Faith that Guides - Lessons from Moses
Hebrews 11: 24-28
The story is told of a small town in which there were no liquor stores. Eventually, however, a nightclub was built right on Main Street. Members of one of the churches in the area were so disturbed that they conducted several all-night prayer meetings, and asked the Lord to burn down the place.
Lightning struck the tavern a short time later, and it was completely destroyed by fire. The owner, knowing how the Believers had prayed, sued them for the damages. His attorney claimed that their prayers had caused the loss. The congregation, on the other hand, hired a lawyer and fought the charges. After much deliberation the judge declared, "It’s the opinion of this court that wherever the guilt may lie, the tavern keeper is the one who really believes in prayer while the church members do not!" Now I don¡¯t know if that is a true story or a legend, but it shows how faithless people may find God faithful! It is entirely possible to go through the external motions of faith all the while having no faith at all.
This was the problem of some praying Christians whose story is told in Acts 12. Peter had offended powerful people and he was thrown into prison. A house church went to prayer for his release and God sent an angel in the middle of the night to miraculously bring the apostle out of the prison. When he knocked on the door of the house where the prayer meeting was going on a hilarious scene resulted. Listen.... Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter¡¯s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, ¡°Peter is at the door!¡± You¡¯re out of your mind,¡± they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ¡°It must be his angel.¡± But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
The model of faith that we will consider this morning was sometimes a real Believer with a powerfully life-changing faith in God. When he prayed, he expected answers...most of the time. At other moments in his life, he was a man torn by doubt. In this double-minded humanity, we can identify with this hero. Let¡¯s meet Moses. READ Hebrews 11: 24-28 Abraham was the physical father of the people of God, the Jewish people. Moses was the one who brought them their religion. He is the Law-giver, the nation-builder. Our body of Western law rests squarely on the law of Moses which is written in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We owe this man a tremendous debt of gratitude for our way of life even after all these centuries!
But it wasn¡¯t just his brilliance that brought us this understanding of God and man. It was his faith. His epitaph from Deuteronomy 34:10-12 says it well....
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt¡ªto Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Moses, who lived to be 120 years of age, had three distinct divisions of his life each lasting 40 years.
Consider this:
Age to 40 41-80 81-120
Identity ¡ôPrince of Egypt ¡ôShepherd in the Desert ¡ôProphet and Deliverer of God¡¯s people
God ¡ôPagan gods ¡ôSelf ¡ôThe True God, Yahweh
Home ¡ôPalace of privilege ¡ôDesert of Desolation ¡ôLand of God¡¯s Promise
The catalyst for spiritual growth and development in Moses¡¯ life was FAITH!
By faith Moses, when he had grown up... CHOSE A NEW IDENTITY.
Moses deliberately turned his back on a privileged life as a member of the aristocracy of ancient Egypt, which was the superpower of its day. As a member of the royal family, he could have finished his days in pampered luxury, far from the slave roots from which he came. But he felt the stirring of the Spirit of God and heard God¡¯s call to be the man who would lead the Israelites back to the Promised Land. His choice was not the romantic impulse of a teenager who wants to change the world. At age 40, Moses chose to identify himself with the people of God.
In Exodus 2 we are told that he was out among the slaves one day when he saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian master. In one moment, Moses made a choice that would change the rest of his life, he landed a fatal blow on the Egyptian master. The next day, when it became apparent to him that his crime was public knowledge, he fled his homeland. He then entered the second phase of his life... that of obscure shepherd in the sun-baked regions of Midian.
What a decision. The writer of Hebrews helps us understand the cost to Moses that came from accepting the call of God. [Re-read vv. 25-26]
The same kind of decision stands before every person who would become a follower of Jesus Christ. There are choices to be made and they are costly! Anyone who tells you that you can have the best of what this world offers.... power, self-service, sensual pleasure AND a deep and intimate relationship with Christ at the same time simply is lying to you. None of us can effectively serve two masters. If we love reputation, self, and pleasure we cannot love Christ, too. If we love Jesus Christ, we will gain a new reason to live that goes beyond accumulating the common indicators of success. Our reason for life as a Believer...? Gaining eternal LIFE!
Am I making the argument that true Believers must live in obscurity, weakness, and poverty? Not for a moment. Listen carefully. Those things may come to the godly person as the blessing of God but they are not his focus or his ambition. Quite frankly, for most of us, as we trust Him God will supply what we need.... nothing more. And to the extent that is enough. Jesus Christ challenges us to a radical faith that trusts Him. Luke 12:29-34 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 ¡°Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
It takes GREAT FAITH to turn from the pursuit of the ¡®pleasures of sin¡¯ and the ¡®treasures of Egypt¡¯ to walk God¡¯s road in life. We can hold a fistful of dollars, soak up the soothing that comes from feeding our physical longings, and feel the admiring stares that come to the powerful. AND if that is what we want, we can spend our lives in such pursuits..... working endlessly, eating, drinking, and partying.
OR we can set our sights on living close to God and gaining the rich rewards of heaven. Only faith makes heaven real! By faith Moses, choose a new IDENTITY with the people of God. Will you?
Secondly, we learn that it was FAITH that caused Moses to discover a new God.
Most certainly as the adopted son of Pharaoh¡¯s daughter, he was trained in the religious practices of Egypt. In fact, Pharaoh was deified, and Moses was taught to worship his step grandfather as the son of the gods who brought favor to Egypt. But somewhere he also gained a knowledge of God of his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Perhaps it was from his mother who was brought to the palace to care for him until he was weaned.
What is certain is that the Spirit of God stirred within him in his adulthood and he began to seek to know God. Initially as he rejected the gods of Egypt, he served himself! He thought he could achieve great things by his own strength. Taking matters into his own hands, he killed a man. And his service of self brought him to a desert of desolation. But God was still pursuing him and one day met Moses face to face! On the far side of the desert, we read a most curious story of his initial encounter with the Lord.
(Read Exodus 3:1-10)
He continuing hunger to know God brought a new revelation of the Lord. Even when life drastically changed, Moses continued to desire to know God and his faith was rewarded.
Where are you in spiritual development? Are you still serving the gods of Egypt... the gods of your culture? You can discover the name of your god by examining your life to see what you pursue most diligently? Is your god named wealth? Is your god named family? Is your god named boyfriend/girlfriend? I pray that God will stir up the embers of faith in you so that you will turn to Him.
To people who had wandered far from Him, who were living under the curse of their disobedience, God promised -- [Jeremiah 29:13-14 ] You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,¡± declares the LORD, ¡°and will bring you back from captivity.
By faith, Moses found God and knew Him face to face. Will you seek God in full faith?
He will be found when you seek Him without reservations. Remember the text of Hebrews 11:6
¡°And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.¡±
Third, we learn that faith caused Moses to set out for a NEW HOME.
I don¡¯t have time to explore the pilgrimage that Moses led the Israelites on. The story is told in full in the book of Exodus. To me the most significant part of the adventure was its duration. From the time that Moses turned his back on Egypt¡¯s privilege until he stood on the heights of Mt. Nebo to look into the Promised Land eighty years passed. His journey must have seemed endless from time to time. He was detoured by the decisions of those around him. He, himself, grew willful and missed the plan of God more than once. But in he kept looking for the Promise until he found it. Moses¡¯ promised land is for us a metaphor of our home in Heaven with our Father, THE Promised Land!
What is your ultimate destination? Do you have Heaven in sight? Many of us do not!
It is not that we want to go to Hell!! Who in his right mind would? Sure I know there are boys who brag, ¡°I¡¯m going to Hell ¡®cause that¡¯s where my friends are.¡± But such talk is ignorant, mostly boasts of empty meaning. No, it isn¡¯t that we aim at Hell. But, are we set for Heaven, our true Home? Go with me back to the 11th chapter of Hebrews. Look at vv. 13-16 (READ)
Peter speaks to the same theme. . . 1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
When I was a kid in church, it seemed that we sang and talked much more about heaven than we do now. We sang songs like¨C ¡°When we all get to Heaven... I am bound for the Promised Land... Heaven¡¯s sounding sweeter all the time.... When the roll is called up yonder I¡¯ll be there... It will be worth it all when we see Jesus...¡± I can honestly say that though those titles may sound a little corny to you, they set in my mind a certainty, a faith that to this day helps me to know that in this world I am a foreigner. I am still on my way to my true home.
AND heaven is surely sounding sweeter ALL THE TIME! By faith, I can already begin to anticipate the delights
-- of perfect relationships that never grow disappointing,
-- of sinlessness where no guilt plagues my mind,
-- of love endless where no cruelty exists,
¨C of worship without limits,
¨C of deep and intimate knowledge of God without doubt....
Have you, by faith, aimed your life at a NEW HOME called HEAVEN?
And finally, there is one more observation about the faith of Moses.
Faith caused Moses to trust God¡¯s saving word. [Re-read v. 28]
If you are familiar with the story of the Exodus, you will remember the awful plagues that God sent on Egypt in order to get Pharaoh to set the people of Israel free. One by one, God showed his superiority over the gods of Egypt in these plagues.... God sent plagues of frogs, lice, flies, hail, locusts, darkness. Each of these plagues brought misery to the Egyptians but their king would not bow his will to the will of God.
Finally after a full year of dealing with Pharaoh¡¯s hard heartedness, God told Moses that He was sending a plague of death across Egypt. The first born son in every household would die except for those houses where the blood of a sacrificial lamb was placed on the sides and tops of the doorframes.
Exodus 12 records the full command of God... here¡¯s a part of the story ¡ª Exodus 12:21-28
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ¡°Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 ¡°Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ¡®What does this ceremony mean to you?¡¯ 27 then tell them, ¡®It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.¡¯¡± Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
On its face, this was a ridiculous exercise. How would the blood of a Lamb protect a household? For that matter, who had heard of a death angel moving through the land? BUT Moses believed what God told him and he told the people. Those who believed and obeyed, were spared the curse of death.
The same imagery comes into our Christian faith. Jesus is called OUR Passover Lamb. His life was given, his blood spilled, so that we are spared the curse of spiritual death! BUT it takes great faith to accept that and to ¡®apply¡¯ the blood to our lives.
We would rather attempt to earn a place of favor with God. Some of us would rather trust in our goodness, in our kindness, in our religion than in the radical grace of God which provides full protection from judgement for us.
Moses, by faith, believed God and thousands lived. Will YOU believe His declaration?
The message of the cross of Christ is on its face ridiculous. St. Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 1:18-22
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it
is the power of God. For it is written: ¡°I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.¡± Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
To us who are being saved, the cross is the power of God. May faith enable you to take hold of that
truth today.
________________________
The faith of Moses caused him to
find a new Identity with the people of God,
discover the true nature of God and to know Him intimately,
to set out for a new Home,
and to find the grace of God powerful in the time of judgement.
How about YOU? Begin to build a strong faith today.
Amen.
