For twelve weeks we have been studying the life of Moses, the greatest Old Testament prophet. A prophet, by definition, is one who speaks just as a preacher does today. Do you remember one of the first things we heard Moses say during this series? After God appeared in the burning bush to an 80-year-old Moses and tasked him with confronting the Egyptian Pharoah so that he would let the Israelite slaves go, Moses countered: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. …Please send someone else.” (Ex. 4:10, 13b)
But what a difference forty years can make! As we listen to the final words of Moses, words he spoke to the Israelites shortly before his death at age 120, we hear him say: “Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Dt. 32:1-4)
No longer was Moses hesitant to speak. He spoke boldly, even eloquently as if from a carefully crafted Shakespearean sonnet. Why? Because Moses had something important to say and he wanted everyone to listen…including us. As we conclude our Moses: Made for More sermon series, we’ll see why we’ll want to make Moses’ final words our first work.
They say that before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. If Moses experienced a phenomenon like that, he had an exciting life to review! Born to Jewish slaves in Egypt, Moses was supposed to have been tossed into the Nile River and drowned with other Jewish baby boys because the Egyptian Pharaoh was nervous that there were too many Jews in his land. Instead, Moses was lovingly placed in a basket called an ark by his mother. She then floated that basket on the Nile River, entrusting Moses’ care to God. God responded when he caused Pharoah’s daughter to discover and adopt Moses.
40 years later, Moses threw away a life of ease as an Egyptian nobleman when he sided with his Israelite brothers and sisters. He saved one from an Egyptian slave driver but committed murder in the process and was forced to flee Egypt. The next 40 years of his life was spent in obscurity as a shepherd in the wilderness near Mt. Sinai. But one day, a burning bush caught Moses’ attention. It was clearly on fire, but the leaves and the branches did not disintegrate. When Moses went over to investigate, the Angel of the Lord called out to him from within the fire: “Moses! Take off your sandals. You’re on holy ground.” God proceeded to task Moses with leading the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt. It was also here that God revealed himself as the great I AM, the God of absolute constancy and independence. When Moses and the Israelites would later wonder whether God was really with them, God’s response was his name: I AM!
Time and time again, God proved that he was with Moses and the Israelites when he performed miracles on their behalf, like the Ten Plagues against Egypt. And although there were no Walmarts but only a barren wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land, God provided food and water in miraculous ways for two million refugees. He did this in spite of constant grumbling and complaining from the Israelites. Moses was right when had said about the Lord: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Dt. 33:27)
Have you seen that new commercial from AT&T? It’s the one with the 6’11, 250 lbs NBA basketball player Steven Adams holding up three adults on his outstretched arms. Those are strong arms, but they are not everlasting arms. Your God, on the other hand, managed to uphold two million Israelites for 40 years. This same God has slipped his arms underneath you too. Oh sure, you’ve no doubt experienced some turbulence in your life. But I don’t doubt either that God’s everlasting arms have cushioned the blows.
Since this God had been faithful to all of his promises to Israel, Moses urged that the Israelites remain faithful to the Lord. Among Moses’ final words is a statement of faith that many Jews still recite twice a day. It goes like this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Dt. 6:4)
It is important to note that Moses did not say: “Look, O Israel. Let me show you your God.” Instead, he implored: “Hear, O Israel.” Because sinful people can’t see a holy God and survive any more than we can gaze at the noon-day sun without doing permanent damage to our eyes, the way to learn about the true God is by listening to what he tells us about himself. Moses wants us to know that there is only one true God—the God of the Bible. He is the God who wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, and strength. It’s the kind of effort a teenage boy might put into pushing his girlfriend’s car out of the snowbank to impress her with how strong and dedicated he is.
While any one of us might work hard at pushing a car out of snowbank for fifteen minutes or so, we’ll soon need a break or get distracted. That’s how the Israelites were in their love for the Lord. Even though God had proven time and time again that he was fully dedicated to them, the Israelites did not return that love—like the time they directed their love to a golden calf.
Our love for God is often quite wishy-washy too. If everything doesn’t go the way we want, we are quick to blame God. I mean, if God’s everlasting arms are underneath us, why do we have to struggle at all? Well, do you remember how rather than putting the Israelites on the shortcut to the Promised Land of Canaan, God had them detour through the wilderness? He even purposely brought them to a dead end when they bumped up against the Red Sea while the Egyptian army was closing in on them. Why?
When we discussed this the first time, we spoke about why they shoot fireworks off at night and not during the day when more people are awake. The dark night sky of course serves as a better canvass for the brilliant colors of the fireworks. They shoot off fireworks at night because you can see them better. God also often lets the darkness of health and financial problems descend on us so that we are better able, and perhaps more ready to see his brilliant love for us. And what did God do for the Israelites at the Red Sea? He did what no one expected. He opened a way through the Red Sea by parting the water so that the Israelites could cross over safely on dry land.
God has also made a way to eternal safety for you too in the most unexpected way. From the wounds on the hands, feet, and side of Jesus poured out blood that swept away your sins, even as the waters of the Red Sea swept away the Egyptian army. If God has gone to this length to provide salvation, if he was willing to sacrifice his own Son for us, what else won’t he do for us? The rich uncle who pays to fly you first class to his mansion on a tropical island is also certainly going to buy you coffee while you wait for your flight. Likewise, the same God who has promised you an eternal life in heaven will provide all that you need as you journey there.
Since this is the kind of God we have, we will want to do as Moses urged the Israelites: to take his Word and impress it on ourselves and on our children, to talk about that Word when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up, to tie it as symbols on our hands and bind it on our foreheads, and to write it on the doorframes of our houses and gates. (Dt. 6:7-9)
Macey, thank you for setting a good example for us this morning in that regard. You have brought the twins, Theodore and Mathilda, to be baptized. In so doing, you have taken God up on his promise to bind those children to his heart through the waters of baptism. Now keep “impressing” upon the twins who this wonderful God is. The Hebrew word “impress” describes what you do to sharpen a knife—you press it against a whetstone. Do that for Theodore and Mathilda. Press them up against the Word of God as you “sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.” In so doing you will sharpen their understanding of right and wrong, but even more importantly, you will help them see more clearly Jesus’ love for them.
But does that seem like overkill, like something a preacher would say because he really has no clue how the real world works? Press our children up against God’s Word? That sounds like, well, brainwashing! And anyway, there’s math and reading that kids need to master if they’re going to get anywhere in this world!
When Moses encourages us to press our children up against God’s Word, he’s not suggesting that we don’t teach them how to read and write or how to get along in the world. It’s not a matter of either/or, but both/and. The problem is that Satan excels at getting us to think that learning how to succeed in this life is more important than learning how to prepare for the next life—the eternal life. Macey, and every other parent here, the greatest gift we can give our children is this: helping them see that this world is not primarily a playground but a battleground (Mark Braun). There are real enemies out there. Satan, the unbelieving world, and our own sinful nature are constantly pulling us away from Jesus our Savior.
We counter those attacks when we let God’s Word be our focus and guide. That was Moses’ point when he said to bind God’s Word to our foreheads and arms. Many Jews still do that literally with phylacteries, mini boxes that hold pieces of God’s Word, which they tie to their foreheads and arms. But what would be more important to do is binding God’s Word behind our foreheads as we commit it memory, and as we let the Word serve as a pair of glasses so that we see the world and others as God wants us to see them.
But what is this all for anyway? In spite of knowing well God’s Word, didn’t Moses still die? That’s true, but Moses said regarding God’s Word: “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.” (Dt. 32:47) That’s similar to how Jesus once said: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63) In the midst of death and decay, God’s Word alone provides life, explain both Moses and Jesus.
The similarity between Moses and Jesus should not surprise us. After all, Moses prophesied: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” (Dt. 18:15) Jesus was that great prophet. Consider these similarities between the two. Like Moses, Jesus was pursued by an angry tyrant soon after his birth. Like Moses, Jesus stood face to face with his heavenly Father before relaying God’s Word to us. Like Moses, Jesus regularly prayed on behalf of his people to save them from God’s anger. But Jesus went further than Moses when he actually gave up his life as a peace offering so that God is no longer angry at us for our sins. Like Moses, Jesus too died atop a mountain at God’s command. Golgotha or Mt. Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, is 30 miles due west from where Moses died on Mt. Nebo.
There’s one more important similarity between the two. Death was not the end of either. Three days after his crucifixion, Jesus came back to life. About 1400 years after his death, Moses stood atop another mountain, the Mt. of Transfiguration as he spoke to Jesus, together with the prophet Elijah. What were they speaking about? They were speaking about Jesus’ “exodus”—his upcoming death that would win forgiveness for all people (Luke 9:31). So what are the last recorded words of Moses? Though we don’t know what Moses actually said, his last recorded conversation in the Bible was with Jesus about his work as our Savior!
As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, we see clearly how Jesus took on that work of Savior with a singular determination. You’ve heard enough Palm Sunday sermons to know that Jesus’ mode of transportation into Jerusalem, on a donkey instead of a white stallion or a chariot, highlighted his humility. While Moses was once described as the humblest man in the world (Numb. 12:3), Jesus was more so. Like a bundle of firewood tied to the back of a donkey and headed for the altar in the temple to be burned, so Jesus was going into Jerusalem to be consumed by God’s fiery anger on the altar of the cross. He did so as a sacrifice for our sins so that we may have eternal life! He did all this even though he is the King of universe and deserving of all praise and glory. He gave his life to serve and to save sinners. What can we compare that to? A homeowner who goes into debt to build a multi-million-dollar mansion, only to willingly hand it over to the field mice and raccoons to take over instead of living in it himself? It’s no wonder Moses marveled as he said to the Israelites: “Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD?” (Deuteronomy 33:29b)
And that is what we all are, brothers and sisters—a people saved by the LORD, a people made for more than just living in this sin-filled world. So make Moses’ final words your first work. Listen to and learn more about this true God. Make it your priority, not just on Sunday mornings, but every morning and evening. Do as the writer to the Hebrews urged: “Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. …But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” (Hebrews 3:1-2, 6) Yes, keep holding firmly to the confidence of salvation you have in Christ Jesus as you keep pressing God’s Word into your hearts and minds. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) Due to the length of the sermon text, Pastor will not read it in its entirety during the service. Do so now from the bulletin. Underline any detail that interests you.
Contrast the way Moses felt about his calling at the beginning of his ministry to the way he felt about it at the end.
Today’s sermon theme: Make Moses’ final words your _______________ __________________.
One of the things that Moses learned about God early in his ministry is that he is the great “I AM.” How do the following words of Moses help define what it means that God is the “I AM”? “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Dt. 33:27)
Among Moses’ final words is a statement of faith that many Jews still recite twice a day. It goes like this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Dt. 6:4) Jot down a few important points you want to remember about this verse.
If God’s “everlasting” arms are underneath us, why do we struggle at all in life?
(2 questions) God did something unexpected for the Israelites when he made a way through the Red Sea by parting the waters so that the Israelites could escape the Egyptians. How did God make a way to eternal safety for us sinners? And how does this fact give you confidence to face your everyday struggles?
Moses urged the Israelites to impress God’s Word on themselves and their children. What picture does the Hebrew word “impress” provide?
(Fill in the blanks and then explain.) The greatest gift we can give our children is this: helping them see that this world is not primarily a ________________ but a ________________ .
(2 questions) God promised to raise up a great prophet like Moses in the future. That “prophet” was Jesus. What are the similarities between Jesus and Moses? What are the differences?
“Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD?” (Dt. 33:29b) Moses marveled. How do the events of Palm Sunday remind us that indeed, we have much to marvel about when we contemplate what Jesus did for us?
