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Well, a good Friday morning to you.
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I hope you're looking forward to a good weekend, and I hope your weekend plans include attending the Lord's House on
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We gather together to study his word and be looking in Philippians again.
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Dr. Forman will be teaching the lesson this Sunday, and then in the morning service at 1030.
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This week we're doing a little something a little bit different.
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We're having a fifth Sunday fellowship meal after the morning service, and then one o 'clock in the
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afternoon we have our church's annual meeting.
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But I certainly encourage you to come and be a part of the worship service and the Bible study time in the
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Well, on this particular day, we want to consider the
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The timing of the Lord in the unfolding development or the fulfillment
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of his promises is sometimes just plain astonishing, isn't it?
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We're in Exodus 3 and 4 today, and it really comes out when we stop and think about
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What's happening in Exodus 3 is occurring
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about 430 years after the
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Joseph story, when Jacob and all of his sons in his household
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moved from the land of Canaan to the land of Egypt.
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There were 70 -some people in all in Jacob's family at that time.
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Joseph planted them in the land of Goshen, and the people multiplied.
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Here we are more than four centuries later, and for more than the last
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hundred years, for more than a century now, these descendants of Jacob,
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the children of Israel, have been living in bondage.
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They've been making bricks.
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They've been treated horribly.
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It's not like it's been the glamour days of when Joseph was
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These pharaohs rose up that didn't know Joseph and didn't care anything whatsoever about that history,
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and they just saw a bunch of slave labor and they took advantage of it.
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The people have been in bondage for more than a century.
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In chapter 3, we have the calling of Moses at that burning bush, but he's an
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He's 80 years old, and it is this 80 -year -old man that God
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calls and tells him he's supposed to go back to Egypt, and he's going to lead his people out
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and give them deliverance.
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From a human standpoint, isn't that a little bit ironic?
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Wouldn't we expect there maybe to be a big rebellion?
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After all, the people of Israel are a large company by now.
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That's why the pharaoh was so afraid of them.
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There were so many of them.
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Don't you think it would have been more effective if there were
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some people who could conspire together and go through the ranks and get
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people to band together and rise up in rebellion against their
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slave masters, and then take over arsenals and stuff like that?
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The unfolding development and fulfillment of his promise to bring his people out.
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Remember, that was the promise that God made to Jacob 430 years ago.
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He said, go ahead, go down to Egypt, dwell there, I'm going to bring you back, I'll bring your people, your
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descendants back to the land of Canaan.
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He will, but not the way we would think.
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He uses an 80 -year -old man.
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His deliverance is going to come through a senior citizen, not
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How amazing are the ways of our God?
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He calls this man Moses, who is not only an elderly man by our
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standards, he's also a pretty unwilling man, isn't he?
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He keeps coming up with excuse after excuse why he shouldn't be the one chosen to do this
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You get the sense that Moses is just pretty happy where he is.
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He's just entered into a retirement phase, if you will, where, okay, I've done my thing.
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I've been doing the shepherding thing for the last 40 years.
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I'm perfectly content doing that.
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Let me just take care of sheep for the rest of my life.
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I don't want anything hard.
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I don't want anything rigorous.
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I don't want to be a leader.
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I just want to take care of sheep.
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Isn't it amazing whom God uses?
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Isn't it sometimes astounding how he prepares us?
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Isn't it incredible the processes God uses to bring about the
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From our perspective, how long it all takes.
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On a church sign for a couple weeks, we had the statement that, with God, a thousand years is as a
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day, and a day is as a thousand years.
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It comes out in this kind of a story, doesn't it?
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What's that to God, in God's perspective?
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It's just a blimp of time.
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It's just the way God works.
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What an amazing, incredible God we serve.
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Our Father today, we do thank you and praise you for who you are, for your wisdom, for your
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skill, for whom you choose to use, and how you go about calling
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and preparing those whom you choose.
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We are astounded sometimes at your gracious work.
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We thank you that you work to bring about your plan.
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We don't always see the intricate details of how things unfold, but what we can know,
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even through a story like this, is that it's unfolding.
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You are accomplishing your purpose.
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May we rest in that, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Again, have a great weekend.
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I hope to see you on the Lord's Day, and hope the Lord will bless you.