Saved from Powerlessness

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Transcript:

I don’t know about you all, but as we go through these stories, you know, part of the reason I started it, not necessarily just here, but starting it in Bible classes as well, was because some people were telling me, well, we’re not familiar with some of these Bible stories. And I think the more of the stories you understand, the more of the teaching you understand, because the principles that God’s word teaches and tells us to live by grow out of how God has interacted with his people all down through history. But I also find myself learning more about who God is through watching him at work in these stories.

And learn some things about myself as well as I see how these people interact with God in the stories. And we’re going to talk today about Moses not really knowing how in the world he was going to accomplish what he was supposed to do. And I thought about Moses and I thought a little bit about this story on Wednesday.

Some of you already know. I had an eventful day on Wednesday. Now on Wednesdays we dismiss classes an hour early so everybody can get their homework done before church.

And I was going to take that extra hour, since I teach and I don’t have homework, I was going to take that extra hour, and I was going to leave and take my kids to the bank and the grocery store, and we were going to run down to Atwoods and buy some plants and let them look at the chickens. They loved that. I just had several things planned.

But before I left, I was in the administrator’s office talking with him about an issue I was having with a student, and my phone rang. I had my hand on the doorknob about to walk out to go downstairs and get my kids and leave. My phone rang, and I said, I’m sorry to interrupt what you’re saying.

I better take this. It was the kindergarten teacher, and she’ll walk down to my classroom some and talk to me, but she never calls me. I said, this can’t be good.

So I answered it, and I heard, Mr. Byrns, your son’s teacher wanted me to call you because she was a little hysterical. It seems one of his friends has put a wood chip up his nose. I heard later on there was another teacher walking by her.

Now, keep in mind, they’re downstairs. I’m upstairs. She said she could hear me through the other woman’s phone saying, He did what?

I said, I’m sorry. I can’t believe I talked to my boss this way. I’m sorry.

I’ve got to go. We’ll continue this later. And walked out.

And Charla was in the office and said, Can you come here for a minute? I said, can’t talk, gotta go downstairs. And ran down there to get him and found him.

And there he was with the wood chip in his nose. And they said, well, we don’t know if it’s still in there. How do you not know if it’s still in there?

Yeah, we wondered if you could do something about it. And in that moment, I realized, I’m daddy. I should be able to fix this.

I don’t know how to get a wood chip out of his nose. I’ve never been to the emergency room for myself in my life. I never did things like that.

I was probably the exception to the rule but I never did things like that and in that moment I felt utterly powerless I know I’m daddy and I’m supposed to be able to fix this I have no idea how to do my job right now so I’m asking him questions is it still in there? yes on my white side so you know you’re right from your left but you don’t know to tell your friend not to put a wood chip in your nose why is it in there? Joey did it why did you let Joey do that?

He thought it would be funny. That was the wrong answer to tell me, by the way. Part of the reason I was upset was because here I am, I’m daddy.

I’ve been called and put in this position by God to be daddy. I should be able to fix this. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do here.

But thank goodness we went off to the emergency room and if any of you have been in more since the 2013 tornado, you know it’s not the hospital anymore. It looks like a MASH unit where the hospital used to be. They’ve got these, well, they’re more permanent than tents, but that’s what it looks like out there.

And we took him to the ER, and thank God there were people there who I could call on, who could say, yes, we have a tool for just such a situation. And an hour later, we had the wood chip out of his nose, and we were good to go. It’s not a good feeling, knowing this is my job, this is my responsibility.

and I have no idea how I’m supposed to do this. How on earth am I supposed to get this wood chip out of his nose? Thank goodness there are people around who know how to do that sort of thing.

It’s sort of that way anytime, in any situation, as a parent, with or without a crisis. They’re born and there’s no instruction manual, and you think, how in the world? Who thought it was a good idea to give me a tiny person to keep alive?

I don’t think that now. Now it’s just, go play, don’t kill each other. But when they’re first born, you think, how am I supposed to?

Okay, God, you’ve obviously entrusted me with a tiny person. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know how to do this.

I’m powerless to do this, and yet he equips us, and he gives us the wherewithal to do what he’s called us to do. Incidentally, same with marriage. You take the vows and what now?

There’s no instruction manual. I mean, there’s the Bible, of course. But as far as some of the day-to-day problems, there’s no instruction manual for this, and yet I have this divine responsibility now as a husband or as a wife. I don’t know how I’m going to do this.

As a pastor, I could say the same thing. Any of the roles God gives us, we could say, I know God’s put me in this position, whatever it is in life, God has put me in this position to do it, but I feel completely inept and powerless to do what he’s called me to do. We left off last week talking about Moses and talking about how God had called him out of the burning bush.

God had spoken to him through the burning bush and had told him, I’m going to send you to be a liberator, to be a deliverer for my people Israel. Now, ultimately the deliverer was God and Moses was just sort of the tool that God used for that. But he said, this is going to be your job.

You’re going to go on my behalf and on the behalf of my people and you’re going to go talk to Pharaoh. Okay, no big deal, right? Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth.

Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the most powerful country on earth at that time. He had power of life and death for millions of people, not just in his own kingdom, but through most of this part of its history. If you were living in a neighboring country and Pharaoh wanted your country and wanted to slaughter half your people, he could do it.

An immensely powerful man. And Moses is going in as the exiled leader of the slaves to tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Now it made it a little better that he said, I speak on behalf of the God of the Hebrews who says, let my people go.

It wasn’t Moses saying, let my people go. It was God saying, let my people go, and Moses conveying the message. But still, I mean, we understand how the story ends.

We understand how powerful God is. Pharaoh said himself that he did not know this God. This God was foreign to him.

And to come in and say, I speak for the God of the slaves. The God of the slaves, really. Well, if he’s that powerful a God, why are his people still slaves?

That would have been a terrifying assignment. And yet God says to go and do this. Well, Moses said, who should I say sent me?

If you remember back to last week, that’s when we had the discussion about God telling him, I am that I am. Telling him his name and indicating that I am. I’m not in the past. It’s not that I was.

It’s not that I will be. I am. I am in the past. I am in the present.

And I am in the future. He just is. He exists without any help from you or me.

He wasn’t created by human hands. You know, the gods of Egypt, they were impressive, these idols. They were carved out of stone and out of gold, but they were still carved by human hands.

And if I made it, it’s less than me. So these gods were powerless. And yet he comes speaking for the God who is.

He wasn’t created. He wasn’t made. He always has been.

I am. And I left you sort of, you know, we didn’t even get to the points last week. I decided it didn’t matter.

It just left you with the one thought that it doesn’t matter. Moses’ question throughout all of this was, who am I to do this? Who am I to go and speak on your behalf?

Who am I to go and talk to Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the Hebrews? And left you with the thought that it doesn’t matter who I am.

It matters that he is. I am. God equips us for what he calls us to do.

And that’s sort of what I want to talk to you about today in the next story that comes up in Exodus chapter 4. Where Moses has now sort of accepted that he’s been called to do this job, to fulfill this role, to go and speak to Pharaoh on God’s behalf. And yet he’s still not comfortable in his ability to do it because he realizes, rightly so, I’m nobody.

What am I supposed to do now? I know I’m supposed to go talk to Pharaoh. I don’t know how this is going to work.

And so chapter 4 verse 1, And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Remember that whole line of questioning earlier was, Well, how will they know that you really sent me? Who should I say sent me?

And that’s when God gets into I am that I am. And that answer still for Moses wasn’t good enough. He said, They’re not going to believe me.

They’re not going to listen to me. they’re going to be skeptical that you sent me. And probably rightly so.

You know, if anybody came to me and said, God sent me to give you a message, I think long and hard about my response to that. Unless I see some indication. But he says, they’ll say the Lord has not appeared unto you.

And the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? Now you’re going to see not only in this story, but in numerous stories all throughout the Old Testament. God asking questions he already knows the answer to.

We could look at this story very easily and say, really, I thought God knew everything, and here he is asking, what are you holding in your hand? I’ve never been a lawyer, but I’ve heard from lawyers that when you’re in a trial, you don’t ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to. Sort of feel like that’s the same principle that’s at work here.

God knows what is in his hand, but he doesn’t need, but he’s getting Moses to give the answer that he does. He says it’s a rod. Because then by Moses’ own admission, it’s just a stick.

It’s nothing more than a stick. God knew it was a rod, Moses knew it was a rod, but now Moses had said out loud, it’s a rod. Verse 3 says, and he cast it on the ground, or he said, cast it on the ground.

And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it, I bet. God says why don’t you throw that stick down okay I’ll throw the stick down turned into a snake and Moses ran I don’t blame him I see a snake I run the first time I ever saw I don’t even like seeing them on tv but the first time I saw a snake in person was back when we were working on getting the mission started for Norman about four or five years ago. Has it been that long?

The team went on a prayer retreat down at Lake Murray. And the men were out gathering firewood, and the women were getting food ready up at the cabin. And so Steve Puckett and David Pickard and I were down wandering out in the trees looking for trees that had fallen down so we could burn the wood.

And we were on this hill, and I heard something. It was in the fall, I think. And so there were leaves all over the ground.

And I heard rustling in the leaves. And I look over and there’s this black thing slithering away from us about this long. Probably no wider than my pinky finger.

To say that I threw Brother David between me and the snake trying to get uphill would be an understatement. I threw him down the hill trying to get away from the snake. I put, eat him, leave me alone.

got to the top of the hill. And I think it was Lynn Puckett asked, is everything okay? We heard a woman scream.

Yeah, that was me. I don’t care for snakes. And Moses fled.

I don’t blame him. Not only the fact that he saw a snake, but that was just a stick. Sticks don’t turn into snakes every day.

I’m getting out of there. Now Moses didn’t flee far enough to just to be gone. He got away from the snake.

Found a snake one time at the house in Norman. It’s no coincidence a few months later we moved to Arkansas. Let the snake have the house.

Moses apparently wasn’t as bad as I am. He fled from before it. He got out of the way.

But he’s still there where he’s conversing with God. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thy hand and take it by the tail. There’s no way.

God, I trust you and I want to be obedient, but there’s just.. . Is that a bad thing for the preacher to admit?

There are some things God could tell me to do that. . .

I can’t say I wouldn’t do it, but I probably would argue. Put forth thy hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.

That’s incredible. That’s incredible. And if you’re sitting there this morning as a skeptic and thinking, well, that’s just a fairy tale.

I mean, that’d be easy for them to write it down. Later on, it happens in front of a lot of people. And they wrote it down after it had happened in front of a lot of people.

And nobody ever said, no, it didn’t happen that way. And that’s the sort of thing that people would say, no, the stick never turned into a snake if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes. But this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day.

I go outside today and throw down a stick, and I have no reason at all to believe that it would turn into a snake. And if I go out and see a snake, I’m certainly not going to pick it up by the tail, hoping it’ll turn into wood. But because God said, throw down that stick, it turned into a serpent.

And because God said, take it up again, it turned into a staff again. And he said in verse five, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. He said, here is a sign that will demonstrate to them.

Wasn’t a magic trick. It wasn’t an illusion. But he said, here is a sign that they will realize the power that you come and speak on behalf of.

Now, God is never one to do things by half. God is never one to do the job halfway. As a matter of fact, when the Bible talks about the grace that he sheds on us, talks about it being abundantly.

God doesn’t give us just enough grace to forgive our sins, just enough grace to get by. God sheds abundantly his grace on us. when God demonstrates his power in the Bible, he doesn’t demonstrate it with just enough power.

God always demonstrated it in such a way that it was unmistakable. And so he doesn’t stop with just the one sign. He tells Moses in verse 6, And the Lord furthermore said unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom.

So right here in his clothing, where it would be close to his heart, stick your hand inside your coat. And he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

I spent a lot of time this week pondering on just what exactly this means. Because when you get into the Hebrew, and I do not speak Hebrew, but when you get into the Hebrew and are able to look up words in their dictionary, there are a few different words that are used in the Bible to represent leprosy. And even nowadays, there are at least two diseases that are called leprosy today.

And we know from the Bible there are accounts of some people who had what we think of as leprosy, where noses are falling off, fingers are falling off, people are losing skin. This is not the same word. And some people think it’s just a skin condition that it’s talking about here.

There are two or three things that it possibly could be. One of the things that I found when researching this was the disease that Michael Jackson had that turned the pigment went out of his skin. It starts with a V.

I think it’s, I’m not going to try to pronounce it because I’ll get it wrong. But they said, well, it could have been that kind of ailment. That’s not as scary as what I thought before.

You know, the actual leprosy with skin falling off. I mean, that was a life or death deal. There are still people today who die of leprosy. In 2015, people are dying of this skin condition that people had 4,000 years ago.

biblical times. And I thought, well, is it the skin falling off disease? Is it just a change in the pigment?

Is it some kind of other skin ailment? What could it possibly be? And then it dawned on me, it really doesn’t matter which one it was.

Because when God told him, stick your hand inside your coat, and he pulled it out, his skin was leprous as snow, whatever that means exactly. And he said, put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

So God said, stick your hand in your coat. It came out and he had this skin disease. That would be terrifying.

God said, stick it in your coat again. And he pulled it out and it was healthy just like the rest. Now, the reason I say it doesn’t matter what form of leprosy it was, whether it was the skin falling off kind or anything else, is that God told him to do this and God made the hand leprous. And then God told him to put his hand in again, and it was healed.

I don’t care, ladies and gentlemen, if it’s Ebola or the common cold. That’s impressive. That doesn’t happen.

There’s not a doctor on this planet who can say, by the way, your cold’s healed now just because I said so. And we look at that as something mild. Oh, if it was just a pigment thing in his hand, big deal. It is a big deal that God healed it with his word.

What God is saying here, what God is demonstrating, I can strike anybody with anything I want to, and I can take it away again. There’s not a doctor, there’s not a scientist, anybody on this planet with that kind of power. Sure, we can infect people with things.

I watch documentaries about the chemical weapons that countries have, and especially some of the things in the former Soviet Union that are no longer as well guarded as they were under the Soviet regime. And there are vials of bacteria we can infect millions of people with stuff. But nobody just on their word, nobody just on their command can strike somebody with an illness and nobody at their word can heal them again.

God demonstrated a tremendous amount of power here. And he says in verse eight, and it shall come to pass if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. He said, so the thing with the stick and the snake will let them know who you speak for.

But even if they will not believe at that, then put your hand in your coat and show them what I can do. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. Another impressive sign.

How important is water? How important is water? There are some people who say that in the next century, water is going to be more expensive than oil because it’s vital. I mean, how much do we hear in the news about the drought that’s going on in western Oklahoma?

And they’re talking about, and right now there’s been a water battle going on between Oklahoma and Texas and the tribes over water in South East. It’s water. it just sits out there but it’s such a precious resource especially in a desert country like Egypt and God says I will turn the water to blood if I have to he held the very life of Pharaoh and his massive country in his hands and Moses said unto the Lord oh my Lord I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue So Moses says, I’ve seen what you can do, but I’m still not the best person to go and represent you. He said, I’m not eloquent.

I’m a slow speaker. I have a slow tongue. It’s a little bit presumptuous.

And I say this realizing that I do the same thing sometimes. But it’s a little presumptuous of Moses to think he knows who’s better suited for God’s work than God does. It’s a little presumptuous when we do it too.

God, I can’t do what you called me to do because of these reasons. You think God doesn’t know those reasons? Sure, on paper, Moses looked like he wouldn’t be the best to do God’s work.

And he wouldn’t have been if God hadn’t spent 80 years already preparing him. It was God who orchestrated him being plucked out of the river and taken to Pharaoh’s house to be raised. It was God who put him in the court of the Pharaoh for 40 years so he would know how to deal with the Egyptians.

It was God who rescued him from losing his life to Pharaoh and sent him into exile and sent him directly to Jethro of Midian where he could learn for 40 years to herd sheep, which was going to be an important skill when it came to keeping the Israelites together. He could have herded cats, that probably would have helped too. But God had been preparing him for 80 years for this job.

And Moses thought, you can’t use me because of this one limitation. I believe God’s response was, I’ll see your limitation and raise you the 80 years I’ve invested in preparing you. And the Lord said unto him, verse 11, Who hath made man’s mouth?

Or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? It’s a great response there.

Which, how could it not be? It’s from God. And he said, who designed the mouth?

Who made your mouth? Who created the man who can speak and the man who can’t? Who created the blind and the sighted both?

Wasn’t it me? He says in verse 12, Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. He says, just go and trust that I will give you the words.

Trust that I will put you in the place to be able to say what you need to say. And he said, O my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of whom thou wilt send. And so Moses finally gets it and says, Lord, you can send who you want to send.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Now the reason the Lord’s anger was kindled here, I said Moses sort of gets this. Moses gets that God can do what he wants.

But I see in that response, not exactly a willingness, but more resigning yourself to your fate. It’s not, okay, God, you can do whatever you want to do, and I’m behind that. It’s, you can do what you want to do, I can’t stop you.

so even though he’s with his mouth admitting God you can do whatever you want to do when we read between the lines the tone here is but I don’t like it the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said is not Aaron the Levite thy brother I know that he can speak well also behold he cometh forth to meet thee and when he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart and thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand wherewith thou shalt do signs. So what he’s saying here is fine.

I know your brother Aaron, isn’t he a priest? Isn’t he a Levite? Go find him, he’ll be glad to see you, and he can be your spokesman.

And if you get in trouble where you can’t speak, then I’ll tell you what to say. You whisper it in Aaron’s ear. He’ll speak on your behalf.

We’ll have an extra step here. He’ll be your mouth. You’ll be his voice of God.

It’ll work great. And Moses seems satisfied with that. Moses thought it was far too complicated for God to just give him the words and open his mouth.

But let’s add another person to the mix, and that’s fine. God can handle that. It makes no sense to my mind except for the fact that we all do the same things in our lives, in our dealing with God.

And the interesting thing is, and that’s where the story ends for this morning, the interesting thing is I don’t recall a lot of instances where Aaron had to speak on Moses’ behalf. As a matter of fact, I offhand cannot remember any. Now, I’m hesitant to say there were none because it’s possible I’m forgetting one.

I’m not infallible. But I’m hard-pressed to think of any, and there certainly were not a lot of times. As a matter of fact, what I more often see, what we more often see in the Bible, is that Moses goes in to speak to the Israelites or goes in to speak to Pharaoh, and something amazing happens.

This man who’s not eloquent, who has slow speech, turns into a lion, not a literal lion. But he boldly says, God told you to let my people go. All through this, God has been demonstrating his power.

God has been telling Moses you don’t know how to do what you’re going to do you don’t have the power and the strength to do the job I’ve called you to do you may not have the skills to do the job that I’ve called you to do just like we all feel it sometimes that God’s called me to do this I have no idea how I’m supposed to do this because I’m just I’m weak or I’m this or that we can fill in the blank with whatever it is God was demonstrating his power to Moses and saying you may not know how you’re going to do this. And that’s fine. Just trust me because I’m going to do this through you.

Demonstrating to Moses and saying, this is the power. This is the power that’s going to get the attention of the Israelites. This is the power that’s going to get the attention of Pharaoh.

But all the while, we can’t miss that God is demonstrating his power to Moses and saying, would you just trust me already? Would you just understand that I’ve got this? I’ve got this under control.

And some of the things that God demonstrated here, God demonstrated he has power over the whole natural world. He has power over the whole natural world. That was a lesson that Pharaoh was going to learn the hard way later on, which we’ll get to in a week or two.

But God created the entire universe from nothing. And I know I go this route a lot, but we can’t forget it. We wonder sometimes, well, how did God manage to do this?

How did God manage to do this miracle? Let us not forget that God is the one who created the entire universe with the words of his mouth. Now man can do a lot of impressive things given the right building blocks.

God didn’t even have building blocks to start with. He spoke and matter itself leapt into existence. By the words of his mouth, he created light and it pierced the darkness.

He separated the darkness from the light. In that moment, he created energy and he created time. On the second day, he created the heavens and he created the firmament.

Ladies and gentlemen, he created space and he created matter. Physicists and other scientists have spent centuries studying these things and trying to determine their origins. And there are a lot of smart people out there who do good work on studying these things and where they came from and how they interact with one another.

when it’s spelled out right there in the first couple chapters of Genesis, where it came from. And I’m not just giving you the blanket response, God created everything, although he did. But I’m telling you, when you look at the physics, everything that makes up physics, it’s right there.

Matter, space, time, energy. God created all of it. It’s spelled out.

He created the atoms. I mean, it’s impressive enough that he created galaxies. and constellations and planets and solar systems. But you look at it on a molecular level, he created the atoms and he created the subatomic particles, things that we are just now discovering and beginning to understand how they work. And by the words of his mouth, he created them.

He put them in place and he made them work together the way they do. The bonds that hold everything together, that hold the atom in place, he created that. He made gravity to hold everything together.

I don’t care whether you look at the universe on a grand scale or you look at it on a microscopic scale. It’s incredible the intricacy of the work that God did. And if God could speak all of that into existence, no building blocks, no anything, it’s what theologians call ex nihilo, which is just a fancy Latin term for out of nothing.

He started with nothing and by the words of his mouth created everything and created it with such intricacy. Then why is it so hard to believe that he could do miracles?

it’s not that God overrides or bends the rules of nature it’s that God wrote the rules of nature and when you believe that it’s not a stretch of the imagination not for me anyway to believe that he could turn a stick into a snake Moses stop worrying about how you’re going to do this I’m the God who just turned a stick into a snake in front of you remind you I’m the one who created all the snakes and all the wood in the first place I’m the one who created everything thousands of years ago I’m the one who put it all together I’m the one who designed how all of it works I’m the one who speaks and things happen I’m sure that snake that snake miracle was puzzling but when you stop to think about it God was demonstrating his power his command over the natural world he also demonstrated his power over life and death he demonstrated his power over life and death in this story with Moses Moses if the mastery if the command over the natural world wasn’t enough?

Stick your hand in your coat. Pull it out again. You know those diseases can wreck your life if not kill you, depending on which one it is.

I just struck you with a disease that could disfigure or even kill you. And stick your hand in your coat again. Good as new.

Moses, are you really worried about what Pharaoh’s going to do? Moses, are you really worried about what the Israelites are going to think? Don’t forget Moses.

Not only you, but everybody else involved in the story. Hold their lives right here. Hold their lives right here.</

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