A BURNING CONVERSATION (An Impersonation)
NEEDED: White wig & beard (paste on beard), staff and middle east garb with slanting accent towel tucked into belt
TEXT: (Read by another) Exodus 3:1-6
THRUST OF MESSAGE - Moses had been a man who did not need God, but who changed once he met him at the bush.
(Enter with staff. Stand near stage and caress the staff as if it were a memory)
THE CHARACTERIZATION: "The staff of God. (pause)
It wasn’t always God’s staff. But then, nothing that I had at that time belonged to God.
(shrug) Why did I need God? I was strong, powerful, praised, adored - even worshipped. Trained in the ways of leading men, of commanding armies. It was rumored that I might even become the next Pharaoh. There were those who said I was "touched by the gods."
If only they had known the true story: For I was not Egyptian, but a Hebrew by birth and born in a day of trouble. In the day of my birth the decree of Pharaoh was that every boy child born of the Hebrews was to be cast into the Nile and drowned. My mother hid me for as long as she could, but when at last she could do so no longer, she took a basket and coated it with slime and pitch and placed me within it.
Imagine her amazement when the daughter of Pharaoh herself should find me and desire me for her son - and then chose my mother for my nurse and pay her for it. In the evenings in my chambers, she would tell me the story of our God and of how God had rescued me from the bull rushes to rescue Israel from her bondage.
I loved my mother, but I had not seen nor heard this God of hers, nor had anyone I knew. Besides my people had been in slavery for over 300 years... what kind of God was this. No, if I was to lead the Israelites from Egypt, it would have to be by my own guile and strength. It came to my mind that I would need to gain their confidence and I sought an opportunity.
One day I chanced on an Egyptian taskmaster beating an Israelite - perhaps to death.... I looked left and right to assure myself no one saw, then rushed down upon the Egyptian and struck him down...and he died.
Hurriedly I buried the body and then looked around for the Israelite - but he had vanished. No matter, as soon as the tribes heard of my intervention they would rally around my staff and follow me.
But the next day I discovered that the Hebrews only looked on me as another Egyptian to be derided, rejected and mocked. Worse still, Pharaoh learned of my killing the taskmaster and ordered my death.
What was I to do? Rejected by my people and my life forfeit - I ran and I ran... and I ran... and I ran... until I was tired of running and I sat down beside a well in the desert.
There I took stock of my life and saw that the dreams my mother had for me and the visions I had of my own greatness were now buried in the Egyptian sands along with that taskmaster. I was no good to anyone - least of all myself.
(pause) Then I heard the bells from the necks of sheep and the laughter of women and I looked up and saw 7 of the most graceful women I had ever seen leading their father’s sheep to the well to draw out water and fill the troughs for them to drink from. Never in all of Egypt had I seen such beauty.
Then another image filled my sight as other shepherds, rough men, who drove off the sheep of the women and with course language shoved them aside.
(VOICE RISING) Filled with anger, I rose to my feet, took up a shepherd’s staff and beat these course men till they limped off in defeat. Then I helped the women water their sheep. When they were done, they offered a word of thanks and were gone.
Little did I realize that that day I had gained a powerful ally, for these women were the daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, a man of power and influence in the area. He invited me to his camp, offered me an evening meal, and in the course of our friendship, gave me his daughter Zipporah to be my wife.
Zipporah (dreamily) Zipporah, her name means "little bird." How I loved to say her name as I stroked her hair in the privacy of our tent. She bore me a son whom I named "Gershom" which in my language means "alien" for I had been made an alien from my people and from the land of my birth. This family became my only refuge and comfort in my loss.
Forty years I lived thus. But time can weigh heavily on a man who has lost his dreams. And one day I found myself guiding my father-in-law’s sheep to the other side of the desert to pastures in the shadow of Mt. Horeb - known as the Mountain of God. There were days, the shepherds rumored that God came down upon the Mount in the form of a dark cloud that settled upon the peak and lightning and fire spewed out from the crags of the Mountain. It was said that some men had seen God there... but had not lived to tell the tale.
This day, there were no dark clouds nor bolts of lightning... but there was a fire up on the side of the Mountain - so intense that it caught my attention. I turned to Gershom and told him to watch the sheep as I went up to look at this strange sight.
I climbed the side of the Mountain until I came to this fire. It burned with a great intensity within the heart of bush - so intently that I could feel its heat from a great distance. But as I got closer I realized that while the fire was within the bush, the bush itself was not burned - its branches and leaves were as green as Spring.
AND THEN I HEARD THE VOICE "Moses, Moses!"
"Yes Lord" I replied
"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Begin to shield eyes and kneel in fear). I have heard the cry of my people Israel, I have seen their distress and I have come down to rescue them. And behold I am sending you to lead them out of Egypt."
(pause) Sending me?… Sending me? Surely this God of Israel has a sense of humor. Did he not see who I was? If only He had called upon me 40 years earlier. I knew people then - nobles, priests, commanders of armies. I had the ear of Pharaoh himself. All I needed to do was to say the word to accomplish God’s will.
But now I was an old man - rejected by his own people and under threat of death if I ever returned to Egypt. Why, the very sheep that I led were not even my own, they belonged to my father-in-law. Who was I that I should lead God’s people out of bondage.
Then the voice spoke again: "I will be with you, and this will be a sign unto you. When you have led my people out of Egypt you will serve me here at this Mountain."
"But who are you O Lord?" I asked.
"I AM WHO I AM... tell them I AM sent you. My name is Yahweh, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and thus is my name for all generations."
And then he told me that I should gather the elders together and approach Pharaoh to tell him that God wanted us to go into the desert for 3 days to worship him. God then said that He knew Pharaoh would not let us do so unless compelled to do so by a strong hand. God said he would stretch forth his hand would compel Pharaoh to set us free.
But it is one thing to know a God’s name, it is quite another to convince others that you know him. "But Lord, what if they don’t believe me?"
"What is that in your hand?" He asked
It was my staff.
"Cast it down before me!"
And so I cast my staff down before the burning bush.
(Begin to gradually back away as if in astonishment and fear)
It began to move, it writhed in the dust. (with growing sense of distress) It became a snake, one of the largest I’d ever seen. I began to run... but God said "STOP!" (PAUSE)
"Reach forth your hand and pick up the snake by it’s tail" He said.
Certainly this God of Israel has a sense of humor. One does not pick up snakes by their tails. But I felt compelled and I picked up reached for the snake’s tail. No sooner had I touched the snake then it turned back into a staff... this staff.
No longer my staff - but God’s.
"Put your hand within your cloak" God commanded.
So I placed my hand within my cloak... but as I drew it out (feign distress) it was diseased and decayed, white with leprosy... O dear God!
"Put your hand back into your cloak" (do so and then gradually and fearfully remove staring at the hand)
As I removed my hand from my cloak I saw it was pure and clean and undefiled.
"If they don’t believe you, or pay attention to the first miraculous sign they may believe the second... But if they do not believe these 2 signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the sand and it will become blood."
From that day until this, I have never been the same. Perhaps it is best symbolized by this staff that had once been mine and now belonged to God. All that I had and all that I loved now belonged to God. Even my name took on a new significance. For my name is Moses and was given me by Pharaoh’s daughter when she drew me out of the
Nile River - Moses means "drawn out"
I had been drawn out of the jaws of death to deliver God’s people from slavery. It gave special meaning to the prophecy that God gave me, for the prophecy was this: That God would raise up a prophet like unto me who would speak forth His words to His people...
You know that prophet, for His name is Jesus, and like as I was drawn up from death to bring God’s people to freedom, so also He was raised up from death to give freedom from sin.
Even the 3 miracles that God gave to me to share with the Israelites has special significance for you:
1. The staff that became a snake symbolizes the power that you have over Satan. Like as I picked up the snake by it’s tail so also God has given you the ability to overcome Satan. Do you not know your own scriptures which say "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world?" and Paul’s comforting words that God would grant you power to "crush Satan under your feet?"
2. The hand that became leprous and then clean symbolizes the disease and decay of this world that can be healed by God’s power.
3. And the water that became blood speaks of the blood of your Christ that was poured out for the forgiveness of your sins.
There is a difference between "hearing about God" and "hearing" God. For most of life I had only "heard about God" and during that time all that I had belonged to me. But from the day that I heard God, all that changed and everything that I had became His.
The difference between "hearing about God" and "hearing" God
It is the difference between fear of Satan and trust in God
It is the difference between the disease and decay of the soul and the healing of our hearts by God’s power
It is the difference between death that comes from the things of this world and the life that comes by Jesus’ blood."
OTHER 1ST PERSON SERMONS
A Centurion’s Story = Matthew 27:50-27:54
The Night Of Darkness = Acts 12:1-12:19
My Name Is Noah = Genesis 6:1-9:17
A Burning Conversation = Exodus 3:1-3:6
