Moses – Prince of Israel: Preparing the Deliverer...
Moses – Prince of Israel: Preparing the Deliverer
Text: Exodus 2:11-25
Theme: God is preparing each of us for our life ahead.
When you plan a trip for your family, what type of preparations do you make? You probably have our car serviced and road ready. You do laundry, plan what clothing you will take and pack your suitcases. You may have your paper delivery stopped and your mail held at the post office. You adjust your appointments, plan your itinerary and make sure you have enough cash for the trip. You wives clean because you hate to come home to a dirty house.
I remember as a child going on vacations with my parents. I can recall those long hours in the backseat of the station wagon heading across Kansas to Colorado. No Interstate 70, no air-conditioning, no DVD players or Ipods, the roar of the hot Kansas wind coming through the windows. My dad always liked early starts so we would often leave as the sun was coming up. As a kid, I made no preparations. Mom and dad took care of everything. Dan and I were just along for the ride.
Our Father in Heaven is taking each of us on the long journey through life. We may think we’re the ones siting behind the wheel, directing the route we take, but in reality we’re just passengers. He is at the controls. He has packed all the necessities we will need. During the trip, there are plenty of pleasant surprises, and blessings. Sometimes the trip may become routine—even monotonous. Sometimes the trip brings difficulties. Still the Father has prepared for those times too. 2 Pet.1:3 says, "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…" We have everything we need for the trip because our Heavenly Father has made all the preparations.
God is preparing all of us right now. He’s preparing some of you to be saved. He’s preparing young people for their careers, young adults for their marriages, young couples for their children, middle-agers for retirement, retirees for new challenges. He’s preparing some for church membership, some for maturity in Christ, some for a ministry in the church and some for a life mission.
No matter where you are in life, God is preparing you for the rest of the trip just as God was preparing Moses to be the deliverer of His people. But the journey doesn’t go quite as expected. Let’s watch a clip from the movie Prince of Egypt and catch a glimpse of the detour Moses is about to take on his trip through life.
[PLAY VIDEO]
This was all part of God’s preparation of the deliverer. As we saw in the second clip from Prince of Egypt, God was adding to Moses’ education. If Moses was going to deliver his people from bondage it wasn’t enough for him to be trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He also needed to be trained in the wisdom of God and spiritual things.
When God prepares a person for His work, He often leads them through three stages of preparation. They are leaving, learning and longing.
I. PREPARATION STAGE #1: LEAVING vv.11-15
1. the life of Moses presents a series of striking contradictions
a. he was the child of a slave, and the son of a queen
b. he was born in a hut, and lived in a palace
c. he inherited poverty, and enjoyed unlimited wealth
d. he was the leader of armies, and the keeper of flocks
e. he was the mightiest of warriors, and the meekest of men
f. he was educated in the court, and dwelt in the desert
g. he had the wisdom of Egypt, and the faith of a child
h. he was tempted with the pleasures of sin, and endured the hardships of virtue
i. he was backward in speech, and talked with God
j. he was a fugitive from Pharaoh, and an ambassador from heaven
k. he was the giver of the Law, and the forerunner of grace
A. GOD PROVIDENTIALLY WORKS IN OUR LIVES TO ACHIEVE HIS WILL
1. God used all of the different events in his life to shape Moses into the person God
intended for him to become
a. God is always behind the scene, ordering everything for His own purpose and glory
1) even our smallest of actions are providentially orchestrated by God and fit into
His grand scheme
"I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to
direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10:23, NASB95)
2. at some point, Moses deliberately determined to throw in his lot with a despised and
persecuted people
a. we’re not how Moses came to find out that he was really the son of Hebrew slaves
b. we’re not told about the inner conflict he must have endured in deciding to identify
with them instead of his adopted Egyptian family
c. but identify with the Hebrews he did
3. not only did he identify with them, but he proposed to deliver them by his own power
and authority
a. how do we know that?
Acts 7:23-25 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.
24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.” NIV
b. in his defense of the Hebrew slave we see something of the character of Moses
1) he was compassionate
a) in verse 11 we see that Moses went out to his brethren
b) he looked at their burdens, and he saw the abuse of one of the slaves
c) Moses understood that he was to be the deliverer and he wanted desperately
to help them
2) he was courageous
a) when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew Moses couldn’t sit on the sideline
b) courageously, he got involved
Acts 7:24 “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged
him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:” KJV
3) he was decisive
a) some have tried to make the case that Moses killed the Egyptian in
self-defense
b) v.12 clearly points out that he made a decision to kill the man because he
looked this way and that and when he saw no one he killed him
c) one of the features of Scripture which constantly impresses me is the absolute
honesty with which the lives of Bible heroes are described
d) the Holy Spirit has not concealed his defects—Moses was in too big a hurry
4) he was impetuous
a) Acts 7 makes it clear that Moses knew he was to be the deliverer
b) he thought he was prepared—he wasn’t
c) the Scripture says he looked this way and that way, but he never looked up to
God
d) he was in too big of a hurry
e) he was trying to do God’s will man’s way
4. what lessons does this teach us?
B. GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9, NASB95)
1. we can never achieve spiritual goals by fleshly methods
a. Moses acted on his own and violated God’s will
2. we cannot do God’s work with the fleshly methods of manipulation, scheming and lying
a. in the years ahead, Moses would learn meekness and become conscious to a fault
of his own weaknesses
b. he would learn to look to God for guidance and help in every decision he made
c. he would learn that God often does things differently then we choose to do them
d. but now he was leaning wholly on his own understanding, and without taking
counsel of God, thought to secure the emancipation of his people by the assertion of his will, and the force of his own might
C. GOD PREPARES US BY CAUSING US TO LEAVE SOME THINGS BEHIND
"After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and
He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him." (Luke 5:27-28, NASB95)
1. Moses thought he could do God’s will from the splendor of the palace
a. he thought he could be Israel’s deliverer from a position of human power
b. but before he could become what God wanted him to be, he had to leave
2. to be what God wants you to be there are some things you have to leave behind too
a. you must leave your PAST
1) sometimes, preparation to be used by God means making a clean break with the
past
2) like Abraham, and Moses, it may mean leaving the only family you’ve ever known
3) if may mean leaving your nation and home
4) it may mean leaving a lifestyle of opulence or even decadence
b. you must leave your SIN
1) your old habits . . .
2) your old ways of thinking . . .
3) you old addictions . . .
4) your old critical spirit . . .
(a) all of these must be left behind if you are a new creation in Christ
c. you must leave your BITTERNESS
1) all of your unresolved anger . . .
2) all of your unforgiveness. . .
3) all of your on-going conflicts . . .
(a) all of these must be left behind if you are a child of the King
d. you must leave your DESIRE FOR CONTROL
1) God desires to be Lord of your life and in charge of your character and conduct
3. before you can be what God wants you to be you have to leave a lot of the baggage of
your life behind
a. Jesus was very clear about what he expects from His followers
Luke 9:23-26 “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” NIV
4. what are some of the things in life you need to leave behind before God can use you?
II. PREPARATION STAGE #2: LEARNING vv.16-22
1. last Sunday I quoted the great evangelist D.L. Moody
a. he said of Moses: He spent 40 years in the Palace of Pharaoh thinking he was a
somebody, 40 years a refugee in Midian learning he was a nobody, and 40 years as leader of Israel discovering what God could do with a somebody who knew he was a nobody.
A. THE LESSONS MOSES LEARNED IN THE DESERT ARE LESSONS NEEDED BY
THOSE WHO WOULD SERVE GOD vv.15b-17
1. Moses learned the lesson of service
a. verse 17 says “. . . but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.”
KJV
b. Jesus was very clear about the place of servanthood with His disciples:
Mt.23:11 "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant"
2. Moses learned the lesson of obscurity
Exodus 3:1 “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb . . . “ NIV
a. that phrase the far side of the desert says it all — Moses was out in the middle of
nowhere
1) in Egypt he was surrounded by pomp and people
2) in Egypt a snap of his fingers brought servants running
3) in Egypt everyone knew Moses — he was a prince
b. in the desert Moses is a pauper — even the sheep he watches are not his own, but
belong to his father-in-law
c. in the desert Moses learned that if you serve God where you are and He will place
you where He wants you tomorrow
1) be faithful in an obscure position and God will later exalt you
3. Moses learned the lesson of God’s provision
a. the desert is a harsh place to make a living
ILLUS. I had never really understood what a desert was until several years ago when
Linda and I went to Las Vegas. That part of Nevada receives an average of only four inches of rain a year. What struck me was how utterly barren the land is. If the ground is not regularly watered or irrigated nothing grows. There’s just rock and sand a dust. The desert of Middian where Moses tended sheep also receives only three or four inches of rain a year. Survival must have been challenging to say the least. To eke out a living in that environment must have taken great effort.
a. not only did Moses survive — he thrived!
b. in exile in the desert God provided a wonderful life and family for Moses
c. in the desert, Moses began to learn what it meant to lean on God and trust in His
provision
4. God often prepares us for service in the “barren places” of life
a. it may be the desert of a health crisis
b. it may be the desert of a financial bind
c. it may be the desert of a difficult season of marriage
d. it may be the desert of loneliness
5. part of our preparation for serving God is learning valuable lessons in difficult places
— like Moses
III. PREPARATION STAGE #3: LONGING vv.23-25
1. while he was in the desert Moses may have forgotten about the Hebrew slaves, but
God hadn’t
2. He was preparing Moses to be the deliverer and He was preparing Israel to be
delivered
3. Moses had to learn to long for God
a. three hundred years after Moses, King David would write:
Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O
God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” NIV
b. this was the kind of longing for God that Moses had to learn in the desert
c. he would not have that kind of longing until after meeting God at the burning bush
4. only when we long for God and the things of God more than we long for anything else,
can we truly be used by God
5. the people of God had to learn to long for God
a. in chapters one and two we’ve learned that the Hebrew’s lives were bitter with hard
bondage
b. we’ve learned they were abused, persecuted and murdered
c. however, up until this point we read nothing of their praying for deliverance
1) in fact, we have strong evidence that many of the Hebrews actively worshiped
the false gods of Egypt
2) their idols didn’t help them and they groaned and cried out… to God because of
their bondage
6. God often prepares us to be delivered by allowing us to reach the end of ourselves
Our Father in Heaven is taking each of us on the long journey through life. We may think we sit behind the wheel, but in reality we ride in the backseat. He is at the controls. He has packed all the necessities we will need. During the trip, there are plenty of pleasant surprises, and blessings from heaven. Sometimes the trip brings difficulties and even tragedies.
No matter where you are in life, God is preparing you for the rest of the trip. Are you learning the lessons along the way?
Have you left some of the things you need to leave?
Have you learned the lessons of servanthood, and faithfulness in obscurity, and depending on God’s provision?
Have you learned to long for God more than you desire anything else?