The Story of Moses: Preparation
Exodus 2:11-25
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
03-02–2025
Obituary
Last week, I helped Debbie, Patrick’s daughter, write his obituary. It’s a strange thing to write an obituary of someone you loved.
It’s even stranger to read your own obituary. That’s what happened to Alfred Nobel. When his brother died in 1888, the papers published Alfred’s obituary by mistake.
They called him the “Merchant of Death” and “Dr. Nobel, who who became rich by finding ways to kill more people than ever before, died yesterday.” They were highlighting his invention of dynamite.
Alfred was horrified that this is how he would be remembered. Upon his death, he left his fortune to found the Nobel Prize. He wanted to leave behind a better legacy.
Have you ever felt that way? Have you wanted a “do-over?” Have you failed at something and were afraid that failure would define you?
Moses knew that feeling completely and that’s what we are going to study this morning.
Review
Last week, we learned that Joseph’s family settled in the land of Goshen. They were shepherds by trade and the reigning king was a shepherd as well. At the end of Genesis, the children of Israel were a small group of 70, living in the middle of nowhere.
But as we begin the book of Exodus, four hundred years after the end of Genesis, there are somewhere between two and three million Jewish people in Egypt.
This presented a problem to the new Pharaoh, who did not know the story of how Joseph saved the nation from starvation. All he saw was a military threat:
“Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” (Exodus 1:8-10)
In the case of a military conflict, they could join the attacking force and then get out of there.
The king had a shrewd solution:
“So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.” (Exodus 1:11-14)
The Egyptians enslaved the people of Israel, just as God had told Abraham when he made the covenant with him to give him offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky. (See Gen 15)
The Israelites became slaves. They were political, economic, and social slaves. But most of all, they were in spiritual bondage.
The plan backfired because the more they were oppressed, the more numerous they became.
Pharaoh first tries to order the midwives to start killing all the Hebrew baby boys but they feared God more than him.
Next, he begins a war on the Jewish people that still rages today:
“Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:22)
Because of this decree, Jochabed and Amram hide their new baby boy as long as they could. When his cries became too loud to hide anymore, Jochabed devised a plan.
She placed the baby in a basket made of reeds, a little ark, and sent it out in the Nile current, praying that it would be kept safe and God would guide it to the Pharaoh’s palace.
The plan worked:
“Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.” (Exodus 2:5-6)
Pharaoh’s daughter probably saw this baby as a gift from the river god, Osiris.
Miriam, his older sister, had followed her little brother and emerged from the bullrushes and offered to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her.
Jochabed received her baby back and was even paid to nurse him. But after he was weaned, he would be taken to the palace.
“When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:10)
This same Moses would later live up to his name and “draw out” the Israelites from Egypt. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
If you weren’t here last week, you can always watch the sermon on Facebook or YouTube.
Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 2.
Prayer
Preparations for a Future Pharaoh
Moses was probably taken to the palace at three to four years old.
Tradition tells us that Moses was educated in the city of Heliopolis.
He would have been taught to swim, ride a horse, shoot a bow and hunt wild game.
He learned mathematics like geometry and trigonometry. He was immersed in the arts, medicine, history and art of war.
He learned Egyptian law and how to read and write in Egyptian hieroglyphics. He spoke the local language, Akkadian as well as Hebrew.
He was mighty in word and deeds and was a military commander that captured the cities of Hermopolis and Saba.
He had the best education and training that someone could receive in Egypt. In fact, there are some who think that Moses was being groomed to be the next Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
But he was also taught about his people and the patriarchs from his parents.
Moses was uniquely prepared for whatever God had for him to do.
At the age of forty, Moses reached a turning point in his life. He was mature enough to see what was happening around him, the oppression and slavery of his people. He knew something had to be done and decided to do it.
The only problem is that he didn’t ask God if it was the right time to do the right thing.
The Right Thing the Wrong Way
“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:11-12)
For nearly 40 years, Moses had lived the life of privilege in the palace but he never forgot where he came from or who he really was.
This was a turning point in Moses’s life. He knew he could lead the people out of Egypt. He was born for such a time as this.
The writer of Hebrews writes:
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (Hebrews 11:24-26)
Now, God hadn’t made that clear to Moses yet but he had a plan.
Chuck Swindoll describes it as only he can:
“Moses paced the ghetto walkway, the rough leather straps from his makeshift sandals rubbing open blisters on his supple, Egyptian - groomed heels. He was attempting to limp with the hobbled stride of a tired Hebrew, and the burn of the blisters was making his gait more realistic. He pulled his cloak further over his eyes, taking advantage of the shadowy dusk now settling over the Nile delta.
Disguised as a slave, he roamed the alleys and mud streets of Goshen - the slum district housing most of the brick makers and their families. These people were the backbone of Hebrew society. If he was going to lead this nation of slaves out of bondage, he would have to win their support.
…He approached the corner leading to an alley but stopped short of entering. An intermittent thudding sound came from deep within…His discovery of the sound’s source nauseated him.
The silhouette of an Egyptian overseer stood over the shadow of a Hebrew slave on all fours. He was hunched over and holding his ribs…his right foot was thrusting deep into the slave’s side with sickening force.
“Never argue with me,” the overseer yelled.
The slave, falling to the ground, cried out, “Save me, O Lord, from the hand of the wicked. Send your deliverer now for my life is ending.”
That was all Moses needed to hear. He looked down both sides of the street to make sure no other overseers were around, then he…charge forward and sunk his fists into the overseer’s kidney. The man staggered, then reeled around, his own clenched fist seeking to land a punch…Moses ducked but his cloak blew off.
Their eyes met as the overseer stepped back to gather himself. He took a quick glance at his attacker and then took a long, second look at his assailant. He squinted - his eyes were telling him that it was prince Moses, but his mind didn’t believe them.
With the Egyptian still on his heels, Moses landed a swift, fatal blow to the nose, ending the overseer’s life…and the slave’s torment.
Moses gathered the Hebrew into his arms and carried him to a nearby shanty. He would find help for the slave first, then he would bury the evidence.”
Step one of Operation Deliverance was complete. No one knew about the Egyptian buried in the sand. He was collateral damage. He had rescued the Hebrew slave. The news would spread like wildfire.
The people would recognize that God had sent him as their deliverer and would fall into line behind his leadership. No sweat.
But…
“The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” (Exodus 2:13)
Moses confronts two Hebrews duking it out. He thought that unity was important. We can’t be turning on each other.
He separated the two and then, like a father, demands answers.
The response of the men absolutely shook him to the core:
“The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” (Exodus 2:14)
Where was the respect he deserved? And how did he know about the Egyptian he had killed? No one saw him and he buried the evidence.
Let me stop here and make an important point. Scripture is clear. You cannot hide your sin for long. As Moses writes in Deuteronomy, “your sin will find you out.”
Jesus said,
“There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” (Luke 12:2)
Josh Dugger was the oldest son of the family that was featured on the TLC program “19 Kids and Counting.” He was charismatic and good looking and a sexual predator who admitted at 14 years old he molested several of his sisters and other young girls.
He even admitted this to his parents but instead of calling in professional help, they went to friends in the church, who did not report it to the police.
Two years later, his parents had him talk to a family friend, a state trooper, who did not report it to anyone.
They sent him to a three month church program where he admitted his behavior to the counselors there. They did not report it.
At this time, Josh was courting a young lady and her parents told her all the details. She responded by venting her emotions into a letter, folded it, and put the book on her shelf.
Three years later, a friend asked to borrow that book. In it, she discovered the letter, showed it to her parents who called the police.
In 2015, he was exposed but the charges were past the statute of limitations. The tv show was canceled and the Dugger brand was obliterated.
He was arrested in 2021. He is in prison right now, for eleven years, because they found him in possession of child pornography.
Solomon wrote to his sons:
“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)
A friend reminds me often that God does not let his children sin successfully.
Moses’s heart started beating wildly. If these people know, the palace must have gotten word as well. ?
“When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.” (Exodus 2:15)
Yes, he was Pharaoh’s adopted grandson but he had killed an Egyptian, proving, deep down, that he was still just a stinking Hebrew.
Moses knew he had to get out of town so he ran to Midian and he sat down beside a well.
I can imagine Moses sitting by that well because I’ve sat besides that well. The well is called failure and I nearly drowned in it when we returned from Florida.
Moses was forty, had irrevocably turned his back on his Egyptian family, and tried to convince the people that it was time for deliverance.
But Moses wasn’t ready and the people weren’t ready yet.
Here’s an important lesson for us to learn:
“Failure isn’t fun but, most of the time, it’s not fatal, and it can build your faith.”
A very important book was given to me as a young Christian was by John Maxwell entitled, “Failing Forward.”
He has spent years interviewing people and asking them “What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your life?”
He noticed that almost every person said something about failure.
Here’s what I learned from Maxwell:
Keep success and failure together. Failure keeps us humble which makes me teachable and gives me resiliency.
Understand the differences between good misses and bad misses. Good misses are when I try something and it doesn’t work so I make adjustments. A bad miss is when instead of making adjustments we make excuses.
Embrace hard. Life is difficult. We must be intentional and expect failures.
Anticipate failure. The greatest baseball players fail seven out of ten times at the plate.
Talk about your failures. If you want to impress people, talk about your successes. If you want people to really listen, be open and honest about your failures.
Recently, I talked with someone who went to PBC for many years. She told me that she always enjoyed my preaching but the sermon she remembered most is the one about the Greyhound bus and my failures as a young husband to cherish my little red-headed girl. She said, “That’s the day you became real to me. That’s the day I really started to listen.”
6. The right response to failure gives us the greatest benefits.
Thomas Edison famously said, “I did not fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Michael Jordan wrote: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
And the man in black himself, Johnny Cash said, “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”
He was defeated for Illinois state legislator in 1832. He started a business only to see it go under. He lost his run for Congress in 1843 and again in 1848. He lost his bid to become a U.S. Senator in 1855. He ran for Vice President of the U.S. in 1856 and lost. He again ran for the U.S. Senate in 1859 and lost yet again.
Abraham Lincoln failed again and again. And that is what made him such a humble, amazing leader.
Moses got ahead of God’s timing. He thought he could kick start the process himself.
He was operating in his own flesh instead of being Spirit-led.
He was sincere but still impulsive and impatient.
God still had much to teach him before he would be the great leader we know him as.
And when God wants to break a man down to build him back up, He usually does this in the desert.
After Paul’s conversion, he went into Arabia for three years to be taught by the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 1:17). It was during that time that God prepared Paul to be the greatest missionary the world has ever known.
David was anointed king but was on the run from Saul for seven years. It was during that time, hiding in caves, that God prepared him to be king.
And it was in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, that God started to prepare Moses to be the deliverer of Israel.
Moses in the Desert
“Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
The Midiaites were descendants of Abraham and Keturah. They were not Jewish but related distantly to the Hebrews. They lived in what is now modern-day Saudi Arabia.
As he sat by the well, seven sisters of a God-fearer named Reuel, or Jethro (not Bodine) showed up to draw water. A group of shepherds came and harassed them.
Moses got up. This word means, “he sprang to his feet.” The word “helped” means “to rescue.”
So even thousands of miles away from Egypt, he is still acting as a deliverer. This time, it was Jethro’s daughters.
To me this has a kinda Jack Reacher vibe. He drove the shepherds away and then watered the flocks.
A Good Man is Hard to Find
When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
It seems that the harassment from the other shepherds was a common occurrence and they were back well before they usually returned.
They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
There was an Egyptian sitting at the well. They knew where he was from by his dress.
This prince who had been waited on hand and foot growing up by servants becomes a servant to this group of sisters.
“And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
He had seven daughters! He wanted to know why they didn’t bring him home for supper!
Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.” (Exodus 2:16-22)
This was not a marriage of love, not at first. Marriages were arranged during this time.
In time, they welcomed a baby boy that Moses named, “Gershom,” which means, "banishment," "expulsion," "stranger," "resident alien.”
Moses seems to understand he is not where he is supposed to be but
David Guzik writes:
"By taking a wife and having a son, Moses seems to give up on Egypt and his hope of being a deliverer for Israel. Moses was content with where God put him, even though Midian was very different from Egypt.”
God wasn’t done with Moses. The lessons of the desert were just as important as the palace.
Moses learned the lessons in obscurity, on the back side of the desert.
One of the assignments my Moody students have to write is a paper about their “barriers,” things that are keeping them from growing spiritually. Dr. Luna Mae and I are the only ones that read these so I tell them they can be honest.
Many write about porn, or unforgiveness or things that happened in their past.
But more than a couple wrote about their pride, wanting to be known. They want to write books, speak at conferences, have podcasts and “be somebody.”
I know this temptation well because I felt its pull when I was younger.
I try to remind them of Count Zinzendorf’s words that are printed on his tombstone and were the motto of his life - “preach the Gospel, die, be forgotten.”
Our job isn’t to be famous but to be faithful to make Jesus famous in our culture.
If God wants to use you in a special way, go hide in a cave, or the backside of a desert. He’ll find you when the time is right.
Remember how D.L Moody described Moses’s life:
“Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody, and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody”.
The desert gave him time to rest and rely on God. He would need energy for the next chapter of his journey.
Before we look at the last section, let me make a comparison. Moses is a type, a forerunner, of Christ.
Like Moses, Jesus was born to be a Savior and was rescued from an evil ruler at birth (Matt 2:16)
Like Moses, they were both adopted by men who were not their biological father.
Like Moses, Jesus left His exalted position in heaven to come to earth.
Like Moses, He sojourned out of Egypt.
Like Moses, “silent years” occurred before His public ministry.
Like Moses and the Israelites who wandered in the desert for forty years, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness.
God Hears our Cries
“During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25)
Moses’s adopted grandfather, the Pharaoh, who wanted to kill him, died.
The Israelites groaned, moaned, and cried for help because of the situation they were in.
God heard their cry and remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham and reconfirmed with Isaac and Jacob.
God expressed His love for them. He had a plan. It was working out. Their deliverer was on the backside of the desert learning the lessons needed to be their deliverer. He was about to have an experience with a burning bush but I’m getting ahead of the story.
We know that God is near to us and hears our cries:
David wrote:
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. (Psalm 18:6)
And
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
The Israelites may have felt like God didn’t care. Moses may have felt like he made a mess of everything. You may feel like God has abandoned you or isn’t listening or doesn’t care.
God is working behind the scenes. Let me assure you that He is working out everything for His glory and our eternal good. He is good and can be trusted.
As John Piper says, “God is always doing 10,000 things in our lives and, at any given time, we may be aware of three of them.”
Mercy Fund
We are going to end today’s sermon with a reminder that God is near and hears our cries.
Ending Video: “Near” by Dan Ucherek
