Now, would you open your Bible with me please to the book of Exodus where we have been looking at the life of Moses. Today we come to the fourth chapter which we conclude in our study. I'll begin reading in verse eighteen. Exodus four, verse eighteen. Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, Please, let me go that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see if they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and sons and mounted them on a donkey and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I said to you, Let my son go, that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet. And she said, You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.
So he, God, let him, Moses, alone. At that time she said, You are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. Now the Lord said to Aaron, Go to meet Moses in the wilderness. So he went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him and all the signs he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel.
And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. He then performed the signs in the sight of the people. So the people believed. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about the sons of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshipped. Would you bow with me, please? Our Heavenly Father, I pray this morning that we will understand that you are concerned about us too, and that you see the burdens that we carry.
I pray this morning as we look into your holy word that the Spirit of the Lord would break through those burdens, that He would pierce to our hearts and there deliver your concerns for us. And may we hear and follow through. In Jesus' name, amen. When we live making excuses, we make our lives inexcusable. Moses discovered that excuses don't make it with God. Forty years of shepherding sheep had become comfortable to him.
So God's appearance at the burning bush on Mount Sinai and the renewed commission, which spelled change for Moses, were met with a series of excuses, the last of which, as we have studied before, exposed his obstinacy and his unwillingness. Despite Moses' reluctance, however, God answered every excuse that he gave. Moses said, I can't. God said, you can. Moses said, I won't. God said, you will. And he did.
God promised His servant Moses everything that he would need to do the task he had given to him. God said, I am that I am, and I send you. That name, I am that I am, is one that connotes God's eternal existence, but more than that, it also tells us of His entire sufficiency. That name, Jehovah or Yahweh, means I am all that is necessary, Moses, as the occasion arises, I am all that you need.
The man or the woman who is obedient to the call of God and who does the will of God will always have the provision of God. God will always be all that we need as we walk in His will. Moses had left Egypt 40 years before as God's man, but he was disappointed, fearful, confused. But we also read in Hebrews that he was at the same time believing. It says in faith he left Egypt.
You see, beneath those human reactions of fear and confusion was a deeper truth about Moses, and that was that he actually was leaving with his faith in God intact. There were those reactions, those superficial feelings that he faced and fought with, but down deep in his heart he was still trusting God. And it says in Hebrews 11, he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. His eye of faith was fixed on God, the invisible God.
Isn't it reassuring to know that when you and I have those human reactions to our own situations and predicaments that God sees more deeply into us than we may be able to see at the moment ourselves? For when we are also fearful or doubtful or anxious, God is able to probe into the depths of our spirit and see what is even more deeply true about us than those immediate reactions that we may have. Moses left Egypt as a man of God, and now he is returning to Egypt as a man of God.
Are you a servant of the Lord? Are you a man or a woman of God? You say, well, I hope I am. If you are a saved individual this morning, by that I mean if you have placed your faith in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ as your salvation, if you have trusted Him who died for you and rose again from the dead, if you are His by grace through faith, if you are saved, you are saved to serve. There is no such thing as a person being saved who is not also to serve the Lord. The two go together.
For a person to say, I am saved, but I'm not serving the Lord is to admit to being a contradiction in his own life, at least at that moment, because God has saved us to be His men, His women in serving Him. If you are a servant of the Lord today because you belong to Jesus Christ, don't allow an initial failure or some early disappointment to discourage you. You see, God is up to more than the projects He may assign to you in life. God's real purpose is preparing servants.
And so if you seem to fail in a project or you feel you've come short in an assignment God has given you, don't sit around and mope about that. Understand that more important than that project to God is you. His real business is preparing you to serve Him for all of eternity. Don't allow some initial failure to lead you into a wilderness. Endure. Stick with it. Don't give up on God. Fix your eye of faith and trust on Him who will not fail.
Always remember that He is big enough to use your failures and mine and our successes as well for our good. He will use them. And He perhaps will even use our failures more significantly in our lives than those things that we call our successes. This morning I may well be talking to a servant of God who, like Moses, has spent some time in the wilderness. And after that time there, you now hear the voice of God freshly. God has given you a new assignment, a new plan.
My exhortation to you today is to obey the voice of God, putting aside any excuses. Perhaps you are like Moses saying, God, I can't. My friend, believe that through God you can. You can do it. As we observe God's man, Moses, going back to Egypt to the unfinished task, we learn some valuable lessons which all servants of God should keep in mind as they serve God. Tip number one is this, being a servant of God does not preclude human courtesies.
Don't you appreciate the way that Moses handled this when he got back to home? It says that he went to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, please, let me go that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt. Moses observed here, of course, a custom that was a basic part of a patriarchal family system. He went to the oldest member of the family and in a proper oriental way asked permission of him to return to Egypt. He was polite. He was proper. He was not demanding.
He was not presumptuous. He was not self-assuming. That's good for us to note. Although we live in a different culture today, it is important for God's servants nonetheless to observe courtesy in their relationships. Sometimes our well-meaning zeal can lead to ragged relationships and even to offense that's unnecessary.
I think, for example, of that young person who makes a new commitment on a retreat or at camp and then returns home to announce it to his family in a manner that makes everybody else feel a little bit uncomfortable or does it with words that instead of creating support, create antagonism. Moses has received a direct commission from God. This is the first appearance of God in 430 years. When he gets back home, notice the humility. Notice the politeness.
Notice the courtesy with which he handles his commission as he tells his family about it. I think, too, of those who are active, for example, in political circles. In the last few years, especially here in Minnesota, Christians have gotten involved in political processes like perhaps they haven't before in the state's history. Many have done this with a great deal of enthusiasm and zeal, and that is good.
The problem is that that can be misunderstood by those who have been around a while in the political process, unregenerate people. Sometimes the zeal and the enthusiasm of Christians can even be the cause of bitterness or alarm to those who are unsaved because of the demeanor of the Christians. Humility, propriety, courtesy, thoughtfulness, these are always appropriate for the servant of God.
Let us not enter into any relationship or any arena of responsibility pushing our way in, demanding what we want, being self-assuming and presumptuous. But if, in fact, we have heard the voice of God, let's follow the example of Moses and remember common courtesy in our relationships with other people. That is an investment that pays a good deal of dividends in the end. There's a second lesson that I see here for the servant of God.
It is this, being a servant of God does not preclude human feelings, verses 19 through 23. Now while we have noted what Moses said to Jethro, it is also interesting to see what he did not say to Jethro. He did not tell him the whole story. He did not mention to him the commission from God. Was there still some doubt in Moses' mind as to whether he would succeed, whether the people would hear him? Possibly so. He merely said, I need to go back to Egypt to see if my people still live.
He said nothing about what he was going to do in Egypt by God's design. Is Moses here showing that natural human sense of doubt and anxiety? Perhaps so. You see, being a servant of God does not preclude that. And then I notice in verse 19 what God says to Moses, go back to Egypt for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. It seems to me it suggests that Moses has some fear.
Perhaps underlying some of the excuses that he has already tried with God was a deep-seated fear that if he went back to Egypt, his life would be in jeopardy. He was afraid he would be killed by Pharaoh or some of those who knew about him and what he had done in the past. You see, being a servant of God does not preclude that servant of God having human feelings. The greatest of God's servants are still human. They have feelings, battles, and struggles.
The best of God's people are still people at their best. What did Moses have to lean upon as he perhaps struggled with these feelings of doubt and fear? Well, it says that he took the rod of God in his hand, the staff of God in verse 20. How wonderful it was that God provided for him that staff. Isn't it interesting that at first it was his staff, Moses' staff, and then became the staff of God?
That suggests to us that what we have in our hand as we give ourselves to the Lord for service becomes God's. In Moses' case, it was just a staff, a shepherd's crook, but here it is called the staff of God. It was not what we represent to Moses. It was a tangible evidence of God's promise to him because the staff was going to turn into a what? It was going to become a snake in the sight of Pharaoh. And then Moses was going to pick it up again and it would become a stick, a rod.
It represented to Moses the promise of God. He had that to lean upon. It seems to me that there is an application to you and to me as we serve God today. You and I have promises to lean upon, too. And God has graciously put those down in writing for us in this book. Here we have the word of God. To you and to me, this becomes our staff, our rod to lean upon as we struggle with human feelings in our service for God.
When we face doubt and we face fear, this book provides for us the support that we need. It is filled with the promises of God that he will fulfill for us as we serve him faithfully. Then God graciously gave to his servant on that occasion a fresh word. I do not believe that these quotations attributed to God here are a condensation of what he said on the mountain. I believe that this is a fresh appearance of God to Moses in Midian. First of all, God gives to Moses a reminder.
He says, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power. So as Moses struggles with these feelings of doubt and fear, God reminds him, I have given you a job to do. And do not neglect a bit of it. Following the reminder, God gives to him a sobering realization. He says, but I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will not let the people go. Thanks a lot, God. God wants Moses to know well in advance what Pharaoh's response will be.
God is here predicting it. There are those who have struggled a great deal over the hardening of Pharaoh's heart by God. Is this not unfair of God? Is God here limiting Pharaoh's ability to respond? No. As you look at this in the light of the whole context of what happens in the book of Exodus and as you look at it in the New Testament where it's referred to in Romans, you find that it certainly is an evidence of God's sovereignty doing what he pleases to do.
But God does this judicially in response to Pharaoh's hardening of his own heart. Pharaoh began the process by his own wickedness, hardening his heart. And therefore God judged him and hardened his heart supernaturally. And that process took place again and again and again and again. It is true that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, but God did that judicially in response to the hardening of Pharaoh's own heart. There is a terrible warning here for anyone who hardens his heart toward God.
It is true that God desires to save the lost. God loves the sinner and desires to save him. He has long suffered, not willing that any should perish. But never forget that God also reserves the right to judge the sinner whenever and however he pleases. God is a holy God. And it is not unusual that when an individual hardens his heart toward God, that God then reaches down and hardens that heart even more as a judgment.
There is a terrible warning, an awful warning to any of us, lest we should harden our hearts toward God. Oh, may our hearts be quick to hear Him and to respond to Him when we hear His word. Then God gave a word of revelation, verses 22 and 23. God calls Israel a new name here. Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. That was a very special name to the Egyptians.
For the firstborn son of the Egyptians was not only special, but students of ancient Egyptian culture tell us that the firstborn was even considered sacred. Sacred. So not only was this a special relationship, it was a sacred relationship. And God is saying regarding the people of Israel, this is my firstborn. These are the people I have set apart for myself, my son. Then God says to Moses to say to Pharaoh, let my son go that he may serve me. But you have refused to let him go.
Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn. See what God is doing here? God is saying you will not release to me that which is sacred, then I will take from you what you think is sacred. Here's a new word from God. Moses was to deliver to Pharaoh. God's servants are human and we will have human feelings. The important thing is that we do not allow our service to be hindered by our human feelings, whether they be feelings of fear and doubt or inadequacy as Moses faced or some others.
God graciously uses people like Moses, like you, like me, who are imperfect and who are still growing. The key to it is our heart. Let our heart be right toward God. Is that the bent of your heart, my friend? Desiring to obey God, is that your desire to please Him? Being a servant of God does not preclude human feelings. Lesson number three, being a servant of God does not preclude God's discipline. Greater responsibility demands deeper cleansing. Leaders have to set an example.
That is why in the New Testament, I believe, we see in 1 Timothy 5.20, elders who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all the church so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning. Anyone who has a position of leadership, an office in the church of God is even more accountable than the rest. Here we see that Moses had neglected a basic responsibility for a son of Abraham. He had failed to circumcise one of his sons.
The thought is that his second son, Eliezer, was probably born about the time that he left for Egypt and that he failed to circumcise him. Whether it was one of the sons or both of the sons, the point is that he had failed to do something that was absolutely basic for anyone who was a son of Abraham. Perhaps he had done this, that is, not circumcised his son, at the insistence of Zipporah. Perhaps for some reason this was something she did not want or she found distasteful.
But I want you to notice that God held Moses responsible for it, even if that were the case. Because Moses is the head of his home and God disciplined him. Did God mean to kill Moses? No, I don't believe he did because if God had meant to kill him, he would have killed him. Would God have killed him if there had not been obedience? I believe the answer to that is yes. What happened here? Well, this is a mystery. We can only guess.
But as it reads here, it seems to me that God in a visible physical form met Moses along the way. There are some who feel that Moses was struck here with illness. I don't believe that to be the case. It may have been, but I personally believe that God came to Moses and was going to kill him, came to him physically. Nothing had to be said as to what needed to happen. Zipporah took the flint and did the deed and made the statement, you are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.
A statement that seems to be one of distaste for this whole thing. She is disgusted with what has to take place. But nonetheless, she did it. She did it to save her husband's life. And God then says, let him alone. Let Moses alone. Being a servant of God does not preclude God's discipline. If anyone is serious about serving God, he'd also better be pretty serious about God's holiness. Because position, fame, acclaim, none of that places one beyond the reach of God's discipline.
I hope there's not a one of us here today who would say anything less than we want to serve God with everything we've got and everything we are. When we do that, let's remember that as we serve God, obedience is required. If we don't deal with our obedience by confession of it, repentance, God will intervene in our lives with discipline, as he did with Moses. None of us is beyond the reach of God's discipline. And then a fourth lesson.
Being a servant of God does not preclude others' partnership. We might think that Moses could handle this all by himself. I mean, we picture him as a great patriarch, standing before the people with the rod of God in his hand and stretching out his hand, and they see splits. Couldn't he do it by himself? I don't believe that was God's intention from the beginning.
In fact, it's interesting that when God announces to Moses back in earlier in this same chapter that he is going to allow Aaron to be the spokesman for Moses, he says to him, he is already coming to you. This seems to say that even at the time God was appointing Moses to be the leader that he was, he was providing for him the support people he was going to need. And Aaron got the extra responsibility of being the spokesman because of Moses' excuse.
But God was already in the process of putting together a team to help Moses. All of us need that. Being a servant of God does not preclude others' partnership. We need others. God has not created us to be lone rangers. We all need a tanto or two. He calls us in the New Testament members of the body, which suggests to us that we have our individuality and at the same time we need others to do what we cannot do. We are interdependent people. We are complementary in our giftedness.
None of us can do everything, nor does God expect us to. Moses went back with Aaron to Egypt and they assembled there the elders of the sons of Israel. Now elders in that day were not what elders are today in the church, but they were leaders. They were the elder people in the families, like Jethro. They were the oldest ones of the sons of Israel. They were gathered together that they might learn what God's plan was from God's servant Moses.
And together then they were to bring this to the people and they did. Being a servant of God never means that you can stand alone and you don't need others. In fact it means that we have to have others around us, every one of us. And we need to support each other and encourage each other. When we see weaknesses in another, not attack, but go to assist, that's God's plan. Are you willing to be a partner? To be a partner to someone else requires humility on your part, on my part.
It means that we must have within us a spirit of cooperation. Essential for those who would be a partner as well as a servant of the Lord. Moses had tried to lead the people out of Egypt 40 years earlier. He had failed. Now pruned, disciplined, and newly commissioned, he returns to Egypt. But in those 40 years he had learned not to lean upon his own resources, but to lean on God's resources. Servant of the Lord, is that where your trust is today?
How quickly our resources will lead us into a wilderness. If we trust ourselves we will spend some time in the wilderness learning that we can't do it alone. And we don't have the abilities and the resources in ourselves to do what God has planned for us to do in our lives. God wants us to learn to lean. Learning to lean upon Jesus. The result of the servant of the Lord going back doing his work was that the people believed they bowed low and worshiped.
Now sadly that was not their only response, but at least it was their first response. What did they come to believe? That the Lord was concerned about them. There are some people sitting right here this morning that are wondering if that's true this morning. Is God concerned about me? My friend, yes He is. He's concerned about you. And He knows the afflictions, He knows the burdens, He knows the battles that you are in this weekend. He understands the pressures in your home and your marriage.
He knows what you're facing with your work. The people that you associate with. He understands the pressures of your finances. He is concerned. What He wants you to do is to believe that. And as the people of Israel to bow low. Humility. Instead of standing up and trying to do it on my own, I bow low and I worship. And I express by that, God my trust is in you. My friend, God loves you and He is concerned. Will you let Him handle that battle? Will you commit to Him right now in faith?
Will you bow low and worship and say, Oh God, I can't handle this by myself? And He will say, I know my child, I didn't intend for you to. And when you say, God I trust your resources. God, I'm looking to you to provide for my needs. He will say, my child, you have them. Because I am that I am. I'm the same yesterday, today and forever. I never change. As I was all that was necessary for Moses, I am all that is necessary for you as the occasion arises. Trust me. Let's bow together.
I want you to express to the Lord that trust right now. Will you as it were bow low and worship? Oh believe Him. Believe that He is concerned because He is concerned. It's true. It matters to Him about you. Tell Him about your troubles. Bring to Him your burdens. And if there be someone here who is not a child of God, perhaps you think that by serving God you are going to be saved. No, my friend, that's reversed. We are saved first that we might serve. We don't serve that we might be saved.
Will you put aside your own efforts? Will you acknowledge before God your sin? Will you look to the Savior who died and rose again for you? Receive Him into your heart and trust Him. Right now, right where you are seated, I urge you to do it. Reach out by faith and tell Him your need. Believe Him. Father, I thank you that you are the great I AM and that there is not a need that is in the life of any person in this worship center this morning that cannot be met by your resources.
Thank you for being all that you are. Thank you for giving that to us. And, O, may we learn to lean upon you, not upon ourselves. And as we go from this service this morning, having worshipped, having heard from you and from your word, may we go of faith with our strength being in the Lord. May we lean upon the promises. Teach us to lean hard. In Jesus' name, amen.