Exodus 4:1-17 – “Here I Am, Send Him”
I.) Intro.
In chapter 3, Moses had a close encounter with God. From verse 4 through verse 10, God personally reveals His character to Moses. Having done so, God then commissions Moses to bring out His people. Although 40 years had passed since Moses had tried to exercise God’s work by human effort, he nonetheless still saw it the same way—coming through him.
In verse 18 of chapter three, God told Moses that the Israelites would listen to him. Yet apparently, that was not enough for Moses. Now, remember that it is Moses who is telling us this story. When you tell a story about yourself, do you show all your faults & failures? Of course, you do. There is no way in reading this that Moses comes out in a good light. So, why would Moses be so honest? Well, I think that Moses is speaking for the benefit of you & me. Peter, speaking of the prophets of old, said, “To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you..” Folks, if you & I can grasp this section of scripture, brought about by Moses’ unbelief, it will transform our lives!
There is a principle in basketball that every good defensive player knows, & it goes like this: “Exploit their weaknesses.” If a player does not like shooting jump shots, give them only jump shots. If they can only dribble the ball with their right hand, force them to go with their left. If you do this, you will invariably force them into turnovers. So, what does this have to do with Moses? Well, Moses has weaknesses that he is very aware of, & in every one of his five objections, God continually forces Moses to deal with them so that in his weakness, God would make him strong.
What about you; what are your weaknesses? Are you trying to hide them & not deal with them? May I make a suggestion? Why not admit them & allow God to show you how He will be strong in those areas of your life?
II.) Vs. 1-9 Signs for Unbelief
Vs. 1 40 years earlier, when Moses tried to lead Israel after he killed the Egyptian, he was neither believed nor listened to. It appears that Moses has been thinking for 40 years that the failure in his life was due to himself & some lack of ability. Here, we are given the third of Moses’ questions. In each of them, there is a peeling away until you get at the real root of the problem.
Hey, did you pick up on the fact that God was aware of Moses’ thinking? I mean, He tells Moses that He is the God of Grace, that He is the I Am, then in verse 18, He even tells Moses that they will heed his voice & that Pharaoh will not, but all of this is part of His plan. All of this from the Lord, & Moses is still fixated upon himself. Folks, self is a terrible master. All along, God has been telling Moses that the problem is that he thinks too much about himself.
Now Moses asks, “Suppose they say, the Lord has not appeared to you.” Now, from Moses’ perspective, I suppose this would be a bit of a stretch. I mean, you go up to a bunch of skeptics & try to convince them to follow you because of a conversation you had with a burning bush. But I believe that, for the most part, these signs are for Moses as much as they are for the Israelites. So, let’s take a look at these three signs & what it was that God was revealing to Moses. I want you to think about these signs for a moment because God could have chosen anything to be a sign, but He chose these, & God always does things for a reason. There are three things in the life of every believer—the devil, the flesh, & the world—that will cause us to fail, & in each case, God would have us know that He has overcome them.
The Devil
1.) Vs. 1-5 Sign of the rod & the snake: Now, let’s take the elements of this sign, & it is made up of three things which we shall look at individually, then we will put them together: the rod or staff, the snake, & Moses taking it up by the tail.
- The rod or staff: Now, to a shepherd, the rod had many functions, but its primary one is very basic, *support*. It was used to support a person as they walked up difficult terrain. It was also used as a tool to protect the sheep & to lead the sheep. But in each of these cases, it was always used as a support. Now, spiritually speaking, what is it that supports you as you walk along in this life? Is it not God’s grace through His Son? Without that, we cannot walk at all. God had said that He was the Great I Am—that is, He is the One that can alone support us. To which Moses replied that he was still afraid of failure. So, God is saying, “Hey, Moses, it is by grace that you stand, not human effort.”
- Vs. 3 Casting it to the ground & it became a snake: There are two parts here that need to be looked at.
- The casting of the rod to the ground: Following the idea here that the rod represented God’s grace, it seems as though God is saying that to not rely upon His grace is to not be able to stand or support yourself. Why is this being said to Moses? Well, because Moses was seeing his ability to stand only from his abilities & not the Lord’s. Folks, when we Christians try to do anything apart from His grace, we lose the only basis of support. Paul would say in 2 Corin. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”
- It became a serpent: There are three words in Hebrew that are translated snake or serpent. This is the most common one, & it is used some 30 times. In fact, this is the word used in Gen. 3: 1, referring to the devil. Another interesting thing is that when Moses did this to Pharaoh in chapter 7:10, the word used there is different; there, it means sea monster. Look at Moses’ reaction here—it says that, “he fled from it.” Simply put, this sign scared the snot out of him. So, what is God telling Moses here in this sign? Well, I propose that God is saying, “When you cast aside my grace as a basis of support, you open up yourself to the enemy.”
- Vs. 4 Reach out your hand & take it by the tail: Now, I’ve got to tell you that I know a little bit about catching snakes. My mom, when I was a kid, took us boys out regularly hunting for reptiles. We used to have pins that she had built in the backyard filled with different kinds of snakes. So she taught us how to catch them. Let’s just say that the way that you catch a snake is never by the tail. Why? Well, because if you grab a snake by the tail, they will reach right around & bite the tar out of you. So what you do is distract them with one hand while you reach around with the other & quickly grab them right behind the head. If you can control the head, you control the whole snake. So why would God tell Moses to grab it by the tail? Now, get this! The only way you could do this, especially if you were as afraid as Moses was here, is by faith!
Do you get the lesson here? God was teaching Moses some great things about why we fail & how to overcome it. We fail when we try to stand apart from His grace, but we can be victorious when by faith we take hold of our failure & trust God. You see, God has authority over the greatest reason for failure—the devil. Did you know that even Satan cannot thwart God in your life if you, by faith, take hold of His grace? Notice what happened to that snake when Moses was obedient—it turned right back into a rod. Folks, perhaps you have thrown down His grace in an area of your life, & the enemy has gotten in & made a mess. I want to assure you that if you right now reach out your hand toward the God of grace, He will support you! As God tells Moses in verse 5, the Israelites will believe that He has sent you when they see that you, through Him, have authority over the devil, even though you have failed before.
The Flesh
2.) Vs. 6-7 The sign of the leprous hand & the whole hand: Here, we are given two elements of this sign.
- Put your hand in your bosom… & he took it out & it was leprous: Now, leprosy in Scripture is a symbol of sin, & the hand symbolizes the energy of the flesh. So, when Moses put his hand near his heart, “bosom,” it turned out sinful. Folks, what God is showing Moses & us here is that failure will occur when your heart is not right with God. You see, Moses did not fail because of a lack of ability, he failed because his heart was not right with God. When we try to serve God with a wrong heart, it always fails; apart from God, we are always unfit for service.
- Vs. 7 Put your hand in your bosom again: Here, then, is the principle that God is teaching Moses & us: “It is not the hand that affects the heart, but the heart that affects the hand.” Simply put, change your heart & what you are doing will change as well.
So, what’s this all about? Well, the heart that is not right with God will always bring about failure in our lives. But the good news is that if we get our hearts right with the Lord, we can be restored as whole! We can be victorious as we get our hearts right with God, no matter how badly we have failed.
The World
3.) Vs. 8-9 The water from the river will become blood on dry land: Here, we are given the last of the signs. Now, notice that this sign was only to be used if they did not believe the first two. This sign is rather simple—the taking of the water out of the Nile & pouring it onto dry land.
- Egypt, as I have said before, is a symbol of the world, & the lifeblood of Egypt was the Nile river. Egypt owed its very existence to the Nile & its overflowing its banks. What God is telling Moses is that we fail when we try to adopt the world’s ways to do His work. Moses, learned in all the ways of the Egyptians, failed when he tried to apply those methods to God’s call. So, what is he to do? Dump it out onto dry land. Wow, do you see this? Hey, are you all caught up in the world & your life is not working? Dump it out & look what happens—it turns into blood. There is nothing of value in my life except the blood of Jesus, & trusting the world system will get you nowhere.
So, there you have it: God giving victory over the three areas or reasons why we fail—the devil, the flesh, & the world—and, in each case, if we trust Him, we have victory. Simply put, a victorious life is one lived in faith & dependence upon God. When that happens, we can be confident in God, for He alone is dependable.
III.) Vs. 10-12 Help, I’m Broken
Vs. 10 As amazing as this sounds, Moses is still not convinced. Now, the word “eloquent” here is the word for man. Moses is saying, if you will, “I’m not a man.” Now, you will remember the words of Stephen concerning Moses’ ability to speak in Acts 7, “…Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” Moses is thinking that he failed because he was not a good enough speaker. “I don’t have the ability to persuade people.” You see, the difference between Moses 40 years ago & now will be God—not his ability or lack of it to speak.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard pastors & teachers evaluated based on how well they speak. That is what Moses is thinking here. Folks, it is not how well a person speaks that makes them effective or not effective, rather it is Who they are speaking about & Who they are relying on when they speak! Shame on the church of Jesus for glorifying the way a person speaks. D.L. Moody was one of the greatest evangelists in the modern era, yet he only had an 8th-grade education. His speech was so bad that they would not let him teach Sunday School to kids. Yet God took this humble, broken servant & used him to reach tens of thousands.
This then is one of the greatest excuses we all use to not serve the Lord, “I’m not gifted in this area or that.” “If I were just better looking, more intelligent, or had a better personality, I’d be better fit for His service.” Folks, God is not looking for ability, He is looking for availability. We are in two days having an election, & we are, for the most part, going to elect people who gave the best sound bites, when what’s important is the character of their heart!
Vs. 11-12 Look at God’s answer to Moses here. He does not answer Moses on what he lacked, but rather on what he needed.
- Vs. 11 God here says that He made the mouth the way that it is & the ear the way that it is. But why? Well, because even if you have all those things, what good are they if you are relying & trusting in the Lord? It is not the smooth talker that God can use, rather it is the one that simply trusts the Lord. Oftentimes, the person who is deficient in certain areas can be more effective for the Lord because they do not trust in themselves, but rather in Him. Hey, do you realize that you are the way you are because God designed you that way? Well, it’s true!
- Vs. 12 Wow, what a guarantee! God is telling Moses that if he trusts Him, God will speak through him. Let me put this another way so we can all grasp it: “What people need is not something, it is Someone.” God’s design is to show Himself sufficient in our insufficiencies.
IV.) Vs. 13-17 I Don’t Want to Go
Vs. 13 Moses has finally gotten to the real problem—he does not want to go. The bottom line is Moses is saying, “I don’t trust you.”
Vs. 14a This then angers the Lord. Why? Because unbelief always rips us off. God has shown over & over again that Moses’ problem was one of trust. Now, finally, Moses says, “I don’t trust you.” Hey, you may not be able to trust man, but you can trust God. Moses was not unable, he was unwilling.
Vs. 14b So, God here says, “Look, Moses, you are all caught up in yourself & your ability, but you haven’t even said a word & here your three-year-older brother is on his way to meet you. You’re worried about how people will receive you, but Aaron is going to rejoice when he sees you.”
Vs. 15-17 Poor Moses—he is just like us. Because of his lack of trust, God allows him what he wants & it is here that you are in trouble. Because what you want rarely turns out to be a blessing. Aaron will be the one who allows the nation to turn to idolatry.
Folks, the will of God will never lead you to a place where the power of God can’t enable you, so why not walk by faith & dependence upon Him?
Exodus 4:18-31 – “Returning To Egypt”
I.) Intro.
One of the places we went during our recent trip to Israel was to the largest diamond polishing company in the world, “Caprice,” located in Tiberias right next to the Sea of Galilee. It came to the attention of everybody on the tour that I had spent many years in the jewelry business. On the bus ride back, people asked me if I ever missed working with such valuable items as gold & diamonds. My answer was that as a pastor, I work with much more precious items than I ever did before, only now I’m setting them into His crown. There is a real truth to this, folks, & reading the Bible in light of this fact is what fascinates me. God has always been into people, & what is more amazing is that He uses people to polish people. Say what? Well, the only way that you can polish a diamond is with another diamond. So, too, the Lord uses us to further polish each other to shine God’s glory.
God is about to use Moses as part of His polishing dust, but before He can do this, He has to prepare Moses. So, a few weeks back, we saw that God does so by first revealing to Moses who He is. Then, just before I left, we saw that God gave Moses several signs that were intended to show Moses that God was greater than Moses’ failures. There are several things in our lives that will cause us to fail: the devil, the flesh, & the world. So, God gives Moses the sign of the rod, which is grace by faith. Then to overcome the flesh, God shows Moses that all he needs to do is get his heart right, & what he does will be right. Lastly, God shows Moses that if you are struggling with the world, dump it out—get rid of it.
This week, we shall see God give Moses some last-minute instructions. Before we left for our trip, we gave our kids some last-minute instructions. We told them some things that we wanted them to know about. I even sat down with the leadership & gave them some last-minute instructions. You see, I wanted them to have everything they needed for that which God had called them to. In these verses, we shall notice four things God wanted Moses to know before he went back to Egypt.
II.) Vs. 18-20 A Future, Not A Failure
To set up this passage, you need to remember what Egypt was to Moses. Not only did it represent home, but it also represented the place of his greatest failure. Let that sink into your hearts for a moment. Perhaps you have blown it real bad in some area—maybe it’s your marriage or some other area—and now God is having you go back to deal with skeletons? We all have fears, don’t we? Like a batter who has struck out too many times at the plate, they really don’t want to go up to bat.
Look at Moses’ reluctance from this perspective & perhaps you can relate. When the nation needed him, what did he do? Acted in the flesh & worse yet, how did he handle his failure? He ran away, leaving the Israelites to pay for his fleshly action. Forty years pass, & now God asks him to return. How about it? Is God sending you back to the areas of your life that you most often fail? Are you carrying around the guilt of your bad decisions? Well, don’t be surprised if God reveals who He is to you, then shows you how He overcomes your failure, then sends you back to deal with the very things that paralyze you in your life today!
Vs. 18 So, Moses returns from his conversation with the Lord to Jethro, his father-in-law. Now, I want you to realize that before Moses is given any further instructions, he first had to be obedient. Folks, God is interested in you dealing with your past failures. I wonder how many times Moses, during those past 40 years, thought about his failure in Egypt. You can tell by chapters 3-4 that he was quite reluctant to go back & deal with it. Yet, all said & done, Moses was ready to act in faith & go back to deal with his failure. How about it? Are you ready to open yourself up & go back to Egypt? It’s time for obedience. You will not get any further words from the Lord until you say, “OK, Lord, I’m going back to deal with this area of my life now, but I’ve got to be honest, it scares me.”
Next, notice the words Moses uses to Jethro, as they are quite revealing to the state of Moses’ heart: “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” This statement by Moses sets the context of the rest of this passage. Why? Well, you will remember that no less than six times in chapters 3-4, God tells Moses that not only are the Israelites alive but that God is going to use Moses to deliver them to a land flowing with milk & honey (3:8).
So, why here, before his father-in-law, does he say that he wants to go & see if they are still alive? One theory is that Moses does not quite know how to tell Jethro that he has just had a conversation with God in a burning bush, who told him to go back to Egypt to set free 3 million slaves from the hand of the mightiest man on earth. Perhaps that might be part of it, but I would like to suggest to you that there might be another reason.
I think that Moses had run away from his problem, but his problem had not run away from him. Failure has a way of following a person, doesn’t it? Have you ever noticed that you tend to keep on making the same mistakes? Pretty soon, we get gun-shy, & our failure is all we see, so we don’t move at all, which just ensures further failure. Let me put this bluntly: God is always showing you areas of your life that He is working on. You can run if you want from them, but the truth is that they will always be there when you stop! Now, Moses’ area was self-reliance, & he knew that because of his acting out in his own strength. The reality is that our failures often affect others. Moses’ action & his running from the problem had no doubt caused problems with his brethren, but notice how he overreacts: “to see if they are still alive.” Talk about having an over-evaluated sense of self-worth!
Jethro, without knowing anything, says, “Go in peace.” I bet old Moses had anything but peace at this moment. “Peace! Peace, when I’m going back to the very place where I let everybody down, then I ran away from it instead of taking responsibility, leaving everybody else to pay for my mistake.”
Vs. 19 Now, look at what God says to Moses: “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.” Do you get it? Moses wants to talk about past failure; God wants to talk about the hope of the future. Moses is stuck in the quagmire of guilt, & God says, “Stop dealing with the past & start realizing the future!” “So you blew it, I knew you would, those guys who sought your life—they themselves are dead, so go back.” Did you know this? That the very areas of your life where you have failed the most, once you have repented, are dead to God. I mean, He chooses not to hold that against you. Don’t let past failures freeze you—move forward! Let me state this again: the future is full of hope because of Who God is, not because of who we are not! It’s all dead, move on, He has. In fact, God has a plan & you’re in it. Look at what Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 2:9: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Vs. 20 One last thing here—notice what Moses takes with him as he heads back to Egypt:
- His family. Is that not what God had given him in spite of his failure?
- He brings with him the rod of God in his hand, which, as we saw, represents God’s grace.
Wow, the Lord is bringing Moses back, but not without signs of His grace. Why is that so important? Well, it shows Moses that he can be certain of the future because God has shown Himself faithful in the present! Therefore, we don’t need to dwell on past failures; instead, we can move on in the hope of the future.
III.) Vs. 21-23 They Belong to Me
Vs. 21 We now come to the second thing God wanted Moses to know as he went back to Egypt. Now, this is important, so pay attention. You notice that God wants Moses to show Pharaoh all the signs, which He had shown Moses. Remember that those signs were as much for Moses as they were for anyone else. Moses was consumed with his own failure, so God has given him these signs so that Moses might be continually reminded that God has overcome his failures, even if Moses is battling the devil, the flesh, & the world.
Yet, we are plainly told that in spite of these signs, Pharaoh would still not obey. Man, is this ever tough to handle. I mean, Moses, who is struggling, is, out of obedience, entering into a place of failure, & now he is told that even though he is being obedient & doing everything that God has told him, it still is going to appear as though he has failed. Do you see that?
Folks, just because we are going back into the place of failure does not mean that everything is going to be turning up roses. In fact, God is saying that He is going to allow Pharaoh to have what he wants, namely a hard heart. It is not that God will harden Pharaoh’s heart, but rather that God knows that his heart will become hard.
Vs. 22 Look here at what God is saying to Moses: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” Moses is hearing something that no one else has ever heard concerning Israel—that Israel belongs to God. So? Well, God is telling Moses that no matter how much you love your brethren, I love them more. What this is telling Moses, who is consumed with failure, is that God, who cannot fail, is in complete control.
“You go & tell Pharaoh that though he may think that Israel is nothing but a bunch of worthless slaves, they are, in reality, My sons & daughters!”
Vs. 23 Furthermore, God tells Moses that if Pharaoh doesn’t let His children go, He will kill Pharaoh’s children. What does all of this suggest to us concerning going back to deal with areas of failures in our lives? Well, I think that God is saying that He knows the situations, & that even though they may not look like they are in your best interest, you have to trust Him that they are. Hey, do you realize right now that God values you? Listen up here—you are His special treasure. Why, He loves you so much that He gave up His only Son for you. So, God’s second word to Moses is that success is in His hands, not yours. Those problem areas are His problems, & as you yield your life over to Him, He will deal with them. Let me say it one more time, “In Christ, we are the children that God loves.” So when you are back there facing your past failures, realize that He loves you—just keep on reminding yourself of that truth.
IV.) Vs. 24-26 You Belong to Me
Vs. 24 Now we come to this strange little section. May I just remind you that Moses is the one who is telling us what happened here, & with that said, this is another one of those embarrassing moments. It is here that we get the third thing God wanted Moses to know—namely, that the only one he had to please was God!
Now, we are not sure just how it was that God was ready to kill Moses, only that this was the case. You can see the family of four walking to Egypt, & all of a sudden, as they stop for the day, Moses is near death.
Vs. 25-26 It is here that we are told of Moses’ little “Lady Bird” taking charge & performing circumcision on their youngest son Eliezer, “My God is help.”
Back in Gen. 17:10-12, God had commanded Abraham, as a sign of the covenant between them, to have every male child be circumcised. In the N.T., we are told in Rom. 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God…” In other words, what circumcision was all about was an outward sign that symbolized the cutting away from the old nature.
So, why would Moses not circumcise his son? Well, it seems we are given a clue in Zipporah’s rebuke of Moses. It appears that she viewed this as somewhat barbaric. So, Moses was wanting to please his wife above the Lord, & in so doing, he was not being obedient to the Lord. Hey, folks, the only one that you need to make sure that you please is the Lord, & in pleasing the Lord, you will please others. But if you seek to please others, you will end up pleasing no one. Moses was always too concerned with what others thought, when in reality, we must first & foremost please the Lord. May I just say that obedience is not an option. Moses was about to go & speak to the most powerful man on earth about God’s people being set free to worship God—how could he do so if he himself was not following? 1 Cor. 6:19-20 says, “…you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” As Moses went back to Egypt, God wanted him to be concerned with following Him & not man’s opinions, not even his wife’s. It is interesting that you do not hear of Zipporah & their sons until the 18th chapter, which is when they return from Egypt. It appears that they went to stay in Midian with Jethro until Moses’ return.
V.) Vs. 27-31 You’re Not Alone
Vs. 27 Moses, although told that Aaron was coming out to meet him, finds out that the older brother, whom he had not seen in 40 years, had also been told to get him. So, well, here is the last thing God shows Moses: he is not alone.
One of the greatest obstacles we have to overcome as we go back into the places where we have failed is the feeling that we are all alone & that no one will want to be around us. So, God sends his brother, who also heard from the Lord.
Vs. 28-29 Now, don’t go by this verse too quickly because as Moses told Aaron all that God had said, Aaron must have believed him as he went with him to the elders. So? Well, we all need someone who will believe the best for us. We all need cheerleaders in our lives—folks who will come alongside us in spite of our losing track records & say, “I’m with you, brother!” That’s what God does for Moses. Man, never underestimate the value of a friend!
Vs. 30-31 Man, look at what God does with the man that was a failure. He has given him signs & encouraged him so that Moses walks back into the area of failure, & God performs a wonder as the elders of the nation not only believe him but also worship God.
May I just encourage you to allow God to work in those areas where you have failed in the past? Trust Him, won’t you?