Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Signs of the Lords Power
Moses pleads with God to use someone else.
God shows Moses His power by changing his staff to a snake, his hand into leprosy, and changing water from the Nile into blood.
God gives Moses Aaron to speak for him
The Trip to the Elders
Things go very well with the elders.
Everything is going wonderful, the people are excited and believe based on the signs that God sent Moses to them.
This would have been an exciting time, the Israelites have been oppressed for over 400 years and felt like God had abandoned them.
They had probably lost hope.
Now there is hope, hope for a future, hope for freedom.
And then comes Exodus 5......
Hope Brings Expectations
Hope brings expectations, the second human beings receive hope we form a picture of what the future will bring.
The problem is this future is rarely the reality.
Remember early in this series I said that we need to remember that God has a good plan, a plan to save His people, but God’s plan rarely plays out the way we expect.
Exodus 5 is proof that God’s plan doesn’t always go how we expect it.
We expect things to go our way, the way that benefits us, the comfortable way.
And when it doesn’t we are like.....what is wrong with God, I must have heard Him wrong
Often we then give up.
Yet Scripture shows us over and over again that we should expect unexpected times of disappointment.
Disappointment is a Theme Within Scripture.
Disappointment is always rooted in hope.
But we are told in our culture that we can do anything we put our mind to.
The problem with this is then we don’t need to rely on God.
It’s a lie culture has told us.
We live in a Genesis 3 world, a broken world full of sin.
Our hope rests in Jesus Christ, not human beings.
But sometimes we forget that things don’t always play out the way we think it should.
Let me give you some examples from scripture.
John the Baptist
In Matthew 11:2-6, there is this surreal and, I think, beautiful moment where John the Baptist is in prison.
Basically, he has called out the ruler of Rome there in Jerusalem because he has divorced his wife and is sleeping with somebody who is not his wife.
John the Baptist calls him out and is then arrested.
There is not a lot of free speech in the Roman Empire.
John the Baptist is arrested and thrown in prison, which seems really strange, since he’s the one who makes a way for the Lord, prepares a way for the Lord.
He understands himself to be the frontrunner of Jesus Christ.
He has been faithful.
In fact, even Jesus would say that born of man, there is not a greater man born than John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is now in prison, death sentence more than likely coming.
We pick up the story.
The story is super intriguing.
Here’s what he says in verse 2.
Here’s what has happened.
John the Baptist is in prison.
He hears all of the things that Jesus is doing, and he’s like, ”Okay, I get it, but why am I in prison?
Something has gone wrong here.
“ Have you been there?
”Something is not adding up in my life because I’ve been faithfully preaching Christ.
I’ve been eating locusts and honey.
I have sacrificed everything for the plan of God.
Something has gone wrong here.
Guys, go find Jesus and ask him, ’Are you the one, or should we be waiting for somebody else?
Was I wrong when I baptized him in the Jordan?
I could have sworn the Holy Spirit fell at that moment.“
Look at Jesus’ response.
It’s stunning.
On the surface, that just looks like great news, but here is what Jesus just did.
Jesus just quoted the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah.
He quoted verbatim outside of one little line.
Do you know what the line was?
”And the prisoners will be set free.“
The very last line of that Isaiah prophetic word about the coming of the Messiah is, ”The prisoners will be set free.“
Do you see what Jesus did here?
He just told John that he is going to die in prison.
Not what John expected......
2.
Jeremiah
God comes to Jeremiah.
Here’s what he says to Jeremiah.
Sounds pretty good, sound like a great gig.
But here is what happens
Almost every time Jeremiah opens his mouth and testifies what God tells him to testify, he is beaten.
He is imprisoned.
He is thrown bloody into a ditch.
Finally, after Jeremiah faithfully says what the Lord told him to say, he is literally beaten naked and thrown bloodied into a ditch, and here’s what he says to the Lord.
Sounds like things didn’t go exactly how Jeremiah thought they would.
Jeremiah just wants his people to repent and serve God.
When the book of Jeremiah ends, Israel is led into captivity, and Jeremiah with them.
3. King David
Loom at verse 3.
No David you can’t build a Temple to honour me, your a killer.
Who sent David out to war against the Philistines?
David is disappointed, things are going exactly as he expected.
We Need to Read Scripture with Honesty
We need to read the Bible honestly so we’re not surprised in the day of trouble.
We should never be surprised in the day of trouble.
Natural disaster shouldn’t surprise you.
Disease shouldn’t surprise you.
Death shouldn’t surprise you.
I’m not saying that not being surprised means it hurts less.
It doesn’t hurt less, but if we’re going to survive waves of disappointment we need to acknowledge our limitations as human beings, but we also need to read the Bible honestly.
What Can Exasperate Disappointment?
Lets take a look at the text, there are a few things the text tells us that can exasperate disappointment.
Halfhearted Faith.
In the very first verse of the text today there is a sign of Moses and Aaron having halfhearted faith.
They change what God told them to say.
That’s not what God told them to say,
They modify the message to how they think will be better for Pharaoh to respond the way they want him to.
Basically they ask him to let them go on a holiday to have a party.
Then when Pharaoh responds negatively they do it again.
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