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2011-02-20 (am) Exodus 3 God Speaks

Today were starting a new series on the Exodus that will take us right up to Easter. The theme of the series is God Hears. In this mornings passage, God says, I have seen the misery of my people, I have heard them crying out, I am concerned about their suffering. God sees, God hears, God is concerned. He hears our prayers, he hears our cries in the darkness, and he is concerned about us, his people. God is nearer to us than we might think. It is one thing to know, intellectually that God hears, but it is another thing to know it in our hearts. God hears; he knows what were going through. He hears, he answers, he has a plan and nothing can stop his plan from coming to fruition. The difficulty lies in understanding Gods plan from our perspective. We dont feel in the loop. We dont know whats going on. We dont know why certain things happen. Sometimes we figure it out, but sometimes we dont. Consider how Israel wound up in Egypt in the first place. God knew that they would. He knew that they would suffer. He knew they would be oppressed. God said so to Abraham. Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. God reiterates this promise to Moses. Hes telling Moses that he has remembered his promise to Abraham. This is all still part of his plan.

Remember that Josephs brothers sold him into slavery and he wound up in Egypt. From Josephs perspective, it looked like he was done for. The dreams God had given him? Must have been some kind of joke. But Joseph trusted God and served him, even though it looked as though his life was uncertain at best. Joseph worked his way up, eventually becoming head of Potiphars household. Wrongly accused, his situation worsened yet. He wound up in prison. Even in prison, Joseph demonstrated his character by becoming the chief of the prison. God, of course had orchestrated everything so that Joseph would go from prison cell to kings court. With special gifting, God enabled Joseph to rule over Egypt as second in command and thereby save his people, his family from certain death by starvation. The Pharaohs gratitude made room for Israel and his family in Egypt. But 400 years later and the reigning monarch remembered nothing of Joseph and what he had done. For decades already, the Hebrew people were Egypts slaves. As each year passed, their oppression grew worse. Eighty years earlier Moses himself narrowly

escaped death because the Egyptian king ordered the death of all Israelite boys. The Egyptians feared the Israelites would rise up and revolt against their leaders. So, they used every means available to keep under their control. When Moses was 40, he checked on the status of his people. Raised in the palace, he was out of touch. What he saw shocked him. Seeing his people beaten and abused, he reacted against his peoples oppressors. He killed one of the slave drivers. The next day,

he saw two Israelites fighting. He told them to stop. Didnt they have enough troubles from the Egyptians? Why were they putting each other down? It was ridiculous. But they accused Moses of being the same or worse than the Egyptians. Afraid for his life, Moses fled to Midian. There he married Jethros daughter and he spent the next 40 years learning how to live in the wilderness. He learned the tricks of the desert. He learned where to find food when there was none. He learned how the dew stays longer on the north side of hills, giving what little grass that grows among the rocks the extra bit of moisture to allow it to grow, enough to feed his sheep. 40 years in Pharaohs court, abruptly changed by a visit to his own people. Abruptly changed by a decisive action against his adoptive nation; followed by 40 years in the wilderness. 40 years tending belligerent sheep, abruptly changed by a burning bush. Abruptly changed by a decisive action by God to come down and rescue his people, followed by another 40 years wandering around the wilderness. 40 years. I wonder if time moved differently back then. No instant messaging, no text messaging, no Facebook, no internet, no email, no cellular, no up to the minute news. How different was it then? Was that the pattern? Did God call out individuals and leave them alone for long periods of time? What about Noah? How old was he when God called him into action? It took Noah 120 years to build the ark! What about Abraham? How long did God make him wait for his son Isaac to be born? And now Moses. Did Moses see himself as part of Gods plan already? 80 years old, but still feeling healthy?
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Did Moses know what God was going to do through him? Do we have the patience to wait on God? Its a struggle, isnt it? We live in an instant gratification society. Like the character Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride, our motto is, I hate waiting. Have you ever wondered what life on earth is like from Gods perspective? God is eternal. He is also omnipresent. He knows what will happen in the future as if the future is happening in the present. God knows exactly how everything will fit together. Hes able to orchestrate every event so that it works out for his greatest glory. The tough part is trusting. The tough part is waiting. The tough part is accepting what is, right now and being ready for something to happen. Moses day started like any other day. But it changed his life. Moving his fatherin-laws sheep around Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai, thinking about his wife and sons, wondering how things were going in Egypt, hes startled to see a bush on fire and yet not burning! When he checks it out, God, the creator of the universe, speaks to him! The voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way. Through Moses, God was preparing the way for the people to get out of slavery. Moses 40 years of preparation, which he didnt realise, was complete. He was ready. He was groomed for this. Anyone in his position would have been shocked. 40 years in the desert as a shepherd was such a wild reversal of fortune from living in Pharaohs palace. Moses, it

seems, echoed Pauls attitude when he said, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance. What is surprising though, is Moses reaction to Gods command. It seems that Moses had no trouble speaking to God, but when God told him to speak to the Israelite leaders, he expressed doubt. When God said he would have to speak to Pharaoh, he tried to get out of it, as well see even more clearly next week. Think about it, Moses was speaking to God, the creator of the universe, the one by whom all things were made, through speaking. Speaking to leaders, to the king? Big problem. Were not much different are we? We have no problem speaking to God, telling him about our day, asking him to help our family and friends. Asking God to show us what we must do. Asking him to forgive our sins. Complaining, praising, waiting, doing, talking, to the creator! Communicating through the Holy Spirit within us, by the blood of Jesus Christ. We enjoy an even closer communication that what Moses had. I mean that. Sure, Moses was speaking directly to God. Sure, later Moses had all kinds of great experiences. But we have the Holy Spirit within us! God with us. Were in a much more privileged position. But do we appreciate what we have? Nah, like most things, we do get used to what we have. We get used to and sometimes even underestimate the power of Gods amazing grace within us. Speaking to God? No problem.

We also, like Moses, treat talking to God as far easier than talking to other people about God. Strange, isnt it? No problem speaking to the creator of the universe, but big problems talking face to face with our peers. Why are we more afraid of people than we are of God? It really should be the other way around. God warned Moses not to get too close. God warned the church by what happened to Annias and Sapphira that hes not to be taken for granted. Were warned in Ecclesiastes and by Jesus that our prayers should be short. But for all our shortcomings, for all our misplaced fears, God works through imperfect people. God chose Moses to lead his people. God worked with Moses, just the way he was, fears and all. God chose an unlikely candidate in Moses. Israel rejected him, Egypt wanted him on charges of murder and he was a family farmhand for Jethro. Who would have guessed hed become the greatest leader and prophet of Israel until Gods own Son came to earth? And meanwhile, Israel was suffering, and slaving, and dying, and waiting. Waiting on the Lord, waiting for God to rescue them, waiting for someone to save them. Did they despair? Did they think that God had abandoned them? Did they think that their future was finished? Did they think that God wasnt listening to their cries? God did hear them. God worked in his time. God worked when the time was right for Israel, for Egypt, for the nations living in the Promised Land. It was all beautifully orchestrated, but not known to them. They had to wait, they had to trust.

Our situation is different, yet similar. We wonder why things happen. We wonder at the injustice in the world. We long for Christs return. We wonder if he listens. We wonder what Gods role for us might be. wonder where we fit in. What if Gods calling us to be like Moses? Will we show the same fear? What if Gods calling us to be like Aaron? What if Gods calling us to be one of the Israelite leaders? What if God is calling us to be like one of the Israelites, working, trusting, following, waiting? Where do we fit into the story? Were probably just one of the Israelites. We simply trust that God is hearing. We trust that God sees our condition. God hears our prayers, God is concerned about our suffering. God raised up Moses to lead his people. God sent his own Son to save his people, to save us. We are saved! But were not out of Egypt yet. Salvation is nearer now than it ever has been! Let us put our trust in God, our strength, our refuge. Amen. We look at this story from Exodus and we

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