Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
16, 2007
Introduction
The book of Exodus is a book about deliverance. It chronicles the
deliverance of the nation of Israel
from slavery in Egypt.
We’ve followed along as God has called Moses to be the deliverer, and Moses
reluctantly obeys. Last week we saw Moses and Aaron make their first plea to
Pharaoh to let God’s people go. But instead of deliverance, things just got
worse.
(Exo 5:22-23 NKJV) So Moses returned to the LORD and said,
"Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have
sent me? {23} "For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has
done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all."
:1-8 God’s response to trouble
:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to
Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he
will drive them out of his land."
:2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the LORD.
:3 "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,
but by My name LORD I was not known to them.
God Almighty – the Hebrew here is “El Shaddai”, the strong and powerful God.
This verse is a little difficult to understand because we are told in Gen.
13:4 that Abraham actually called on the name of “Yahweh”.
(Gen 13:4 NKJV) to the place of the altar which he had made
there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
What’s the verse saying?
Some say that there should be a question mark here, “but by My name LORD
was I not known?” Hebrew and Greek do not have punctuation marks. Using a
question mark in translation is up to the translator.
Others say that the point is that the patriarchs mainly knew God as “El Shaddai”.
(Gen 17:1 NKJV) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD
appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God…
It’s possible that it’s at this point that the name Yahweh will take on way
more importance as they see the mighty miracles that will be worked in
connection with the name Yahweh.
:4 "I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land
of Canaan, the land of their
pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.
:5 "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel
whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
At this point, God will now make seven specific promises, all starting with
“I will …”.
God’s promises are all about taking us from where we are to where we are
supposed to be.
:6 "Therefore say to the children of Israel:
'I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I
will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched
arm and with great judgments.
:7 'I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall
know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of
the Egyptians.
:8 'And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the
LORD.'"
Lesson
The answer is faith
Things have been getting harder rather than easier. The people are
confused. Moses doesn’t know what to think.
God’s response is, “I am God. I am going to take care of this.”
If you look closely, you will see that though there are seven things that
God promises to do, there isn’t a single thing that the Israelites are supposed
to do.
It’s a picture of grace. It reminds us that our salvation comes because of
what God has done for us, not what we’ve done for God.
I think the issue is, how are you going to respond to God’s grace?
God wants you to trust in Him.
Your initial trust, your initial cry to God is what starts
the deliverance. But your continued trust is going to affect what kind of
“ride” you’re going to have through the deliverance.
(Isa 12:2 NKJV) Behold, God is my salvation, I
will trust and not be afraid; 'For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He
also has become my salvation.'"
This was D.L. Moody’s favorite verse. He used to say, “You
can travel to Heaven first-class or second-class. First-class is, ‘I will trust
and not be afraid.’ Second-class is, ‘when I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’”
Either way, it’s all about trust.
:9 So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel;
but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.
heed – shama‘– to hear,
listen to, obey
anguish – qotser
– shortness, impatience, anguish, grieved
cruel bondage – their harsh slavery conditions
Lesson
Not hearing the message
Moses was speaking, but the people just didn’t get the message.
Illustration
Maxine didn’t get the message either.
The people had a hard time listening to what Moses was saying because of
the difficulty of their circumstances, and how they had responded to their
circumstances. They had responded with “anguish”, with “impatience”.
I find it interesting that God doesn’t stop working. God doesn’t say, “Well
if you’re not going to have perfect faith, then I’m not going to help you.”
When it comes to the messages that I prepare for Sundays, I have learned
that there usually are reasons for why we are studying the Scriptures we are
studying.
I believe that it is very possible that there are some of you here this
morning who are in the very same place. You want God to help you. But things
haven’t been going the way you thought they would. Things are getting harder
instead of easier.
I hope you are able to hear me this morning. I hope you are able to open
your heart to receive the truth that there is a God in heaven. He cares about
you. He wants to help you.
(1 John 3:16 NKJV) By this we know love, because He
laid down His life for us...
(Rom 8:31-32 NKJV) What then shall we say to these things? If God
is for us, who can be against us? {32} He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things?
Don’t confuse the difficulty you are in with the love and purpose that God
has for you.
Because things are getting more difficult doesn’t mean that God isn’t at
work or that the process hasn’t started.
:10-13 Get back to it
:10 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
:11 "Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt
to let the children of Israel
go out of his land."
:12 And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, "The children of Israel
have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised
lips?"
:13 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the
children of Israel
and for Pharaoh king of Egypt,
to bring the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt.
Moses seems to be a bit reluctant to go back into the ring with Pharaoh.
:14-27 Genealogies – leading to Moses
At this point we are given the genealogy of Moses – verses 14-25…
It starts out as if we’re going to
get a detailed genealogy of all the sons of Israel, starting with the first
three sons – Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.
But when we get to Levi, we start
getting into details to show how Moses was a direct descendant of the third son
of Jacob, Levi.
:14 These are the heads of their
fathers' houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
These are the families of Reuben.
:15 And the sons of Simeon were
Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
These are the families of Simeon.
:16 These are the names of the sons
of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the
years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven.
We get the three main families of
the Levites, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. We then follow the line of Kohath on
down to Aaron and Moses. We even are given some of the ages of the men
involved, a total of close to four hundred years.
:17 The sons of Gershon were Libni
and Shimi according to their families.
:18 And the sons of Kohath were
Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one
hundred and thirty-three.
:19 The sons of Merari were Mahali
and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations.
:20 Now Amram took for himself
Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And
the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven.
:21 The sons of Izhar were Korah,
Nepheg, and Zichri.
:22 And the sons of Uzziel were
Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri.
:23 Aaron took to himself Elisheba,
daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife; and she bore him Nadab,
Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
:24 And the sons of Korah were
Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites.
:25 Eleazar, Aaron's son, took for
himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas.
These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites according to their
families.
:26 These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring
out the children of Israel
from the land of Egypt
according to their armies."
:27 These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt,
to bring out the children of Israel
from Egypt.
These are the same Moses and Aaron.
Lesson
Learn the history
Here’s this odd break in the middle of the story and it seems to me the
purpose is to remind us of Moses’ connection with these people he’s going to
deliver.
Illustration
I’ve been spending a lot of time at the hospital lately with my dad. My
dad’s mind is still very sharp and he has always had this incredible memory. The
last two weeks I’ve learned all kinds of things. He told me about the odd thing
in the family genealogy about how my great great grandfather had three sons,
then my great grandfather had one son, then my grandfather had three sons, then
my dad had one son, and I have … three sons. Funny, huh?
I’ve heard stories about my
grandfather, who I never really knew, about his musical talents, about
how he served the Lord by being the Sunday School Superintendent and playing
the organ at the Methodist Church.
Isn’t it funny that I’m a keyboard player and that I got my first full time
ministry position overseeing a Children’s Ministry?
I’ve heard stories about my dad growing up. He told me that during the Great
Depression he and a group of four other boys formed a club called the Fifth Street Tigers. He told me
about how they went to a local farmer and asked him if they could use one of
his chicken coops for a club house, and how they had to scrape the poop out and
wash the thing out before they could use it. I got these pictures of “Spanky
and Our Gang” in my head. I heard about the town bully, Bill Brown, a big kid
who used to pick on the smaller kids, like the kids in the Fifth Street Tigers.
My Dad told me how they decided as a club that one day they had had enough and
how they ambushed Bill Brown, beat him up, and how he cried and called out for
his mommy, and never bothered them again.
I heard stories about the Bible
Club that one of the ladies in the neighborhood started when my dad was
in his early teens. I heard about how my Dad would gather up all his friends
and bring them to the Bible Club, though mostly because the lady made delicious
cookies.
I heard about how my Dad accepted
Christ when he was twelve years old, and how when he was eighteen a
traveling evangelist came through town and my dad rededicated his life to
Christ, and how his relationship with Christ has helped him through his life,
starting when he went off to New York City, living at the YMCA, studying in a
trade school and become an aircraft draftsman, and attending the local
Presbyterian church every Sunday.
I find it fascinating to see how much of my life is connected to my past.
My point? I have to wonder if it isn’t a valuable thing to know where
you’ve come from. I think it helps you know where you are going.
I’m not sure I’m talking about doing your genealogy or knowing your family
history, perhaps the value is in your own personal history.
The Bible often reminds us to think about where we’ve come from.
(1 Pet 1:18-19 NLT) For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you
inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or
silver. {19} He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the
sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
I can find benefit from remembering what Jesus has saved
me from. It will affect the people I am going to minister to.
When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem,
he had an opportunity to speak to the Jewish crowd. Look at how Paul uses his own
history to connect his own past to the people he was trying to speak to:
(Acts 22:1-3 NKJV) "Brethren and fathers, hear my defense
before you now." {2} And when they heard that he spoke to them in the
Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. Then he said: {3} "I am
indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the
feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and
was zealous toward God as you all are today.
Paul’s own history got the attention of the people he
spoke to.
Sometimes people get a little confused about:
(Phil 3:13-14 NKJV) Brethren,
I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
{14} I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.
They take this to mean that we need to forget everything
about our life before Christ. But in the same chapter (Phil. 3:4-7), Paul had
just given his readers a reminder of his own life and history, so I don’t think
Paul is saying to forget your history.
Paul is saying that we need to learn to not allow the past
to be the thing that slows us down. But being reminded of the past is one way
we help others. Don’t forget the song:
“I once was lost,
but now am found, was blind but now I see”
It’s the testimony of where God has taken you from that
reaches out to the people you are ministering to.
Your past is not unimportant. It’s a part of who you are. It’s also a part
of how God wants to use you. It is part of the connection to the people God
wants to use you with. Moses’ past was his connection to the people God was going
to help through Moses.
It’s connected to where Moses was going. Your past has a connection to
where you are going.
:28-30 Uncircumcised Lips
:28 And it came to pass, on the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land
of Egypt,
:29 that the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "I am the LORD. Speak to
Pharaoh king of Egypt
all that I say to you."
:30 But Moses said before the LORD, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised
lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?"
Lesson
Uncircumcised lips
Circumcision was a special thing that God asked Abraham and all his
descendants to do with their baby boys (Gen. 17:10). It was supposed to be a
symbol that they were a part of the covenant between Abraham and God.
(Gen 17:10 NKJV) "This is My
covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after
you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;
Circumcision is a cutting away of the flesh. It’s symbolic of a life that
is going to be lived not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Even though the ritual of circumcision later became a symbol of legalistic
Christianity, requiring Gentiles to be circumcised in order to be saved, in
many parts of the Bible circumcision was a picture of a life that is right with
God. Uncircumcision is a picture of a
life that isn’t right with God.
Hearts – Hearts are often described as being
“circumcised” or “uncircumcised”, referring to whether a person’s heart is
right with God. (Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Eze. 44:9)
(Lev 26:41 NKJV) and that I also have walked contrary to them
and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised
hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt;
(Deu 10:16 NKJV) "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of
your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
(Ezek 44:9 NKJV) 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "No foreigner,
uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary,
including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel.
Ear – A couple of scriptures speak of an “ear”
being uncircumcised (Jer. 6:10; Acts 7:51), talking about a person who is not
right with God, a person who is unwilling to listen to God.
(Jer 6:10 NKJV) To
whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Indeed their ear is
uncircumcised, And they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the LORD is a reproach
to them; They have no delight in it.
(Acts 7:51 NKJV)
"You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always
resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
Lips – It would seem that Moses saying his “lips” were not
circumcised would refer to him feeling that he was not right with God, that he
was not in a place to be speaking for God.
It’s possible that Moses is thinking about what seems to
be a failure. It seems that the words he has been saying aren’t doing any good.
Earlier he had said,
(Exo 6:12 NKJV) And Moses spoke before the LORD,
saying, "The children of Israel
have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised
lips?"
Moses does have a
growing grasp on what “circumcision” is all about and the need to be right with
God.
Remember that
earlier Moses had encountered a problem (Ex. 4:24-26) just before arriving in
Egypt where he almost died because he had not circumcised his own son.
Note that in our passage there has been a disaster – things haven’t gotten
better, they’ve gotten worse and the people aren’t happy. The disaster is
followed by God showing up and speaking to Moses. This is followed by the
“excuse” about the lips.
There is a similar passage in Scripture where a disaster is followed by
God’s presence, which is then followed by a statement about lips. It’s not in
Exodus 6, but Isaiah 6.
Isaiah is going through his own disaster, King Uzziah had
died. And it was at that time that God
showed up – Isaiah had a vision of God sitting on His throne. Then we read:
(Isa 6:5-8
NKJV) So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of
unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of
hosts." {6} Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live
coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. {7} And he touched my
mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your
iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged." {8} Also I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
For Isaiah, the realization of his own weakness was
followed by God taking care of the problem – cleansing his lips. And this is followed by God sending Isaiah
into his ministry.
Take a peek at how God responds to Moses:
(Exo 7:1-2 NKJV) So the LORD said to Moses:
"See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be
your prophet. {2} "You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your
brother shall speak to Pharaoh to send the children of Israel
out of his land.
Are you struggling with whether God could use you?
Let God cleanse you.
Let God send you.