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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (10-10-1999 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
The story of Moses’ birth and infancy is well known
even to the youngest – a favourite Sunday School story. There are remarkable
parallels between Moses and the Lord Jesus – attempts to murder both when they
were babies, one saved by parents in Egypt, the other saved by parents fleeing
to Egypt. One became the leader of old Israel, and the other of new Israel. Both
led people to God from bondage – though in different senses. Through both, God
made a covenant with His redeemed people. Through both, the law of God was
given.
As we look into the first two chapters of Exodus, we are concerned not so much with Moses as with the Lord Himself. We pass from the seen – men and events – to the unseen – the real controller of things, the Sovereign God Himself. The things we can learn about Him should affect our lives now and the way we look at things.
Exodus opens with the people of God in Egypt, having
arrived there in the days of Joseph because of famine in their own country.
While they remained there, their situation gradually changed. While Joseph was
alive, they were well looked after. But in time their numbers grew, and
subsequent Pharaohs who did not know of Joseph, felt the Hebrews could become a
threat to the Egyptians, and started to suppress them. They were afflicted for
400 years, enslaved to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses.
The other thing that changed was their devotion to God.
Some Hebrews began to forget God, and adopt the idolatries and superstitions of
the Egyptians. Others, like Moses’ parents, remained true to the Lord.
Despite their afflictions, they continued to multiply in
number, and Pharaoh decided that all boys must be killed at birth. However some
of the Hebrew midwives feared God, and let the boys live, and the Israelites
still grew in number. But their harsh treatment was a cause of misery. In their
despair they sought the Lord. 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 (Exodus 2:23,24), promises to deliver them from bondage, to make
them a great nation, that they would live in a land chosen by God, and in them
all the world would be blessed (Genesis 15:13).
So the stage was set to fulfil part of these promises
– their deliverance from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land. The Jews were
God’s people in a special way. Their election is a mystery. They were chosen
not because they were greater in number, or better than any other nation, but
simply because, in a special way, He loved them. The Lord did not set his
affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other
peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord
loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of
Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:7,8).
Through the Jews, God increasingly revealed Himself to
men until finally in the fullness of time He came in the person of His Son, and
made complete disclosure of Himself. He who has seen me has seen my Father (John
14:9). God spoke His last word through His Son who, in His humanity, was born
and brought up as a Jew.
The way God led His people Israel proclaims a very
important and glorious truth about God. He is the sovereign Lord of history. He
has plans and purposes, and they most emphatically will be carried out. Men
strut and swagger, deny God, reject Him, shake their fist at Him, imagine they
are in control and master of their own fate. The One enthroned in heaven
laughs (Psalm 2:4). Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they
are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were
fine dust (Isaiah 40:15).
It is important to see life in the right perspective.
God is not a helpless spectator on history. He is the Sovereign God and Lord of
history, and He must be at the centre of our thinking and viewpoint. This
knowledge gives peace of heart and stability. He will have no fear of bad
news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will
have no fear (Psalm 112:7,8). If we do not have clear views of God’s
sovereignty, what is there left but bewilderment, worry and panic?
Do you know God is sovereign? Rest your soul in Him. Does He fill your thoughts? Do you talk to Him, and spread your needs before Him? Trust Him completely.
So it was God’s purpose to bring the people out of
bondage in Egypt. Moses was His chosen instrument to make this happen. God took
the initiative in preparing Moses for the task. God protected him from death
right at the beginning of his life, just as He later protected His own son from
the murderous King Herod. Then, by the overruling of God, though Moses was
brought up by Pharaoh’s daughter, his own mother’s influence continued for
she was employed to be Moses’ nurse.
We cannot underestimate the importance of this early
training. From his mother he learnt about God, God’s people and their past
history. His future was powerfully influenced by the fact that in his youth he
had looked into a face in which deep sorrow and suffering, and yet also hope,
were blended. Godly mothers are to be cherished. The phrase “a man drinks in
his ideals and principles with his mother’s milk” is no empty phrase.
Napoleon famously said, “The greatest need of France is good mothers.” And
Lord Shaftsbury said, “Give me a generation of Christian mothers and I’ll
change the face of society within 12 months.”
Then also God prepared Moses in the Egyptian court where
he grew up. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was
powerful in speech and action (Acts 7:22). Egypt’s advanced civilization,
with its pyramids, mathematics, astronomy and music had a profound influence in
increasing knowledge and broadening horizons. Whilst we must never overvalue
education – it is not the answer to all problems, whatever the politicians
say, indeed it can be disastrous when education leads men to be proud, arrogant
and dependent on it – if God is in the right place in our lives, under God
that education has a place. It can open doors, widen usefulness and enlarge our
influence.
Yet with all the advantages of his privileged
upbringing, Moses never forgot his loyalty to the Hebrew people. His mother’s
training bore fruit. He felt sorrow at their unjust treatment. He was determined
to do what he could to help and finally lead them out of bondage.
We are unlikely to ever be of the stature of Moses, but still God can direct and train us from the earliest days to do a specific work He has planned for us to do.
“There’s
a work for Jesus none but you can do.”
You are all-important to God, and have an essential part
to play in His purposes. It is good to look back over life and see how God has
shaped your life. Your parents, personality, temperament, early training, books,
schools, churches, gifts, sorrows, setbacks, and also follies and mistakes. God
can teach us lessons through our errors, once they have been confessed and
handed over to God.
He can use us to reach people who would not be reached except through someone with our previous experience. As a Baptist minister once said after being struck down by a dread illness that threatened his life and his ministry, “If God loved me, a sinner, enough to send Christ to die for me, then even this awful experience is not outside his loving purpose for my life.” Sir James Barrie recalled how his mother had lost one of her children: “That’s where mother got her soft eyes from, and that’s why other mothers came to her when they lost sons.”
After all the preparations of Moses’ early years, God
laid His hand on Moses while he was in Horeb on the run, and called him to lead
the people out of Egypt (Exodus 3:6-12). He made a choice that was crucial. He
chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ
as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:25,26). He might
have preferred to continue in the Egyptian court with its ease, money, luxury,
indulgence and comfort. But the call of God and the needs of God’s people came
first.
It was a tremendous decision, made not in the impulsive
ardour of youth but in the full maturity of his powers. Materially, it was
extremely costly. He had nothing to gain, and all to lose. Instead of a palace,
he would live in a hut. Instead of luxury he would eat coarse food. Instead of
respect and riches he would experience poverty and contempt. By the world’s
standards, he made a foolish choice. How was he able to make such a decision?
Hebrews has the answer: By faith Moses… (Hebrews 11:24). In Hebrews,
faith means being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
The unseen world – the things of God, the purposes of God, the will of God –
filled his mind. This was the only thing that mattered to him. He took the
long-term view, seeing not the immediate situation but life as a whole
relationship with God. Moses got his priorities right.
Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been
brought from death to life (Romans 6:13). Offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). In your hearts set
apart Christ as Lord (1 Peter 3:15). Doing the will of God from your
heart (Ephesians 6:6). Moses did not know these words of Paul and Peter, yet
this was precisely the attitude he showed towards God and towards life. He was
no longer reliant on his own inherent ability or confident in self (unlike
earlier when he had killed the Egyptian, trying to sort things his own way
instead of God’s way). He now appropriated God to the uttermost, beginning
with a sense of weakness and nothingness, not strength. He consecrated his life
to God for Him to take hold and work our His will through him. He died to his
own strength, forsook his own plans, and became God’s man.
This must be our attitude as well. Each day needs to be lived in total submission to God. When we step out, we do so relying on His promises and faithfulness, not on our own ability. When God’s call comes, there is no time for delay. We must act decisively. Moses persevered because he saw him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27). This is our secret of success too.
Do you see life in the light of the purposes and plan of God? Are you prepared to go all the way with God? Are you available to Him? Are you His at any cost? Will you say goodbye to self so that God may be all in all?
