"Sending Moses"

Exodus 3:1-15 (click to display NIV text)

September 27, 2009: Exodus series, Week Two (see also Week One, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six, Week Seven, Week Eight, Week Nine, Week Ten, Week Eleven, Week Twelve, Week Thirteen, Week Fourteen, Week Fifteen)

Pastor Dwight A. Nelson

   

"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their crying. I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them. So now, go. I am sending youÉ"

 

            Curt Peterson, the Executive Minister of the Department of World Mission for the Covenant Church, has been traveling in Congo this week, and sending reports on the Covenant Newswire. One day he reflected on the overwhelming difficulties of life in that country. Since the civil war in 1996, over five million people have died, the majority of them from malnutrition and treatable illnesses. Income levels are about $100 per year for most of the population. Travel is very difficult with washed-out roads, impassable bridges and limited vehicles and fuel.

            Then he writes, "Despite all the challenges, dozens of new churches were planted in new villages this year. The church now has more than 210,000 members! At one evangelistic meeting 200 people received Christ for the first time. Worship is vibrant and full of faith. People fill their places of worship, overflowing church buildings, and stand for two to three hours with choirs, prayers and praise through song and dance, and the preaching of the word of God with power. The Holy Spirit is active in Congo and we have much to learn from them about faith, joy, suffering and the worship of God."

            How do you explain the reality of growing faith in such a place? I believe it is the presence of God in their midst.

            Today we read of the presence of God in the life of Moses, and of the Israelites suffering under oppression in Egypt. Exodus chapter 3 opens with Moses tending his father-in-law's flock in the wilderness. Moses has become a trusted partner in the family business. He has a new life, and it seems to be a good one. How does he feel about it? Does he ever think about Egypt or remember his people there?

            We learn at the end of chapter 2 that the king has now died in Egypt, and the Israelites are crying out to God. Then it says God heard, God remembered his covenant, God looked on the Israelites and he was concerned for them. One translation simply says, "He knew." Boaz Johnson reminded us last week that this is a completely new understanding of God in the ancient world. A God who cares is completely unknown in the religions of the ancient world. Now here is God who hears and sees and feels compassion, and does something about it. He is God with us.

            Moses is tending sheep deep in the wilderness beyond Midian, and God is listening to the cries of his people over in Egypt. Now God brings his vision to Moses. A fire gets Moses' attention. He looks at it and he hears God speak. He responds reverently to God who calls his name: "Here I am." Moses is called into a holy place. He takes off his shoes. Shoes speak of one's wealth and self-sufficiency; Moses removes his shoes. This is mere Moses, Moses without a long story, without a list of accomplishments. This is simply Moses. "Just as I am, without one plea." Moses meets with God in a holy place.

            Do you have a holy place? Can you go and meet with God in a place where you are yourself? The prayer room is that for me. Often on Sunday mornings I am the only one there. Before everything gets started over here, it is a place to meet simply with God. Sometimes I walk down to the Old School Forest Preserve and sit by the pond. It is a holy place. "Here I am" – no shoes, no status, no defense, no brilliant ideas. Just as I am. I hope you have a holy place to be in the presence of God.

            God speaks to Moses and says,  "I am the God of your father." He is the God of Moses' father, Amram, and his mother, Jochebed. Somehow Moses knew his father and mother and he knew their God, and so this introduction takes him back to Egypt in his thoughts.

And then God said, "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." So Moses knows the story of God with the patriarchs. He knows about the Promised Land. He knows of how God worked to heal and renew a lost family. This God he was now meeting in the wilderness in Midian.

            As Moses begins to think of his father, of the stories he learned as a child, of the Promise that seemed now so far out of reach, he covers his face. He did not want to see God. He could not bear the holiness of God. Was he also afraid of seeing what God was seeing in Egypt? Perhaps that is true, because God immediately begins to tell him what he has been seeing. He has been seeing the affliction of his people in Egypt. We wonder if something begins to stir in Moses. Is he beginning to sense a call to join God in this work of deliverance?

            Holy Cross Lutheran Church, just up the street, somehow saw and heard and came to know that children in the world are dying for lack of food. They heard the call of God and decided to join God in what He is doing. So they committed to pack one million meals during the first week of December through the Christian organization "Feed My Starving Children." And the pastor had to sign a contract obligating them for $170,000. That is astonishing faith. They got the Lake County Fairgrounds to do this great project, and now they are asking for help. And we are going to help them.  

            So God tells Moses what he sees and what he is going to do and then very abruptly adds, "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." When the call of God comes to us clearly and in a way that requires response, our immediate reaction is often one of fear, or a feeling of inadequacy or resistance to being disrupted. If God does not include that last sentence, then Moses goes home to his wife with a great story about an awesome meeting with God in the wilderness and how peaceful it makes him feel. But the "go back to Egypt" part changes the conversation completely.

            So Moses responds by asking God two questions: "Who am I?" and "Who are you?"

            "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Moses does not feel adequate to this task. He is afraid. He is no longer the confident hero who chased the evil shepherds away from Jethro's daughters at the well in Midian. He is more like the baby crying in the ark. God does not encourage Moses by trying to build up his self-esteem. It is not, "You can do it Moses, just believe in yourself." Rather God says very simply, "I will be with you." John Durham reminds us that "who Moses is is not the question. Rather, the question is who is with Moses."

            Do we sometimes forget that? Do we measure our response to God entirely on the basis of what we already know, what we have proven we can do, how much money we have in our pocket, what we are sure we can accomplish? Or do we ever in fact remind ourselves that God is with us?

            The presence of God is so powerful. Are we settling for too little? Are we choosing our own priorities or are we going with God?

            Notice the change in Moses. Once he knows that God will be with him, he begins to think about the reality of doing God's will. In his next question he sees himself in Egypt. He knows that is going to happen. He still has some questions, some fear, some resistance, but it is clear that he is going. He is not so worried about himself. God is with him. The presence of God changes our heart, the way we view ourselves, the reality of what can be done.

            But, Moses says, "If I go, they will want to know your name. Who are you?" Again John Durham says that what they are asking is really this: "Can God accomplish what he is promising?" That's a good question, and one we ask often. So God does not just give Moses a name. Rather God gives to Moses a word of his authority, a confession of the reality of who God really is. It is a strange phrase, and has been translated many ways:

            All of those point to God who is continually active, to the God who is. God may have seemed absent to the slaves in Egypt. God may seem absent to us at times. But here is his name: I am. God is present. God with us.

            In Jesus Christ, God has heard your cry, he has seen your captivity in sin, and he is concerned about your life. He knows your waywardness and your longing for new life. By his death and resurrection, Jesus has set you free, has forgiven you. He is present; he is the ever living "I Am." If you will trust him with your life, and surrender your will to his plan, he is faithful. If you go with him, he will guide you.

            Say yes to his call on your life today.

            Amen.