SPEAKER_00: As we turn to our passage this week, we do so as a pivot point in the narrative that has been building in Exodus up until this point.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if everything has been building up until this point has been setting the stage for the main purpose of the whole narrative of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout the series, we have been saying that the main theme of Exodus is and it's on the front of your bulletin, is the God who reveals himself.
SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago we encountered the story where God reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush and proclaims his name to Moses, the great I am, Yahweh Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And in today's passage, we find another self-declaration.
SPEAKER_00: What we come to find as we slowly walk through this grand narrative is that God's self-revelation doesn't stop with his declared name, but continues to build through his decisive action to save his people.
SPEAKER_00: If the main point of Exodus was to discover what God's name was, then we would be able to just close the book at chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: No, the purpose of Exodus isn't just to know by what name to call the God, but to know that he is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who rescues his people.
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say that the name of the Lord isn't significant.
SPEAKER_00: It shows up 14 times in chapter 6 alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's almost once every two verses.
SPEAKER_00: By the end of chapter 5, we know God's name, and we have heard of his plan to save his people, but we haven't seen it come into action yet.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, it appears as if Moses has made things worse for God's people, as they're now forced to work even harder as slaves in Egypt, and their burdens have been multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at this passage, we should be considering how the author is developing the narrative as he writes.
SPEAKER_00: Much of what we have read this morning has been necessary to set the stage about what's about to take place.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be diving into that next week.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if the climax of the first act was God revealing himself in the burning bush back in chapters 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6, verse 3, highlights the significance of God revealing his name to Moses, drawing our attention to the fact that by this name he hadn't yet revealed himself to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Everything from this first act was meant to point us to the fact to this fact so that we would be able to understand all that Moses would do as he goes forward.
SPEAKER_00: If not for God's self-revelation, the actions and the faith of Moses wouldn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: And now in chapter 6, we see the conclusion of this first act of the narrative.
SPEAKER_00: And in this concluding scene of Act 1, we begin with Moses complaining before Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This conversation actually begins back in chapter 5, verses 22, with Moses turning to Yahweh, and he challenges Yahweh, saying, Why have you done evil to this people?
SPEAKER_00: Why did you ever send me?
SPEAKER_00: These are sincere questions that Moses is asking God.
SPEAKER_00: Moses feels that he has done everything that the Lord commanded him to do, but from Moses' vantage point, it hasn't worked.
SPEAKER_00: And as a matter of fact, it has gotten worse for the people.
SPEAKER_00: Moses has already gone to the people of Israel and to Pharaoh, and nothing positive has resulted from it.
SPEAKER_00: Through Moses' words to Pharaoh, the only result has been worse treatment by the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' complaints make sense from his perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if how many of us can relate to Moses here?
SPEAKER_00: How many of us have had a season of life of calling us to God, asking him the big questions of why?
SPEAKER_00: This question is one of the questions that is shared across all peoples, all nations, and throughout all time.
SPEAKER_00: Why, God?
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the country song that I'm not going to sing, Everybody Talks to God by Aaron Lewis.
SPEAKER_00: The chorus goes like this: it says, Because whether you're a farmer in the field praying for the rain, or you curse him at the graveside, because he's called a loved one's name.
SPEAKER_00: You can thank him, you can blame him.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, you're going to face him, whether you believe in him or not.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the end, everybody talks to God.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and this song describes you or season of life that you're in right now, I hope that you see in Scripture an example of God's people calling out to him with real and raw emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' cry of, why me?
SPEAKER_00: is a cry that we can share with him as we also cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to pay attention to God's response to Moses' cry here.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 6, verse 1 says, But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: For with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.
SPEAKER_00: Moses' complaint before God is twofold.
SPEAKER_00: That the people haven't listened to him, and Pharaoh hasn't relented.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is so focused on what his enemy is doing, and his faith is being rocked.
SPEAKER_00: But God's response challenges Moses' perspective on the matter.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells him to pay attention to what God will do.
SPEAKER_00: Did you pay attention to that in verse 1?
SPEAKER_00: God says, This is what I'm going to do in the beginning of verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is so fixated on what Pharaoh is doing, and God reorients Moses' focus.
SPEAKER_00: It's like when a parent is trying to get their child's attention.
SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
SPEAKER_00: They put one hand on either side of the face and get down to their level and say, This is what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's like God is doing that to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He's taking them like, pay attention now.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_00: And God explains that he is going to as God as God explains to Moses what he's going to do, he shows him this is what Pharaoh's going to end up doing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, it says, it shows us that God is going to send the people out with a strong hand.
SPEAKER_00: With a strong hand, he's going to drive them out.
SPEAKER_00: But God said, I'm going to do this.
SPEAKER_00: We see these two things working in tandem.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I will do this thing, and we see that it is Pharaoh who will also do this thing.
SPEAKER_00: I will, God's action, leading to He will, Pharaoh's action.
SPEAKER_00: In Moses' complaint, we see that whereas Moses focuses his attention on what Pharaoh is doing and not doing, Yahweh shows Moses what is actually going to take place.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't a matter of what Pharaoh is doing or going to do.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is all that Yahweh himself is going to do for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your attention to verses 2 through 8 of chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: This section of the text could be subtitled, I Will.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the Under Armour commercial from 10 or so years ago, where all these people, like the most fit people on earth, are all wearing Under Armour swag, and they're doing like that ropes thing that I've never done in my life before.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like picking up big empty steel barrels and just throwing them over their heads, and they're like sprinting with a parachute tied to their back, you know, everyday stuff that we do.
SPEAKER_00: The whole like purpose of this like commercial and this media campaign was that if you have the determination, you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And you can wear under armor to help.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what we see in Exodus 6 is that no one can do it.
SPEAKER_00: Moses can't make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel are completely helpless to try to change their circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing to be done by the power of man, no matter if you're wearing underarm or sandals or not.
SPEAKER_00: And in steps Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Let's listen to the original I will campaign.
SPEAKER_00: It says, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as sojourners.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.
SPEAKER_00: 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 and with great acts of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: I will bring you to the land I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: I will give it to you for possession.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing promise that Yahweh gives Moses in this moment of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't rebuke Moses for his lack of faith or the uncertainty that he has.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he reminds Moses of who he is and helps Moses to see God's divine plan.
SPEAKER_00: As we consider the main theme of Exodus being the God who reveals himself, we read this passage and ask, who then is the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Well, these verses they tell us.
SPEAKER_00: They tell us that the Lord, he keeps his word.
SPEAKER_00: See that in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: That he feels our foes.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: That he sets us free.
SPEAKER_00: We see that at the beginning of verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: He brings us close to himself.
SPEAKER_00: See that in the second half of verse 6 and verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And that he will eventually lead us home.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And in between, and these promises, they're sandwiched between these book-ended declarations.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God reminds Moses that as much as Moses feels like he understands the people's plight, God knows it more.
SPEAKER_00: And as much as Moses wants to see his people set free set free, God wants it more.
SPEAKER_00: As much as Moses wants to see justice come for God's people, God wants it more.
SPEAKER_00: God is reminding Moses that it is his work and his will that is going to save his people.
SPEAKER_00: God is graciously putting Moses in his place as his representative.
SPEAKER_00: Moses hears God's word to him, and he communicates it to the people.
SPEAKER_00: And turn your eyes to verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
SPEAKER_00: How easy is it for us to relate to the people of Israel here?
SPEAKER_00: That week after week we we come together as God's people, as the church, to hear God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And we sing songs of worship to our conquering king.
SPEAKER_00: We take communion together, remembering all that God has done for us in Christ as we look forward to that final day when we will feast in God's eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way that Moses reminds the people of who their God is and what he is going to do for them, we also come together to be reminded of all that God has already done for us.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites couldn't see beyond their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
SPEAKER_00: For us, it might be that on Monday we get stuck in traffic and we're late for that really important meeting at the office.
SPEAKER_00: And stress clouds our memory.
SPEAKER_00: Or it might be that we look at our bank accounts and we wonder how are we going to make it to the end of this week in the next paycheck?
SPEAKER_00: Forgetting that God is our provider.
SPEAKER_00: Or we see the way that our kids are turning out to be too much like us, no matter how hard we try to save them from the mistakes that we made.
SPEAKER_00: Forgetting that it is the Holy Spirit who moves within us to shape us into the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, about what's going on in your life, but when the things of this world start to pile up on me through the week, I can oftentimes forget that the God of the universe has called me, has saved me, and is with me.
SPEAKER_00: As we consider this interaction between Moses and his doubts and God and his faithfulness, I hope that you can see that in Christ you have the freedom to bring your broken spirits to him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't read that the Israelites had a broken or a hardened spirit, like Pharaoh had, but a broken one.
SPEAKER_00: And in this brokenness of spirit, God reveals to them how he is going to step in for the sake of his people.
SPEAKER_00: For Moses and the Israelites, he does this by rescuing them from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, we can trust and know that he has rescued us from the power of sin, hell, and Satan, and has given us a newness of life, even when our life on earth can still leave our spirit feeling broken.
SPEAKER_00: The examples I offered earlier of traffic and being late to meetings and having a tight budget and the challenges of parenting, they might seem trivial for some of us who are dealing with some of the larger hurdles or obstacles of faith.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have, you're facing some scary medical diagnoses right now.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have recently lost a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have made radical steps of obedience and following what you believe the Lord is calling you to, similar to Moses, and you're waiting for God's plan to be made obvious to you.
SPEAKER_00: And in these moments, the big and the small, God's word promises us that Jesus is always with us, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like God promised Moses back in chapter 3, where it says, chapter 3, verse 11, it says, but Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel up out of Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: This is the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: It actually, Moses, it actually doesn't matter who you are.
SPEAKER_00: But he asks this question, Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: God's response to this question of who am I?
SPEAKER_00: But I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't really sound like a response, but it's a reassurance.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise that Moses was to take hold of as he goes to the people and to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same promise that we're to hold on to as well.
SPEAKER_00: But he wavers just as we waver.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, Moses turns his attention to the wrong person in the story.
SPEAKER_00: He looks inward rather than looking upward.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your attention to verse 6, or verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: It says, So the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of this land.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me.
SPEAKER_00: How then shall Pharaoh listen to me?
SPEAKER_00: For I am of uncircumcised lips.
SPEAKER_00: See, Moses is looking inward rather than upward.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else in this room feel like you can relate to Moses in this scene here?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever heard our pastors talk about our desire to make a dent in lostness in Brownsburg and the surrounding community?
SPEAKER_00: And you look inward at your abilities or lack thereof, and you feel immediately inadequate?
SPEAKER_00: Or you've considered the invitation to one-to-one Bible reading with someone, and you've believed that that invitation is actually for the person sitting next to you and not for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us forget that it's actually not about you?
SPEAKER_00: But rather that the Lord your God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us, like Moses, are so prone to looking inward rather than upward to the one who's called us?
SPEAKER_00: For Moses, it didn't matter that his lips were by his own definition uncircumcised.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter that by his own estimation they weren't fit for the task.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh was with him.
SPEAKER_00: Moses looked inward at his own strengths and abilities and determined that he wasn't fit for the job and looked for an excuse.
SPEAKER_00: But Yahweh doesn't budge.
SPEAKER_00: Read verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: So remember that Moses is worried that the people and Pharaoh won't listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, God, you shouldn't send me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be able to speak to them.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that Yahweh brings a charge to Moses and Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: He says, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't budge based on our self-evaluation.
SPEAKER_00: What we see in Moses trying to deflect God's calling on his life is God's resolution to accomplish his will.
SPEAKER_00: The main idea of Exodus isn't the God who reveals Moses.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the God who reveals his chosen people, it's the God who reveals himself.
SPEAKER_00: And as he reveals himself, he shows Moses and us that his plans are his plans to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: This is meant to give us peace as we consider our inadequacies in light of God's calling on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: That it's okay to feel inadequate as you live missionally for God.
SPEAKER_00: Moses did.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, it acts as a pivot point in the narrative.
SPEAKER_00: The stage has been set.
SPEAKER_00: If this was a play, this is where Act 1 concludes.
SPEAKER_00: If this was a movie series, the credits would roll, and we would have to wait for the next movie in the series to be released.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel are going to be brought out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: But before we can get to that action, we first have to deal with what feels like an out-of-place genealogy.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it feel like it's out of place to us?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it's because in our culture and society, we don't value genealogies the same way that they did.
SPEAKER_00: So here's an exercise for us.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you can remember your parents' names.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for class participation.
SPEAKER_00: That's the easy one.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it raised.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember your grandparents' names.
SPEAKER_00: Both sets, first names.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your hand raised if you can remember the names, first names of all of your great-grandparents on both sides of your family.
SPEAKER_00: And now let's go back one more generation.
SPEAKER_00: Who can remember all those names four generations back?
SPEAKER_00: I see two hands.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it interesting for us to think about that in a matter of three, maybe four generations, our name will be all but forgotten?
SPEAKER_00: When we think of this fact, it should cause us to consider not the name that I'm going to leave behind, but a legacy of faithfulness to follow Jesus with the hopes that in the generations down the road, that second, third, fourth generation down the road, they too will be able to say that they follow the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But that begs the question: why is this genealogy here in the text, in the middle of chapter six?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the primary reason why this genealogy is here is to anchor the narrative.
SPEAKER_00: We just did an exercise that demonstrated how little we tend to remember about our past, but genealogies played a significant role in societies long before internet databases existed.
SPEAKER_00: This genealogy sits in this section of the narrative as a nod to the future reader so that they will be able to know precisely who this Moses and this Aaron are.
SPEAKER_00: In this genealogy, we see how the Exodus narrative stretches back into the past.
SPEAKER_00: All the way to the patriarchs, and then connects Moses and Aaron in that line.
SPEAKER_00: And as Aaron's lineage is confirmed, his role as the prophet and priest of God is verified.
SPEAKER_00: As the Exodus narrative continues to unfold, we will eventually come to find that the priestly line will continue through Aaron's direct descendants, which is alluded to here.
SPEAKER_00: So when we look at the genealogy, and thank you, Mark, for uh saying all the names that I'm gonna pass over, uh, they're all there in the text.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at the text, it starts to flow like we would assume any other genealogy.
SPEAKER_00: It says, these are the descendants of the tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes to the firstborn son, Reuben, and lists his sons.
SPEAKER_00: It goes to the second son, it goes to Simeon and lists his sons.
SPEAKER_00: Goes to the third son, Levi, and lists his sons.
SPEAKER_00: And if we followed the way that genealogies often go, we'd assume it's gonna go to the fourth son, which would have been Judah.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: It goes from Levi and then it starts to trace down Levi's descendants from there.
SPEAKER_00: So it lists Levi's sons, there's uh Gershon, Kohath, and Meri.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes through and it lists, it lists their sons and their sons and their sons, and we see this like this.
SPEAKER_00: If you're starting to look at the actual web, like if we had a screen and we had like the family tree up there, you'd see like the tribes of Israel, and then it goes down a step, and then it goes to the sons of Levi and it goes down, and then it goes down to Kohath, and it continues to follow down this really specific branch of the family tree.
SPEAKER_00: It goes from Kohath down to Amram, Amram being the father of Aaron and Moses.
SPEAKER_00: It also talks about Izhar and his sons, of which are known the sons of Korah.
SPEAKER_00: And as it continues to trace these two family lines, what we're gonna come to see is that it ends with Phinehas, which we can read about him in Numbers 25.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you if you're taking notes, write that down and check it out because we won't be talking about it in detail in uh the Exodus series, but it's important to know who this Phineas character is.
SPEAKER_00: Because in this genealogy, he's uh the author's intentionally wanting us to draw our attention, to draw a line from the patriarchs down to Phineas through Levi and Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: But it also goes into detail about the sons of Korah.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to learn about the sons of Korah, go to Numbers 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_00: And what you're gonna see is these two opposing ways of uh serving the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: One way that leads to faithfulness and one that leads to the earth swallowing you up.
SPEAKER_00: So you can turn to those pages to figure out how it all goes down.
SPEAKER_00: All that to say, this genealogy is set here in the middle of the narrative to ground the reader in, okay, where does this actually fall in the history of God's people?
SPEAKER_00: How can I actually trace back to see who these people specifically are?
SPEAKER_00: One commentary I read this uh this week said the following.
SPEAKER_00: Although other names are mentioned, the clear focus of the genealogy is the Levitical lineage from Levi to Phineas, with Aaron standing in the midway position.
SPEAKER_00: By providing this wide-ranging genealogy, at least one purpose of the author is to place the Exodus event in its broad historical perspective.
SPEAKER_00: God's purpose reaches backward and forward.
SPEAKER_00: It reaches backward to help the reader to see how the story has led us to this point, and it points forward into the latter parts of the Exodus account and even further into the story of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Said another way, Moses models covenant mediator, restoring knowledge of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron models sacrificial mediation fellowship, uh restoring fellowship with Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Together, Aaron and Moses and their ministries, they prefigure Christ, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to do a deep dive into all of these parallels between Jesus and how the Exodus story points to him, but when we consider the prominent roles that both Moses, of both Moses and Aaron, we should be hearing some echoes of what Jesus has done and is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Remember earlier that I compared this section of Exodus to act one of a play ending, or a movie in a series ending.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost this is in my imagination, so you're welcome to step into my brain here.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost as if this is like the credits for the movie.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember when uh movies used to have all the credits play at the beginning, and you'd have this, the original score of the movie being played in the background.
SPEAKER_00: And if you knew the story of the movie you're about to watch, you could see some like tidbits of the movie starting to like show up and pop up.
SPEAKER_00: One of the best examples I can think of is the movie Catch Me If You Can.
SPEAKER_00: Where if you know the story of this movie, when you watch the intro and the credits of the director and the main actors, you see the whole movie getting played out in this animation.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like this genealogy is like this the same credits.
SPEAKER_00: And it's meant to draw our attention to everything that's happened up until this point in the narrative.
SPEAKER_00: We're being reminded of the key characters, and we see the key themes again right before the action starts.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to verses uh 26 and onward.
SPEAKER_00: It says, These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.
SPEAKER_00: It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: This Moses and this Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you.
SPEAKER_00: But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips.
SPEAKER_00: How will Pharaoh listen to me?
SPEAKER_00: So the stage is now set for Act 2 to begin.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that's written in verses 26 to 30 that I just read has already been said and has already taken place, but it's repeated here to remind us of what went before the genealogy that broke our attention.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins with one of the most interesting phases or phrases in the Bible, chapter 7, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And as if this phrase isn't odd enough for us to consider, it gets even more odd.
SPEAKER_00: This phrase, if it was a more literal word-for-word translation, uh would say, I have made you God to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: The ESV and NIV and almost every other translation adds an un or like before God, trying to soften the statement that God makes to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: What does God mean that Moses will be God to Pharaoh?
SPEAKER_00: We came across a similar phrase back in Exodus chapter 4, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: After Moses complains to God that he is ineloquent and wishes that God would send someone else rather than him on this rescue mission.
SPEAKER_00: And there it is said that Moses would be like God to Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: What on earth is going on here?
SPEAKER_00: What God is saying is that Moses will be God's direct representative to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember that in the society and culture that this narrative is being told from, we have to remember that Pharaoh believed himself to be a God on earth.
SPEAKER_00: This was his identity, the God King.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Moses comes to him in the name of Yahweh, another God, he doesn't even blink an eye because he's also a God in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And so by calling Moses God, it's like Yahweh is beating Pharaoh at his own game.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the king of Egypt who is God, rather, it is this shepherd and this leader of a bunch of slaves who is God.
SPEAKER_00: And this Moses God defeats Pharaoh in a manner that leaves no doubt as to who the true, uh whose true nature and source is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: He controls the elements, he controls bugs and livestock, fire from heaven, the water of the sea, and he even has authority over life and death.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is not simply like God to Pharaoh, he truly is God to Pharaoh in that God is acting through Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever Moses shows a sign to Pharaoh, as we will start to see next week, Pharaoh responds by asking his magicians to help him out.
SPEAKER_00: Can you see the difference here?
SPEAKER_00: As Pharaoh parades around playing dress up God, Moses will show up and literally do the things that only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: And note that it isn't even, it's not even Pharaoh who does any of the miraculous things.
SPEAKER_00: He asks his magicians to help him out.
SPEAKER_00: Moses doesn't need a magician.
SPEAKER_00: As God's representative, he does the very things that only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: And in this way, Moses is God to Pharaoh in a way that Pharaoh can only imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Why does this make us so uncomfortable to hear of Moses in this regard?
SPEAKER_00: Why does this phrase, you will be God to Pharaoh, sound so out of place?
SPEAKER_00: What if this phrase isn't meant to be extraordinary but ordinary?
SPEAKER_00: What if we read this phrase from Exodus chapter 7, next to Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, where it says, Then God said, Let us make man in our in our image, after our likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So God created man in his own image.
SPEAKER_00: In the image of God, he created him.
SPEAKER_00: Male and female, he created them.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like by God's power, Moses is given the opportunity to be not superhuman, but truly human.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Moses was able to live as one made in the image of God to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: He is far from perfect in his execution, but what we see in this phrase and throughout the story of Exodus is a picture of what Adam's pre-fall relationship with creation was.
SPEAKER_00: Before the fall, we see that Adam and Eve had real communion with God in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus, we see God having a special communion with Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, with Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We see that they had dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And after the fall, that communion and that dominion was marred.
SPEAKER_00: When we turn ahead to the New Testament, to Romans chapter 8, we read that for creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
SPEAKER_00: Creation has been groaning, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was given a special calling from God in a time when the image of God was almost unrecognizable and forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at the grand meta-narrative of Scripture, we come to find that in Christ we have been made new.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ came, he didn't represent God to us in the same way that Moses did.
SPEAKER_00: See, Moses was God to Pharaoh in the sense that he was given the responsibility and the ability to do all the things that God commanded him to do throughout his mission.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came, it was different.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1, verse 15 tells us that he, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_00: Moses demonstrated dominion over Pharaoh, but imperfectly.
SPEAKER_00: We read about his imperfection.
SPEAKER_00: We read about it earlier this morning, and how he doubted God's decision to even use him in this mission.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's dominion isn't over a certain king or a general kingdom, but over sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ came, he embodied the glory of humanity that was lost in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: See, oftentimes when we think about the humanity of Jesus, we emphasize the aspects that make him feel more like us.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than emphasizing those aspects that make him a true image bearer.
SPEAKER_00: What this means for us today is that in a similar way that Moses was God to Pharaoh as an image bearer of Yahweh, those of us who are in Christ Jesus have a similar responsibility and a role today.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that Moses was sent to Pharaoh to bring God's people out of the land of Egypt and to release them from captivity.
SPEAKER_00: This image of God rescuing his people from Egypt is a major theme throughout the whole Old Testament, with Egypt being used as a constant reminder of all that God has done to save his chosen people.
SPEAKER_00: Moses wasn't the one who saved the people, God did that.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had a role to play, but we have to be careful to properly weigh the work that Moses did.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of when one of the kids asks me or Katie if they can help prepare food in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, can I help?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, uh, I don't really need help cutting these apples, but sure, you can help.
SPEAKER_00: And we try to give them a task to help along with it.
SPEAKER_00: So that being the case, that God doesn't need our help.
SPEAKER_00: He does choose to work in and through his chosen people to bring about change in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Not only in Moses and in the past, but in us here and now.
SPEAKER_00: We were just told about Moses being enabled to represent God to Pharaoh as a true image bearer.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, then you're also called to represent God in your life as you work for him in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Without our mind, we turn our attention to 2 Corinthians, where Paul writes and he says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us, gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_00: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: For our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way that God was making his appeal to Pharaoh through Moses, he is now making his appeal to all people through those of us who have been reconciled.
SPEAKER_00: I know it made you uncomfortable to hear the phrase that Moses was God to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: How does it make you feel to hear that you have been called to be a true image bearer to your neighbor, to your coworker, to your classmate?
SPEAKER_00: That in the same way that Moses was tasked to represent God before Pharaoh, God in his wisdom has chosen to make you and me his representatives and has entrusted us with this ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Who?
SPEAKER_00: Me?
SPEAKER_00: But God, I ain't good with words.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Moses wasn't either, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: But that's apparently not the point.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's word promises that he will be with us and that it is actually him who saves his people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that we're gonna have the ability to part C's.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not expecting you to call gnats to this town, and please don't.
SPEAKER_00: If anything, I think that our calling is more significant than the wondrous signs of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminds me of the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man, the one whose friends lowered him down through the roof on a mat.
SPEAKER_00: And in this scene, Jesus does something that sometimes gets overlooked.
SPEAKER_00: And so as the man gets lowered down through the roof and the dust settles, it says that Jesus looks at his friends who brought the man.
SPEAKER_00: And in Mark chapter 2, verse 5, it says this it says that when Jesus saw their faith, the faith of the friends, he then turned to the paralytic.
SPEAKER_00: After he's already said that your sins have been forgiven, he turns to him at that, or sorry, he turns to him there and says, Your sins have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: I missed the point there.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at the man and he says, Your sins have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Based on the faith of his friends.
SPEAKER_00: At that point, he doesn't say, You're healed, get up and take your mat and walk.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Your sins have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And only after some of the Pharisees of the crowd started to question in their hearts that Jesus had the ability to forgive a man's sins, did he choose to actually heal the man?
SPEAKER_00: Where he tells him to take up his mat and walk.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we aren't promised that we will perform the same miracles of Moses, but as we faithfully love one another as Christ loves us, we're told that people will come to faith in Jesus and have their sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: If we live on mission as true image bearers of God, he will empower us with this ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: God called out to Moses and told him what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And through God's revealed word, we see that our responsibility and role in his kingdom is made clear.
SPEAKER_00: That for better or for worse, God has determined that the best means by which to spread the truth of his reconciliation available to humanity is through you and is through me.
SPEAKER_00: That means that your interactions at the baseball diamond are redeemable.
SPEAKER_00: Your time at the checkout line is redeemable.
SPEAKER_00: Talking with your friends between classes is redeemable.
SPEAKER_00: As you love your children and care for them at home, that's redeemable.
SPEAKER_00: And as we reflect on this bizarre phrase from Exodus 7, verse 1, we come to find that in Christ we are likewise called to be God's image bearers wherever we live, work, and play.
SPEAKER_00: That the Holy Spirit may stir in the hearts of those who live, that we live with, that they might come to know the one true God.
SPEAKER_00: As Moses interacts with the false God of Egypt, the one true God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is going to rescue his people out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians will know that he is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go out from here and interact with those in our life, who is it that the people that we interact with are going to come to know?
SPEAKER_00: Are they going to come to know you as you once were, or will they come to know Jesus who reveals himself through his newly created image bearers?
SPEAKER_00: Moses doubted and looked inward rather than upward.
SPEAKER_00: And as you go into this week, I would encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus, to look upward at the founder and the perfecter of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we need your help in this because we are so prone to look inward rather than upward.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we ask that you would do a work in us and that you would prepare us for this ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: For we pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.