GOD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES
TO PEOPLE OF FAITH
Exodus 4:18—31

INTRODUCTION

Whether you know it or not, every decision you make, whether big or small, you make—by faith. A number of our young people have recently made decisions about what to do after they graduate from high school. They have gathered information about the various options like joining the military, getting a job, going to a four-year college, a two-year college, a private college or a technical school. They have considered living at home vs. living on their own. They gathered information from friends, family, teachers, job fairs, Army recruiters, brochures from colleges, etc. In the case of our young people, we would hope that most of them also prayed and asked God to direct them. However, in the end, the decision they made was made by faith. What I mean by that is this, they decided to go to the college or get the job because they believed the promise made by each. They believe that the surest way for them to be happy, to obtain the things that they believe are most necessary for their joy right now is to be found in the course they are going to follow. This is the way it is for all of us in every decision we make. We decide what movie to watch, what restaurant to eat at, what brand of cereal to buy, what house to live in, which doctor to visit, by faith. We all live our lives by believing a certain course of action is most certain to give us the benefits we love the most.

Faith is not some blind leap into the dark, hoping against hope that someone or something will catch us. Faith is not believing something is true even when you have no evidence to support your belief. Faith is not positive thinking. It’s not believing something will happen as long as I don’t have any negative thoughts or doubts or verbally question its happening. Rather, faith is ordering our lives based upon our confidence in and love for the promises held out to us by people and things. Faith has no power in itself. The value of faith is not in the faith but in what is trusted. Many of our young friends will drop out of the schools they begin attending in the fall. Why? They will discover that their faith was ill founded. The school did not deliver what was promised. Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed.

I trust that we all know that the Christian life is to be lived by faith. Paul says it this way in Romans 1:17, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written, ‘the righteous will live by faith.’” Again he says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 he says, “We live by faith, not by sight.” God’s conversation with Moses at the foot of Mt. Horeb, as recorded in Exodus 3 & 4 has been a discussion about the trustworthiness of God and the value of his salvation. Moses has been giving God reasons why he can’t trust the promises God is making. God has been seeking to persuade Moses that he is trustworthy and what he is promising is better than everything Moses has or can ever hope to obtain on his own.

The last thing we heard Moses say in 4:13 was, “O Lord, please send someone else.” In essence he told God, “I don’t believe you can do what you say and I don’t believe that the salvation you are promising is better than my life herding sheep.” In response God told Moses that he would send his brother Aaron, whom he’s not seen for 40 years to help him. He ends by commanding Moses to take his staff so he can go and perform miracles with it. Something happened to Moses between v. 17 and v. 18 because in v. 18 we find Moses asking his father-in-law for permission to return to Egypt to find out what has happened to his brothers, the nation of Israel. During the several days it took Moses to travel from Mt. Horeb with his sheep back to Midian, he began to trust in the promises of God. He began to believe that God was able to do all he promised and that what God was promising was better than life as a shepherd in Midian. At least he “sort of” believed. What we are going to see in this passage is how it is that God gives faith to Moses and how he sustains his faith. I trust, that as we witness this gracious work in Moses’ life, we will be helped in our life of faith.

MAIN POINT

God gives us faith and strengthens our faith by…

I. Reminding us of his sovereign grace vv. 18-23

Verse 18 is an act of faith. Let’s think about the costs he is incurring to go to Egypt. He is in the employ and under the authority of his father-in-law. His father-in-law has depended upon him and so Moses knows that his leaving will mean greater hardship for Jethro. It will mean the loss of income for himself. You’ll notice that unlike Jacob’s return from Paddan-Aram as a wealthy man, Moses has one donkey to his name. In addition, he is going to take away Jethro’s daughter and his grandsons. This trip back to Egypt is going to split up the family. Moses is leaving a good life that he knows to go into a very difficult situation. The only way he can do this is if he believes that God will take care of him and if he believes the benefits of getting involved in God’s salvation will outweigh the known benefits of working for and living with Jethro.

However, while Moses has faith; he is going to return to Egypt, just like God told him to do; yet his faith is not very strong. He doesn’t tell Jethro why he is returning to Egypt. The reason he gives is so that he can see if any of his brothers are still alive. He gives Jethro a very human reason for returning. Why does he do this? There are at least two reasons. First, he is afraid of what Jethro would think if he told him that God appeared to him in a burning bush and told him to go to Pharaoh and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. He was embarrassed by the gospel. He’s not all that sure that this is going to work out. He doesn’t want to look foolish in the eyes of his father-in-law. Second, I think it is more than possible that this is at least part of the reason he is returning, at this point. It’s like he’s hedging his bets. “I’ll go back to Egypt because I haven’t seen my relatives for forty years. I’d like my wife and children to meet them and I’ll see how they’re getting along. I can’t imagine that I’ll be able to do anything to help them, but at least I’ll pay them a visit. Even if nothing comes of this “leading Israel out of slavery” business, I’ll at least see my relatives.”

Notice what God does following Moses’ decision to return. First, he tells Moses that those who were seeking his life are dead. In other words, there is no reason to be afraid that when he gets back to Egypt he will immediately be arrested and killed. God gives him information so he will continue to live by faith. He assures him that he won’t be harmed. This is knowledge that only God could have and is an expression of his kindness to Moses. Immediately, he saddles up his one donkey, puts his wife and kids on it and heads out for Egypt. Aside from the donkey, the only thing we are told that he has with him is the “staff of God.” His very ordinary shepherd’s crook, which has now become the instrument of God’s power, is all he brings with him. This is a reminder of the fact that while he is just an ordinary shepherd, the extraordinary God has chosen him to be his instrument in the salvation of Israel. He is not returning to Egypt with a powerful army or as a wealthy man. He returns to Egypt to deliver Israel out of slavery as a poor shepherd, with only a staff in his hand.

As Moses begins the journey, God speaks to him again. I want you to carefully look at what God tells him. First, God reminds Moses of the purpose of his journey. He is not simply going to a family reunion like he told Jethro. He is going to perform all the miracles God gave him to do before Pharaoh. God has already told Moses about all the miracles that he will perform, not just the three signs God gave him to do in front of the Israelites. God has laid out the entire plan to Moses. These are miracles that God has given Moses to do. Moses doesn’t have the power, God does. Even in the command to go to Pharaoh is the reminder that it is his gracious power that will accomplish the work. The miracles are God’s miracles. He is to make sure that he does all of the miracles that God has given him to do. This is just like us. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” And Philippians 2:13 says, “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.” The life of faith we are called to live is a life that is given and sustained by God himself. We are doing the good works that he prepared in advance. We are to work out our salvation because of what he wills in us and works through us. Just as God gave Moses the miracles that he performed so he has given us the life we are to live.

Then God says one of those shocking things that litter the pages of the Bible. God tells Moses, “I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, so that he will not let the people go.” He then goes on to say that he is going to punish Pharaoh for not letting the people go by killing his firstborn son. These verses create a whole host of problems. First, is God schizophrenic? He told Moses that the reason he is sending him to Egypt is to bring Israel out of their slavery to Pharaoh. Moses is going to tell Pharaoh repeatedly that the Lord commands him to “Let my people go.” He even says it right in this verse. Yet, God tells Moses that he is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he won’t obey his command. So does God want Israel to leave or not?

A second problem is the whole issue of human freedom and accountability. If God is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart then how can he be a free moral creature? How can it be just for God to punish Pharaoh by killing his firstborn son for not letting Israel go, when he is the one who hardened his heart so that he wouldn’t let them go? Ten times in Exodus 4-14 God says that the reason Pharaoh does not let Israel go is because he hardens his heart and therefore God sends his judgment. However, in the same chapters we are told 10 times Pharaoh hardened his own heart and that is why he didn’t let the people go. So which is it? Did God harden his heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Many people try to solve this dilemma by saying that God just permitted Pharaoh to harden his heart. I’m sorry but the language that is used here won’t allow that simple solution. The reason people cannot conceive of God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart and then punishing him for having a hard heart is because they think of God as merely a super human. God is infinitely greater and different than us. He is able to do what we cannot do. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and Pharaoh hardened his heart. Both are true. It is because Pharaoh hardened his own heart that he is held accountable. Pharaoh did exactly what he wanted to do. He did not want to let Israel go and so he did not let Israel go. However, his desire to not let Israel go until after his firstborn son was killed was exactly what God wanted him to do. God is not guilty of doing evil, that is, he is not the direct cause of Pharaoh’s disobedience. However, Pharaoh’s disobedience is exactly the will of God.

There is a mystery here. God is so great that he is able to ordain that men do evil in such a way that he is not guilty of evil, men are. God is sovereign over everything, including the evil choices of evil men so that all things serve his good purposes. And men are guilty for the evil they do. No human can every accuse God of making them do evil. Every human being, including Pharaoh, does evil because they want to do evil and therefore are guilty before God and deserve his punishment. Pharaoh deserves to have his firstborn son killed for the evil he does to God’s firstborn son. However, God’s plan for the salvation of Israel includes Pharaoh’s hard heart. Why does God want Moses to know this? He wants him to know this so that when Pharaoh resists God’s will Moses will not think that Pharaoh is stronger than God. He wants Moses to persist in faith and so he assures him that even the evil of Pharaoh is under God’s control. Moses should not be deterred when things don’t go as he hopes because God is in charge. He is working out all things, including the evil of Pharaoh, for the good of his people. God wants Moses to be consumed with a vision of his sovereign grace, so he will persevere in his faith. Everything God has commanded, he can accomplish, because the all sovereign God who even rules over Pharaoh’s heart is with him. The knowledge that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart is not a reason for Moses to be passive. Rather, it is an incentive to persist in doing the work of God. We need to know that the evil done to us and that happens to us is ordained by God. If you are going to persevere in faith to the end of your life, you need to know that God is sovereignly ruling over all that happens to you for your good. This is not just some weird idea that theologians talk about, this is foundational to a life of faith. The evil done to us and that happens to us is ordained for us for our good and the glory of God. Only knowing this will enable you to persevere in faith.

I want you to see one final way God emphasizes his sovereign grace to Moses. He is to tell Pharaoh that Israel is his firstborn son. If you will remember, Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, is not the firstborn son of Isaac. Esau is the firstborn son, not Jacob. Yet God chose Jacob/Israel to receive the rights and privileges of the firstborn. Thus it is that Paul writes, “…before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls, she (Rebekah) was told, ‘the older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Israel is the firstborn by grace, not by any other means. Additionally, when God tells Pharaoh that Israel is his firstborn son he is saying that out of all the nations on the earth, he has chosen Israel to be preeminent. The nation of Israel is God’s chosen people, not due to anything in them but due only to God’s gracious decision to save them and make them his people. God doesn’t save people because we are valuable, obedient or faithful. He saves people because he delights to treat sinners kindly. He saves according to his purpose and will, not according to anything in us.

Here is the foundation of faith. You will give up everything to gain what God promises if you are convinced that he is sovereign and if you are convinced that he is gracious. There is nothing that God cannot do. There is no power that can harm all those who belong to Christ. God ordains everything that happens to the Christian for our eternal good. All that he does is motivated by his love for us. He is good and he is powerful and therefore we do not need to fear. We can trust him until the end of our days for he will never forsake us. We are accepted by him, not because of anything we have ever done or ever will do. We are his children because he killed his son in our place and he has given us his Holy Spirit so we are new creatures. Our salvation, beginning to end is a work of sovereign grace. Belonging to Christ, trusting in Christ, living for Christ is all a work of God. This knowledge does not breed passivity but an obedient life coming from our faith.

God gives us faith and strengthens our faith by…

• Reminding us of his sovereign grace
• And by…

II. Sending suffering to purify our faith vv. 24-26

In v. 24 we’re given another shock. One night on their journey, while the family is sleeping in their tent, God attacks Moses to kill him. We are not told how God did this; we are only told that God seeks to kill him. My guess is that it is something like Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel of the Lord during the night before he meets his brother Esau, when he was returning to the land of Canaan. However, in Moses’ case it was not a simple wrestling match but a fight to the death. Somehow, we are not told how, Zipporah, Moses’ Midianite wife knows how to stop God’s killing of Moses. She takes a flint knife and circumcises one of her two sons. After cutting off his foreskin she lays the bloody flesh on Moses’ feet while declaring, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” Immediately, as suddenly as the attack came upon Moses, it ended. God stopped seeking Moses’ death because Zipporah circumcised their son.

What in the world is going on in this story? First we need to turn back to Genesis 17. In vv. 1-8 God restates his covenant with Abraham. He promises that he will make Abraham into a great nation, that he will be their God and they will be his people. He promises to give them the land of Canaan. Then in vv. 9-14, God gives to Abraham circumcision as the sign of the covenant. He is to circumcise every male born into his family when they are eight days old. It is the physical sign that the descendants of Abraham are God’s people. As Paul says in Romans 4 circumcision is the sign of the righteousness that Abraham received by faith. It bears witness to the fact that God has, by grace, chosen Israel. Don’t miss this, the Jewish people were to circumcise their boys, not to make them part of God’s people but as the sign they were God’s people. Circumcision is done by faith. It is the human response to God’s making a covenant with them. In v. 14 God tells Abraham that anyone who is not circumcised will be cut off from the people of God. The reason? They show by their unwillingness to be circumcised that they do not believe that God is worthy of their trust. They spurn God’s grace. Now, Moses was circumcised when he was eight days old as the sign that he was a member of God’s family. However, at least one of his sons was not circumcised.

Zipporah knew that God was seeking to kill Moses because this son was not circumcised. She acted to save the life of her husband, but she was not happy about it. Based upon Zipporah’s action and her words I think it is very safe to assume that the reason this son was not circumcised is due to the disapproval of his wife. For some reason, Zipporah did not want her son to be circumcised. We are not told why. Most likely it had something to do with her religious or cultural biases. Moses, out of fear of his wife and a preference for domestic harmony did not obey God and have his son circumcised. Moses believed the favor of his wife was a superior pleasure to the favor of God. As Calvin says in his commentary, “…for the sake of the favor of men he neglected to obey God.” Being “worn out by domestic quarrels, he at last departed from his duty.” Here is another evidence of the weakness of Moses’ faith. He is not in any shape to lead out the people of Israel. He valued his wife’s opinion more than belonging to the people of God. He feared and obeyed his wife rather than fearing and obeying God. Therefore, God brings life threatening suffering upon him in order to show how he must trust God and love God even more than his own family. God will have no competitors and so he sends all manner of suffering into the lives of his children so that we will love, trust and fear him alone. A desire for the approval of human beings is the cause of much sin in our lives. God is determined to drive the fear of man out of us, so he sends suffering to us.

In Moses’ case, the suffering came as the direct result of his sin. This is not always the case in the life of the Christian. As we have seen in numerous other passages, God sends suffering, even to his obedient children in order to purify our faith and teach us to love God more than we love anything else on earth. However, sometimes, the suffering God sends to us is due to our disobedience. He is seeking to get us to stop disobeying him and to get us to obey him. He does this out of his love for us and for his people. How can Moses lead the people of God when he has refused to identify himself fully with the people of God out of deference to his wife? It is absolutely true that Jesus did not come to bring peace to the earth but a sword. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. There are times in our lives when obedience to Jesus will require that we disappoint our parents, spouses or children. Obedience to the commands of God is the evidence that we prefer God to all other pleasures. God uses suffering to help us to see that he is better than the pleasures of sin and of this world. His approval matters infinitely more than the approval of others.

God gives us faith and strengthens our faith by…

• Reminding us of his sovereign grace
• Sending suffering to strengthen our faith
• And by…

III. Fulfilling his promises vv. 27-31

Verses 27-31 show us how faithfully God fulfills his promises to Moses. God commands Aaron, Moses older brother, living back in Egypt to leave Egypt and to go meet Moses in the desert. Aaron, without knowing why God was sending him, immediately leaves Egypt and meets Moses back at Mt. Horeb. Notice that when Aaron meets Moses he kisses him, thus fulfilling God’s promise that Aaron would be glad to see Moses. Aaron is told by God to go in some kind of direct way but he hears about God’s plan to deliver Israel from the mouth of Moses. In short, immediately upon meeting Moses God fulfills what he said. God tells Moses his words, then Moses tells Aaron what God says and what God wants done. The rest of the journey to Egypt passes without mention. Aaron and Moses gather the elders of Israel together in Egypt and Aaron tells them everything that God told Moses, exactly like God said would happen. He also performed the signs before the elders, thus fulfilling another of God’s promises. Finally, the elders believed what Aaron told them, just like God told Moses it would happen. Not only did the people believe the message of Moses but they worshipped God for his kindness to them.

It would be hard to imagine things going better than this. God has kept his word. It’s like a fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after. Except for one thing, the Israelites are still slaves in Egypt. However, based upon this great start, there is no reason to expect that things are not going to go according to plan. It really looks like things are going to turn out well. As we will see in the coming weeks, this is like the calm before the storm. The confidence of Moses and Aaron are soon to be tested. This glad unity of worship will soon be shattered. The faith of the Israelites is soon to be revealed as only superficial. Yet, here at the beginning, all is going as planned.

This is often how it is when we first trust God. When you first come to faith in Christ, everything seems so good. The words of the Bible fairly jump off the pages and into your heart. There is a new joy in everything. There is often a sense of great relief as you realize all of your sins are forgiven. There is a new exuberance for life. You love people and love to talk about Jesus. All the promises of God seem so real to you. Life truly does appear more abundant. You love to come to church and to worship Jesus for his great love. You are amazed at the changes in your life. You don’t act the way you used to act. You leave behind an old life and old friends and you begin a new life. All this is God’s gracious care for the newborn Christian. It is his kindness to sustain the faith of the newborn.

However, you will notice that all of the joy and delight in these verses is still based upon God’s promises. The Israelites believe that God has appeared to Moses and that he has seen their misery and has come to their aid. However, they are still slaves. They still must be delivered out of their slavery. There is a process of deliverance yet to go through. God did not destroy Egypt immediately after announcing that he is going to deliver them from their slavery. In fact, part of what Moses told the Israelites is that Pharaoh would not let them go until he was compelled by a mighty hand. He was going to resist letting them go free. Yes, God is concerned for you and he is going to deliver you but it is going to be a process. It is right to worship him for his grace but remember that you must worship him for a lifetime. We’re not in heaven yet.

Here is one of the great errors of much Christian teaching and of much Christian believing. If you listen to some preachers, you would swear that if you trust in Christ you will experience heaven on earth. They promise unending joy, perfect health, abundant money, lots of friends, great marriages, all experienced with guilt free living. There are many benefits to knowing Jesus Christ right here. As I said, usually God gives to new believers great experiences of his presence and love. He regularly fulfills his promises to be near us and to enable us to conquer sin. But this isn’t heaven. While we have been saved, we are also in the process of being saved. God has come near in Christ and has delivered us from sin and death but we are yet being delivered from sin and death.

I have talked to thousands of people about their experience with God and I can’t tell you how many I have seen begin the Christian life with enthusiasm and joy but who then abandon Christ when they encounter trouble or when the emotions fade. Many people receive the word of God with joy but then when trouble or persecution because of the word come they just as quickly fade away. Often at the beginning of our relationship with Christ, when we first believe, God gives us great assurances of his love. But we must remember, this is only the beginning. There is a lifelong journey ahead of us. While it is certain that because of Christ, we are going to escape the slavery of sin and death yet we are escaping. The final deliverance is yet to come. So worship Christ now for his concern and keep trusting him, knowing that whatever happens he is faithful and he is in control. However, you must remember that Pharaoh will resist letting you go. There is a great contest of faith yet to be lived. There is a fight to win and a race to run.

God gives us faith and strengthens our faith by…

• Reminding us of his sovereign grace
• Sending suffering to strengthen our faith
• Fulfilling his promises

© Copyright 2004 John Swanson.
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