Exodus 4 (Part 2) & 5 Bible Study (Moses Returns to Egypt/Let My People Go) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

And I'm gonna ask you to stand right back up if you don't mind just for a moment. We're gonna do this once in a while just in reverence towards the word of God. We're gonna we're gonna stand and read together. And so if you have your Bibles, flip open to Exodus Exodus chapter four verse 18 where we left off. We're gonna read the rest of the chapter together.

Exodus four eighteen. This is what the word of the Lord says. Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who are seeking your life are dead.

So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. And the Lord said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.' Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses's feet with it and said, Surely, you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone. It was then that she said a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses.

So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

And right now let's bow our heads and worship. Father we thank you for your precious and holy word. Lord we testify as Job testified that the words of your mouth are more precious to us than even our portion of food. And Lord we pray that after tonight we would have a greater revelation that your word surely tastes like honey. It is sweet to the soul.

We pray Lord that as we come with hungry hearts by faith we would receive what you want to give us, nourishment to our souls. And so, Lord, in this moment as we choose to be here tonight, would you quicken our bodies for those that are weak and need strength? For those whose minds are distracted, would you realign our thoughts according to your purposes tonight? Our hearts that might be weary, our hearts that might be meditating on something else, would you bring it in line to the scriptures? And Father, tonight we pray not just for theology, not just for information, but we pray for revelation that produces transformation in our lives.

And so we pray for the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit as your word is spoken. Lord, we long to worship you in spirit and in truth. And so tonight, would you keep our mouths free from error, and would you give us precision of speech. And father, tonight, we'll be leave here with one definite consequence of this bible study, loving Jesus more. Bring us to that place we pray by your holy spirit because our flesh is our enemy, our flesh does not want this, it wars against the things of the spirit, but give us the holy spirit in greater measure that we may overcome the flesh.

In Jesus mighty name we pray, Amen. You may be seated. Here's a recap, important recap. We talked about Moses in Exodus three concerning his call, the call of Moses, And then we go to the latter part of chapter three and we come into chapter four and we're not talking about the call specifically but we're talking about the confidence for the call. And if there's one thing we can learn about Moses up to this point in his latter years and him being commissioned by God is this that he is human.

He is so human. Oftentimes we look at a man that's being used by God or we read about men that have been used by God and we kind of put them in this separate category because they must be super spiritual. They must be superhuman. When we meet with Moses here we can see that he's probably more devil than some of us in here if we're honest. Seeing signs and wonders and still doubting himself.

And one major lesson about Moses in Exodus three and four was that every obstacle that Moses brought before God, every doubt that Moses brought before the Lord, the Lord brought back a solution. That is God. He is not intimidated by our obstacles. He's not intimidated by our doubts nor is he intimidated by our limitations. In fact the weak you are the more glory he receives.

And so as we come to this specific text we're gonna realize more about Moses as he unpacks his heart before God as as God unpacks his heart before Moses. And so right before this verse in verse 18 we read about Moses being commissioned finally receiving all that he needed to receive from God even in his final point when he said, I don't even wanna do this anymore. God gets angry and he says, you don't get it. It's about me through you. But if you really don't wanna speak, if you really feel like you're limited with your tongue, I'll send somebody who can speak.

I'll get your brother. Is there any more excuses, Moses? And finally, it seems as though he receives it, and this is his first action in verse 18. Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law said to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace.

What can we say about verse 18? I mean this is the first thing that Moses does after he has this fire bush encounter with God. He's commissioned, he receives the confirmation and the confidence, and the first thing that he does is he goes and he sees his father-in-law and says, can I go? What does that say of our friend Moses concerning his character? Yes?

Extremely respectful. Respectful. Why? Okay. So he's kind of seeing the father-in-law in his respective position in a way?

I mean, Moses is an older man here. We know that he's he's up there in age, and he he can make the shots. He's a husband. He's a father. He can make the calls if he wants to make the calls.

But what does he do? He goes to his father-in-law and he says something. What else what what what can we say about this verse? This speaks of this man's heart. Yes, Nahin?

Submissive? Is this just his father-in-law or is he somebody else? He's not just his father-in-law. He's his boss. Right?

He was taking care of his sheep in Exodus three one. This reveals something about Moses. I believe it reveals something about his humility. He has this amazing encounter with God. He has this amazing calling upon his life.

Yet despite any of that, despite all those amazing things, he still sees authority as authority. He still has respect for those that have been above him and placed above him. He still comes with a heart posture of, hey, you know, I'm still in this place. I'm not some big shot now and says, hey, you know what, Jethro? Peace out.

See you later. I'm a man of God now. No. He comes with utmost humility, understanding authority, understanding who his father-in-law is, and coming before him and asking his permission to go. Because no matter what God has done through you and no no matter what God is gonna do through you, does it mean that you can become puffed up?

Does it mean that you can look down on other people? Does it mean that you can dismiss authority? No. Whoever God has placed above you, even though you feel like you have gifting, even though you feel as though you have some grand plan that God wants to use you for, you still must recognize authority, you still must recognize those above you, and you must respect that season of your life in which you are under someone. This is important.

I mean, Moses could have been so puffed up at this point saying, yeah, I'm ready to go. See you later. Now he comes under Jethro and he says, can I go? You're my boss. You're my father-in-law.

You're over me, and I and I need to go. And his his father-in-law sees that. And though there's not some direct link between this and later on, we see Jethro. We're gonna find out later on Exodus, maybe in, like, I don't know, a year or something. We're gonna realize that Jethro even gives his life to Yahweh, which is incredible.

There's something about Moses' character right in this verse. But he does something, yes, and he doesn't do something. What doesn't he do when he comes before Jethro and asks him to go? Yes? He says, he has to say, I'm just going.

Okay. Yeah. He asks. He does ask. Absolutely.

He leaves something out though. The experience. He doesn't give out the full thing. He has this amazing encounter with God, he comes up to Jethro and he goes, hey, can I just go check on my brothers and see if they're alive? Is he lying?

No. What is he doing though? Not only is he acting in humility, he's also acting in what? Wisdom. Why?

Who is Jethro? He's a priest. What kind of a priest? Midianite priest. So what can we say?

He's a pagan priest. Right? And so we see Moses coming up to his father-in-law who's not a believer, and he leaves out the details that he does not necessarily need to give. That reveals what? Wisdom.

Why? Because Jethro, I believe, does not have the spiritual capacity to understand what Moses experienced. And that is a lifelong lesson that we all need to have in this life. Why? We learn about somebody who kind of spilled the beans right off the get go to those who didn't have spiritual capacity to receive it.

Who are they and who is he? Joseph. Hey guys, one day you're gonna bow down before me. Isn't that cool? And they're like, we hate you.

And he goes, here let me tell you another dream. They're like, do you get it? And so he did not operate in wisdom. And we spent a good amount of time about how we must be able to discern, we must be able to develop the wisdom to know what to share with others concerning our own relationship with God. If it's not meant to edify others, if it's meant to edify yourself, if it's something that God has revealed to you and only for you, you don't need to share it.

You don't need to share it because people do not have the spiritual capacity to be able to even understand it. There's somebody else that does this, you'd be surprised who. Can anybody guess who does this? I'll give you a hint. It's in the book of first Samuel.

Somebody else does this when they receive their calling. Saul. Isn't that shocking? You know, when we get to first Samuel, we're gonna realize something. Saul started out really, really, really, really good.

But starting and finishing are two different things. I'll read you a text. In first Samuel ten fourteen to 16, you know the story of Saul. Right? We see that his donkeys are lost and he's looking for the donkeys for his relative, and as he's looking around, they they eventually bump into Samuel, and Samuel was commissioned by God to recognize Saul as the first king of Israel and to anoint him and to commission him in that.

And so he receives that amazing call from the prophet of Israel. And what happens? He ends up going back home after a few days, and this is what it reads. Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant, where did you go? And he said, to seek the donkeys.

And when we saw that they were not to be found, we went to Samuel. This is in first Samuel ten fourteen. And Saul's uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you. And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found, but about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything. That's wisdom.

That's operating in humility. That's operating in, hey, you don't need to know this because this is between me and God for different reasons. One, the spiritual capacity. One, you don't know if necessarily people are for you in that area. And so we have to be careful of what we share and what we contain.

Not saying be careful because there are people that take this and say, I'll never share another testimony in my life. Listen, we just need to develop the discernment to say, hey, what's between me and God and what's something that will edify somebody else? And so we're seeing this again in Moses, and we see this with men of God who are commissioned by God. They operate in the sense of limited and framing what they are to reveal to others. And he does that with Jethro.

He does that with his father-in-law. And we go on in verse 19, and the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all the men who are seeking your life are dead. What can we say about that verse? He gets the permission. I mean, what else does he need to do?

And God speaks to Moses and says, you know, everybody that's seeking your life is dead. You can go now. What does that say? It says something wonderful about our God. Yes?

He cures our anxieties. He cures our anxieties. But even deeper than that, which is true, but let's take it to a level another level. Did Moses voice this concern? Do we see Moses voicing this concern?

Hey, God. I know I got permission from Jethro, but you know, I'm worried about those that are gonna kill me, that they're still alive, and that they see me, they're gonna Did he voice it? Do we see him that having this dialogue with God? So what does that reveal about God? That even the concerns that you do not even express, he sees, and he's willing to counsel, and he's willing to cure, and he's willing to meet.

The things that are in your thoughts that you feel nobody else knows, God knows. What an amazing God. He's able to reach deep down even to your deepest anxieties and say, you might not even be voicing this to yourself, but I see them. And I'm telling you, you can move on. You can go.

It's okay. I got you. What an amazing God. You know, you can be driving in the car and you have Have you Maybe you've had that experience where you haven't even prayed something. Just a thought.

Just a just something that's been bugging you for days, and you see God through somebody, through a sermon, through a song, through radio, whatever. God ministering to you specifically in that area, though you have not even voiced that to God. What a beautiful God we serve. What a merciful God. What a gracious God.

And so we see that Moses has this unspoken anxiety about the people that were to take his life, and God sees that in his heart and how patient God is despite Exodus three and four and says, you can go. Don't worry about it, Moses. But there's something else in this verse. Think about this whole idea of the call of Moses. What does it say about God?

Yes? Confidence? Yes, absolutely. He is giving him confidence. Extra confidence.

There's something else. Because up to this point, we've been discussing and we've been reading about what Moses's call is, but now we're looking at a different element of his call. Not necessarily the what, but the what. Not just the how, but the when. The when.

I believe in this verse, we not only see, yes, the confidence of God over Moses's calling, but even the timing of it. He says, Moses, now is the time to go. Go to Egypt now. Before we talked about how he was commissioned, he says, you know, this is the plan. I'm gonna send you to Egypt.

But we do not see a direct commissioning to go to the physical place. But now we see God speaking, yes, to give Moses the confidence, yes, to cure his anxiety, but to also say, now is the time to go. Why? Because the people are dead now. Now is the time.

And so up to this point, yes, we've been studying about how God took Moses into the wilderness to prepare the man for the ministry, but he also, in this time, not only prepared the man for the ministry, but he prepared the ministry for the man. Say, what do you mean? He literally set up everything to fall into place for Moses to operate in his calling effectively, because timing is just as important as anything else. This is important. Timing is vital.

And so, yes, he prepares Moses, but not only does he prepare Moses, you know who else he prepares? He prepares the people of Israel to receive Moses. He prepares and he operates with the circumstances in which Moses' ministry will be received, will be accepted. He prepares the enemies of Moses to get out of the way in order for him to come in with full freedom and effectiveness. And so as we have been Yes, maybe you even know what God wants you to do, but you don't know when he's doing it.

We have to trust in God's timing that he is not only preparing the man for the ministry, but he's preparing the ministry for the man. And what do we do? We trust and wait until we hear the go, until we see the open door, until we realize all the other doors are closing and here's the open door for me to come. Because we don't want to prematurely walk into our calling. We will not be effective in that.

And so God says, now go. This is the timing. And he does. So what happens? Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

There is no accident in scripture. The Bible does not not repeat things by accident. The Bible doesn't mention certain things by accident. Why is it telling us that he took the staff of God in his hand? Well, let me ask you this question.

Was it called the staff of God when we were first introduced with the staff? Go to Exodus four verse one. Then Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say the Lord did not appear to you. The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? And he said a staff.

Did he say a staff of God? No. It's just a staff. But when we come to later on here in Exodus four, it's called the staff of God. So what does that say?

And we talked about this a little bit couple weeks ago. What is in your hand? What is in your hand? What is in your hand? The staff.

It's just no ordinary staff. You know, I use it to lead my sheep, and I use it to bring my sheep closer and to discipline them and get their attention. Just an ordinary staff. What's in your hand? Just a bible study.

I just have, you know, four or five people that come, but we come once a week. What's in your hand? Just a prayer meeting once a month once a week, once a month, four or five people show up? Okay. What's in your hand?

You know, just a Christian club, but a few people show up. We kinda go out and tell people, we give out tracts. What's in your hand? What's in your hand? It's just a staff.

Okay. Put it in my hand and I'll turn into something incredible. A staff of God. It's the idea of taking the ordinary and when God asks of it and we trust him with it that he can turn into something extraordinary. It's about God taking the the natural and making it supernatural.

What's in your hand? A staff. It's not very significant, it doesn't have much ability, doesn't can't really do much, but put it in my hand and watch what I can do with it. And so he takes what was first the staff and God turned it into the staff of God. Has a new label, has new ability now, has new influence because God is on it.

And that's why we need to trust God with the things that we think are insignificant and that other people think are limited. And when we put it back in God's hand, he can do things. Like what? Split open the Red Sea. Like what?

All the different things that we're gonna see Moses do with this staff in his hand for the rest of his ministry. Anything else about that? Yeah, Evan. Even the little detail there. Right?

Moses is a great man, a man of character. Not perfect, man. We're gonna find out very quickly. So God gives him his instruction in verse 21. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Now we talked about this and we're gonna talk about this probably two three more times because it's gonna resurface. But we talked about this understanding of God hardening the heart of Pharaoh, and for the sake of reflection very quickly, what did we talk about a couple weeks ago concerning this? What did we talk about? Yes. Yes.

Who first hardened their hearts? And when you see it in Exodus, you see, and we can go over the scripture, but we won't. We'll leave that for later, a later study. We see that God does first say, I will harden his heart, but he didn't say, I have hardened his heart. He says, I will harden his heart.

He says it one more time, I will harden his heart. And in Exodus eight, we see that it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart. And then we see in Exodus nine where God says, I have hardened his heart. So who did it first? Pharaoh did it.

First Samuel six six talks about how Pharaoh and the Egyptians hardened their hearts. Now this is important because people have slipped into a certain idea of God that is not true. Do we see pharaoh even at one moment saying, you know, I really wanna serve the God of Israel. I I I feel like he is the living God. I feel like he's the real God.

And God's saying, you know, no, no, no. I've hardened your heart. Is that the God that we serve? No. We do not see pharaoh once articulating or demonstrating or showing any desire to wanting to serve God because he chose to harden his heart and when you choose to do so long enough, God will finish the job for you.

Because the sun has the ability to do things with clay. It can melt clay, it can soften clay, or it can harden clay. And God has the power to do both. And how we posture our hearts towards the word of God and how he's called us, Yes, to come to him also this is important. Listen, we talked about this.

Don't harden your heart. He's able to harden it and he's able to soften it. And when you persistently wanna harden your heart, he says, okay, if that's the direction you wanna go into, we'll do it. And then look what happens, verse 22. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn. Let's talk about these precious phrases here. Israel, my firstborn. The first time God ever refers to Israel as his firstborn. So what does that reveal about God and relationship with Israel and the people of God?

Think about the firstborn. Yeah, Gail. So there's a special place for the firstborn. Right? There's an inheritance for the firstborn, Eddie?

Yeah. There is a special relationship between the firstborn and the father. Absolutely. So this is revealing something about God and how he feels. He doesn't say Israel my son, which would have been just as beautiful, but he says Israel my firstborn.

My firstborn. He's trying to articulate intimacy with his people. You are my treasured possession. You are the delight of my life. You there's something about you.

There's a special connection between me and you, Israel. And he's trying to show that to pharaoh. He's trying to relate to pharaoh saying, you wanna see how I feel about my people? He's like my firstborn son. What an incredible picture even in the Old Testament of God relating to his people as a father child relationship.

We see that even in Exodus. Yes, we see it magnified in the New Testament when Jesus refers to the father as the father more and more and more, but we see even this intimacy here in Exodus where he sees us as his child. He sees the people of God as his the Israel the nation of Israel specifically as his firstborn. And he says go and tell that to Pharaoh and say to him let my son go that he may serve me. If you you refuse to let him go, behold I will kill your firstborn son.

So warn him. And you know what he says? Yes, Tamara. Go ahead. Well, he's trying to Yeah.

He's trying to take care of the male, and he's like, you know, I'm gonna He's a just God. The ultimate punishment of the plagues was taking care of the firstborn. So God is very just, and he's very specific in his commands, and he's very specific in his judgments as we're gonna talk about when we come to the plagues. You know what I think about when I read these verses that we just read? Just think about it.

Here's Moses getting up with his family, going to the land of Egypt. Here's Moses having all these signs and wonders prepared to do before Pharaoh. Here's Moses having the very words. He has his sermon prepared for Pharaoh. And you know what God reveals to Moses?

He's not even gonna answer. He's not even gonna budge. His heart will be hardened. Maybe you'll disagree with me on this, but I believe it's scriptural, especially in the New Testament. I see something about God here, that God is more concerned about our obedience to him than the results that we produce for him.

Let me say it again. God is more concerned about our obedience to him more than the results that we produce for him. Think about that. Rejection is the ultimate response to all the things that Moses is gonna do. And we get caught up in thinking that if I do these things for God and the results come forth, if I preach and everybody that I preach to get saved, if I witness and if I pray if all these and the results come, then God will please will be pleased with me.

But in fact, from Exodus, from Genesis all the way to Revelation, we realize one thing about God. We realize one thing about obedience, that God is more concerned about obeying what he said than the results that we produce for him. In fact, rejection is a part of the package. Luke ten sixteen, Jesus, hey, disciples. You wanna preach right?

Yes. I'm calling you to preach. But remember, if they reject you, they rejected me. Rejection is a great possibility. It's something that we are in a sense to expect.

By faith we wanna see people respond, but there's something about God saying, it's not about necessarily results. I'm in charge of producing the results. It's about you obeying what I've called you to do. This is not just with Moses. Yes, we see with the disciples.

We even see it with the prophets. You know, we say, God, make me into a prophet. I wanna preach your word. It's exciting, isn't it? Here's Isaiah.

He has this amazing vision in Isaiah chapter six. He sees the king of glory. And here's the trinity speaking within themselves saying, you know, who shall go for us? Who who's gonna do this for us? What do you think?

And what does Isaiah say? What does he say? Here I am. Send me. I'll go preach.

I'll go preach repentance. I'll go do it. I'll be a prophet for you. God, you're looking for somebody? Here, find me.

And look how look how the Lord responds to Isaiah when he volunteers to be used by God to preach. Says here in Isaiah six eight, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, here I am, send me. He said, go and tell the people, be ever hearing, listen to this, be ever hearing, but never understanding, be ever seeing, but never perceiving, make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull and close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. In other words, you wanna preach?

Awesome. When you preach, nobody's gonna listen to you. Still wanna do it? Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. That'd be a fun study.

Let's let's count the many converts that Jeremiah the prophet produced in his ministry. And so it's not about the results that we produce for God, it's the obedience that we walked in concerning the commands of God and whatever results come out of it come out of it. That's by God's grace and by God's power. And so just think about how motivating is that? Do the miracles, do all these things, Moses' heart will be hardened.

And so are we willing to still do this when people reject us? Are we still willing to pray that we don't see results? Why do we pray? Because we know that's a partnership of God's will. Are we willing to go out to the streets though people reject us?

That we don't see a convert. Are we willing to? It's hard because we wanna see these things and we have the right to pray and expect these things by faith. But just think of put yourself in Moses's shoes in this moment. Oh man, Moses is not even gonna answer.

But it's about obedience more than results. God is pleased when we obey him. And then this random scene happens. It just comes out of nowhere. What happens?

Seems like, alright, he's ready to go. He has everything everything in place. Time for ministry. Time to go. Time to go and preach.

Time to go and perform signs and wonders. Time to go and lead a nation. Right? Well, at a lodging place on the way, verse 24, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Well, that changed very quickly.

I mean here's God giving Moses confidence and curing his anxiety and telling him everybody's gonna Hey, everybody that's gonna kill you, they're dead, but I'm gonna kill you right now. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses's feet with it and said, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone. It was then that she said, a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. What is happening?

Yeah, Gil and Tamara? Moses didn't circumcise his son. Is that a big deal? Why? It's part of the covenant that God had established with Abraham in Genesis 17 that the descendants of Abraham, their sons were to be circumcised at eight days old, and those that would convert were to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant.

As a picture of what? Cutting off the flesh. No dependence upon the flesh, but dependence upon the power of God alone. And different things in line with that as well. So he doesn't circumcise his son.

So that's a big deal to God. Right? So what principles can we take out of this concerning us? I mean, that doesn't relate to us, especially in the fact that we're in the new covenant. Galatians five tells us that neither circumcision or uncircumcision matters, but a new creature.

So what's the principle for us though here? What's the spiritual application? What does this have to do with me today? Yeah, Evan? I think it's actually tied to, verse twenty one two.

It was, like, do for all miracles, so it's called the soul that says of all about giving yourself and calling yourself completely to God. Okay. So was there an element and was there a part of Moses' life that was not completely given over to God? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Absolutely, Gil. Absolutely. Well, I see many things here as well. I see one that God is not a respecter of persons.

I say, what do you mean? I mean, even with this man of God, the calling on his life, the power that has been given over to Moses, and here's this area of compromise. And you know what God says? I'm willing to deal with you as I am with any other Israelite. You are not above the word of God, Moses, because I've called you to be a leader.

You are you are just as under the word of God and subject to it as every other believer in me. You are not somebody special. This word applies to you as much as it does anybody else. And so God doesn't have favor where he goes, hey, yeah you you can you're more lenient because you're this kind of No no no no no No. He's on the same level as everybody else under this word, and so are we.

We see something else though. Moses is called to public ministry, yet he does not have the spiritual affairs in his own home put together. Do we see this? How is Moses going to go and tell an entire nation to fully give themselves to God when his own home is not even put in order? First Timothy three five.

Can you put up first Timothy three five? When there is a there is a prescription, there is a specific criteria for elders and deacons in the church, and one of those is this, that if you are not able to even take care of your own household, how will you take care of the house of God? How are you going to lead people when you can't even lead your own home spiritually? Moses, you wanna lead people, you wanna lead an entire generation, and you're gonna teach them the importance of circumcision when your own son is not circumcised? How can it be?

And so Moses realized and so must we that God is deeply concerned about the spiritual condition of the home, especially for those who are called into any type of ministry in the church. Don't put the cart before the horse. Deal with things at home first before you deal with other people's lives. It does not work with God. God is concerned.

And look how much God is concerned about the family. Think about the family. God is concerned about the family. There are people that neglect their family for ministry. I have met young people, unfortunately, whose fathers are ministers and there's a sense of neglect and they've expressed that and that is dangerous.

That is not God's desire for ministry. We never put ministry above our family. We never put ministry above our intimacy with the Lord. We have to put these things in their respective orders because God has designed it so. And when we don't do it God's way, guess what happens?

Lack of harmony in the home, in the church, in your own ministry. So he says, hey, first things first, if you're gonna go and lead people, if you're gonna preach to people, you gotta tell your son these things. Your son is gonna run wild and he's not circum How is that gonna work? Thirdly, God is deeply concerned about the males to be the initiators spiritually in the home. People debate with this text because it's kind of ambiguous.

It's It doesn't have a lot of answers for us to make a full dogmatic statement about what happened, but pay attention to this, please. People mix this up and they say, well, Moses married a pagan and Moses wanted to circumcise his son, but Zipporah influenced and convinced Moses not to do it because she was a pagan. Hey, if that's true, there is a lesson there for us. Be careful who you marry. If that is true, if that interpretation is true, that's not a unsafe interpretation, but if it is the one interpretation you wanna hold to, this is the application.

Be careful who you marry, because if you wanna think you wanna do ministry for God and you're not in partnership with your wife or your husband, good luck. It's not gonna be very easy. But I believe otherwise, I believe that Moses did not initiate circumcision. Why? Because when God visited him at this lodging place, he wasn't gonna kill Zipporah, he was gonna kill Moses.

Moses was responsible, and Moses did not initiate circumcision, and unfortunately, Zipporah had to do it. And she voices frustration. And I wonder how many women voice their frustration because there are so many men that lack initiating spiritual things within the family, in the home. Moses's job was to do it, and Moses has failed in that part. Zipporah steps in.

Men, you are called to be the spiritual initiators in the home. And if you're not in a relationship right now, you've heard this said so many times from this pulpit. If you're single in this place, develop the disciplines now. Don't wait until you're in a relationship. Don't wait until you have a kid.

Don't wait until you have many children. Develop the disciplines now. If you cannot motivate yourself to pray, if you can't motivate yourself to read, how are you gonna motivate your kids to do it? How are you gonna motivate your wife to do it? You are the one who sets the spiritual temperature.

Develop the disciplines now. And Lord said in verse 27, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met with him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.

Aaron spoke all the words that that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs to the side of the people, and the people Look at this reaction. The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. So what do we see here in these few precious verses? Yes, Tamara? So they prayed and they saw the fulfillment of their prayers.

And just think about how God works. I mean, between where Tamara's left us, you said Exodus three eighteen. Correct? We see in Exodus three eighteen that the people call out and they will listen to your voice to you. Okay.

So you're saying they'd listen to Moses. Right? Is that what you're talking about? The fulfillment of that verse? Yes.

Okay. But did God say that? Yes. God said it to Moses that they will listen to your voice. Absolutely.

But when we come back here in Exodus two rather Look at this in verse 24, and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. Between Exodus two and Exodus four, between the people's groaning and crying out to God, you know what God was doing? Exodus three and four. Meaning what?

When they were praying and they're crying out to God, God was working in the background. And we get the we get the full picture. We get the whole vision. Right? We get to see it.

We see them crying out to God. Deliver us from our affliction. And they don't see what's happening at the mountain of God. We see what's happening at the mountain of God. We see God finding a man.

We see God commissioning a man. We see God preparing a man. We see God preparing the answer to their prayer. And they see the fulfillment of the prayer. And that puts joy in my heart.

I don't know about you, that when we cry out to God, we may not know what's happening, but something is happening. And in due time, God will bring the answer to our groaning. He'll bring an answer to the prayers that we bring before him. That is a precious thing to see. And what do they do?

They bow their heads in worship response to the grace of God, in response of God answering what they've been asking God for. What else can we say about these verses? Well, we come into an interesting chapter. We're gonna touch on chapter five not too deeply because it is it's an interesting chapter. We're not gonna even read through it, but I hope you read through it.

Can anybody give us a synopsis of chapter five of what it's about? Yes, Tamara. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You're saying it. Yeah. Okay. So here we go. What happens?

We get the call of God. We get the confidence for the call. Moses is ready. He's got his house in order. He's got his family in order.

He's got the staff of God. He's got every He's got his brother who's gonna speak. They got the elders on their side. You know why? Because when you have the call of God and you have the confidence, everything's gonna go smoothly.

Right? The call of God? We got the confidence for the call of God, but you know what happens in the call of God? Sometimes there's complications with the call of God. Call, confidence, complications.

And that's what we see here. Here's Moses and Aaron. Let's do this brother. We got this. Peter, ready?

Let's do this. Alright. So what happens? They go, afterward Moses and Aaron went, said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord the God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord?

That I should obey his voice and let Israel go. I do not know the Lord and moreover I will not let Israel go. Okay. Maybe we didn't explain it right. Pharaoh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.

And, please let us go. Three day journey. Into the wilderness that we may sacrifice the Lord our God, lest we may what? Have pestilence and the sword fall upon us. What What can we say about these verses?

Look at the response of Pharaoh. What does he say? Who is the lord? That I should obey his voice and let Israel go. I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.

There's a verse in Job 21, a chapter dedicated about the heart posture of the wicked. And you know what the wicked say? Not just Pharaoh, you know what wicked people think and how they act? Just like how Pharaoh said in Job twenty one fourteen. They say to God, this is the wicked, they say to God, depart from us, we do not even desire the knowledge of your ways.

What is the almighty that we should serve him, and what profit do we get if we pray to him? This is not just an isolated thing that Pharaoh is saying here. This is the heart posture of the wicked. Who's God? In fact, I don't even want to know God.

Who's the Lord Yahweh? Who is this guy? Don't worry about it. What profit do we get from following this guy? What profit do we get from praying to this God?

And what happens? They try to explain, yet Pharaoh answers in a very specific way. How does he answer here in verse four? But the king of Egypt said to Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from the work? Get back to your burdens.

And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens. What is he saying here? What is the mindset of Pharaoh here? He wants them to work. Wants them to work?

Doesn't want them to rest. Doesn't want them to rest? What is what is Pharaoh consumed with? What does this reveal about Pharaoh's mindset? Pharaoh is his own god.

Yes. He doesn't wanna worship anyone else other than himself. Absolutely. The Lord, this God wants his people to worship him. And in fact, there is a possibility of judgment if we don't.

And you know what Pharaoh answers? Worship? There's some work to do. There's things to be done. What are you talking about worship?

What are you talking about sacrifice? What do we see here? The consistent theme of not just fear about how the world thinks. The idea of worship? The idea of sacrifice?

The idea for a serving God? How can you even think of such a thing when there's things to do? Moses and Aaron? There's stuff to be done. Why?

Because Pharaoh is consumed as Tim said, Pharaoh is consumed with his kingdom, his little empire, his little dominion, his little life, and this idea of sacrifice and worship to God and pulling away from work to do that seems a little ridiculous. Not just to Pharaoh, but to the world as well, especially here in North America. This is the mindset of the world. This is not just a mindset of pharaoh. And pharaoh is so consumed with himself.

Pharaoh is so consumed with his own agenda that even when the people plead with the risk of judgment, he's not moved. Pestilence and sword can come, and he goes, yeah, whatever. There's things to do. And that's the world today. They're not concerned about They've probably heard the judgment to come.

They'll probably hear those things, and they're so wrapped up within themselves that they're not even moved by these things. That's a scary place to be. And that's where Pharaoh is at right now. Judgment, okay. Worship.

Moses and Aaron, come on. Get your head in the game. There's work to be done. Don't pull them away from work. There's things to be done.

So let's get to work. And what happens? The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foreman. Look at this. Look at the details.

Sometimes we read through this, oh yeah, Pharaoh's a mean guy, but look what he's saying here. You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves, but the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them. You shall by no means reduce it for they are idle. Is that true?

Therefore they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God. Let heavy work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. So he's talking to his taskmasters, he's talking to his employees, and he's saying, listen, the reason why they wanna go do this is because they're idle. And you give him more burden to do and don't listen to these lying words. So what is he saying to his taskmasters?

He's saying two things at least about God and the people of God. What is that? Lying? And what was the first one? They are what?

Lazy. They are idle. Why would he say that? Well, we we see that he's coming up with excuses here. We see that he's trying to deceive the taskmasters.

We see that he himself is deceived. But once again, I would argue this, it's the same thought pattern of the wicked, of those who consciously rebel against God, those who are malicious against the idea of Jesus Christ. This is how they think. How do they think? And this is what they say of us believers.

This is what they say of our God. You know what they say? You know why they worship? Because they have nothing better to do. They're idle.

That's That's why they wanna go worship. There's nothing better for them these guys to do. These guys these guys are brainwashed. They're indoctrinated. They they're idle.

They don't have an understanding of work. They don't have an they just they spew lies about why we do what we do. And not only that, don't listen to their words because they're lying words. What they say is not true. What Moses and Aaron preach is not true.

Don't buy into it. And he fuels the deception into others by saying their idol and their lying words. Don't fall into it. Don't bite into it. Look at their lives.

Don't let listen to this crazy talk, sacrifice and worship. Come on. And that's being infused into the minds of these taskmasters. And so he says no straw no brick, and what happens? For the rest of these verses, they had to go and grab their own straw because that was supplied to them by the Egyptians and made their task a little bit easier.

They blended the straw with the bricks for the sake of producing more solid material, more solid bricks. And now they have to go and fetch for this straw for themselves. And they were to produce the same amount of bricks as they did when the straw was being provided for them. And what I think about that is this, is that the commands that pharaoh give are totally unfair, totally burdensome, totally selfish. And I was just reading this myself just on a personal level, and I was thinking, but God, when you give us commands, they're not burdensome.

You're so compassionate. You give us things to do. You tell us to do things. But your word says in first John five three, God is love, and this is love, that we obey his commandments, but his commandments are not burdensome. They are delightful.

So he says, I have these things for you to do, but here's the grace to do it. I have these things for you to do, but here's my power to do it. That's the kind of God that we serve. That's the kind of master that we serve. Pharaoh's a terrible master.

We serve a gracious God, a good God, a faithful God, in which even when he tells us the things that we do because we live for his kingdom, the commands that he puts upon us are not something that we walk around burdensome about in the sense of being overwhelmed, in the sense of being, I can't achieve this. That's not If you're living that way, you you've got the commands of God all twisted up and you're doing it in your own strength. But there's a delight. Paul says, I do this with his power that he powerfully works within me. So I'm doing this.

For this I toil and struggle with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. And so Paul even had this revelation, all the things that he did was in the power and the strength of God. And so we have this liberty, we have this lightness about the Christian walk. If you're walking around like this and you're you're burdened, that's not God's plan for you. That's not God's desire for you concerning his commands.

They're not burdensome because he gives us the ability to do it. So what happens? They come back and the people realize, okay, this is What what happened here? Verse 15. The foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this?

No straw is given to your servants, yet they they say to us, make bricks, and behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is your own people. We're not What's going on here? Why are you putting putting this on us? But he said, you are idle, you are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.

Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. So it goes on, and look what happens in verse 20. Here they're having this meeting with Pharaoh, and here's Moses and Aaron saying, I hope it's working out. I hope this meeting is gonna be successful.

I hope it's coming out with, yes, we can have straw, or yes, we can get out of here. What happens? Verse 20. They met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh, and they said to him, the Lord look on you and judge because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. The call of God, confidence for the call, complications are bound to come.

What's happening here with Moses and Aaron? Not really seeing the results that they probably anticipated. Okay, Gil? So there's there's this turning against Moses and Aaron. Yes, we see that clearly.

So what does that say about following the call of God? It's not easy. You might face something called what? From who? Pharaoh?

That's a given. For us to follow the call of God and for the world to look at us and say, you believe in this? This is you? This is your God. Worship, sack we we expect that.

Right? Right? Opposition from the world? But do we really expect opposition from the people of God? That's a whole different ballgame, isn't it?

Which one do you think hurts more? The world is Yeah. But then when you have the people of God turn on you and criticize you, you made us stink. This is your fault. Let me tell you something.

A preacher said this, and I'll probably butcher this quote, but you get the idea. It's not the persecution of the world that affects us, it's the criticism of the saints that affect us the most. And it's true. And here we see, they're walking out, they're trying to obey God, and the people that they thought would be the most supportive turn and oppose them. That is not easy.

This is the beginning of the ministry. We just started here. And the people already turn around and say, it's your fault. This is your problem. You're poor leaders.

What what did you do? Look at the mess that we're in now. Look how much we invested. We we believed you. Yes.

And and think about what they're experiencing. Let's let's talk more. This is important. What else can we say about this verse here? Yes, Tamira?

Yeah. Moses did forget, and that's okay sometimes, and we're gonna talk about that in a moment. Yeah, Gil? Yeah. Yeah.

It's an interesting perspective, absolutely. Calling upon God to judge Moses and Aaron. So we look at this in the perspective of Moses and Aaron. Right? I mean they're trying to follow God's call and they have opposition from Pharaoh.

That's a given. The world is gonna oppose you if you're gonna follow the call of God, but the people of God oppose you. Oh, it's a whole different thing. Which brings a second application. That not just when Moses and Aaron as individuals, and you and I as individuals follow the call of God, must expect opposition in a sense and be ready for it.

But in a corporate setting, we must be unified at all times. Unity is necessary at all times. You know what Pharaoh is doing right here? Up to this point, it's working. He's trying to bring division.

You guys see this? This is working. The people now are turning against Moses and Aaron. That was not look at look at Exodus four thirty and thirty one. And the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that they had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

When Moses and Aaron came in, they did the miracles, and when they came and gave the sermon, and it was really good, and everything is going well, they were standing firm. Yes, we're one. You know what happens? A little turbulence and everybody starts freaking out. And that's exactly what the devil wants to shake things up just enough for people to turn on one another and for destruction to come from within.

And so what is necessary at this point right here is that unity remains despite things not going the way they thought. Does it make sense tonight that we must be unified? It's important. And thirdly, for the sake of time, seeing the fruit of your obedience requires persistence even through tribulation and turbulence. Moses and Aaron more than anything needed to stand firm through this turbulence.

They needed to. It was not time to give up. And you know what they do that we should praise God for? They didn't lash back out on the people. They didn't say, this is Hey, smarten up.

What's wrong with you? God brought us here. Did you not see the signs and the wonders? No. You know what they do?

You know what Moses does? The next part. Then Moses turned to the Lord. Here are these thousands of people saying, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you?

And Moses goes, something that he's gonna learn to do a lot. Lord, that's the reflex. When turbulence, when things get out of hand, when you think everything's in order, when when things are happening in a different direction that you anticipated, Lord. Now, he turns to the Lord, what he says is not necessarily the greatest thing, but at least he turned to the Lord. What does he say?

Oh Lord, why have you done all Done this evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. What can we say about Moses's complaint here? That's not him.

He's doubting God. Why is he doubting God? Because he's not seeing the results that he anticipated probably or he desired at least. And you know when you and I Listen if you're serious about your walk with God and you really wanna be used by God and you wanna see God do do things through your life, This is so important for us to grasp right here. In the beginning of Moses ministry he experiences doubt.

Why? Because he does not see the results that he anticipated. In fact things are going the opposite direction. And what happens to Moses happens to a lot of people. One, they doubt the goodness of God.

Number one, why? What do we see here? Oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Does God do evil to people? No.

He was doubting the goodness of God. Not only was he doubting the goodness of God, what else is he doubting? Just read on, it's right there. Yeah, go. His calling.

He's doubting his own calling. Why did you ever send me? Why did you send Why do you even call me in the first place? Why I didn't ask for this. I was happy doing the sheep thing.

It was good. It was cool. It was low key. And you asked me to do this. Am I really qualified for this?

Am I really a good speaker? Do I really have people skills? Do I really have the bible knowledge? Why did you even call me in the first place? Why did you send me doubting himself?

And what else do we see here? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all. So not only does he doubt his original calling, but now he doubts his own ministry because of the lack of results. He goes, I don't see anything happening at all. Nobody's being delivered.

I don't understand this thing. And this is key. This is this is planted here for those that feel as though God is calling them. Listen, we can have the call of God. We can have the confidence for the call through the promises of God, but there is also this understanding that there are complications sometimes in the call.

And when that happens, do not let your heart go into the place where you doubt the goodness of God. Don't doubt the original calling that God has placed in your life, and don't doubt your ministry just because you don't see things happening right away. This is the beginning, Moses. Relax. In fact, I told you this was gonna happen in the first place.

And so he turns to the Lord, and look what the Lord graciously does, and this is the same thing the Lord will do with you and me in Exodus six. And we're not gonna read it. Verse three, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. Then you scroll down to verse six.

Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with great acts of judgment. I will take you out to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And so he goes on and goes on. And what is he really saying here? What is God saying to Moses?

Yes. Do we see these phrases before? Do we see God telling Moses this before? Yes. He's telling them essentially, he's telling them the same thing he told them earlier.

In other words, he's saying this to Moses, Moses, just keep doing what you're doing. Keep telling them what I originally told you. You don't see the results right now, that's fine. You keep doing what I told you to do, and that is the same application for you and myself. Keep moving forward.

Remain on your knees. Nobody's responding to the gospel. Keep preaching the gospel. Keep sharing. And in due time, I will do what I need to do through you.

All I'm requiring of you, Moses, is to keep doing what I originally called you to do. What a gracious God that when Moses comes with these complaints, all God does is tell him what he originally told him. Just keep moving forward. Keep your eyes on me. Keep your eyes on my word, not on your circumstances, not on the lack of results.

And I will move when I need to move. And that's what you and I need to be confident in as well. And even in this place tonight, if you are not experiencing what you think that God wants you to experience, what you've believed God for you to experience, Hold on. Don't give up. And we're gonna explore chapter six next week more.

But what Moses is showing us is that we are like him. God, the Holy Spirit is showing us that even this great man of God had his weaknesses, had his doubts, even up to this point. And you and I might have experienced that and we might experience that. And when we do, we learn from this text. And we say, God, I will choose not to doubt your goodness, not to doubt myself, nor to doubt what you can do through me.

Let's pray together.