But...God?

The English language at times can be very insipid when it comes to colorful descriptions. When describing something in writing we usually try to find the perfect verb or adjective that communicates a clear meaning and intent. Although sometimes we only have a word or two to choose from therefore our meaning becomes thinned out a bit. In other languages this is not the case. Take for example the word “love”. While the English language only has one word for “love” the Greek language has four very distinct words to describe four very different aspects of love. First is “storge” refers to the tender feelings that parents naturally have for their children. Next is “eros” is an unreasoning passion and desire for something. Followed by “phileo” which simply put is a connection of friendship where there is reciprocity of affection. Last but not least is “agapao” and it’s kind of love that God has for us. It is a selfless love where someone is willing to lay their own life down for another. 

If you open up a dictionary and begin to thumb through it you will find many words that rarely get used. Then there are many others that get overused and a few words that make no grammatical sense at all. There is one three letter word that when it is inserted at the end of a long and lengthy declaration negates the entire pronouncement. It happens to be the word “but” and works like verbal acid melting away any meaning attached to the preceding sentence. But… wait there’s more.

 After God introduces Himself to Moses on Mount Horeb, He begins to reassure Moses that He has indeed seen the oppression of His people. God has heard the cries of Israel as their burdens becomes too much to carry. Because of the severe cruelty of the Egyptian taskmasters, 400 years of bondage and arduous working conditions God is ready to intervene. He explains to Moses that He is sending him to tell pharaoh to let His people go. Moses replies with his first of four “buts”. In Exodus 3:11 Moses says “But Moses said to God ‘Who I’m I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.’”

God reassures Moses that He will surely be with him as he goes into Pharaoh’s court and that he would not be alone. So Moses throws out another “but” and replies “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice;” Once again God answers Moses with a solution; a rod that will turn back and forth from a rod to a snake. Then another sign of a hand made leprous then miraculously healed.  Moses gets one more sign that of river water turning to blood when it is poured out on dry land.  Moses informs God that he doesn’t speak well, that he is slow of speech and slow of tongue. Here we have the pot telling the Potter he doesn’t like the way that he was made; that he is physically marred and God made a mistake in creating him in the first place. 

Up to this point God was being extremely tolerant of Moses but now is getting a bit frustrated. He once again reassures him that He will be with his mouth and teach him what to say. Moses blurts out his last “but” in Exodus 4:13 “But he said, ‘Oh my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send’”. God’s angry now and begins to talk to the eighty year old Moses like a father talking to his rebellious teenage son. His final answer, Ok I’ll send your brother Aaron with you.

Moses and Aaron go before the Pharaoh and said “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”  Here is the Pharaoh’s reply found in Exodus 5:2 “And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.’” As we read Pharaoh’s response to Moses you can’t help but hear familiar echoes from family and friends who are saying pretty much saying the exact same thing; But God, I don’t believe in You! Countless people in ages past and present have articulated basically the same thought…”Who is the Lord? So if you are reading this column and feel the same way as this Pharaoh, please ask God to reveal Himself to you personally. He does exist. While it might not take a rod turning into a snake, a leprous hand being healed or water turning into blood God will reveal Himself to you personally through the power of the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is ask!

I AM WHO I AM

Have you ever been around a farm where they raise animals, like sheep? I’ve been told that they are not the most intelligent animals in the barn.  It’s been said that sheep will follow one another literally anywhere even over a steep cliff to their death. So it follows that sheep need a shepherd; someone to watch over them, keep them and care for them. We know that God is going to raise Moses up to be a great shepherd-leader over the nation of Israel. As part of his training God arranges for Moses to care for his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness of Midian for approximately forty years.  Moses is turning eighty as God commissions him to speak to the Pharaoh of Egypt and tell him to let God’s people go. But as Moses  later finds out this won’t be accomplished in his strength or power.

There are many scenes in the bible that I would have loved to have witnessed firsthand. If only I could step into a time machine and travel back in time to witness these special events firsthand. The burning bush scene is one of those scenes where I would have liked to have watched as Moses tells God that He made a mistake in choosing him. As chapter three of Exodus starts out we read in verse 11 “But Moses said to God ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’“. Now, just think about this picture for a moment, Moses is standing in front of a burning bush that is not being consumed, listening to  God who is speaking from inside the bush. At this moment Moses’ fear of failure is greater than his faith as God commissions him to go in the power of His Spirit.

The next question Moses delivers to the mysterious voice coming from the burning bush is really a great question; a question that man has continually sought after, “God who are You and where do You reside?”.  God’s response is quick and to the point in Exodus 3:14 “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” Here God is stating the fact as plainly as He can “I AM all that you will ever need!”. God is omnipresent which means  everywhere at once. He is the same yesterday, today and forever; the Eternal One. Think about that response, how much clearer or concise could our Creator have stated the fact that He literally holds all things together. Later the Jewish faith would leave vowels out of His name when writing or speaking it. They did not want to take a chance on mispronouncing or defiling it falling into God’s judgment.  Today we translate it as JEHOVAH or YAHWEH but for the Jew the name of God was too sacred to pronounce or write. Today, we can now come boldly into the throne room of God, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

We worship an almighty, all-knowing and gracious God who fills the universe in which we exist and beyond. In His power and Spirit there is literally nothing we can’t achieve or mountain we can’t move. Paul put it this way in his second letter to the Corinthians verse 10 “ Therefore I take pleasure in  infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” God is the omnipotent and ever present strength in the life of the child of God. 

So now at the age of forty God moves Moses to a place in the wilderness where he can learn that it’s not in our strength where God moves but in our weakness. We observe this reoccurring theme throughout the bible in the lives of men like David and Elijah. Where a small young boy falls a nine foot tall seasoned soldier but was forced to hide in caves to avoid being killed by king Saul. God supernaturally preserved David while he was being hunted. Elijah spoke as a prophet of God that no rain would fall, and then had to endure the hardship of the desert, drought and famine before God allowed him to bring down fire from heaven. Its only when we humble ourselves that God can then use us by displaying the mighty works of His Spirit.

So as we travel back to the year 2012 and step out of our time machine, we find God asking all of us the very same question “Who will humble themselves and go for Me?   Remember it is the power of God working through us that will accomplish great things; Not by strength, not by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.

Facing God

Someone once said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single footstep. In chapter two of Exodus we read how Moses, being aware of the plight of his people, murders an Egyptian taskmaster for beating a Hebrew slave. Immediately he takes his first steps towards the land of Midian, where he marries into the family of Jethro, the priest of Midian. As Moses travels towards Midian, he was discovering the path that one day, forty years yet future, he would lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt and to the mountain of God. The path Moses took through the Sinai Peninsula is not known for certain. There are many traditions surrounding the exodus, the Red Sea crossing and the mountain where God first appeared to Moses. 

Back in Genesis chapter 15:13 God told Abraham ”Then the Lord said to him, ’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 that they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.’” All four of these prophecies given to Abraham come true but for now we watch as God is getting ready to commission him. Moses will become one of the greatest, loved and revered shepherd-patriarchs of the entire bible. 

Moses leaves Egypt and begins to make his way across the Sinai Peninsula, around the Gulf of Aqaba to the land of Midian which is located east of the Yam Suph or Red Sea. There, while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses is drawn to a bush that is burning but not being consumed. This unusual sight intrigued Moses so much that he draws closer to the bush to get a closer look. Suddenly, God calls out to him from inside the bush.  In verse five of chapter three, we read as God calls out to Moses “Do not come any closer, God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then He said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”

It’s clear from these verses that mankind is separated from a Holy and Righteous God. In the beginning, back in the Garden of Eden, God only wanted to walk in fellowship with his creation. But because of our tendency towards disobedience, we became separated from our heavenly Father. Now, here on Mount Horeb, God is telling Moses to take off his sandals because He does not want anything to separate us from His presence or fellowship. As God continues His introduction, He explains that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. One fact to remember, is that the Angel of the Lord is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ Jesus who had personally appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just as He is now revealing Himself to Moses.

We see the heart of God here as He requires Moses to take off his sandals while being bathed in His radiant glory. How wonderful it must have been to be there in that place, standing in the presence of God where all the cares of the world just faded and melted away.  I’m convinced that I need to find the quiet place of God. We all need to spend as much time as possible in the presence of God whether in prayer or communion. As I wake up each morning, before my feet hit the floor, I’m thanking God for His provisions. Then, at day’s end, I make time to study and read His words. Soon they begin to wash off all the dirt and grime that the world has deposited on me during the day. 

Since the Messiah has already appeared to the world, it’s easy to look back through the books of the Old Testament and see God working out His final plan of redemption. The only way for God to redeem His creation was to send Himself in the form of Jesus Christ to pay our sin debt for us. The Greek word “ Tetelestai” or Tetelestai means “paid in full” and, interestingly , was the last word to leave the mouth of Jesus before He gave up His spirit while hanging from a Roman cross. The word has been found written across ancient tax documents from the Middle East area as marking them as “Cancelled Debt” or “Paid in Full”. So, Salvation really is a gift from God. Since you can’t earn it, just receive and accept it!  

Messiah

Approximately 400 years went by after Joseph died in Egypt. We watch in amazement as the family of Abraham is being preserved through the great famine that is consuming the entire region. As part of God’s plan, Jacob leaves Canaan with seventy of his family and relocates to the area of Goshen in Egypt. The small family clan of seventy grows into a fledgling nation of over two million men women and children. In Exodus chapter one, we read that the new Egyptian leadership does not remember Joseph and fears that the Hebrews will rise up and over take the Egyptian empire.  

Before going any further into the story of the exodus it’s important to revisit a prophecy God gave to us in the book of Genesis chapter 3:14, 15. “So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between your seed and the woman’s Seed; He shall crush your head and you shall bruise His heel.’” This is the first mention of the gospel in the bible. The prophecy is saying that the Messiah (Christ) would enter the world through a virgin birth and when He does arrive He will crush the satanic rebellion. Although the Messiah will have to suffer He will ultimately overcome death and reclaim the world which He created.

Friends we are living in the middle of a universal, cosmic spiritual battle. A battle where an evil, fallen angel wants to pull you away from the Father God, capture your soul in an attempt to thwart God’s plan of salvation. In the past, Satan has used various people to carry out his plan. A couple names that really stick out in my mind are Haman, Herod and Hitler. In chapter one of Exodus, Satan uses the Pharaoh of Egypt to order the genocide of the Hebrew nation. Satan knows that the Messiah was promised and coming to planet earth, so if he can eliminate the chosen line of Abraham he would effectively cut off the Messiah from being born into the world.

In the Exodus story, as the soldiers go door to door throwing Hebrew babies into the Nile, the mother of Moses is able to conceal him for three months. When it becomes increasingly impossible to muffle the baby’s cries, Jochebed fashions an ark (basket) out of bulrushes, seals it with pitch and places it near the water’s edge among the reeds. When the Pharaoh’s daughter comes to the river to bathe she spots the basket, opens it, and Moses begins to cry on cue. She immediately has compassion on him. I’m so glad God made women just the way He did! Women are so incredibly nurturing, caring and the main sustainers of life. They were created so different than men who really were designed to hunt, kill and destroy while women on the other hand just want to protect their young even to the point of their own death. 

The bible teaches that as we get closer to the close of history, this natural affinity to preserve life will diminish and mothers will begin to abandon their babies. If you have been watching the news over the past decade you are probably aware that this is exactly what is happening in our world today. So if any woman out there is pregnant and considering having an abortion, I beg you to consider life for your unborn child. Even if you can’t understand how you will provide for your child there are many other options out there to consider. One option is to complete your time, have your baby and give him to a family who will love and care for him. Baby Moses is going to be saved by the Pharaoh’s daughter then preserved in the house of the man who was trying to kill all male Hebrew children. Only an almighty, all-knowing and all-powerful God with a great sense of humor could have choreographed that scene in the life of Moses. 

It’s interesting to me that even when the chips are down and all odds are against the child of the living God that He can open up opportunities even through our enemy’s doorways. In fact, in the book of Romans 8:28 we read this “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. We just finished the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis and saw over and over again how God preserved Joseph’s family. Here once again God is preserving Moses who will one day lead the nation of Israel out of their current bondage in the land of Egypt.