Moses
Exodus 2:1-10
Both secular and religious sources document the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt and the man who led them through the wilderness, Moses. Muslims revere him as a prophet, messenger and leader in Islam. In fact, Moses is mentioned more in the Quran than any other individual, and his life is narrated and recounted more than of any other prophet. They believe he was sent by God to free the Jews from slavery and see him as the forerunner of Mohammed. Jews believe he was the greatest prophet, leader and teacher Judaism has ever known. Christians, Jews and Muslims see him as the giver of the Pentateuch (Genesis thru Deuteronomy). Perhaps no person in history, outside of Jesus Christ, has made such a profound impact on the world as Moses. There are four lessons of life and faith we learn from Moses.
First, heroes fail but they fail forward. Moses was not perfect. Like any man, he had his flaws and even made grievous mistakes. Moses had been brought up as an Egyptian prince, educated in the ways and life of Egypt and royalty. But something deep inside never allowed him to let go of who he really was, a Hebrew. When he was about 40 years old (Acts 7:23), he left the comfortable confines of the palace one day and went out to see the hard labor of his people toiling under the sun and their Egyptian taskmasters. And what he saw was that the Hebrews were being abused. An Egyptian was senselessly beating a Hebrew slave. Moses was so outraged that he struck and killed the Egyptian and then hid his body in the sand. But when a fellow Hebrew condemned him for this action and Pharaoh sought to kill him, Moses was forced to flee from Egypt. Moses’ anger led him to a rash and deadly action, the murder of another. He had failed epically in God’s eyes. But God was going to use that in Moses’ life for His purposes.
David Wilkerson moved in the 1950s from a small rural church in Pennsylvania to New York City to minister on the streets to gang members. NYC was so bad that police were afraid to enter some gang owned neighborhoods. There he met Nicky Cruz who was head of the largest and worst gangs in the city. Nicky was a violent criminal, filled with pain from his abusive parents and full of hate. David Wilkerson saw Nicky’s pain and said to him, ‘God has the power to change your life.’ Nicky started cursing out loud, spit in David’s face, and hit him. He told him, ‘I don’t believe in what you say! Get out of here.’” Nicky almost killed him right then and there. Nicky never expected what he heard David Wilkerson say next, “You could cut me up into a 1000 pieces and lay them in the street. Every piece will still love you.” Nicky said those words did damage, good [damage] in my brain and in my heart. He began to question everything, and for two weeks, he couldn’t sleep without thinking about love.” Nicky and his gang showed up at one of Wilkerson’s rallies. One by one, they gave their lives to Christ. It was the crucifixion – Jesus’ death on the cross -- that grabbed Nicky “I was choked up with pain, and my eyes were fighting tears which began to come down and more tears and as I was fighting I surrendered. I let Jesus hug me, and I let my head rest on His chest. I said I’m sorry. Forgive me, and for the first time, I told somebody (Jesus), “I love you.” The love Nicky got in return radically changed his life. He left the gang scene, enrolled in Bible college, started a ministry to troubled teens in NYC and then travelled the world as an evangelist, touching the lives of millions of people. Heroes may fail but they fail forward.
Renee Swope writes, “Failure is painful. It’s embarrassing. And sometimes it makes me want to give up, mainly on myself. God is teaching me a lot about failing. In fact, He is giving me a little push these days, to fail forward. He’s been challenging me to determine in my heart and mind that I am a work in progress and move forward even when I have a setback. He is reminding me that I am a woman who is becoming all He created her to be. A woman who is growing. A woman who is getting better and better each day. A woman who is not perfect – but who tries to surrender to God’s perfect love and perfect power at work in her….Every time I fail to be the woman God calls me to be, or the woman I expect myself to be, God reminds me of the progress we’ve made. Because, even though I may not be who I want to be, I am not who I used to be! And I get that much closer to who I am meant to be every time I fail forward.”
Second, heroes overcome their reluctance by trusting God. After the murder, Moses runs away to Midian and for the next 40 years lives as a shepherd. One day, as Moses is tending his Father-in-law’s flocks in the desert near Mt. Horeb, he sees an amazing thing: a bush on fire that is not being consumed. So he goes over to investigate and discovers it is God, who speaks to Moses and explains that in the 40 years since Moses has been living there, things have grown progressively worse for Hebrew people. They are groaning for God to intervene and God has heard their cry and remembered the covenant he made with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 400 years before. And then he tells Moses, "I’ve come down to rescue them" and I’ve chosen you to lead that charge. One can only imagine what Moses must have been thinking and feeling, being just one man to go to Egypt, confront the god Pharoah and fight for the release of 100’s of 1000’s of his people. Could anything have seemed more impossible?
And so in response, Moses begins to make excuses of why he can’t accomplish such an incredibly huge feat. Can you blame him? Excuse #1 is the "Who am I? I’m a nobody!" And God’s answer is "I will be with you." Excuse #2 is “I don’t have any Power and Authority to do these things” (3:13-15) and God says, tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and I will give you my power in this staff by which “you can perform signs with it.” Excuse #3 is “But Lord I Don’t Speak Well” 4:10-12) And God’s answer is, I will send Aaron with you. Excuse #4 is “Send Someone Else” (4:13-17) and God’s response is I’ve chosen YOU. After all of this, Moses overcame his reluctance to do the will of God and went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Ex. 4:18 Those called by God are often reluctant heroes but they overcome their resistance, not through their own efforts, but through the call, the power, the presence and the guidance of God. It’s not about who you are or your ability or your gifts. It’s about God and what He can do through you. Heroes rely on God and their faith to overcome their reluctance, their excuses and their weaknesses. And that leads us to our third lesson.
Third, heroes open themselves to God’s transforming work in them. Heroes just don't emerge one day. God works in their life giving them their spiritual gifts, their passion, their natural abilities, their personality and their life experiences, even their sins, all for the sole purpose to become co-laborers with Christ. When Moses runs away to Midian, he becomes a shepherd. He now finds himself, once a Prince who had every creature comfort and the world at his hand living in the most powerful nation in the world and now a simple shepherd in the backwoods of nowhere called Midian. You can’t fall any farther than that! He spent the better part of 40 years learning the ins and outs of being a shepherd. This are not a trivial thing! While Moses was tending sheep, God was tending to Moses. Moses needed some things removed from his life before God could use him: his status, his pride, and his sin. This experience becomes a refining fire for Moses. Ken Matto writes, “Moses had to be thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of sheep. Why? Because humans tend to act like dumb sheep. We hate to admit it, but many times we don’t know what is good for ourselves. If we did, 100% of us would not be causing problems in our own life. By Moses tending, living with, and learning about sheep, he was being trained for the huge task which was to be placed on him.” Experiencing failure brings a sensitivity to divine instruction that would probably not exist in the presence of success. Brokenness tends to strip away the barrier to teachability and allows God to do his refining work in us. Heroes are not born, they are made by the hand of God but we must first open ourselves to God’s work in us.
Fourth, heroes acknowledge their limitations and enlist others. Victor Yap tells the story of Neil Rudenstine, former president of Harvard University in the 1990’s. One his major roles was to raise money for Harvard and Neil was very good at it. His first 3 years, he raised a $1 million a day for Harvard. The reason he was so successful was that he was passionate about every facet of his job, even the most minute details.. Besides spending 12 hours a day raising millions of dollars, he fretted over banquet menus, and even wrote notes to the football coach, the editors of the school newspaper and various staff. But one morning, he overslept and just couldn’t manage to make himself go to work. When he went to the doctor, he was diagnosed with “severe fatigue and exhaustion.” The doctor insisted he take an indefinite leave of absence to recover which ended up lasting not 7 days or 7 weeks but 7 months. He had exceeded the limit of what he could do on his own and needed help.
He’s not alone. When Jethro visited Moses and observed everything Moses was doing leading the 600,000 Hebrew people through the wilderness. He saw that Moses had his hand in everything. To his credit, Moses was giving everything he had to leading, shepherding and guiding God’s people. Amidst all of his other duties, he was constantly mediating people’s conflicts and disputes. And it was starting to take its toll. Seeing all of this, Jethro said to Moses: "What you are doing is not good. You…will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” Exodus 18:17b-18 Jethro knew it’s not about working harder but working smarter. So Jethro suggestsed that Moses delegate responsibility to other faithful men to help in this task of mediating disputes. And in those words are wisdom for heroes: God never meant for us to do it alone. Batman had Robin. Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible had his team. James Bond had Q. And the list goes on and on. Heroes accomplish great things with and through other people. There are no Lone Rangers in God’s kingdom work. If we are going to do great things for the Kingdom, we need to enlist the help of others.
Paul Yongi Cho founded a church in his living room in 1958. When they reached 50 in attendance, they pitched a tent outside for worship. After three years, they had 400 in worship attendance. The church relocated and three years later, it had grown to 3,000. Pastor Cho had been working without proper rest or regard for his health, and he finally succumbed to overwork and fainted as he was leading a baptismal service for several hundred church members. However, after a week in the hospital, he was discharged for the Sunday service, at which time he again fainted due to weakened health, necessitating another stay in the hospital. It was during that time as he clung to life that he began to realize his physical limitations in ministry. He recalled Jethro’s words to Moses. It was then he understood the necessity of delegating work to others as Moses had done in the desert. The Holy Spirit gave him a vision of a home cell group ministry where every member would participate in a cell group and be cared for by the group and the cell group leader. A week later after his discharge, Pastor Cho informed the leaders of the church about his vision and began formulating cell groups. He divided the city of Seoul into 20 areas and encouraged the members of the church in given areas to come together in the homes of the members for worship, Bible study and fellowship during the week. In a short three years after the formulation of home cell groups, church membership grew to 8,000 members. Today, the Yoido Full Gospel Church has 32,500 cell group leaders and is the largest church in the world with more than 1 million members. All because one pastor acknowledged his limitations and enlisted the help of others in the work of the kingdom.
Heroes fail forward, overcome their reluctance, open themselves to God’s transforming work in them and enlist the help of others. Amen and Amen.
