The Journey to Faith Series
Introduction
There's much to learn through life experiences. The majority of scripture is not a rulebook. God has communicated great true this in the context of relationship swiftness people. One of the greatest lessons on worship was communicated to an encounter with Jesus and a woman of questionable character. The many powerful truth of the New Testament have been communicated by Paul to a particular people or church or person.
First Corinthians chapter 10 tells us to pay attention to the experiences of the Israelites to the we can learn from their example. Therefore, it would be a good experience for us to go back and looked at Israel's walk so that we might learn what it means to walk by faith. What happens after God saves us? What does that walk look like?
For the next several months we will follow Israel from a time of miraculous salvation through their desert experience intended to teach them how to really trust God so that we might pick up clues and find our way in this journey of faith that leads us to the promised land. Much of God's truth was communicated to story and so we will pick up the story of Israel of their successes and their failures to relate to God with faith and genuine trust. The story of the Hebrew people really begins with a single person named Abram. Out of all of the peoples of the world God detected in the heart of Abram a sensitivity toward him. Thus God appeared to Abram with a most gripping promise.
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house,
To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3
At this point the promise seemed a bit vague. God promised land, seed, and blessing. Not only personal blessing for him, but Abram would be the source of blessing for all the families of the earth. So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; Genesis 12:4
Along the way God spoke to Abraham again in a vision.
"Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great." Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir." Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:1-6
The faith of Abraham was tested. Abraham believed God to leave for and travel to a place where God would take him. Now God has promised the impossible. God would bring new life out of a barren womb. It is here where the scripture tells us of Abraham's genuine faith in God. I wish I could tell you that his faith was perfect, but whose is?
There's much more to the story but our purpose is to follow Israel. So eventually Sarah conceives and bares Abraham a son who's name was Isaac. To Isaac was born Jacob. Out of Jacob came numerous sons and grandsons who become the fathers of the tribes of Israel. God preserved of this new little nation through severe famine in the region.
Through God's blessing on the Jacob’s son Joseph, the extended family escapes annihilation and finds abundant refuge in the land of Egypt. The children of Jacob of God renamed Israel prospered greatly in the land not only financially but numerically. Following Joseph's death, a new pharaoh arose in Egypt who forgot all of the wonderful things Joseph did to save the Egyptians. This pharaoh feared any an Israeli revolt and the threat of any alliance that Israel might take with surrounding nations and conquer Egypt. As a result, the pharaoh ordered all newborn male babies to be killed as they were delivered by the Egyptian midwives.
Along with this, the Israelites were put under slavery and forced labor. This ill-treatment lasted nearly 400 years in spite of the loud cries of the people of Israel for deliverance. In the midst of this is severe bondage a little baby was born.
The Bible tells it this way.
The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?" Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go ahead." So the girl went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, "Because I drew him out of the water." Exo 2:2-10
What would become of his adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter? Let's go back to the text.
Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, "Why are you striking your companion?" But he said, "Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and said, "Surely the matter has become known."
When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. Exodus 2:11-15
In a short time, Moses found himself by a well. From the halls of the palace to the obscurity of the desert.
Shattered dreams. Confused direction. Broken confidence. Disillusionment.
The book of acts provides some deeper insight into the Moses’ thinking at the time.
"Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. "But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. "And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. "And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. Acts 7:22-25
I'm not sure it was the people that misunderstood but rather Moses who misunderstood the ways of God. A major lesson of faith from the get-go here has to do with accomplishment of impossible things in the flesh or according to God's ways through the power of his spirit. Moses figured he was going to deliver Israel one at a time in his own strength. Like his father Abraham before him, Moses failed to leave room for the supernatural intervention of God in human history and impossibility.
God had the much a greater deliverance in mind than what Moses could've brought about in his own strength.
Pride is always incompatible with genuine faith. Moses with all his education and learning in power in word and deed at 40 years old finds himself in obscurity, loneliness, and disillusionment. So far we have observed operation kill in cover, operation fear and flee, and now operation sit and simmer. It would take God another 40 years to a dirge all vestiges of pride in Moses’ life. By the way, Times of obscurity by the well are useful and often necessary in the development of a useful instrument in the hands of God.
The point is not to spend the rest of your days by the well but to listen for the call of God to his purposes brought about by his strength through us. He does exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power he has caused to work in us his children. Are you facing shattered dreams? Do you feel disillusioned and passed over? Do you feel like your failures have disqualified you from ever making any impact for God in this world?
Well then, join the club. For it is when we come to the point of helplessness and hopelessness and the absolute disintegration of our own strength that we come to God with empty hands in desperation and become the humble tool in the hands of the Almighty God. Through the desert experience Moses became the most humble man.
All journeys require leadership. All movements begin with a leader. God thus began preparation of a leader through whom he would bring about one of the greatest deliverances of all time; significant enough to serve as the picture of the greatest deliverance that would come through God’s son Jesus Christ. So this journey we are about to take is about a leader and a people. We will find in the next several months, principles of leadership and principles of following, as well as principles of faith both on the part of a leader and the people.
One will greatly impact the other. Moses will suffer because of the people. The people will suffer because of Moses. Both will suffer for their failure to genuinely trust God in the face of difficulties. The rest of today's message will focus on God's call to a reluctant broken down disillusioned leader. We join the story in Exodus chapter 3.
Exodus -- “Exit”
Basic Outline
I. God Provided Deliverance from Egypt 1-15
II. God Propelled Development of trust 15-18
III. God Prescribed Devotion to Him 19-40
I. Deliverance from Egypt Provided
A. From Bounty to bondage 1
B. Preparation of the deliverer 2-4
1. Birth and education 2:1-10
2. Flight and humiliation 2:11-22
a) Kill and cover
b) Fear and flee
c) Sit and simmer
3. Call and commission of Moses
a) God reveals his person
b) God reveals his plan
c) God reveals his instrument 3:10
The excuses of Moses
1 - I don’t have the right personality 11-12
“not a leader, don’t have the character, already failed”
“I will be with you”
2 - I don’t have the answers 13-22
What shall I say.
Tell them about me
Tell them my plan to deliver
3 – I don’t have the authority 4:1-9
You have my power demonstrated by three miraculous signs.
4 – I don’t have the ability to speak 10-12
I will be with your mouth
5 – Send someone else
I want YOU!
4. Journey to Egypt 4
