MIDWEEK LENT 3 – March 19, 2020 – Exodus 17:1-7
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is from Exodus 17. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our message for this evening comes from Moses.
I was raised initially by pious parents who were believers in God, believers in His Word. My parents were among the descendants of Abraham who had become enslaved in Egypt. They held to God’s promises made to Abraham that Canaan would belong to his family, and that they would become a great nation. It was hard for them in those days, but they persisted in their faith, and they taught it to their children, including me.
But I was adopted out of this home and into the home of Pharaoh’s daughter. There I was raised as a proper Egyptian of royal birth and status. I had what you would term a university education and a graduate school degree. It seemed that I was headed toward greatness and wealth. I was accepted by all and fit in well with the Egyptian aristocracy!
However, I always remembered what I had been taught about “my people.” As I looked at their plight I sympathized with them, and even identified as one of them. It was heart-rending to observe the brutality inflicted upon them. I could hardly stand it, but I could not bring myself to forfeit my position of privilege and prerogative. Nonetheless over time I couldn’t help but become more and more infatuated with my people and concerned for their circumstances.
One day, when out observing their conditions, I saw an Egyptian brutally beating one of the slaves. Something snapped – and though I tried to be careful when murdering the Egyptian, one of my own people saw it and informed others. The matter eventually came to the attention of Pharaoh and that was the end of my place of privilege. Pharaoh placed me under condemnation to death, and I was forced to flee Egypt as a fugitive from the law.
I was very fortunate to have run into Midianites as I fled into the wilderness of the Negev. Midian, the original patriarch of this group, was a son of Abraham with his second wife, Keturah. There had also been co-mingling with the children of Ishmael, Abraham’s first son whom he had with his servant Hagar. So these people were a kind of “kin” to me, although they had not kept the traditions of Abraham as my own people had. This would become apparent with the issue of “circumcision,” which the Midianites had long ago abandoned.
My wife’s father was Jethro, the “priest of Midian.” So the family I married into was clergy, and quite religious. They were far better than many of the coarse idolaters of that time! They didn’t practice temple prostitution as Baal worship required, and they didn’t sacrifice their children to the fire god Molech either. Nonetheless, they had lost the faith of Abraham, and were not of the lineage of the people of promise, my people. But they were basically good people, and I began to make a good life for myself and my family.
However, I still longed for my people, and mourned for them and prayed for them. And God had not forgotten them, or His many promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And their plight began to move Him to action, as I was soon to find out. And God had not forgotten about me either – although I had no idea why or how He would have kept track of me out in the wilderness. I was a murderer, and an outcast from Egypt where my people were. Even one of my own people had gossiped about me, and had rejected any authority I might have had. So in my mind I would never have anything more to do with Egypt or with God’s people in Egypt. But I was mistaken!
The call of God to me was remarkable! I was out minding my own shepherding business in the wilderness when God appeared to me in a burning bush. He spoke of His people, of my own people, their troubles and burdens. I was sorry to hear that things had not changed for them for the better. But I was quite happy to hear that God had determined to rescue them and deliver them from slavery and oppression in Egypt. I was elated that God Himself was going to bring them back into the promised land, Abraham’s land. But then He said it, and I could hardly believe it: “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
That was a stunner – and impossible. I couldn’t go back there! I couldn’t be the one to deliver my people, the children of Israel. The whole thing was absurd, even laughable. But I didn’t know God. I didn’t know His foresight and His preparation! I didn’t know His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. I knew of His existence, and of His promises to my people, but I no longer thought they applied to me. And I had no clue whatsoever of His great master-plan of redemption and salvation for the whole world. He would have to remind me and teach me of the promises made to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, promises to be fulfilled by His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then there was the matter of my legal status! I was a condemned murderer. And the matter of my reputation with my people – who had already rejected my role as a leader. You remember what was said to me when I intervened in a dispute between two Hebrews: “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” And so I wasn’t quite sure what God was doing calling a murderer to lead His holy people.
I would learn many things through this calling from the LORD. First, that when He promises to be with you He always is. He is faithful to everything He says and promises. Second, He does not take no for an answer. He provides whatever is deficient. Third, He is almighty and can do whatever He wants and however He wants to do it. My fearfulness was overturned by the miracles He provided for me to do. My lack of speaking ability was remedied by the addition of Aaron as my spokesman. Amazingly, when I spoke with Aaron he believed the remarkable account I gave to him. And when we went and spoke to the elders of Israel, they also believed and gratefully worshiped the LORD.
The prolonged struggle with Pharaoh was frightening, amazing, and tragic. The death of all of the first born of Egypt was horrible, as was the total annihilation of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. But God’s deliverance was just as promised. His deliverance through the Passover Lamb was instructive – and pointed to Jesus, the true Lamb of God. The lambs of the sacrifices and the blood of atonement sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant all pointed to God’s ultimate deliverance – His gracious mercy and forgiveness at the cross of Jesus Christ. His deliverance of His people into the Promised Land foreshadowed what happens when we die, and when we rise in glory on the Last Day.
Sadly, there were many rough spots along the way. The people of Israel lacked faith on many occasions, and forgot about Who God is. They complained to me, and even took their anger and disappointment out on me. They grumbled against me and against God. Yet over and over again God provided for them and blessed them. Sadly, there were also times when I struggled with faith and with fulfilling my duty. My anger also got the better of me at times. I was not allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land, but was able to see it from a distance. Still, God forgave my sins, all of my sins, and remained my Friend, my God, and my Savior till the day I died.
As Abraham learned, so we all learned, as many as would listen to God and believe. He is “the God that justifies the ungodly . . . full of mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love. And He remains the same to this very day, and forever! Amen!
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.