GOD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES
BY THE POWER OF GRACE
Exodus 4:1—17

INTRODUCTION

On the front page of Thursday’s Janesville Gazette is the story of a Janesville police officer who resigned after 14 years on the force. He resigned because in 1995 he lied, under oath, in the trial and conviction of another man with whom he had been in a gunfight. As a result, the man was sent to prison for 15 years. The officer became a Christian sometime since 1995. After nine years of hiding what he had done, he finally did what he knew that the Lord wanted him to do. He confessed his lie not only to God but also to the chief of the Janesville police department. Because of his decision, the man who was put in prison was released and the officer was asked by Chief Brunner to resign, which he did. What this brother went through is a lot like what Moses went through. It is also a good picture of what all Christians are going through every day, though not with such dramatic consequences. This man knew that what he had done was wrong and he knew that God wanted him to confess. However, he knew that obeying God was going to cost him his job and his reputation. While the Gazette doesn’t report it, you can imagine the kind of conversations he was having with God. You can be sure he had many reasons to not obey. Moreover, he didn’t obey for at least several years. However, just like with Moses, God didn’t give up on him. Eventually God overcame his resistance and enabled him to live by faith. He trusted God with his future and preferred obedience to Jesus to the security of having a job.

If we are going to join in the salvation life of God then we are going to have to do things that are going to cost us in a variety of ways. Whether it is at the beginning or throughout our Christian life, change is the order of the day. I was first confronted with the gospel when I was a sophomore in high school. I rejected Christ at that time because I knew that if were going to trust in Jesus, then he would have something to say about how I was living my life. I knew he wouldn’t be happy with my relationship with the girl I was dating at the time. I figured he might have something to say to me about my future and I already had it planned out. I rejected Christ because I had no interest in changing. The costs of knowing Christ far outweighed the benefits in my mind at that time. I know there are many here this morning that know they must change if they are going to be followers of Christ and you’re not sure the change will be worth it. There are others here, Christians, whom God is asking to do something or to stop doing something and you’re not sure that the benefit will be worth the cost. You’re feeling a lot like Moses. You have a whole list of reasons why you don’t want to do what God is asking you to do. However, if we are going to be involved in God’s salvation, then we will have to do hard things. All of resist the loss of earthly comfort and pleasure, just like Moses.

Yet, amazingly, God doesn’t just wash his hands of us and turn away. He continues to work with us and seek to overcome the obstacles between us and a life of faith. He is after our eternal and infinite happiness and he knows that the only way to be really happy is to live in obedience to him. Therefore, he pursues headstrong sinners like us. He puts up with our excuses and doesn’t turn away from us in our rebellious insubordination.

MAIN POINT

Contrary to what we deserve and against all expectation God saves sinners by…

I. Delivering us from all our enemies (vv. 1-9)

We are in the middle of a conversation that God began with Moses beginning back in 3:4. He appeared to Moses in a fire in a bush that did not consume the bush. This entire conversation is taking place while Moses stands barefoot in the heat and brightness generated by this fire that does not consume. God has told Moses that he is going to deliver the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The way that God is going to do this is by sending Moses to Pharaoh to “bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” Moses likes the idea of God delivering Israel but does not like the idea of being personally involved. He has already challenged God’s call with two questions. He has asked, “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” and he has asked, “Who are you that you should tell me to go to Pharaoh?” God answers both his questions. To the first question he says, “it doesn’t matter who you are because I will be with you. It doesn’t matter who you are. It only matters who I am.” To his second question, he declares his name, which reveals that he is the eternal, all-powerful, self-sufficient creator and sustainer of the universe. He then tells Moses everything that is going to happen and how he is going to deliver Israel through him. He declares that he knows all things and rules over all things, even human choices. Moses, in 4:1 is responding to God’s description of all that is going to happen.

What Moses does in v. 1 is call God a liar. God said in 3:18 that the Israelites would listen to him. He promised that they would believe his claim that the Lord appeared to him and had sent him to deliver them from their slavery in Egypt. Notice that Moses says, “what if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord didn’t appear to you?’” Do you see? Moses ignores what God has said and claims that Israel is not going to listen to him. He essentially says that God is not strong enough to make sure they listen. He is asserting that Israel is not interested in God’s salvation and won’t listen to him. “You don’t know these people very well, Lord. These are hard-hearted people who have no interest in God. They aren’t going to listen to me. They are a bunch of skeptics. They’re not interested in you and so it will do no good to talk with them.” He charges them with being his and God’s enemies.

The first thing to notice is that God keeps talking to him and doesn’t just strike him dead. The real miracle in this story isn’t that the bush is not burned up but that Moses is not burned up. Then, look at how graciously he deals with Moses. He gives him power to perform three signs before the Israelites and guarantees three times that these signs will be effective. According to v. 5, the Israelites will believe that the Lord appeared to him and that he, Moses, is his spokesperson. So God promises Moses that he will overcome Moses’ “adversaries” the Israelites. He doesn’t need to be afraid of their not believing him. He doesn’t have to worry about wasting his time talking with them. God, by the power of these miracles will overcome their unbelief and cause them to accept Moses as his prophet. The miracles will open the door for Moses to speak and they will listen to what he has to say.

However, there is more here than God giving Moses three signs to convince the people of Israel that the Lord has sent Moses. The signs themselves are powerful words from God showing them and us how God intends to overcome our adversaries. One of the main reasons we don’t want to change, that we don’t want to obey God is fear. We are afraid that something bad will happen to us. We’re afraid we won’t be taken care of, that somehow we will lose something valuable. We hate taking risks. We hate giving up a known good for a promised good. Notice how the Lord puts, in the signs themselves, assurances for both Moses and the people of Israel that they will not be harmed. In v. 8 there is a word in the Hebrew text, which is awkward to translate in English and so, few of the English translations have it. Literally, v. 8 says, “It will happen, if they do not believe in you and they do not listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe in the voice of the subsequent sign.” God says the signs have voices. They are speaking a message. John Calvin in his commentary says, “For although the rod turned into a serpent could not speak, yet very loudly, indeed, did it announce, that what the Israelites deemed altogether impossible, would not be difficult to God.”

The three signs are not only evidence that Moses is God’s prophet but also assurances of God’s presence and power over all that opposes the people of God. In each of the first two signs, God gives two commands to Moses and he immediately obeys each command. Moses, in receiving and exhibiting God’s power in these signs by his obedience to the word of God is pointing us ahead to our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus received power to perform signs and miracles from the Father. He always did what pleased his Father. The signs testify that he is the Messiah and all the miracles point to the various ways that Christ delivers his people from their enemies, just like these signs do through Moses. First, the staff turning into a snake points us back to the great deceiver, Satan, who appears as a snake back in Genesis 3. If you’ll remember, in Genesis 3:15 God curses Satan and says this, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” In Egypt, the offspring of the serpent is attacking the offspring of the woman, the people of God. Moses’ casting down of his staff and its becoming a snake points to the fact that Satan’s power in this world is due to God’s curse upon this world in response to human sin. Satan afflicts the people of God under the restraining hand of God. God will deliver Israel from the power of Satan by the hand of Moses. In the same way God delivers Christians from the power of Satan by the hand of Jesus in the cross. Paul says, “having disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” John says, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe and the evil one cannot harm him.”

The second sign points to the power of sin and death over God’s people. The leprosy that afflicts Moses’ hand is a fatal disease that makes a person unclean in God’s sight. Leprosy, throughout the OT makes a person unclean and unable to enter into the presence of God. Again, we are afflicted with this fatal disease due to God’s curse upon the world due to sin. Yet, the God who curses his world is also the God who redeems his world through Christ. He cleanses us of our sins so that rather than dying we are made new and raised into eternal, resurrection life. The disease of our sin is removed and the curse due to our sin, through Christ. God takes away the sins of his people and gives them new life, free from the power and penalty of sin.

Finally, the third sign, the pouring out of water from the Nile River and its becoming blood upon the ground points to God’s delivering his people from their persecutors. The Nile River is full of the blood of Hebrew babies. This sign shows that God remembers the unjust suffering of his people and he will pay back the Egyptians for their murder of the Hebrew babies. The Nile is not only the place where the babies were killed but also the source of Egypt’s power and so God is going to destroy Egypt and all its power because of their persecution of God’s people. God is going to vindicate his people. Their unjust suffering will be paid for by the destruction of Egypt. This is the exact same thing that we are told that Jesus is going to do when he returns. “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess. 1:6-8)

God is talking to everyone in this room about change. God is calling you to enter into his salvation life, which is a life of risk taking for the sake of love. It is a life of giving up the pleasures of sin and of this world in order to experience the greater pleasure of life with him. All of us are afraid we won’t be take care of. You need to know that through Christ, all the powers of hell and of this world that are opposed to God’s work will not be able to harm you. You are safe. You cannot be harmed. You may lose your life. You may lose earthly comfort. You may lose friends. You may miss your favorite TV show. You may not be able to buy a new car. But you cannot be ultimately harmed. Satan cannot touch you, death cannot hold you, sin cannot condemn you and people cannot separate you from the great love of God. You don’t have to keep making excuses for not obeying. You can trust God to care for you, he has proven his faithfulness through the life, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Contrary to what we deserve and against all expectation God saves sinners by…

• Delivering us from all our enemies
• And by…

II. Overcoming all our weaknesses (vv. 10-12)

Throughout vv. 1-9 God has said that the Israelites will listen to Moses’ voice due to the signs God will work through him. Moses seizes on this primary qualification for his job: he must be able to speak. God says he will have to speak and so he can show that he is disqualified from the job by telling God that he is “not a man of words,” or as the NIV has it, “not eloquent”. Moses has once again returned to the favorite excuse we humans have for not joining in the salvation life God offers to us. He again shows that he believes salvation depends upon his efforts, his work. The plan to have him go to Pharaoh and lead out the people of Israel cannot work because he is not a man of words. No one will listen to him because he is not a good speaker. He is not able to do what is required. God essentially says to him that his inability is irrelevant. God’s response is firm. His patience is growing thin. He responds to Moses’ excuse by asking him a couple of rhetorical questions and then giving him a command. “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; and I will be with your mouth (not as the NIV: “help you speak”) and will teach you what you shall say.”

God rebukes Moses for his hard-hearted unbelief and preoccupation with himself. Whether or not he is able to speak well is a matter of no consequence to the success of God’s salvation. The God who makes man’s mouth and who determines the verbal ability of every human being will be with his mouth. The God who determines who can see and who cannot see will be at work giving sight to the Israelites and, eventually, to Pharaoh. Human inability is meaningless when the great and sovereign God decides to act. Salvation is not a human work. Living the Christian life is not a human work. There is not a person in this room who is able to be a Christian or live like a Christian by their own native ability. None of us is able to love God or love people in ourselves. None of us has the courage it takes to stand for Christ in a culture that is heading in the opposite direction. None of us has the discipline it takes to get free of our enslavement to the pleasures of sin and of this world and to pursue a holy life. None of us has the love it requires to forgive and forsake bitterness and pursue reconciled relationships.

Nevertheless, the God who made us and who gives to humans every ability we have, in the measure he determines, promises to be with us and to teach us what we shall say and do. I can’t tell you how many times people whom I’ve shared the gospel with have told me, “I cannot be a Christian because I could never live like a Christian. I can’t give up drinking. I can’t go to church; it makes me too nervous. I can’t read well so I could never read the Bible. I don’t like people. All my friends would think I was nuts and I couldn’t take that.” I’ve had a professing Christian man tell me that he can’t stop looking at pornography because he had a stronger sex drive than other men. I’ve had a professing Christian woman tell me she can’t love her husband anymore. I’ve had a husband tell me he can’t forgive his wife. I’ve had many professing Christians tell me they can’t forgive other Christians. Countless professing Christians claim they have no time to read the Bible and pray. The list of excuses people give for why they cannot obey God and believe in Jesus is endless. Don’t you see; your inability is irrelevant? God, who makes every human heart is able to give you a new heart that wants to obey and is able to obey. Your part is to stop thinking about your inability, start thinking about God’s ability and go follow Christ. Obey Christ because God will be with you and will direct you. Or, to say it with the word’s of the apostle Paul, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.”

Let me get very practical right here. We’ve been a church for almost 6 years now. There are people who used to be a part of our church who are no longer with us. This is not something unique to us. It is a fact of life in the American church. Most, though not all, of those who have left have done so because nobody called them, nobody took an interest in them or because they were offended by somebody. I’ve talked with every person who has left our church and I have told each of these that the reason you go to church is not to get friends. You go to church to get Jesus. When you find Jesus then you delight to love others and to be reconciled to others, you don’t sit around waiting for others to love you. However, while it is always wrong to leave a church because “the people aren’t friendly” it is a mark of every church that is delighting in Jesus to be friendly. God is telling every person in this room to get involved in somebody else’s life. Nobody can take care of everybody, but all of us are under command to take care of somebody. When you notice someone has not been showing up at church, call them. Invite another family over for a cookout. Get together for a cup of coffee with someone you don’t know. God gave us the phone and email to keep in touch with one another through the week. I know that each of us has a million excuses, I mean reasons, as to why we can’t be involved. Most of them revolve around our feelings of inadequacy. “I wouldn’t know what to say.” “Talking to strangers makes me nervous.” “What if I call someone and they don’t call me back? I couldn’t take the embarrassment.” “What if they don’t like me?” “I’m already so busy. I don’t have time to be involved in anyone else’s life.” God tells you, “Who made man’s mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute, blind or seeing? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will be with your mouth and I will direct you what to say.” God says, “your inability is irrelevant because I am with you.”

Contrary to what we deserve and against all expectation God saves sinners by…

• Delivering us from all our enemies
• Overcoming all our weaknesses
• And by…

III. Restraining all his just anger (vv. 13-17)

Moses finally reveals his true colors. He begs God to send someone else. He doesn’t want to be involved in God’s salvation. He is happy being a sheepherder and he doesn’t want to change. The cost of going to Pharaoh and leading out Israel is bigger than any benefits he can see. “Leave me alone and let me live my life the way I want to live it. I don’t care that you are in the business of saving your people. I want nothing to do with your salvation. I am happy where I am at and don’t need the trouble that being involved with you will bring to me.” One thing we can say about Moses is that at least he has a true understanding of the gospel. He hasn’t been deceived like so many in our day who are told that being a Christian means getting what you love on earth. He knows that there is a huge cost to joining in God’s saving work. Moses knows that following God into salvation means giving up the pleasures of this life. He knows that what Jesus said is true, “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow after me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” So he begs God to leave him alone and go find someone else.

Look at v. 14. God’s anger burned against Moses. God who has appeared as a fire that does not consume is now burning with anger against Moses. We need to answer two questions. First, why is God angry with Moses? Is this the anger of frustration? This man is thwarting God’s plans and so he is frustrated because his plans can’t move forward without him? Is God being like a peevish old woman who is angry that her children don’t visit her as often as she likes? Is he like a proud rock star that can’t take it when someone doesn’t like his music? No, none of these; God’s anger is because he is the God who made Moses and he is offering Moses infinite joy and Moses is treating his offer as if it is nothing and God as if he is a nobody. Let me see if I can use an illustration to help us understand what Moses’ refusal is like. Imagine that you are the advisor to a great and powerful king. Your king is a fair and benevolent king. He is generous with his servants. He has always appreciated you and treated you with respect. You have wanted for nothing and have lived a secure and happy life. However, you have no appreciation for his kindness. You regularly throw parties in the palace, using the king’s servants to do all the work and the king’s food and drink to feed your guests. Your guests are all members of the king’s enemy’s family. During these parties, you regularly talk about what a fool the king is and how unreasonable his rules are. You praise the enemy of your king. When he asks you to stop having these parties you get mad at him for wanting to take away your only pleasure in life. When he asks you to do something to assist in the administration of his kingdom you complain and tell him to go find somebody else to do his dirty work. You’re too busy planning the next party. Would it not be right for this king to burn with anger towards you? Would it be just for him to permit you to continue living like this and keep you as his advisor? Moses would rather use all that God has given him to pursue a life without God and apart from his salvation. He thinks that herding sheep is a better life than living in the company of this great and mighty God who has given him everything. Therefore, God’s anger justly burns against Moses.

The second question we have to answer however, is why is it that Moses isn’t burned up? Every other time this phrase in used in the OT bad things immediately happen to those against whom God’s anger burns. Not only does God not burn Moses up but he gives him his request. He treats Moses as if he were a faithful servant, not a rebellious one. God has in fact already made arrangements to meet Moses’ claim to not be a man of words. He has already moved Aaron to leave Egypt to come find Moses after 40 years of separation. Aaron will be glad when he sees Moses and he will speak for Moses to Pharaoh. God will enable both of them to do his work. God will tell Moses what to say, then Moses will tell Aaron, and then Aaron will speak. What are we to make of this grace? God not only does not punish Moses for his insubordination but he gives him what he asks for. How and why does he do this? The why is easy to see. God does this to make it clear that salvation is entirely his work from the beginning to the end. God does not choose Moses because he is holy or zealous or for anything in Moses. He doesn’t make Moses a prophet because of his faith, for he has none. He chooses Moses based upon his own pleasure and will. He acts according to his own purposes not out of any obligation to Moses for what he has done. God’s grace is magnified in the salvation of Israel beginning with Moses. Anything that happens from this point out cannot be attributed to Moses’ ability or goodness or zeal or faith.

How God can do this is another matter. God justly wipes out tens of thousands of people throughout the OT for doing less than Moses does here. How can God be just and yet forgive Moses? The answer to that question is in Romans 3:25. “God presented him (Christ) as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did it to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance he had passed over the sins committed beforehand.” What this verse says is that the reason that God killed Jesus on the cross is so that he could show that it was not unjust for him to forgive Moses and appoint him as his prophet. This point comes up all the time in the OT. How is it right for God to forgive and bless these sinful people in the OT? Why does he not punish these criminals? The answer is that God punishes their sins in Christ. God does not burn up Moses because his anger burned against and consumed his Son, Jesus Christ upon the cross. It is the same for us. All of us have done and do what Moses is doing here. We give God excuses for not obeying him. We plead with him to not ask us to do what we know we ought to do. We rebel and we are not consumed, not because we don’t deserve to be consumed but because Jesus Christ was consumed by the fire of God’s wrath in our place. God goes beyond all that we could ever ask or imagine and supplies all that we need in Christ in order that we can join in the life of salvation. We can obey him because he provides everything we need to obey. We are not consumed by God’s wrath because Jesus was consumed in our place.

Contrary to what we deserve and against all expectation God saves sinners by…

• Delivering us from all our enemies
• Overcoming all our weaknesses
• Restraining all his just anger

© Copyright 2004 John Swanson.
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If you would like to post this material to the web, or if your intended use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community Church, 2843 West Court Street, Janesville, WI 53545. (608) 758-0943. mail@riverhillsonline.org

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