SS07-09-06.

STUDY THEME: MY DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE. 7-09-06.

I WILL TRUST IN GOD’S PURPOSE AND POWER.EXODUS 3:4-8a,19-21; 4:10-12, 27-31.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO EXODUS 3.

In Exodus 1 and 2 the 70 Israelites kin to Jacob had moved from the Promised Land at the invitation of Joseph and the Pharaoh of Egypt. They had settled in the rich delta of the Nile River in the land of Goshen. For a number of years they prospered and grew in Egypt.

A new King, however reversed the favorable policy toward them and made them into slaves and used them for building projects and field labor.

The Israelites’ plight had become desperate; yet in spite of harsh conditions and hard labor, they continued to increase in number. The Israelites finally cried out to the Lord for help. He heard their cries, saw their plight, remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and cared about them.

The Life Question in today’s lesson is, how can I know God is willing and able to help me in an overwhelming situation?

The Biblical Truth is that God is Holy, yet He takes the initiative to persuade people that He can and will help them in overwhelming situations.

We pray that the Life Impact will help us demonstrate our dependence on God by describing fears that hinder us from trusting in God’s purpose and power, and committing to trust in God despite our fears.

Moses is one of the Bible personalities whose lifespan is covered from birth to death. Moses was born in Egypt during the time the new Pharaoh had instituted his program again Israelite male infants.

As an infant, Moses was saved by clever, yet bold actions on the part of his mother who put him in an ark and placed him in the edge of the Nile River. He was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses’ sister, Miriam, offered to get a nursemaid for the child. She brought Moses mother to care for him. When he was weaned he went to live in the house of the princess. He had the best education that Egypt could provide.

Ex. 2: 3-10 tells that after he grew up, Moses killed an Egyptian who had been beating an Israelite. The next day he saw two Israelites fighting. When he spoke to the one in the wrong that man asked if Moses was going to kill him as he had killed the Egyptian. The Pharaoh learned of the incident and sought the life of Moses.

Moses fled eastward from Egypt to the land of Midian, over 200 miles away in northwestern Arabia on the eastern side of the Gulf of Agaba. Moses’ choice of refuge was significant in that the Midianites were distant relatives---descendants of Abraham through Keturah. In Midian Moses met and married a daughter of a priest, and began to raise a family, and worked as a shepherd for his father-in-law, Jethro Ruel,

1. PLEASE READ EXODUS 3: 4-8a.

God was preparing Moses for a great task. God called him as he tended sheep on the backside of Mount Sinai. Moses saw a bush that was burning, but was not being consumed, and he approached the bush to see this strange sight.

Encounters such as the burning bush are what Bible students refer to as theophanies. Literally, these are revelations of God---the word meaning “God to be revealed”. Let’s be clear that neither Moses nor we discover God on our own. God always takes the initiative to reveal His nature and purpose to mankind. So when the Lord saw that the burning bush had gotten Moses’ attention, He revealed at least five pieces of information we all need to learn.

First, God revealed that He knew Moses. The dual repetition of Moses name indicates this was an urgent and transforming moment. We can only imagine what it must have been like for Moses to hear Almighty God call out his name from the bush. Yet our Christian concept of God’s calling to salvation and service derives from the biblical foundation in Acts 9: 1-6 that God knows each of us personally and calls us by name.

Not only does Moses’ encounter teach us about God’s willingness to relate personally with us, but it also shows us an appropriate response: Here I am.

Second, God revealed that wherever He chooses to make His presence known is holy ground. When applied to God, the word holy refers to His otherness. God is separate from us, above and beyond us, unable to be fully known by us. Thus God commanded Moses. Do not come closer. Additionally, Moses was to remove his sandals. Removing one’s sandals was a sign of respect common in the ancient Near East, and the practice continues to this day in many eastern cultures.

These two commands indicated to Moses that the One who had called him by name nevertheless was separate from mortal human beings and deserving of reverence. Even the ground, which moments before served as common grazing land, was given special significance because God had selected the spot to make Himself know to Moses.

Third, God revealed to Moses that He was the covenant God. Literally, God identified Himself first as the God of your father, which would be a reference to the God of Amram, Moses father. Some manuscripts and ancient translations of the Hebrew text, however, have here the more common phrase “God of your fathers.” In any case, Amram’s God undoubtedly would have been the God of Abraham…Isaac and …Jacob. But why was this identification necessary?

The first person pronoun I in vs. 6 is emphatic, so as to indelibly connect the voice with the Person. Moses would hear this voice numerous times as he carried out the mission to which he was being called.

He would be able to assure the Israelites in Egypt that the God he spoke for was no new deity but the covenant God they had known all their lives and to whom they had been crying out for help. Such knowledge overwhelmed Moses, and he hid his face. The prospect of not only hearing God, but also seeing Him, caused Moses to be afraid. Likely, Moses’ fear in this instance was reverential.

Fourth, God revealed that His encounter with Moses was not just about Moses but also about who God is and what was happening to His people.

Once again the character of God is laid open to our view. Not only is God personal and Holy. He also is compassionate. The verbs of vs. 7 echo the language of Exodus 2: 24-25.

I have observed translates a Hebrew form of speech that literally reads, “seeing, I have seen.” The repetition of the verbs intensifies the meaning. God’s awareness of the Israelites’ misery was complete and continuing. Moreover, He heard them crying out and fully understood the cause of their cries. The phrase I know about is a translation of the same base word rendered “too notice” in Exodus 2: 25. The term implies much more than head knowledge; it speaks of experiential knowledge. When God reveals that He knows what His people are going through, He means we aren’t alone in our suffering. He is with us, and He knows!

Finally, God revealed that He already was setting in motion His plan to rescue Israel. I have come down to rescue them describes God’s intervening in human affairs to advance His purposes. None of the verbs in this section should be understood as indicating that God is confined to human-type actions or limited by spatial dimensions. Rather, the actions underscore that God is a living Person and that He actively guides human destiny, occasionally intervening in direct ways to make Himself known to the world and to help His people become what He wants them to be.

2. PLEASE READ EXODUS 3: 19-21.

These verses 19-21 predicted the highlights of what is recorded in Exodus Ch. 6-12. God knew from the beginning that Pharaoh would not willingly let the Israelites go. In fact, when Moses first confronted Pharaoh in Ex. 5: 11Moses said, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, “Let my people go.”

Pharaoh, who considered himself divine, challenged in vs. 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” The Lord responded by a series of plagues on Egypt that revealed who the Lord is. Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go “unless he is forced by a strong hand”

God’s mighty hand is described as God smiting Egypt with His wonders. The account of each of the ten miraculous signs is told in the succeeding chapters. Pharaoh’s heart went back and forth. His heart was a hard heart. Only the final plague convinced him to let the Israelites go. Before the Israelites left, the Egyptians gave their treasures to the former slaves.

Thus Exodus 3: 19-21 is the exodus story in a nutshell. Through Moses Yahweh demanded that Pharaoh let His people go. Pharaoh refused. God sent a series of plagues. Pharaoh let them go, and the Egyptians gave them their treasures.

The Bible makes clear the exodus was a divine deliverance, not a human escape or accomplishment. Moses was God’s chosen leader, through whom God exerted His power. But it was the hand of God that delivered the Israelites. As we see in Exodus 3 & 4, Moses had to be convinced to do his part. And the people were helpless to save themselves. They were overwhelmed by their plight, and Moses was overwhelmed by his inability to help them. God delivered them. His power exceeds any other, even the power of the strongest nation on earth.

Moses knew he did not have what it took to deliver Israel from Egypt. But God reminded him that He would be with him and would exert His power to deliver Israel. The principle is taught through out scripture----that this is God’s work and that He will give those whom He calls all they need to do His will.

Nothing is too strong for the Lord. All of us at times face situations that threaten to overwhelm us. God calls us to trust in Him to do what only He can do. Sometimes He calls us as individuals to allow Him to work in and through us to deliver others from bad situations. These verses 19-21 are part of a lengthy dialogue between God and Moses following God’s revelation in vs. 8 that He intended to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and give them the Promised Land. However, it wasn’t this revelation that prompted the extended dialogue.

Rather it was God’s assertion to Moses in vs. 10, “I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

The initiative to free the Israelites from bondage was the Lord’s. And it was God’s determination to establish Israel in the Promised Land. But God would work out His purpose through a willing human leader. The question was, “Was Moses willing to trust and obey?

In Exodus 3: 11-4:17 Moses offered five excuses why God needed to look elsewhere for a deliverer. However, for each of Moses’ excuses God responded with promises to exhibit His power.

Exodus 3: 19-21 comprise part of God’s response to Moses’ second excuse. Moses needed to know how to answer if the Israelites asked the name of the God who had sent him. In vs. 15 Moses was to tell the Israelites that “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” had sent him.” “Yahweh” would be a new and meaningful name to them. But Yahweh was the same God who had made a covenant with their forefathers. Now, in vs. 17 He would keep His promises by bringing the Israelites out of their misery in Egypt and into “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Would the Israelites’ deliverance come easily? God knew it would not. The king of Egypt at the time was a successor to the ruler who enslaved the Israelites. Yet the successor had continued his predecessor’s policies toward the Israelites, and this king would prove to be a stubborn enemy of the Lord God.

In fact, in 3: 19-21 we begin to glimpse a watershed truth: The battle for people’s bodies and so it is not a match between human opponents. The real fight is between the one true God and the would-be gods of this world.

In Egypt’s worldview, their king was considered divine---deity on earth. He had unquestioned power among his constituents. But he had used his power to oppress the Israelites and in so doing had aligned himself and his people against the one true God, the Creator of all.

I know underscores the Lord’s omniscience. The pronoun I is again emphatic. Unlike our uncertainty and “what ifs,” the Lord knows the thoughts and intents even of those who do not know and revere Him.

What the Lord knew about this king of Egypt was that he would not free the Israelites without being forced by a strong hand. In the Bible the hand often refers figuratively to power and control. The Lords strong hand of power would be needed to pry loose Pharaoh’s obstinate will.

The Lord announced that His mighty power would be demonstrated against Egypt in miracles that I will perform. The term miracles comes from a root word meaning “to be surpassing” or “to be extraordinary.”

The Lord’s announcement looks ahead to the 10 plagues by which God would strike Egypt in Ex. 7:14--11:10.

We often think of miracles primarily as the suspending, transcending, or reversing of the natural order. Ancient Israelites also would have considered as miraculous God’s extraordinary and timely use of the natural order, since He is the One who created and controls it.

God further promised Moses that His powerful actions would cause the Egyptians to give this people…favor. The Israelites would not go empty-handed but would receive a bounty of parting gifts from the Egyptians. Such plunder would be one more fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham many years earlier in Genesis 15: 14 where God promised the Israelites would “come out of Egypt with great substance.”

The Lord’s promise of plunder and miraculous deliverance were meant to bolster Moses’ faith. Moses needed a dose of reality about what lay ahead. He would encounter resistance and rejection in Egypt, but Moses was not to misunderstand such responses as signs God had not called him or that God had abandoned him.

Success would not depend on Moses’ diplomatic skills but on the presence and power of Yahweh, the Creator and Covenant God who was, is, and forever will be. What an important truth for believers today to grasp!

PLEASE TURN TO EXODUS 4.

3. PLEASE READ EXODUS 4: 10-12.

Though God is all-powerful and self-sufficient, He often does His work on earth through human beings. For example, when He decided to create a special nation through which He would bless the world, He called Abraham.

When God determined to save that nation from Canaanite paganism, He called Joseph. And when God set about to redeem that same nation from Egyptian bondage, He called Moses. It is not as though God is dependent on mortals to accomplish His purposes. But He does so as part of the creation design in which human beings, His very image, were brought into being to rule over all things under His overall sovereignty. God calls persons and nations to fulfill their servant roles, but behind His call and commission lies His unlimited power.

Moses met the Lord in the burning bush so he might gaze on God in His glory and in the strength of that experience find the skills and resources he would need to lead God’s people out of Egypt.

After the Lord said He would rescue them, He declared to Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” Moses would lead, but God would provide the backing that would guarantee success.

Confronted with the awesomeness of the task thrust upon him Moses made five objections or questions to his call to lead Israel out of Egypt. The first was in Ex. 3: 11 when he asked, “Who am I?” for such a task. God promised to be with him.

The second was in 3: 13 and concerned God’s name. The third was in 4: 1: “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me? The Lord used two signs to encourage Moses. One was the staff that became a snake. The other was the leprous hand that became clean again.

Let’s consider Moses’ excuses a bit further. In particular, let’s focus on the fourth excuse. Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent…I am slow and hesitant in speech.

Anyone who confronted Pharaoh would need to be a good speaker. The same would be true of anyone who persuaded Israel to follow Him. The Hebrew literally says in Ex. 4: 10, ‘I am not a man of words… I am dull of mouth and dull of tongue.

But what exactly is the problem? Stuttering is one possibility, which is how the Septuagint or Greek translation of the O.T. seems to take it, but this is not explicit in the Hebrew. Could it be that Moses had lost his command of the Egyptian (the likely language with which he would have to confront Pharaoh) because of his years in exile? Or perhaps he has spent far too much time with the shepherding ‘blue collar’ set to have the diplomacy skills needed to engage a world leader in conversation.”

Moses’ problem could have been that he feared speaking in public. This is one of today’s common fears. Many believers can identify with Moses at this point. We are called to take the gospel to the world, but sometimes we feel inadequate because we lack appropriate language skills. Or we fear that we will get into situations over our heads and not be able to effectively defend the faith.

While we shouldn’t discount the value of learning and sharpening language skills, the Lord’s promise in these verses is that our shortcomings never limit Him. We should never us a personal sense of inadequacy as an excuse to distrust God’s ability to use us in His work.

I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say are divine promises to Moses that found expression also in the N.T. Jesus warned His followers of trying times to come during which they would be called on to stand before hostile government officials as His witnesses. He promised in Mark 13: 11, “So when they arrest you and hand you over, don’t worry before hand what you will say. On the contrary, whatever is given to you in that hour---say it. For it isn’t you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”

Whatever was the basis for Moses’ fear, whether it was valid or not, it threatened to thwart God’s plan of using Moses. Notice that God dealt patiently with each of Moses’ first four objections. Look at how God answered Moses about his lack of eloquence. God went back to basics. As Creator, He made humans able to speak. He created the mouth and all the other parts needed to speak. “Who made the human mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

Moses had been given the gift of speech, and God expected him to use it as God directed him to do. Our Creator and Sustainer can give us whatever we need to do His will.

Vs. 12 takes the issue a step further. Not only had God blessed Moses with the ability to talk, but he also promised, “Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.” Moses was to speak for God to Pharaoh and to Israel. God promised to give him the words to say. Literally, God said, “I will be with your mouth.”

This exchange between Moses and Yahweh gets at the heart of Moses’ repeated attempts to extricate himself from God’s call. Moses seems to resist God’s call because he assumes that he is playing the central role in the deliverance of the Israelites, whom God in Ex. 3: 7 calls ‘my people.’

What Moses doesn’t yet understand is that God cares more about Israel’s deliverance than he does, and God is fully capable of directing the means to bring this about. It is God who will bring His people out of Egypt. He will display His might precisely by working through weak and ordinary means.

After four objections that God answered, Moses said something that revealed his real feeling. He said in Ex. 4: 13, “Please Lord, send someone else.” This aroused God’s anger because it was basically a refusal of God’s calling. However, God patiently continued to deal with Moses’ reluctance to lead Israel out of Egypt.

The Bible tells us of other examples. William Booth saw the plight of the poor people of London and started the Salvation Amy. William Carey was burdened by a lost world and launched what became the Modern Missions Movement.

George Whitefield saw the moral and spiritual dearth of his day and launched the evangelical revivals of the 18^th century. Many other believers also have responded to God’s call to help people in bad situations.

God knows how to help His people carry out His purposes. He created us so He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. Sometimes God works miraculously through our weaknesses to show forth His power. And sometimes He brings alongside us others who have the skills or training we lack. That is what God finally said He would do for Moses. In Ex. 4: 14-16 Aaron, Moses’ brother, would come alongside Moses to help.

4. PLEASE READ EXODUS 4: 27-31.

The Lord God had chosen Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In a miraculous theophany at Horeb, Yahweh had confronted Moses, and convinced the hesitant shepherd to return to Egypt armed with faith and in possession of an empowered staff by which he would perform great signs. Moses returned to Midian to prepare for his journey to Egypt. Meanwhile, the Lord was also active in Egypt. He had instructed Aaron to go and meet Moses in the wilderness.

An older brother to Moses, Aaron was 83 years of age at this point. Aaron immediately obeyed the Lord. He went and met Moses at the mountain of God, Mount Sinai, where Moses had seen the burning bush and experienced God’s call. Aaron’s coming was important in helping Moses accept God’s call. Moses needed a person who cared for him; someone to talk with about this amazing experience. Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord….and all the signs which he had commanded him.

Aaron helped Moses in these early days by speaking to the elders. Aaron was a helper to his brother, especially in the deliverance from Egypt. He went with Moses in his initial encounter with Pharaoh. He is also mentioned in other encounters with Pharaoh.

After the deliverance from Egypt, Aaron was at times a helper and at times not a helper. He showed moral weakness by helping with the golden calf in Ex. 32: 3-5 and 21-25. However, the two brothers stood together when the 10 spies brought back a bad report in Num: 14:5.

Everyone is helped by the presence of a caring friend or associate. We usually think of people such as Moses, Jeremiah, and Elijah as loners; but each at times had people who helped them. Jeremiah had his secretary Baruch. Elijah had the prophet Elisha; and when he thought that he was alone, God told him of 7,000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal.

Moses had his brother Aaron. Moses and Aaron had the elders of the children of Israel. Without the support of these key leaders, Moses had little chance of persuading the Israelites to go along with God’s leadership through Moses.

Therefore, after calling together all the elders, Aaron told them all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs that the Lord had given to Moses. And the people believed.

The people, the Israelites, were especially moved by the revelation that “the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery.”

The meeting place is significant. The mountain of God is Horeb or Sinai, where Moses received his revelation of God’s plans. Now it was where Moses passed along to Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him to do. Signs probably refers to the three miraculous works in vs. 1-9 designed to convince the Israelite leaders to accept Moses’ leadership as the Lord’s deliverer.

In vs. 29, the narrative moves suddenly to Egypt and to the gathering of Israelite elders. True to the Lord’s promise in vs. 16, Aaron served as Moses’ spokesman to the people. Interestingly, Aaron also performed the signs before the people. That Aaron performed the signs rather than Moses underscores that God is not limited in whom He might powerfully use to accomplish His will. Persuasive speaking might have been Aaron’s forte, but God also could use him in other ways.

Vs. 31 says the people believed. The O.T. concept of faith or believing is built on the Hebrew word amen. The root meaning of amen is “to be firm and true.” When we use the word at the conclusion of our prayers, it carries the connotation, “May it be so.”

For the Israelites in Egypt, the words and signs delivered by Aaron and Moses evoked in them affirm conviction about God. The Lord indeed had paid attention to them and….had seen their misery. Their cries for help had not gone unheard. Their plight had not gone unnoticed. God had come to help them. Thus on this day the Israelites bowed down and worshiped the Lord. In so doing, they showed how we too should respond in faith to God.

They might have responded differently. They might have refused to believe what Moses and Aaron said about God’s revelation to Moses. Their fears could have paralyzed them into unbelief and doubt. Some of them could have said that they favored a plan devised and carried out by human beings, not some revelation from God. These are the options we have when we face an overwhelming situation---fear, self- confidence, or faith and worship.

The Israelites had reason enough to be afraid. The Egyptians were oppressing them, but they could make their slavery even harder. In fact, after Moses and Aaron’s first visit to Pharaoh, the ruler decreed that the Israelites would have to get their own straw to make bricks. But the Israelites refused to let their fears dominate them.

Sadly, this newfound confidence in the Lord was intermittent and superficial. All through their encounters with Pharaoh, their post-exodus deliverance, and their experience in the Sinai desert, the people lost confidence in the Lord’s ability or willingness to meet their needs.

Over and over again the Lord had to produce miraculous works to certify the reliability of His promise to them. Even in the face of the great miracle—the exodus redemption---God’s people stood in constant need of repeated affirmation of His trustworthiness.

The point here is that God is trustworthy, a fact made clear by His mighty works on behalf of His needy people. However, the greater lesson is that God should be relied on because of His promises alone. Jesus Himself made this observation to Thomas in John 20:29 in the upper room following His resurrection, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”To trust God without seeing Him or even without the benefit of some supernatural intervention is an act of real faith.

The greatest blessing come when God’s people are willing simply to take Him at His word. When we realize that God is able to help us in overwhelming situations and that He desires to do so, we are blessed if we trust Him.

People facing overwhelming situations are tempted to respond primarily with fear, but we need to respond with faith. The basic trust is that the God who knows us and cares about us will be with us—either delivering us from our plight or enabling us to pass through it.

People often respond too overwhelming problems by trusting themselves and other human help. Rather than affirming their dependence on God, they assert their independence from God. A good example of this self- dependent attitude is William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus”:

“In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed.

It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

In times of our impossible difficulties we must remember that God takes the initiative to help us. Rather than turning to our own resources or those available from human means, we must firmly believe that God’s resources exceed any other. God’s power is matched to His knowledge, providing the ability not only to understand our deepest needs but to meet them in the best way possible.

In times of overwhelming situations, we can put our trust in the Lord God, who revealed Himself through Jesus. (See John 1: 18) “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

July 16 I WILL FOLLOW GOD’S LEADING. EXODUS 13 TO 15.

A.V. DAUGERTY <altav@swbell.net> http://www.theweeks.org/av/