God Deserves our Obedience
Exodus 4:18-31
- We’re continuing our study of the book of Exodus, and as we study, we’re asking the question, “What can I learn from this passage about honoring God?”
- Last week, we looked at 3 ways that God strengthens our faith…
- He strengthens our faith through signs, He strengthens our faith through our weaknesses, and He strengthens our faith through our doubts.
- As Moses talked with God, He provided him with 3 signs to bring to the Children of Israel…
- God would turn his shepherd’s staff into a serpent, and then back into a staff…
- God would turn his hand leprous and then heal it.
- And He would turn the water of the Nile River into blood.
- Today, we’re going to look at Moses’ obedience, as he leaves the burning bush, and moves forward, ready to be obedient to the call God placed upon his life.
- Obedience is an important thing for us to learn.
- I’m reminded of when I was a young child, my mother’s favorite Bible verse to quote to us children was Ephesians 6:1…
- “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right…”
- Without fail, this was her go-to verse whenever we talked back or dragged our feet or chose to disobey…
- “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right!”
- So, at a young age, she taught us the importance of obedience.
- I’m reminded of the many times she took us on walks around the beautiful little village of Brockport, NY where we lived.
- The town was located on the scenic Erie Canal, so our walks included a stroll down to the park next to the canal and having a little picnic.
- One of the things we learned while doing this was just how important obedience was!
- She taught us to watch for traffic, look both ways before crossing the street, to keep our distance from the edge of the canal, and many other important safety lessons.
- But the one thing we always knew was that when we heard mom’s voice, we needed to obey.
- She was our mother and deserved our obedience.
- But not just that, she also understood more about our surroundings than we did.
- So if she saw a car coming that we didn’t see, and she yelled, “Stop!”, we’d know to stop and let the car pass by so we didn’t get run over.
- If we were downtown and were crossing the busy street, she’d yell, “Go!” when it was the right time to cross.
- If she saw we were getting too far ahead of her and she couldn’t see us, she’d shout, “Come here!” and we’d know to come back to her.
- Even though we were young, mom taught us the importance of obedience, which was a great life-lesson.
- As Christians, we all would agree that God deserves our obedience as well.
- That’s one of the ways we honor Him, is through our obedience to Him.
- As we’ll see in this passage today, Moses understood the importance of obedience as well.
- So let’s look at 3 things we learn about obedience from Moses in this passage.
I.) Our Obedience Must be Bold and Courageous- Vs 18-23
- When I was in Army Basic Training, I’ll never forget the day we went out to the grenade qualification course.
- Before we even got to look at a live grenade, we had to practice throwing duds over and over again.
- The Drill Sergeants were very particular about training us in the proper throwing technique and with good reason…
- This was because, obviously, hand grenades are very dangerous.
- Anyways, they drilled into us every step, building our muscle memory.
- Then, finally, the big day came for us to blow stuff up.
- I had to wait in line, and was way in the back, but I remember my heart beating fast, waiting, and watching other soldiers throw theirs.
- I was anxious and just wanted to get it over with.
- Finally, it was my turn.
- The Sergeant went through the steps with me once more, so it was fresh in my head, and off to the bunker we walked.
- The Sergeant told me to wait until I heard the range officer sound the signal that it was time to throw…
- He was close and watching my every move, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes.
- When the signal came, I popped up, threw the grenade, yelled, “Frag out!”, and down I went to the ground in the safety of the bunker.
- The Drill Sergeant had his hand on my helmet, keeping my head down, and after 3-5 seconds, I heard the boom.
- He patted me on my back, and off I went, glad to have it over with.
- But I’ll never forget what that day was like…
- The detailed instructions the drill sergeants gave us, the necessity of doing each step quickly, and the sobering reminder that I had my life and the Drill Sergeant’s life in my hands.
- If I didn’t act quickly, or if I made one mistake, it could mean life or death.
- I needed to be bold and courageous, otherwise, I probably would have frozen in place…
- That’s not good if you’re holding a live hand grenade!
- Our lives as Christians can be like that sometimes…
- There will be times when we need to be bold and courageous in our obedience to God.
- Here in Exodus 4, Moses doesn’t waste any time…
- He immediately obeys God’s instructions, because he understands the gravity of the situation.
- Notice what he does first.
- He returns to his father-in-law to ask his permission to leave.
- Don’t miss that.
- Moses had a flock of sheep that he was shepherding, but they were not his sheep.
- They belonged to his father-in-law, Jethro.
- So instead of just leaving the sheep in the wilderness to fend for themselves and going straight to Egypt, he first went to Jethro, out of respect and courtesy, and asked permission to leave…I’m sure that took guts!
- You might be thinking, “Well why on earth does Moses ask him for permission? Didn’t God just give him instructions pertaining to his brethren? Don’t God’s instructions outrank Jethro’s?”
- The answer is yes, but remember, as a shepherd, Moses was responsible for the lives of those sheep, so it was important for him to ask leave, so Jethro could assign someone else to shepherd them.
- In doing so, Moses was protecting the sheep, but more importantly, he was protecting Jethro as his employer.
- On top of that, Moses was also showing respect to Jethro as his father-in-law, not wanting to take his family and leave without giving Jethro a chance to say good-bye.
- I’m sure Jethro appreciated that.
- In vs 19, we see God relieve any remaining fears Moses may have had when He tells him, “Go, all the men who sought your life are dead.”
- Some might think that Moses was stalling out of fear that people would remember what he did, and he would be arrested and executed as soon as they recognized him.
- But I don’t think that’s the case.
- I believe God tells him this as just another confirmation that he is doing the right thing.
- It’s another way for Him to strengthen the faith of Moses and give him boldness.
- Notice now, in vs 20, that we’re told, “Moses took the rod of God in his hand.”
- This is another example of his obedience.
- God had promised to provide the signs through the rod, and Moses believed that.
- Now he’s going to Egypt in obedience, and he’s bringing the shepherd’s staff with him, in obedience.
- So this shows us that along with his obedience, Moses’ faith was growing as well.
- He believed what God said, and even though he would no longer need the staff for shepherding Jethro’s sheep, he would need it while shepherding God’s sheep, his brethren under bondage in Egypt.
- And I like the way Moses identifies that staff here…he calls it “the rod of God!”
- This is important, because people could easily be fooled into thinking that the rod or Moses had some kind of “magical power…”
- So another part of Moses obedience here is to make sure people know that his rod is “the rod of God!”
- In vs 21, God tells him to do these wonders before Pharaoh as well…
- Remember, when he did these signs in front of the Israelites, the purpose was to prove to them that he truly was sent by God.
- The signs would cause them to believe.
- However, God says something different about Pharaoh here.
- “I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”
- So the signs would have the opposite effect on Pharaoh…he wouldn’t believe…
- I don’t want to get into much detail at this point about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart…
- There will be time for that later in our study of Exodus…
- The reason I want you to notice that here is because of what God tells Moses…
- “You’re going to do these signs before Pharaoh, but he’s not going to believe. He’s going to be harsh and difficult to deal with. Yet you must go!”
- Think about that…
- God is sending Moses on a very difficult mission, and before he even starts it, God tells him, “Pharaoh’s not going to believe you.”
- If some of us were in Moses’ shoes, we might say, “Then what’s the point, God? Why are you sending me before him if he’s not going to listen anyways?”
- I believe God’s answer to us would be, “That part’s not up to you. You must obey. I’ll do the rest.”
- The next part of Moses’ obedience takes a lot of courage…
- God says, “Tell Pharaoh Israel is My son, My firstborn. Let My son go so he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn son!”
- Imagine having the guts to say something like that to the most powerful man in the nation…
- I’d probably be sick to my stomach with fear, because that’s not just a threat, it’s a fact… “If you don’t let them go, God’s going to do this…”
- I’d be expecting the words, “Off with his head!”
- But we’re not just talking about Pharaoh’s son here, which is bad enough as it is…
- We’re talking about his firstborn son…
- According to John MacArthur, “To the ancient Egyptians, the firstborn son was special and sacred, and the Pharaoh considered himself the only son of the gods…”
- So, the message Moses is bringing to Pharaoh is basically, “If you don’t let Israel go, God will kill your son, who you think is sacred. Oh, and even though you think you’re a god, and you think your son is destined to be a god, the truth is that Israel is God’s firstborn, God’s nation, and you have no power of them…you’re nothing, Pharaoh.”
- Imagine how much boldness and courage in God that Moses had in order to be obedient and go before Pharaoh to say what he said…
- There’s no doubt in my mind…Moses obedience was bold and courageous!
- What about you and me?
- Are there times when we need to be obedient to God, but it requires us to be bold and courageous?
- The answer is yes.
- Let’s use evangelism as an example.
- I’ll be the first to say that sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with strangers is scary!
- Sometimes, it’s even scarier when we share Him with a close friend or loved one.
- Yet in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gave the Great Commission to His disciples and us.
- He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
- As you can see, that’s not an option…it’s a command. “Go!”
- You might think, “Yeah, some people have the gift of evangelism, but I don’t. I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing. I’m afraid I’ll turn someone away. I’m afraid I’ll freeze and look like a fool…”
- Whatever your fears are, God is greater than them.
- In 2 Timothy 1:7, we’re told, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
- I’d say power, love, and self-discipline come with boldness and courage, wouldn’t you?
- Perhaps you’re afraid that once you start sharing the Gospel with others, Satan isn’t going to be happy, and you’re going to be attacked.
- Yes, that’s true because he is our adversary.
- But we’re told in Psalm 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”
- You say, “Yeah, but Satan’s attack might involve persecution from the world!”
- Yes, that’s true, but that’s okay, because Hebrews 13:5-6 tells us, “God Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
- Brothers and sisters, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is just one example of many we could use to illustrate that our obedience must be bold and courageous.
- Is there something in your life right now that God wants you to do, but you’re afraid to do it, so you’re not obeying?
- Give it over to Him today, ask Him for the boldness and courage you need, and choose to be obedient!
II.) Our Obedience Must be Complete- Vs 24-26
- Has anyone here ever bought something that needed to be assembled, and instead of using the instructions, you put it together on your own?
- I’m guilty, and I bet most of the men here today would be guilty of that as well.
- Usually, the instructions are long and complicated.
- Not only that, but the pictures don’t always match what you’re seeing while you’re assembling it, so it just gets confusing.
- Well, one day, I learned my lesson the hard way.
- Sherri, her father, and I were putting a shed up outside at our house.
- It was a really hot day, and we just wanted to get it done and over with.
- Well, we were making good progress when Sherri’s dad said, “We don’t need those instructions. This is easy!”
- Sherri tried to say, “The instructions are there for a reason. We need them to put this together the correct way.”
- However, I agreed with her father, so we proceeded to continue assembly without the instructions.
- When it was time to put the doors in, one of them didn’t want to fit right.
- We wrestled with it, and kept trying, but it didn’t want to go in.
- Finally, we realized that we had done one of the first steps of the project wrong…
- It was the floor, and we had put the floor piece by the door in backwards.
- The only way to correct it was to take it all apart and go back to the beginning to change the direction of that floor piece.
- Needless to say, we were frustrated and tired, so we forced the door in, and to this day, it still doesn’t shut properly.
- That’s because I chose to only follow part of the instructions…I didn’t follow the complete instructions…
- I chose to throw them off to the side, and of course, there were consequences for my decision.
- When it comes to our obedience to God, if we only follow part of His instructions instead of His complete instructions, there will be consequences for us as well.
- Moses learns this the hard way in these next few verses.
- On his way to Egypt, with his family, God appears to Moses and is going to kill him.
- You might be thinking what I usually think when I look at this passage…
- “Wait a minute…God has chosen Moses to deliver His people, and now, He’s going to kill him? That doesn’t make any sense!”
- This is one of those spots in Scripture where we have to stop and remember that God’s ways are not our ways.
- When we come to that realization, we’re able to look at passages like this and see the big picture.
- So what’s the big picture here?
- Turn with me back to Genesis 17:9-14, where we find God making His covenant with Abraham…
- As you can see, the sign of God’s Covenant with Abraham was circumcision.
- God said, “You and your descendants after you…every male child shall be circumcised…he who is eight days old among you…he who is born in your house…”
- And notice vs 14… “And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
- So here’s what’s happening…
- Moses has chosen to obey God’s call on his life and go to Egypt to deliver God’s people.
- He’s taken that step of faith, and God is pleased with it.
- However, somewhere in the process, Moses neglected to have either one or both of his sons circumcised.
- Don’t miss that.
- Moses is the man who would lead God’s people out of Egypt…
- He is the man who would bring the law to God’s people…
- He is the man who would later be called a friend of God….
- This same Moses neglected the most basic part of God’s Covenant to His people…circumcision!
- How could he lead the Covenant people, if he had chosen to either neglect or disregard the sign of the Covenant in his own household?
- That wouldn’t make any sense!
- Odds are pretty good that once the people found out Moses hadn’t even circumcised his own sons that they would have started to neglect or disregard circumcision of their sons as well.
- In doing so, they would have been rejecting God and His Covenant with them.
- Either that or they would have chosen to reject Moses, and in doing so, they would have been rejecting God since He sent him to His people.
- This was no small matter, and that’s why God’s response is so serious…
- Moses needed to realize the error of his ways and the problem needed to be fixed as soon as possible!
- He had only been partially obedient to God, and his obedience needed to be complete.
- Notice what his wife, Zipporah does in vs 25-26…
- She takes a stone knife and circumcises her son herself!
- Some might think Zipporah was doing this out of love for Moses, because God was going to kill him.
- But I think it was done more out of a motherly love for her son.
- After all, she didn’t know if God was going to kill her son as well for not being circumcised.
- So, she cuts his foreskin off and throws it at Moses feet.
- For me, there’s really no way to read that without seeing the anger and disgust on her face.
- And then she says, “You are a husband of blood to me!” not just once, but twice!
- I’m pretty sure she was quite upset with Moses, and from the sounds of it, upset with God as well.
- So why on earth did Moses refrain from circumcising his son?
- There are some different theories, and Scripture doesn’t tell us, but I agree with some commentators who believe that Zipporah was the reason it hadn’t been done.
- Remember, she was a Midianite woman, not an Israelite.
- She might have considered circumcision to be barbaric and cruel.
- After all, none of the Gentile nations circumcised their sons…it was strictly a Jewish custom because it was the sign of God’s Covenant.
- So if Moses had chosen not to circumcise his son because of his wife, that meant he was choosing her over God.
- How could a man who chose his wife over God become the leader of God’s people?
- It’s not possible, so I believe that’s why God almost killed him…it forced Zipporah to perform the act, which in turned saved her husband’s life.
- What about you and me?
- Are there times when we are only partially obedient to God?
- The answer is yes!
- One example that comes to mind is the way we live our lives.
- In Romans 12:1-2, Paul says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
- Scripture is quite clear that as Christians, we need to be living holy lives.
- We still have a sin nature, so obviously we’re not perfect.
- But as an act of worship to God Almighty, we strive to live holy lives for Him.
- We choose Him over the world, and we allow Him to transform us.
- We ask Him to give us victory in the areas of sin that we struggle with, such as lust or anger or pride…
- We ask Him to teach us as we live our lives in a way that pleases Him.
- And when we get knocked down, by the power of sin, we reach our arms out and allow Him to pick us right back up and keep us moving forward.
- It’s a process called sanctification…
- If we’re living in complete obedience to Him, we will be growing in our walk with Him, and maturing in our faith.
- However, if we’re living in partial obedience, we will have areas of our lives that we don’t want to give over to Him…
- Some examples might be greed, wanting more and more of what this world has to offer…money, material items, popularity…
- Or another example might be unforgiveness…we don’t want to let that person off the hook, so we hold onto our bitterness and anger…
- Another example might be ignoring God’s call, which would involve refusing to serve in the church in any capacity, small or big…
- Or refusing to give money toward God’s Work because you want to keep it to yourself.
- I don’t have to keep giving examples…
- Our obedience to the Lord should never be half-hearted and partial…
- It should be complete and with a joyful heart…
- It won’t be without stumbling blocks along the way, but those stumbling blocks should only push us closer to Christ instead of pulling us farther away.
- So, I would ask the question, are you in complete obedience to God this morning?
- If you’re not, I encourage you to start today.
III.) Our Obedience Must be Precise- Vs 27-31
- Surgeons have a very important job to perform…
- They literally have your life in their hands as they perform your surgery.
- Whether they’re operating on your brain, or your heart, or performing a simpler surgery, they must be precise in all that they do.
- They must be careful to hold their hands steady…one small slip, and the damage might be irreparable.
- They must pay attention to every move, step by step, and be careful not to miss anything.
- They must know where to cut and how much to cut…
- They must know how to stitch the area back up…
- Surgeons are amazing and deserve our thanks and respect…
- Now what would you think if a surgeon chose to only follow some of the procedures, but ignore others?
- For example, leaving one of their operating tools inside your body…that wouldn’t be good, would it?
- That surgeon would be guilty of carelessness.
- They weren’t being precise in their work.
- In the last part of this chapter, we find Moses being precisely obedient to the commands God has given him.
- He meets Aaron along the way, they go together to the elders of Israel, and they perform the signs and speak the words precisely as God told them to.
- Imagine what would have happened if they hadn’t been precisely obedient…
- Let’s say Moses decided he only wanted to perform the miracle of turning his rod into a snake…
- Then, when some of the people didn’t believe and put up a fuss, instead of continuing with the other 2 signs, he decided, “Oh well, that didn’t work. No use trying any longer.”
- Well, he wouldn’t have been following God’s instructions precisely, so he would have been wrong, and God probably would have judged him for his disobedience.
- No, Moses did exactly what God told him to…
- In response, the elders believed his word, and together they all bowed their heads and worshipped God.
- In closing, I’d like to point something interesting out about the way Moses and the elders worshipped…
- It says they “bowed their heads and worshipped…”
- This Jewish custom was not comfortable at all…
- According to Adam Clarke, they would bend their body so that every joint of the backbone became incurvated, and the head was bent towards the knees so that the body resembled a bow…
- I’m not going to illustrate that for you because it sounds extremely uncomfortable, and I’d probably rip my suit!
- But it does show you that they meant business…
- They knew that God was with them and would deliver them, and now they were ready to be obedient.
- As Christians, God deserves our obedience as well, even when it’s hard or uncomfortable; even when we’re afraid; even when complete and precise obedience means difficulty for us…
- After all, He gave His life on the cross for the sins of the world, yours and mine, no matter how horrible they are…
- He provides salvation and eternity in Heaven to all who turn to Him and believe.
- He welcomes us into His family.
- Wouldn’t you agree that He deserves our obedience?
- When we obey, we can be confident that God will be faithful.
