A Question of Identity: Who Are You, Really?

Michael Gatlin

Exodus • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Exodus 4:18–31

Identity

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Communion:

Introduction:

Welcome to the Vineyard this morning! We are continuing a series of messages from the Old Testament book of Exodus.

The exodus story is so central to Israel's history, that you can't talk about being an Israelite without this story. This isn't just a parable. It's the most quoted story throughout the rest of the bible.

The Exodus is such an important moment in biblical history that it literally makes the people of Israel—where Israel becomes Israel.

The Israelites even marked time based on the exodus event…

1 Kings 6:1 “1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.”

…the way we do after the birth of Jesus. It's a giant big deal!

This thought impacted me this week. In my story I distinctly remember a few evenings in 1976 as I was first encountering the living God… I was going through my own "exodus", leaving a way of life I had learned over my first 17 years, and stepping into a completely different way of life following Christ.

I was leaving a way of life where I was in bondage to my longings and desires, a way of life where i only had the resources I brought to the table, a way of life where i felt pretty alone.

And I found myself being invited into a very different way of life…a life that was much bigger, it was way more beautiful, a life connected to a creator who dearly and deeply loved me, and who was inviting me into an adventure I'd never ever heard about before.

What about your story? Do you have a before / after story of encountering the loving faithfulness of God? Do you have a story of exodus in your own life?

The reason I'm here, the reason I'm a pastor/artist in this community (the Vineyard and the Twin Ports) is because I want to help you learn about and live into a completely different kind of story.

The book of Exodus is crammed full of extremely helpful pointers as we live into this new way of life.

We are at the end of chapter four today, and there's a transition coming in the story. The first part is the saga of Moses being delivered from Egypt, and the second is of Israel being delivered from Egypt.

The first story becomes a paradigm for the second story…

As you remember, the story starts off with Pharaoh and he is very concerned about the proliferation of Hebrews, and he's feeling threatened, and so he orders that all of the baby boys be thrown into the Nile River. And Moses' mother puts him in the Nile, but she places him carefully in a basket. She floats him into the reeds. And from there, he is rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh. So this is chapter 1 and the first half of chapter 2 where God delivers Moses through the reeds from Pharaoh.

Then as an adult, Moses crosses the wilderness and ends up at Mount Sinai where he meets God in the flames of a bush. That's chapters 3 and 4. God reveals himself to Moses and then he commissions Moses into his service. God says, "I have a plan for you. I'm gonna send you back to Egypt."

And so those events prefigure what we see in the rest of the book.…

…where again, we have a murderous Pharaoh who is despises the Israelites and while trying to destroy them, is also trying to get what free labor he can out of them. And then God brings the people through the sea of reeds, he splits the water, and they come out on the other side into the wilderness.

So we have Moses being delivered and commissioned, and then we have the Hebrews being delivered and commissioned. Moses meets God at Sinai, and they meet God at Sinai, and God brings them into covenant, comes to dwell among them, and commissions them to become his representatives among the nations…perhaps offering all people an exodus

There’s beautiful symmetry between the saga of Moses, and the saga of the whole nation.

Today I want to tackle a difficult passage that often gets ignored, left out of the story, and its right in the middle, the transition between these two sagas.

What do we do with difficult passages?

When we encounter difficult things in the bible, what do we often do? I don’t know if you’ve tried reading the bible yet, but there are loads of sections that are a bit difficult to understand at first pass.

Sometimes we ignore them, read right past them, brush them aside. “I don’t know what to do with this, so I’m just going to pretend its not here…la-la-la I can’t hear you!”

Or sometimes we hyper-focus on the difficulty and use it as a reason to disregard the rest of the text that's easier to understand.

What do we do with difficulties in our lives?

What do we do with difficult things in our own lives? Don't we kinda do the same things?

we want to move on, to get over, get past the difficulty, or we ignore the problem, sweep it under the rug, try to pretend no one can see it

sometimes we hyper-focus on the difficulty to the extent that we miss really good stuff in our lives, sometimes we even throwing some of the good stuff to make a change…which doesn't really fix anything

I want to suggest that what might be more helpful is to ask God to meet us and walk right into the difficulties, head on…

This passage, the entire book of Exodus that we’re studying together, the exodus event for Israel addresses something we all wrestle with at different points of our lives: our identity. Who are you, really? Who am I? Who are we?

In this passage, Moses’ identity becomes more secure than it’s ever been. In this story God is revealing his identity—his name and his character—to Moses, to the Hebrews, to the entire world. Throughout the events of the exodus, Israel is invited into a new identity, to become a people who bear God’s name to the rest of the world.

My hope is that in looking at this difficult passage, God does something in you, and I’m praying that he solidifies your identity as a follower of the resurrected Christ a bit more.

Let’s pray…

Read the passage:

Exodus 4:18–5:2 (NIV)

18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” 19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

27 The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. 29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”

If this is God solidifying identity, if he’s helping us to answer the question: who am I really? Here’s the first thought…

First: Rest in the purposefulness of God

Overview: I love the way that Dr. Carmen Imes identifies that these four scenes are a tightly constructed literary unit with an important literary function.

First we have Moses & Jethro, then its God & Moses, next its a strange emergency circumcision, and then Aaron & Moses meet up and head back to Egypt.

Sometimes we might be tempted to think the author didn't know what to do with these little bits and so they just tossed them in here willy-nilly. And you might write the story like that! But what if this author was more purposeful?

Can I just give us a bigger picture for another moment? What if God is way more purposeful in your life than you often give him credit for. What if he's up to something beautiful in every single moment of your life. I think Jesus showed us that he is. In every single moment there is an opportunity to participate with this is a totally different way to live our lives, and its what discipleship to Jesus is really all about.

So why do people think these four stories are an important literary unit meant to accomplish a specific purpose. Well remember that these authors wrote in such a way that every phrase mattered…papyrus was expensive!

This ancient Hebrew literature is known as meditational literature, it’s meant to be read over and over again. It’s written in a way to help the reader notice themes and repeating patterns. It not only narrates the story, but through the constant repetition of themes and patterns, it’s almost as though the writer is giving you hyperlinks to past stories and laying the groundwork to more deeply understand future stories—and in doing so we are being taught who God is, what God's character is like, why we can trust him, and what its like to live as the people of God in our world.

There are so many words and phrases that tie these four stories together, and that tie them into past and future stories. And there is a main point that I believe is super applicable to us today.

Quickly, because I know some of you might be bored by this, what words or phrases tie these stories together?

The way that Moses refers to his father-in-law in verse 18, and the way that Zipporah refers to Moses as a bridegroom…there the same Hebrew word that's meant to catch your eye

The conversation Moses has here with his father-in-law, and the next conversation Moses has with him in chapter 18 serve as bookends to this whole next section—these two conversations frame the whole deliverance story.

The way verses 22–23 set up the firstborn of Yahweh and the firstborn of Pharaoh

The way that both Pharaoh and Yahweh sought to kill Moses

I highlighted this a couple weeks ago…God uses both named and unnamed women to deliver Moses

The circumcision is an anticipation of the Passover… both rituals protect the killing of the firstborn, both rituals blood in applied by touching.

it's almost like we need these stories in order to complete the series of events that make Moses' saga mirror Israel's saga. This series of stories tie together Moses' deliverance and Israel's deliverance.

And the key point that's being decided for Moses in these stories is the key thing that will eventually, near the end of the book of Exodus, be decided for Israel—

Who are you? What's your real identity? Who do you belong to?

This is actually a key thing for us today…Who do you belong to? What's your core identity? Who are you…really?

With the idea of identity in mind, let's take these scenes one by one…

Second: Here’s a truth that’s difficult to hear and incredibly freeing: We don't have what it takes and God has chosen to work through you.

(v. 18) “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”

If you’ve been following this story, you’ll remember that God spoke very clearly to Moses about bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt.

God never suggested that Moses do a simple welfare check…to see if they're alright.

Why doesn't Moses say what God is actually sending him to do? I wonder how Moses sees himself here? Is he embarrassed about what God had told him to do? We already know that he doesn't think he's up to the task, he tried to disqualify himself multiple times!

I wonder how often you and I, perhaps because we don't think we're up to the task, I wonder how often we don't say what's real, what we feel like God might be inviting us to really do in a given situation?

It’s interesting to me that what Moses tells Jethro he wants to go do is something that he can accomplish. He doesn’t need God at all if all he’s doing is to check on their well fare.

Do you realize that if God is inviting you into something, you are absolutely not up to the task, you're absolutely not enough? Do you realize that‽ It's true. God doesn't invite you and I into things we can handle on our own, situations where we are not going to need him. While we might want to work that way, God never has.

You can't do Christianity, real Christianity on your own. Not at all. If you think you can do this on your own, you've completely missed storyline and the plot. If you believe that you can do Christianity on your own, you've misunderstood what the Christ has invited you into.

But we're also not invited to just "let go and let God—do all the work."

The apostle Paul counsels the church to "stay in step with the Spirit."

Galatians 5:25 (NIV) 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

He tells Timothy…

1 Timothy 6:11–12 (NIV) 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

There's work for us to do, and there's work that only God can do.

The best way to live your life, if you really want to follow the resurrected Christ, the best way to approach life is from a place of complete dependance on God. It's when we're not dependent that we make the worst mistakes.

Here's how I approach participating with God:

(there are three words I think of when I'm talking about something God has invited me into)

I'm surrendered – my life doesn't belong to me, I was bought with a high price (Christ on the cross), and now God can spend me in anyway he wants. If my life is my own, I do not belong to Christ.

I'm dependent – In the same way Jesus talked about not being able to do anything on his own, I cannot accomplish the stuff God wants to accomplish without being dependent on him to actually do the work. It's a partnership, I have to get up off the couch, and make myself available, but its always him that accomplishes the work. And we have to be dependent on the community, the people of God. This is absolutely not an individual sport.

I'm tentative – the way you really know this it was God leading you in a specific way, is because he accomplishes something, and the outcome glorifies him. One of the big signs that God promises to Moses is that when this is finished,

Exodus 3:12 (NIV) And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

For us, rather than saying, "Thus says the Lord, we need to do this!" I say "I think this might be the Lord, what do you think?" And when it really is the Lord, he confirms it through the community and through his actions along the way.

Jethro says, "Go, I wish you well."

I've found in church life/leadership, that when God is really up to something, you don't need to force it through

Illustration of the art reception this past week… I hung that body of artwork in the gallery partly out of obedience to something I though God was telling me to do. To lead more in this season of life life, from the point of view of an artist. I’ve had a few folks over the past few years suggesting that I do a show in our gallery, I hadn’t done that for quite a few years. I was a little embarrassed to do it, because it felt like too much attention on me. But I felt like I was supposed to lead out in a kind of generative creativity. So I worked a whole lot over the past couple of years producing a body of work to display. My studio is a place of worship and prayer for me. It’s a sacred space. And as I communed with God, I painted. At the reception last week, I was a little stunned at how a few people experienced the presence of God while looking at the work. A few people had powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit while interacting with the work I had made. That came from a place of dependent surrender as I tentatively kept taking steps of obedience and painted almost every day of the last couple of years.

How might God, right now, be inviting you to follow that example.

There are other beautiful examples of this throughout this community.

foster parenting / volunteering at the women’s care center/ at the winter warming shelters for those who are houseless /

The ways that God takes something you’re actually pretty good at, and as your intimately connected to him, and obediently letting him lead you, you’re able to make/do something that has greater impact than you could’ve accomplished on your own.

Third: God is always at work behind the scenes

(vs. 21–23) In the next section there’s something about the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the firstborn sons… I'm going to save much of this discussion for a couple of weeks.

The phrase about Pharaoh's heart being hardened comes up several times as we walk through the various plagues, and its a really cool discussion, so you won't want to miss it—stay tuned!

And the whole firstborn son thing…I'll cover that in more detail next week.

But for now, I just want to highlight how God is working behind the scenes on a bigger project just under the surface:

This part of the text, I think, is highlighting an upcoming battle between deities.

There’s a contrast between the nation of Israel as God’s firstborn, with Pharaoh and his people—there's a contrast between an authentic deity and his chosen people (firstborn), with a false deity (a human pretending to be divine) and his people, and eventually his firstborn son.

This isn't only about slavery and ethnic or racial tensions—although that is there too—this is a conflict between the one true God, and a human pretending to be God. This is going to get intense! But that's for next week!

For today, even and especially when we don’t see what’s happening, or we see evil actively flourishing, remember that God is always at work.

Psalm 121:4 “4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

As the psalmist once write, Yahweh never slumbers!

Fourth: Expect more than one very helpful identity crisis

(vs. 24–26) There's a weird emergency circumcision event… that I think is all about identity—who is Moses, really?

We've got so many questions? What is the actual crisis that leads God, who has just called and commissioned Moses to go deliver his people…now God to wants to kill him?

And why is an emergency circumcision the solution to this crisis?

And how did Zipporah know what to do?

This is such a weird story and there are so many unanswered question for you and I, and the Hebrew text is even more unclear. Believe it or not, the English translators tried to clear up some of the confusion!

(v. 25) But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off [his] foreskin and touched [his] [feet or genitals] with it.

The Hebrew isn't clear about who was circumcised, or who was touched, or exactly where they were touched!

Are you uncomfortable yet? What the heck is going on here‽

A little historical context: Most likely, Moses would've been circumcised as an Egyptian growing up in an Egyptian household. At puberty the Egyptians typically circumcised, but that wasn't a covenant of Abraham circumcision, it was a typical Egyptian…

And here’s another interesting thought: If you look back at when Moses gets to Midian, he’s identified as an Egyptian…

Exodus 2:19 (NIV) They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

We're not told that he ever identified as a Hebrew… Moses, who are you really?

We know that Moses' sons were obviously not circumcised, so perhaps he was on the fence as to his identity. Was he really a part of the covenant people? Was he ready to be fully identified as part of the people of God. Or was he attempting to live in both worlds?

see how intensely practical this gets?

His sons were not circumcised, so they would not have been part of the covenant community of God’s people.

Genesis 17:10 (NIV) This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Genesis 17:14 (NIV) Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

To not have this physical mark on your body meant that you were not a part of God's people. This is a big deal.

So by circumcising her sons, Zipporah brings their family into compliance with God's covenant with Abraham.

And then, by touching Moses, she's reenacting his circumcision so that's he's incorporated into the covenant.

And her statement, that you're a bridegroom, or kinsmen of blood to me could be her declaration that's she's included in the covenant as well.

Zipporah steps up and her ritual act means that they are no longer outsiders to the covenant God made with Abraham, they now belong as part of the people of God/Yahweh.

And then, we don't hear from her again until chapter 18! But she plays a role in preparing Moses to return to Egypt as a full-fledged member of the covenant community.

Side note: Its very interesting how God uses all these women to rescue Moses, to deliver him from and back to Egypt: His mom, his sister, the midwives, Pharaoh’s daughter and her servants, Zipporah, his wife. The men are mostly unnamed, bystanders…pay attention to that!

Where we humans tend to discount people based on something like gender—God elevates and uses them. And none of the women did anything outside of their role—the midwives didn’t become warriors—but within their abilities, they followed the ways of God and helped to deliver Moses to what God had called Moses to do.

Back to the emergency circumcision—Look at it this way… Moses' identity has to be solid before returning to Egypt. If there's even a hint of identifying as an Egyptian, it will not go well for him. Moses' family needed to be incorporated into the covenant God made with Abraham.

God encounters them on the way as if to say, I need to know where you stand. We need to figure out and cement your identity because you cannot go into this next phase uncertain about where your allegiance lies. You have to know who you are.

Bible Nerd Alert:: We're meant to recognize the same series of things happened with Jacob (Genesis 32), and with Balaam (Numbers 22)

Without this weird little story, we have this huge question mark hanging over Moses' head. This is an essential in making sure Moses knows who he is, who he identifies with when he goes back. Moses is becoming secure in his identity, and its framing Moses' deliverance with the deliverance of the entire nation.

God’s mission for Israel was simply that they should live as the people of Yahweh in the midst of the nations, bearing God’s name in their worship, prayer and daily lives. And for that purpose they must walk in the way of the Lord. That’s why God chose them in the first place, in Abraham, so that through them God could ultimately bring redemption to all the nations.

What about for you? Where is your identity today? Who are you, really?

You and I are invited by God to be people he can trust to bear his name.

Once you surrender your life to Christ, you are accepted in Christ…Adopted as a child of God, justified by faith in Christ; redeemed and forgiven of your sin; with direct access to God in the Holy Spirit.

You’re secure in Christ and absolutely nothing can separate you from God’s love; confident that what God has begun in your life, he will finish.; you’re hidden with Christ in God, sealed and secure.

And then he’s the one who makes you significant; calls you to be salt and light in our world; chosen to bear lots of fruit; you are God’s beautiful work of art—God’s poem; God’s co-worker who brings his reconciliation to others.

Maybe, like Moses, you’ve been walking in both worlds, trying to be acceptable to Pharaoh and by God… I think today might be a time to decide whose you are, who you really belong to…