The Return of Moses to Egypt
Notes
Transcript
recap of the call of moses
God’s promise to His people
the care of God
the help of God
The responsibility of God’s people
God would not give His people a mission which He would not enable them to fulfill
The power of God would lead the way
it would start with “fire” in the bush before they left
and after they left the hebrews would be led by fire
And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Moses takes on the mission - definitively accepting what God had asked him to do
though Moses had waivered in the previous passage, at the end of the day, he made the right decision
Moses “picks up his cross”, so to speak, giving up his current living situation to go and do what God has asked him to do
Moses gives up being comfortable for the cause
Moses gives up stability for the cause
He essentially gives up his life as he’d known it for the past 40 years
Surely, Moses would go through a lot of ups and downs on this journey, but he would always be able to think back to what God told him in the burning bush
and in the same way that Moses could do this, we can do the very same thing.
we’ve all been tasked to carry our cross, we’ve all been told that God will be with us, we’ve all been given the word of God
Moses was human as you and I are, so why can’t we obey God as well as Moses did? there’s no reason whatsoever why we can’t
And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.
God had created the path for Moses, he had taken the machete to the weeds for moses
Many times when we obey God, we may feel like we’re being real trailblazers, like it’s all because of us and what we’re doing
but just like God made the path for Moses, when God asks us to do something, He’s going to make sure that it’s doable
it’s only upon us to faithfully carry out what God has asked us to do
and as long as we do this, we can know that God is going to be on our side, that God is going to be helping us, and God is going to make things work out in the end
as Solomon says at the end of Ecclesiastes, “fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man”
so as long as we do out part, God will do His part, and we can take that to the bank
And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
Here we see some powerful imagery - Moses goes on this mission with the rod of God in his hand
last week, we had talked about how the staff of Moses symbolized the power of God - remembering the parting of the red sea and such
it’s imagery reinforcing that not only is God with us on the mission He’s asked us to embark upon
but it’s ONLY because of His power that any of this is able to happen.
additionally, shepherds used to carry around rods to assist with herding the sheep
we know that this is additional imagery of God in relation to His people
we know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, leading His people
and surely God was the same way in the Old Testament
we think about Psalm 23. which says....
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
So we see that the Lord is the shepherd of His people, someone with a benevolent leadership and care for His people
a shepherd which gives us so much, that we “shall not want”, that we want for nothing
and surely that’s the case, isn’t it? God does so much for us that it’s unreal
So not only does He provide for us but...
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He not only is our leader, but He’s the greatest leader we could ever have
always being with us and for us
never requiring more from us than we can do
leading by example, the most powerful form of leadership
and the ultimate leading by example, laying down His life for His sheep
a.k.a. The Good Shepherd
And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
We think about about us as believers heading into the world, often times we face resistance
the resistance can be very discouraging, people can be very resistant, among other things,
but it’s important for us to keep in mind, that God never told us our mission is going to be easy, quite the opposite
God, in fact, tells us that the world knows us not because the world knew Christ not
so even though things may feel discouraging at times, that we may have a hard task ahead of us, we’ve been forewarned
and as long as we follow the mission that God has given us, God has already blazed the trail, God will be ahead of us
if we think about what happened with Moses back to Egypt, taking this long journey, and for a while, the pharoah keeps telling him no and things are hard for him
but God had already told him that he would succeed at the end of it all, and that all he needed to do was to trust and obey
and we see the results in the Bible, God would show His ultimate power over both the priests/gods of Egypt and the nation of Egypt
God’s dominion was shown over sin and evil
and Moses and the hebrews who were in a much lower position were raised up by God and were able to overcome everything in their way
and it was simply because they trusted in the power of God that went before them.
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
God tells Pharoah to do what is right for the Hebrews, to let them to out of their slavery and worship Him
God wants to free His people from this slavery, He does it for them here physically and He also does it spiritually
So we see Pharoah opressing God’s “firstborn”, with God giving Him the opportunity to let them go without anything further happening
So God, in His mercy, let’s pharoah hear this and gives him the opportunity to do the right thing
but we know that Pharoah doesn’t, and it’s only after being given the opportunity to do right that and being warned that God decides to do anything punishing
Pharoah would go on to defy God, and not take what Moses said seriously, abusing the mercy of God
abusing the mercy and patience of God is a bad place to be, as He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, and it’s all the worse if we know we’re doing it
feeling like we can get by with something, or thinking something isn’t that bad is unacceptable. sin is unacceptable point blank
and the most crucial morals of the believer are doing right by God and doing right by others well
And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:
the power of working together
Moses and God
when we pick up our end of the deal, beautiful and meaningful things can be done in this world
Moses and Aaron
reinforcing each other’s weaknesses, iron sharpening iron
two different eyes on the subject
Moses, Aaron, and the Hebrews
a nation was born of the efforts from working together
a nation that God would go on to bless greatly
And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
here we see one of the things God told moses at the burning bush fulfilled
God told moses what to tell the people so that they would believe, and they did believe
so moses, on the very first encounter, in the very beginning, is seeing God’s promises panning out
it doesn’t mean the path ahead will necessarily be easy
but regardless of it’s ease, God will be there to overcome
and like Jesus tells us, we can fear not and have peace, because He has overcome the world and we can too through Him
So we see that the people believe, and this is the root, the foundation, of their being saved from slavery
all the change in their situation rests on this belief in God
they saw that God had looked upon their affliction
they responded correctly to God’s love for them
we know the verse which says, “We love Him because He first loved us”
and so many others which talk about God’s love for His people
this alone should evoke a response from us
Finally the result: they bowed their heads in worship
they revered God, they honored God in His proper place, they recognized who He was
most importantly, they were willing to listen to Him and do what He says
which ultimately, is what would make the change of the situation
The deliverer of the Hebrews had arrived, all that remains is for God to carry out the delivering
Those who had suffered for so long, finally had hope
freedom from the chains, both physical and spiritual
So through God’s plan, Moses taking up his cross, and the people doing their part of believing, great things would happen
it takes God’s leadership, shepherding, and simply our following along
which provides hope, light, freedom, and salvation - all thanks to God and His greatness and us working together with God.