17th November 2024

Old Testament Heroes 5 – Moses – 17/11/24 -  Martin Mowat

Readings: Exodus 3:1-14 & 1 Kings 19:1-14

For those of you who haven’t been with us, during the last few weeks we’ve been working our way through the list of Old Testament heroes that we find in Hebrews 11. As I said last week, when I was talking about Jacob and Joseph, in June we finished an 11 week series about those two star heroes, and we left them at the point where Jacob and his entire family was invited by Pharaoh to go and live in Egypt as his guests, effectively VIPs in a foreign land.

When Jacob died, and to fulfil the promise that they had made to him, Joseph and his brothers took his bones back to Cannan to bury them, but they didn’t stay there, they went back to Egypt where they lived under Joseph’s protection.

But, inevitably, at the age of 110 Joseph passed away too. The youngest of the family of 12 brothers and one sister was the first to go.  In due course the others followed suit and gradually, just gradually two very sad things happened. The people of God fell into slavery, and worse, they fell into idolatry.  

So today we’re going to talk about Moses, and if all this seems like déjà vu, you’re right, because I did a series of massages about him way back in 2020 and 2021.

Nevertheless, it’s going to be difficult for me to squeeze into the sacred 15 minutes what could legitimately fill another series of 15 messages.  So, for that reason I’m going to assume that your memories are working well, and that I don’t need to recite every detail of events such as Pharoh’s daughter finding him in a basket floating amongst the bullrushes.  It’s a Sunday School story but unlike Noah, we know that this one really isn’t a myth.  This was a real person, and these were real events.

You already know that he was brought up in the lap of luxury, but that he never really felt 100% at home. He was, if you like, a fish out of water, and one day when he sprang to the defence of a fellow Israelite, letting his temper get the better of him, he became a murderer, and had to flee Egypt.

So, some years later, when the burning bush episode took place, I suspect that Moses wasn’t in a good place, physically, psychologically or spiritually.  He was wildly under-employed, the most educated and sophisticated shepherd that ever there was. Indeed, he felt so sorry for himself that he named his first son Gershom, which means “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.” 

But the event that Sandra/Vaughan has just read to us also shows that his self-confidence was extremely low. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” he had said, but he’d heard God’s voice and it changed his life completely and permanently.

God’s voice does that, and that’s what I want us to think about today. 

A couple of weeks ago, the 24/7 Prayer team that produce, among other things, our beloved Lectio 365, had their annual conference.  There were four principal speakers, Pete Grieg, Carla Harding, Tyler Statton and Tania Harris. She spoke about hearing God’s voice and described how, after the prophet Elijah had persuaded King Ahab to summon all the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel for a showdown, after they had failed to get Baal to bring down fire on their offering, and after Elijah had prayed to God who had sent fire that burnt the offering, the alter, and all the water that he had poured over it, he went down into the valley and put all those prophets to death. 

But after this amazing show of God’s power, Elijah, for some reason got cold feet and ran away to hide in Horeb.  Have you ever felt like that? I certainly have.  But God found him there and said to him “What are you doing here Elijah? I am going to reveal myself to you.”  

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. The King James version says “and after the fire a still small voice”. 

God revealed himself to Elijah in the form of a voice, not a big booming voice, but a whisper.

It’ll soon be Christmas and doubtless we shall read those first verses of John’s gospel “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Jesus was, is, the WORD of God. 

Both Old and New testaments make it abundantly clear that God is someone who delights in communicating, communicating with us, his children. 

Moses got to know God’s voice well. He heard it numerous times in his life.  So much so that in the Message Bible it says God spoke with Moses face-to-face, as neighbors speak to one another. That certainly talks about two-way conversation, relaxed, natural, and friendly. 

There’s one wonderful time, also in the Message version, when Moses said to God, remonstrated even, saying “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.”

God replied, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.”

Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?”

Sometimes I feel like saying things like that to him.  I expect you do too, especially when you hear the news. But let’s not get into that!

Why was Moses a hero?  Well, unlike some of the other heroes in the Hebrews 11 list, the author has quite a bit to say about him.

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born,because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.  By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

But for me there’s at least one other thing that made Moses a hero, and this applies to you too, perhaps, and that is that he had a personal, relaxed and chatty relationship with God.