it or had just forgotten it. And his wife had to rescue him and she circumcised their son. What can we learn from that? Basically it this: don’t mess with God. If He tells us to do something – do it! God is not someone to mess with, to ignore, to disobey. As Christians we don’t have circumcision but we have baptism that marks as becoming one of His children. Friends, if you haven’t been baptised, for whatever reason, don’t ignore it any longer! Here we have Moses’ son who should have been circumcised at 8 days but wasn’t. We don’t know how old he was but it seems he wasn’t a baby any longer. As Zipporah, Moses’ wife realised, it is never too late to go back and do something that should have been done long ago. And so, in relation to baptism, I urge you to do so even if it’s been many years since you became a Christian.
And so on the way to Egypt Moses was rescued by his wife obeying the covenant by circumcising their son. And then Moses reaches Egypt and talks to the leaders of Israel. At first the Israelites accepted Moses and his message. In fact we read at the end of chapter 4 that they were delighted to hear that God had seen their oppression and was going to deliver them! And so Moses went to see Pharaoh – who wasn’t so receptive. In fact, Pharaoh was so non-receptive, that he retaliated by making the Israelites work harder. And the Israelites’ reaction?
Exodus 521 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
These same Israelites who had so eagerly welcomed the news that God was going to deliver them, as soon as things got a bit tough – they didn’t stay the course and turned on Moses. And we see this pattern through the Exodus and the rest of Israelite history. The Israelites were all enthusiastic when things were easy and looked good, but as soon as the slightest difficulty came, they grumbled and whinged and we will see this throughout Exodus. But isn’t that so true of us today? We like the easy stuff from God, but we tend to whinge and complain when things get tough. And now – imagine you are Moses. How do you feel – you’ve come to deliver this people from slavery – and they reject you! Well, you may well know how Moses feels. How often when we tell someone about Jesus, do they accept what we have to tell them? When we tell them that they are sinners and they need rescuing, and we try to tell them how to be rescued from their sin. We cop a bit of flack don’t we? Even with other Christians brothers and sisters sometimes – we speak the truth in love, and it’s not always accepted. It’s not easy telling people the truths of the Bible. And so Moses again doubts himself again. God’s response is that God will now send Moses straight to Pharaoh, and God gives Moses all these wonderful promises about delivering Israel and making Israel His people and bringing them to a plentiful and prosperous land. But Moses says.
Exodus 612 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”
And then follows Moses’ genealogy, which we might think is a bit boring. And the point of it is – Moses’ genealogy is a bit boring. He is not descended from the eldest of Jacob’s 12 sons, or even the favourite son, Joseph. No, he is descended from Levi – one of Jacob’s sons who was cursed for being violent. There are other things in Moses’ genealogy – and it is not the genealogy of a prince or king. It’s a pretty ho-hum genealogy with a few skeletons in the cupboard. Which is just the point. Moses has no strength, no right, nothing in himself to be the deliver of Israel, except one thing:
Exodus 629 the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”
That is – Moses does not go to Pharaoh on his own bat, but he goes as the messenger from the Lord – the great I AM, to tell Pharaoh all the God says to him. God goes with Him.
Friends, that’s a quick summary of the first 6 chapters of Exodus - the story of the exit of Israel from slavery to be God’s own people. We are going to see a lot of that redemption over the coming weeks, but today we’ve had a look at Moses - his birth, his calling. God had to prepare Moses. God had to wait till He was humble and would do things the way God wanted. God had to deal with Moses’ disobedience when he’d neglected to get his son circumcised. But God met with Moses. God had given Moses His name – which was His most profound description of Himself. “I am who I am.” God is who He is. And so we have the stage set now for the deliverance of Israel from slavery, which God did through His humble servant Moses. And as we will learn in the weeks ahead, that deliverance of Israel from slavery was a foretaste of the deliverance that Jesus has given us from sin – if we repent and turn to Him. Yes, we too were lost in sin, and maybe some of you still are, but God has sent a deliver - Jesus Christ, His own Son, the great I AM.
