Jason Bourne. Dana Scully. Severus Snape. Natasha Romanova. What do these characters have in common? Not sure? Well, what if I included this name: James Bond. That’s right. These fictional characters are all agents of one kind or another. Yes, even Severus Snape, who was a double agent for (spoiler alert) Dumbledore!
Have you ever dreamed of being a special agent who gets to travel the world and confront the bad guys as you jump out of airplanes and moving trains? There are some people here who might tell you that being an agent is not as glamorous as they make it seem in the movies. They know because they are agents. Really? We have special agents in our midst? Sure. Take a look at the person next to you, and the one in front of you. He, she, even the littlest one here is an agent.
As we continue our sermon series “Moses: Made for More,” we’ll learn how Moses and each one of us is an agent of the One & Only God. As his agents we have important responsibilities and privileges. Let’s find out what those are. (Read text.)
This is now our fourth sermon in this series about Moses. In your opinion, what has been the best thing that Moses has accomplished for his people so far? What? Nothing momentous comes to mind? You’d be right about that. Last week, we heard how Moses’ first meeting with Pharaoh was a disaster, or so it seemed. After Moses demanded the release of God’s people, Pharaoh scoffed, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Ex. 5:2) Then what did Pharaoh do? He made the lives of the Israelite slaves more difficult and blamed Moses for it! Rather than being a suave agent like James Bond who always saves the day, Moses seemed to be more Johnny English, the bumbling agent played by Mr. Bean.
How do you suppose Moses felt then when God said after that incident: “Look, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. You are to speak [to Pharoah] everything that I command you.” (Exodus 7:1-2) “You’ve made me like God to Pharaoh? He laughed in my face and ran me out of the palace last time. Then he made the Israelites even more miserable!” But God assured Moses that he had a plan. “No, Pharaoh will not listen to you, [but] the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand over Egypt, and I bring out the Israelites from their midst [with great acts of judgment.]” (Exodus 7:4-5 paraphrased)
Agents Moses and Aaron were to confront Pharaoh again. To their credit, they did just that. In that way Moses and Aaron serve as good models for us. They were bold and persistent. They didn’t soft-pedal God’s message by saying, “We see that you’re quite spiritual, Pharaoh. The number of gods you worship is impressive. We just wish you would pay a bit more attention to the God of Israel.” No. Moses and Aaron were convinced: there is only one true God—the God of Israel. Pharaoh needed to hear and believe that if he too wanted to be saved. Are we as persistent and bold in our witnessing? I know I’m often not. So let’s discover the secret to Agents Moses’ and Aaron’s courage.
One reason they were so bold is that Moses and Aaron were convinced of God’s superiority. Look at how God demonstrated that superiority. With the Ten Plagues he smushed Egypt like a dump truck flattening a skunk. And with the Ten Plagues, God targeted Egyptian objects of worship starting with the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians were so dependent on the Nile that they had even composed hymns of praise to the world’s longest river. The poor Nile, however, was about to be assaulted with a deadly weapon.
God told Moses and Aaron to look for Pharaoh when he was out for his morning walk along the river. They were to take with them the staff which God had turned into a snake several times already and with it strike the Nile. When Pharaoh saw Moses and Aaron approaching with that staff, he should have been nervous—the way storm troopers would be tense if they saw Luke Skywalker coming their way with light saber in hand. Pharaoh’s fear would have been justified, for when Aaron struck the Nile with his staff and then waved it over the land, the river turned to blood as did the streams and ponds connected to the Nile. There was even blood in every container that held water from the Nile River! Fish died and the river wreaked. With one flick of the wrist God had bludgeoned to death, as it were, one of the Egyptian gods proving how superior he was.
Do you suppose Pharaoh’s jaw dropped at the spectacle? I doubt it. He probably just smirked before snapping his fingers for his magicians, who proceeded to turn water into blood just as Moses and Aaron had done. It must have been with Satan’s help that they were able to do this. But if these magicians were so great, and if Pharaoh really cared about his people, why didn’t he instead command the magicians to turn the blood back into water? As it was, for the next seven days the Egyptians were forced to dig new wells to find water they could drink. It just goes to show how Satan is wired to destroy, not restore.
What did Pharaoh himself do during the seven days his people were forced to dig for water? Listen to our text: “…he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this [miracle] to heart.” (Exodus 7:23a) Pharaoh went home and acted as if nothing had happened. He didn’t bother pondering what it meant for him and his people that God had turned the Nile into blood. Instead, Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord as he would do so throughout the plagues until God finally finished off Pharoah by hardening his heart for him so there was no chance for a conversion.
There’s a warning for us here. Do we hear God’s pronouncements, do we see his acts of judgment against Pharaoh but don’t take them to heart? For example, in our Gospel Lesson this morning we heard Jesus remind us that we are salt. That means we are to be different and not conform with the attitudes of our unbelieving neighbors. And yet do we keep up with the shows they watch even when those shows don’t encourage pure thoughts? Do we think hard about how to save up for retirement while not giving much thought about how we can honor the Lord with firstfruit, sacrificial giving? Do we mimic the foul speech of our friends rather than tempering our speech with words of grace and mercy? Jesus said if we are no different than the rest of the world, then we are not salty and not useful for anything but being thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5:13)
While Pharaoh should have been trampled underfoot immediately, he wasn’t. Consider how God should have directed Aaron to strike Pharaoh with the staff, thus pouring out the lifeblood of that stubborn and arrogant tyrant. Instead, God directed his judgment against the Nile River.
God would do something similar 1,500 years later and we still benefit from that action. Instead of striking us sinners with his just wrath, God directed that blow against his own Son when he hung on the cross. Ponder these words about Jesus from the book of Isaiah: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4, 5)
Here’s the most important part of the sermon, brothers and sisters. Are you listening? Do you still marvel at that miracle of love and grace? Do you still stand in amazement that God’s incredible power hasn’t come crashing down on you like a staff wielded by a grim and determined Aaron? Or do you hear that message about Jesus’ love and forgiveness and walk away unimpressed, mimicking Pharaoh when he nonchalantly left behind the bloody Nile?
Perhaps we think we would be more impressed if we could actually see a miracle like the one Pharaoh witnessed. Well, in just a few minutes many of you will participate in a miracle that is even more spectacular than what happened in ancient Egypt. While God turned water into blood there, he’ll turn wine into a sin-cleanser here. How will he do this? Together with the wine of Holy Communion, you’ll be receiving the blood of Jesus—not blood which kills as it did in the Nile, but blood that brings life eternal because it neutralizes all sin—even our sins of taking God’s grace for granted.
The Lord’s Supper is a miracle unmatched in its power and grace and yet how often don’t we walk away from this sacrament unimpressed and unmoved? Are we really as hardhearted as Pharaoh? By nature we are! But that’s why in his love God brought us here this morning. He’s doing what he said he would do to the stubborn Israelites of the prophet Ezekiel’s day. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
Today, right now, God reminds us again how dangerous sin is so that we don’t shrug off our jealousy, our untruthfulness, or our whining as if it’s nothing more than a bad habit—like forgetting to brush your teeth before bed. If we think that about sin, then eventually God’s loving calls of repentance will be replaced with his judgment, as surely as consistently unbrushed teeth will one day rot and fall out! The writer to the Hebrews puts the warning like this: “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts...’” (Hebrews 3:12-15)
God does more than warn us this morning. Like a mechanic who doesn’t just tell you that your engine is about to quit, but takes it apart to clean away all the gunk that has built up so that it runs well again, so our God has picked us apart with his law but has also scrubbed us clean with the good news of Jesus’ purifying blood so that we may serve well as his special agents as we move towards completing our mission of getting to heaven and bringing many others with us.
Yes, we, like Moses, are agents of the One & Only God. Indeed, there is no one like the true God. Look at how he demonstrated his power over Egypt. He didn’t just turn the Nile into blood, he also sent plagues of frogs, flies, and a funerial darkness among other afflictions. After the first two plagues, even the Egyptian magicians admitted, “This is the hand of God.” Did that not become painfully obvious to Pharaoh when the plagues started to affect the Egyptians only and not the Israelites?
Friends, you might not feel very important, but as Jesus said in our Gospel Lesson, you have been called to be salt and light. You have been made for more. Like Moses, every one of you is an agent of the One & Only God. We have the responsibility of representing him to the world with our words and actions. Let us do so boldly and persistently as we interact with our family, our coworkers, and our neighbors. And let us do so confidently and joyfully as we remember that as agents of the One & Only God, we have his protection and his love. Our missions on his behalf are never pointless. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Why did it seem that Moses was more Johnny English than James Bond?
In what way do Moses and Aaron serve as good examples for us when it comes to witnessing?
With one flick of the wrist God showed his superiority over the Nile River, which the Egyptians worshipped. What was Pharaoh’s surprising reaction? How are we often guilty of the same attitude?
Explain: By turning the Nile River to blood, God demonstrated his power and his grace.
How will many in worship today at this service participate in a miracle more spectacular than what God did to the Nile River?
Like Pharaoh, we too have a problem with hard hearts. Only God can give us “soft” hearts and he does so through his Word. How does God’s Word help us combat the danger of becoming hardhearted again?
Like Moses, every person here is an agent of the One & Only God. What responsibilities do we have? What privileges?
