"A Stranger in a Foreign Land"

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 2:11-22

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Well, we're not quite done with chapter 2 yet. We will save that very end of chapter 2 for next week, which is, of course, a very pivotal point in the story as it prepares the way for the self -revelation of God to Moses in chapter 3.
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This morning, we want to continue where we began last week in Exodus 2. We're reminded when we take a large step back that the great theme of chapter 1 has been the increasing affliction of God's people in the land of Egypt, even as God had foretold it in Genesis 15 when the darkness fell upon Abram and God made the covenant with him.
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He foretold that these very days would come, that the people of God would be afflicted, but that He would bring them out with many great possessions.
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With the bondage of God's people, we're brought to see more of the storyline of Genesis in the book of Exodus, more, in other words, of the fall and the serpentine kingdom that is at enmity with the kingdom of God.
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And the results of the fall, the sort of warped, brutal, cruel effects of the fall amplified under the tyranny of Pharaoh to the great wound of God's people.
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We've seen the alienation between God and man, alienation between man and his neighbor, the very things that the revelation of the
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Ten Commandments seeks to address. What had once been a perfect society of righteousness, as we said last week in the
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Garden of Eden, that perfect society between man and God and man and woman, has now been darkened, blinded, affections have been disordered.
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Man's nature has been stained by the effects of sin and the will of man has been put into bondage, even as the
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Israelites are under the bondage of Pharaoh. And we began last week with the birth of Moses.
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And with the birth of Moses, we beheld the greater deliverer who is to come unto us.
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A child is born. A child is given for our redemption. A son born to deliver us from bondage.
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We read last week that Pharaoh's daughter named the boy Moses, meaning drawn out, emblematic of the whole book of Exodus where God has drawn his people out of bondage, drawn them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage to take them into the land of promise.
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And this, of course, reverberates to God's larger redemptive pattern where he is bringing a new exodus in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
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That's a theme that we'll be tracing almost all the way through to the end. This new exodus where God has brought us out of our bondage and in the person and work of Christ, in the great deliverer, he will bring us into the land of promise.
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Now this also doesn't reverberate forward in redemptive history. It also takes us back to the very beginning of Genesis.
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It's the reversal of the effects of the fall. As a result of the fall in Edom, Adam and Eve were drawn out of the place of God's presence.
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But then he covered them, of course, sacrificially, emblematic of the great sacrifice, emblematic of the deliverer who would come, who would bring them back in to God's promise,
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God's presence, the land, the new heavens, the new earth. So all of these things are opening up as we begin and press forward in chapter 2.
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Moses was drawn out of the waters of death to save his people. He prefigures the experience of Israel as they're drawn through the waters of death and brought to deliverance safe on the other side.
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And also he prefigures the Lord Jesus drawn out of the waters of judgment, drawn out of death to save his people.
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Well this morning we want to consider this deliverer in more detail. We want to consider three vignettes of Moses that we have in verses 11 through 22.
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First we'll see Moses as the defender, second Moses as the deliverer, third
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Moses as the stranger. So three vignettes and then lastly three applications to follow on how we can have the faith of Moses, Moses the defender, the deliverer and the stranger.
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Moses the defender, beginning in verse 11. Now it came to pass in those days when
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Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren and he looked at their burdens.
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According to Stephen's summary in Acts chapter 7, Moses is now 40 years old.
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The last data we had on him was he was a three month old, now he's 40. From the period, the beginning of a new sentence, we have passed over decades of the life of Moses.
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Whatever the day to day experience in his royal upbringing may have been, we're given almost no details whatsoever.
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Decades have passed by and we've found him at the age of 40 going out from the palace to look at the burdens of his brethren.
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Notice that that's how we pick up the life of Moses in verse 11. If you follow some arguments of May, this is for instance
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Robert Alter who's famous for his work on translating the Old Testament, different books of the
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Old Testament. He argues that however a character is first introduced in terms of their first activity, that is meant to sort of give the biggest picture of their character, of their persona.
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So how a man is introduced in the narrative is emblematic of the sort of spinal cord of that man's integrity.
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And so perhaps that's going on here. Where do we pick up Moses? We pass by 40 years of his life, 40 years of Egyptian influence.
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We begin in verse 11, not learning so much about Moses himself, but learning about the very concern of Moses for his brothers, that is for his fellow
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Hebrews. That's how we pick up the life of Moses, isn't that interesting? We don't begin to have 30 minutes of filler material of Moses chariot racing with his brother as the famous animated movie would have it.
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We simply begin with this. When Moses was grown, 40 years old, he went out to his brethren and he looked at their burdens.
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That's our introduction to Moses. He went out and he looked at the burdens of his brethren.
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He went out for this very purpose. He went out from the palace to look at the burdens, the insufferable yoke of his fellow men,
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Hebrews, Israelites, those of Abraham. Now this prefigures
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God's activity. Maybe it's providential that we read all the way through chapter two. It prefigures what
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God does at the very end of this chapter. He sees, as a result of hearing the groans, hearing the cries, he looks at the burdens of his people.
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And that'll take us right into chapter three and what God has been preparing with Moses. So Moses here is prefiguring the activity of the
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Lord. He goes out and he sees the burdens of his people and he wants to act.
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God has put it on his heart to look at the burdens of his countrymen so that he might act.
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Here I am, Lord, send me, is the subtext of Moses. Now some argue that this going out to see his people is an indication that he had become aware of God's purpose to rise him up as a deliverer.
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In other words, there was something that took place within these 40 years, whether it was the patient instruction and the patient testimony of Jochebed, maybe it was more of a divine revelation or something that the
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Lord had placed upon him. There's something that he understands, perhaps scholars argue, of his mission, of his destiny to be raised as a deliverer to his people, as one who had been drawn out of death that he might draw them out of death.
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The text doesn't give us that, but at least the text says this much. He never counted himself as an
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Egyptian. He counted himself as a Hebrew. And the Hebrew were his brethren and he left the
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Egyptian court to go look at the burdens of his brethren. He would be numbered among them rather than numbered among the royal court of Pharaoh.
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Divine revelation or not, he certainly has the Spirit of God prompting and guiding him to be filled not with desires for the pleasures of the palatial life, but rather filled with a desire for his brethren's liberation.
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What does he see when he goes out? He saw an Egyptian beating a
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Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way and when he saw no one, he killed the
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Egyptian and hid him in the sand. It's the same verb there for beating and killed.
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Maybe that means the Egyptian was in the process of killing or that Moses simply struck the
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Egyptian and it was more manslaughter than anything else. But of course we translate it as killed because he hides him in the sand as a result.
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Moses goes out to see the burdens of his brothers and in seeing their plight, he becomes incensed.
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He looks around and he sees the misery, the groaning that will be the chorus of chapter two that stirs
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God to act. Moses sees this and he's incensed. I remember seeing, this is a sort of dramatic recreation but you can only imagine, if you've ever seen the series
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Band of Brothers, there's an episode where they liberate one of the concentration camps and they silently walk through past the barracks, barrack after barrack and they see the miserable condition of the people.
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Some are throwing up, no one's talking and there's a certain rage that's filling them, a rage toward even the townspeople.
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This was going on all around them and they played ignorant to it. There's a rage that's building in Moses as he looks at the plight of his brothers, the bondage that his fellow
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Hebrews are in. And when he sees an Egyptian, most likely a slave master, a task master, mercilessly beating a
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Hebrew even nigh unto death, he looks this way, he looks that way, we'll talk about that in a moment, he sees no one and so he strikes back, he strikes back.
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Remember it's the same verb and then killing the Egyptian, he hides the body in the sand.
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He sees an Egyptian beating one of his brothers and what do the
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Hebrews think when they see Moses? They probably think what the Midianites think when they see Moses, who's this Egyptian?
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He's dressed like an Egyptian, he walks like an Egyptian, he's as cultured and as educated as any
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Egyptian, clearly he's an elite Egyptian, that's how they view him, but how is he viewing the
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Hebrews? These are my brothers, this is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. And when he sees an
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Egyptian who looks like him beating a Hebrew who looks nothing like him, he counts himself, he numbers himself with the
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Israelites. He goes to deliver the Israelites, he turned thus and thus, he watches as this beating is unfolding.
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What happened this week? Did anyone see the video of Tyree Nichols being beaten in Memphis? Five officers, five officers surrounding him, beating him, it's sad that Tyree Nichols is being used as a political pawn, that always happens, but let's not forget what actually took place, a young man's life was snuffed out by being beaten, that's what
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Moses is seeing in this passage. He turned thus and thus, we automatically assume this means he was looking around to make sure he could do this little murder in secret, he's looking around, okay, alright,
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I think it's safe, I'm going to take my activity, that's possible, it seems to correspond to him hiding the body in the sand, but another way of understanding him looking around is he's looking for someone to help, he's looking for someone to act, he's looking for some authority to say stop.
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That's how some of the rabbis took it and of course they'd have good reasons to want to take it in that way, but we can go a step beyond the rabbis as we'll see shortly.
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And so Ben Jacob argues it may mean he saw there was no one to do justice and so he took it upon himself, he's looking left, he's looking right, who is there to intervene, who is there to deliver, who is there to rescue?
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When my brethren, my flesh are being crushed, like Isaiah 59, when the promise of the
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Redeemer is given to Zion, the Lord saw it displeased him, there was no justice, there was no man, he wondered where is the intercessor?
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You have something like that going on here in Exodus 2, where is the man? He's looking left and right, where is the intercessor?
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Where is the Redeemer come unto Zion? Now John Calvin, he takes up Stephen's summary in Acts 7, which
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I think must be the definitive answer on this and we'll consider it shortly, but he says
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Stephen bears witness that Moses was not impulsed by zeal, rash zeal, to stay the
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Egyptian, but rather he knew he was divinely appointed to be the deliverer of his nation.
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But then Calvin says, and still he looked about to see whether anyone would see him. He dared not to punish the wrongdoer except by a secret blow.
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And so Calvin's explanation is he of course was righteous and he was a man of justice and this is on the way to him becoming the mighty deliverer of Israel.
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But at the same time Calvin says he wasn't a perfect man and we clearly see here he had good intentions and he started out with the right desire and yet he went about it in the wrong way.
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This is something that God's going to have to work out in Midian. That's possible, that's possible. But Stephen says really nothing of the kind.
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Now we'll get to Stephen in a moment, but let's just keep reading in our text. Verse 13, he went out the second day.
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Please notice that. He went out the very next day and behold two
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Hebrew men were fighting. So you get the sense that he's going out continually vexing himself, burning himself with the condition of his people.
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He goes out day by day beseeching the Lord to act, day by day seeking what he can do to deliver and behold two
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Hebrew men are fighting and he said to the one who did the wrong, he comes onto the scene and he's able to ascertain who is guilty, why are you striking your companion?
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He has a better sense of brotherhood than even these two Israelites. Why are you striking your companion?
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And they said, he said, who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me like you killed the
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Egyptians? So Moses feared and he said surely this thing is known.
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And when Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian.
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Notice that first of all we begin, he went out the second day. He preferred to expose himself to these very risks, these very possibilities.
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There's a documentary coming out, it might already be out, I saw the trailer for it the other day called
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The Hard Places about a missionary doctor who for decades lived in Afghanistan through all the turmoil of the 80s, 90s, 2000s and beyond and he stayed there to help heal.
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He was an eye doctor, an ophthalmologist, but at the same time he was there ultimately to represent
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Jesus and to spread the gospel, he was in the hard place. He put himself in risk's way every day and that's what
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Moses is doing. The very next day and if he's around the day after that and the day after that, he's in the hard places because he's driven out of a concern for his brothers and of course he's trying to reconcile the brothers that are fighting and he says to the guilty one, why are you striking your companion, you're looking at him the wrong way, why are you treating him this way?
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And the man simply replies, who made you a prince and a judge over us? The word there is guilty, the one that was in the wrong, the one that was guilty, it's the language that belongs to the court, it's the language of a judge and the issue that this man has is what authority do you have to speak to me or try to correct me?
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Now that's important in terms of the narrative when we get to chapter 5, that's the issue that Pharaoh has. Who gave you authority to come address me?
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By what authority do you speak? Yahweh, I do not know your God. So the issue of authority is being front loaded here in chapter 2, notice it's among the
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Israelites themselves, this is going to be a recurring theme for the Israelites. Who gave you authority over us
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Moses? Not just in Exodus but in Numbers as well, all throughout Numbers. Even Miriam, even
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Aaron can begin to question and grate at the authority of Moses. Couldn't we do a little bit better than he?
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Couldn't we just take the reins for ourselves and God comes and his answer is not, you know what Miriam and Aaron, you're thinking rightly, you're thinking clearly, you should be vindicated,
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Moses has had his day in the sun, it's time for you to shine. Now what does he do? Leprosy, cast out of the camp,
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Moses is forced to intercede for his sister. God is a God of order, God is a
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God of authority, he loves authority. Moses has come and he's using this language of the judge and the man replies, who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
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Isn't that like a guilty person? Not actually dealing with their guilt or their offense but simply hurling back the insult, hurling back the offense at their accuser.
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Is that something that we as believers have been guilty of? Someone comes, hopefully lovingly, hopefully in a meek way but maybe not and they touch on the nerve of our offense, they expose something that we are guilty of.
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Are we able to stop our tongues and stand and say, you have spoken rightly?
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Are we able to do Judah's confession when it all comes tumbling out or do we hurl back, who are you?
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How could you say that to me? You of all people, let's take a look at your life. What about this, this, this, this secret rolodex we have on everyone to justify anything they might ever bring against us, may it never be.
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The innocent man, of course, was happy to have Moses come to save his skin. For some, they argue
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Moses really wasn't authorized to take this matter into his own hands. Who made you a ruler? Who made you a judge over us?
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And their answer is simply no one, not yet, not yet. No one has made Moses a judge yet.
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And then they'll go on to basically argue, well, this is a great failure. Everything that begins before Midian is
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Moses' well -intentioned attempt but ultimate failure to deliver his people.
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And then God's going to work him and prepare him in Midian to send him back and actually through God's grace and God's might,
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Moses will be a success. For others, and I tend to be more on the latter side of it, he's the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
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He can intervene with authority, with impunity. He can pretty much do as he pleases.
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If he would like to kill one of his servants, not a question will be asked. Usually a royal figure or a figure associated with a royal court could escape almost any social consequence, including accusing or judging others impromptu, including even beating to death in underling.
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Moses really could have handled this any way he pleased, but the sticking point is what the writer of Hebrews says in 11 .24.
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The sticking point is that Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
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If he had clung to that impunity, he could have been half royal
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Egyptian elite and then to soothe his conscience, half charity worker and social worker to the
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Israelites. He could have had his cake and eat it too, but notice Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
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He didn't want any association with Pharaoh's court whatsoever, so he was on his own. He wasn't accepted by the
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Israelites, clearly, neither was he accepted by the Egyptians, clearly. We could say he was a man of sorrow, well acquainted with grief, a man who in different ways didn't have the holes that foxes have or the nests that birds have.
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He had nowhere to lay his head. There was a rift, in other words, that had already been tearing
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Moses away from Pharaoh's court and it's not very hard then for Pharaoh to treat Moses like a renegade.
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When he caught wind of what Moses had done, he sought to kill him. Moses had already left the court decades before, first of all in his affections, in his mind and heart, and then quite physically he left the court, going out to unite himself to the plight of his people, and then that brought the tyranny and the rage of Pharaoh against him and he had to flee to Midian.
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In any case, we see here an attitude against Moses that reminds us of an attitude against the greater
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Moses, Jesus. Who are you to be a ruler over us?
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Who are you to be a judge of us? Stephen, in Stephen's great speech, when he's summarizing the very events that we've been reading in Genesis and Exodus, in Acts chapter 7, he's all over this and he's insinuating something about the
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Jews' rejection of Jesus. The next day he appeared, right, he captures the details that are significant to the way he's reporting the narrative.
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The next day, this was intentional, the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them.
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Very important vocabulary there for the early Christians. Here has come the deliverer seeking to reconcile the brethren.
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Here's Stephen as men are standing with stones in their hand across from him.
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Men, you are brethren, why do you wrong one another? But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
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So Stephen is insinuating, don't you see that's what you've done to the Lord Jesus? If that's not clear,
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Acts chapter 7 and 35, Stephen even goes further. This Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge is the one
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God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. So they're rejecting the very one that God had appointed to rule them, to deliver them.
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They reject the authority even as they had done before. Stephen is simply saying, you are as the
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Israelites were even in Exodus chapter 2. You reject the authority of the one that God has appointed.
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You reject his rule in your life. You will not have him over you. That's the issue.
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What I love about Stephen's summary overall is that the picture we get in my mind, the way
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I understand the narrative and the way the narrative is flowing and the way it's taken up by Stephen is we're not to see here
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Moses as the failure, Moses tucking his tail between his legs and running to Midian.
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No, no, no, we're looking at by faith Moses even here in Exodus chapter 2. What we see is not
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Moses the murderer trusting in the flesh and needing to go to Midian to learn how to trust in the Lord. I don't think that's what the narrative is giving us.
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What we see is Moses the defender. Moses the defender prefiguring
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God, the avenger of his people. Stephen's summary in Acts 7 if we begin in verse 22,
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Moses was learned and all the wisdom of the Egyptians was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer wrong, right?
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One of them suffer injustice. He defended, he avenged him who was oppressed.
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He struck down the Egyptian. This is something laudatory. Stephen is saying this is exemplary of what
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Jesus has done and of what Jesus will do. He will defend and avenge those who are oppressed.
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He will strike down the enemy of his people. If you don't get that out of Exodus, you've missed the entire narrative.
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Moses here is prefiguring the activity of God. And then
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Stephen goes on to explain for Moses, suppose that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
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And again, Stephen is insinuating you don't understand. Still, you don't see how a greater
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Moses has come and you don't see the deliverance that he has wrought. You don't see the fierce way that he will defend and avenge his own.
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So Moses is first and foremost, the defender. Second, Moses is the deliverer, beginning in verse the last part of verse 15, he flees
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Pharaoh, he he flees to Midian and he sat down by a well, he settled by a well.
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And the priest of Midian had seven daughters. Woof, I want to talk to that dad someday.
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How did that go? Raising seven girls. And they came and they drew water and they filled the troughs to water with their father's flock.
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Then the shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up, helped them and watered their flock.
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And when they came to Ruel, their father, he said, how is it you've come so soon today? And they said, an
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Egyptian, still walking and looking like an Egyptian, delivered us from the hand of the shepherds.
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And he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock. So we have another meeting at the well.
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We think immediately of Abraham's servant fetching Rebekah in Genesis 24. We think of Jacob and Rachel meeting at the well in Paddan Aram in Genesis 29.
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Of course, in the ancient Near East, water is a priority and the need for water brings people together.
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You want to have a dwelling place, if not by a body of water, then at least by a well. You would know the wells like I used to know all the
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McDonald's fast food places within a 20 mile radius. Which one was closest at any point on a street when
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I could eat that way? This probably has the same sense of dwelling rather than he went and sat on a well.
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This probably he came and he dwelt by this well. This is kind of the place he went. But Moses, the defender,
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Moses, the just man, Moses, the righteous man, when he sees oppression, when he sees injustice, he is provoked to interact.
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And that's what he sees here. He sees these seven daughters coming and filling the trough for their flocks to feed and the shepherds come in and go, thanks for doing all the heavy lifting.
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Now scram while we use up all the water that you poured. And until they're done and they leave, these poor sisters have to do it all over again.
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So the fact that Moses stands up and delivers them from this bullying, this brutality of the shepherds shows he has another opportunity to be a defender.
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It shows his character. Again, this is what the narrative is trying to present. Once a defender, always a defender.
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Once he numbered his lot with the oppressed, he will always number his lot with the oppressed.
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The verb here is so interesting for deliver. Well, the first thing that we read is he drove them away.
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And it's kind of an unusual verb. He drove them away, drove the shepherds away.
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Well, first of all, can we just take note of that? This is shepherds in the plural, Moses in the singular.
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He drove them away. Pretty tough guy.
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When Moses is called a mighty warrior, that's pretty impressive. Here's these shepherds and they can pick on seven sisters.
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But one man stands up and they all run. And sometimes that's what it takes is one man standing up and even plural enemies will scatter.
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And we see that here with Moses. He drives them away. And the Hebrew verb, it's somewhat unique.
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It's vay gershom. And you'll notice that gershom, driven away.
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It's part of how he names his son. When we get to the very end, he names his son gershom because he was a stranger in a foreign land.
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In other words, because he had been driven out of his abode, driven out of his desired dwelling place.
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And so here we have this sort of forecasted. He drove out the shepherds as one who had been driven out himself.
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And he's reminded of that fact. He's as a stranger. But then he saves them. And that is meant to present
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Moses not only as a defender, but as a deliverer. Choice words. And the verb here is very clear.
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He saves them. But the root word there is he delivered them. So again, we're getting this picture of Moses being prepared to be the deliverer of his people.
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He's not ready yet to be sent by God. We have to get through chapter three.
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He has to encounter the revelation of God's presence so that he can be fully equipped and prepared to walk before him as his mouthpiece and as the one who will do his mighty deeds in the land of Egypt.
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He's not yet ready, but he's still a deliverer in the making. And even when it's just a handful of shepherds,
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Moses is learning what it is to deliver the oppressed, to not lose heart and to not be filled with fear, but to stand with courage.
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So lastly, we see Moses as the stranger. Ruel, who in chapter three, verse one, we see his other name,
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Jethro, not uncommon for figures to have more than one name, Ruel could have been a title.
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It simply means friend of God. He's a priest of Midian. That could have been some sort of title or a way of understanding his role as a priest.
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The issue comes up. Would he have been a worshiper of Yahweh or would he have been a idolatrous priest, a priest of of false gods?
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The text doesn't spell this out, but Jethro is always presented in a positive light. Calvin basically says, surely there must have been some mixture of confusion because of the darkness of the time.
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But but he argues Jethro would have been one that had received the revelation, maybe even the
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Midianites are offspring of Abraham through Keturah. So there was some testimony, some witness of which
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Jethro understands he is a priest to the same God as Moses, though Moses will know far more about God as one who speaks with him face to face.
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Again, the text doesn't say all we can say is Jethro is never maligned in the text.
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He's presented as a man of integrity and as a good friend of God and of Moses. There's a parallel here with Joseph.
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Well, let me read the text. He said to his daughters, where is he? This guy chased away all these shepherds from you.
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You couldn't even invite him over for lasagna. Where is this guy? Don't you know, thank you note something.
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Where is he? Why is it you've left the man? This is the kind of man I'd like to have as a son in law, by the way. Call him that he can eat bread.
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Have you considered my daughters? Moses was content to live with the man, the one who had grown up with the most ornate.
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You know, have you been looking at some of the news headlines even this week, new tombs being discovered, new necropoly being discovered in Egypt, treasures.
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And these are not the highest level officials. These are wardens and lower level magistrates and the most ornate tomb, most ornate decorations, golden emblems wound into linen preserved in these coffin.
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Moses grew up in splendor, ostrich feathers, every dainty from across the farthest fringes of the
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Egyptian empire, the things that could spoil if they weren't brought before him within a few days time.
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He had everything at his immediate command. But where is he content to dwell? He wasn't content to dwell there.
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He was content to dwell in a tent in the desert. Amazing meekness, amazing humility, as we'll see.
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He was content to live with the man. And Ruel gave
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Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses and she bore him a son and he called his name Gershon, for he said,
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I've been a stranger in a foreign land. Isn't it interesting, this parallel with Joseph, who was also raised up as a deliverer of God's people, saved them from the clutch of the famine, from the certain death of the famine.
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And he was brought into a foreign land and he married the daughter of a priest. So Genesis 41 here showing up in Exodus 2.
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The great theme, the great emphasis, of course, is ending with Gershon. And the reason that Moses names his first born
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Gershon is because he recognizes, I have been a stranger in a foreign land.
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Now, on the surface of things, we simply want to say, yes, it's very sad, Moses. You had your home all set up in Egypt and you had everything going very well for you.
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But then some accident happened and you had to run away. And now you're a stranger in a land that doesn't belong to you.
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Here you are in Midian. But we know enough of the story and we have enough evidence from Hebrews 11 to know that is not the case here.
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That is not the significance of Gershon. Moses is not a stranger because he can't return to Egypt.
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He's a stranger in a foreign land because the only land in which he would be home is the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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That is his home. That is the country that he seeks. And beyond that, in the largest scale, he seeks the city promised in that land, the city whose builder and maker is
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God. These all, we read it at the beginning, right, speaking of the pre -patriarchal narrative in Genesis, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off or assured of them, embraced them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
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Moses is confessing like they did, that he's a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth, even though he's content now to dwell in Midian, even
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Midian is not his home. He's a stranger in a foreign land. He confesses, I'm a pilgrim on the earth.
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I'm looking for that which God has promised. And so Calvin, I think rightly says
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Moses declares that land, which he had found apparently a peaceful resting place and a pleasant home to be strange to him.
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Here, I am content and here I'm still a stranger. Here is not where I ultimately want to reside.
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Here's not where I'm ultimately made whole. Here is not where my ultimate hope lies. I'm a pilgrim.
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I'm a stranger in this place. Now, in a certain sense, this is true of all men, all men are indeed strangers and sojourners, as Thomas Manton, the great
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Puritan said, all men indeed are strangers. But the saints best discern it and most freely acknowledge it.
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Wicked men have no firm dwelling on the earth, but that is against their every intention, their inward thought and desires that they may abide here forever.
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I remember being in a taxi cab in San Antonio a few years ago and the person driving the taxi cab was going on about CRISPR and genetic sequencing and said, you know, the rumors are the first immortal has been born among us.
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Now we're going to be the last generation of mortals. I just thought, oh, that babble is going to come toppling down.
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That's the wicked intention. Oh, that we could abide forever. Oh, that we would not be cut off.
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But the godly know this land is not our land.
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This life is ultimately not our abode. The place that we're the most content, the place that we call home is ultimately still a strange place to us.
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Bunyan says this, when you begin reading Pilgrim's Progress and the Apology, he says, every individual of our race is on a pilgrimage, not just Christians.
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Every human being is on a pilgrimage from the cradle to the grave. It is the progress of the soul through time to enter into boundless eternity, beset on all sides, at every avenue, at every moment with spiritual foes journeying from the commencement to the close of the course through an enemy's country.
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This is Genesis three writ large. They were taken out into a fallen world.
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The only hope is to be restored to the place where God dwells securely with his people forever.
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A new heavens, a new earth. That's the heavenly city that we seek. All else in this life we are but strangers and pilgrims to.
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Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. That's been the song that has been sung for centuries.
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Hear my prayer, as the psalmist says, David, in Psalm 39, O Lord, give ear to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears.
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I'm a stranger with you, a sojourner as all my fathers were. David doesn't look at his throne established in Israel and say, oh, we finally made it.
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Here's the land. Here's the settlement. I have what Moses was looking for, what
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Jacob and Isaac and Abraham were looking for. I got it. Now, even
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David says, I'm a stranger, I'm a sojourner, just like all my fathers. This land is ultimately the land of promise.
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No wonder Paul could say that in Abraham, those who have the faith of Abraham are heirs of the world, not having received the promises, having seen them afar off.
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They were assured of them, embraced them, confessed that they were strangers on the earth. What must we do to have the faith of Moses?
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There's probably many things that we could say, but let me give you three in the time that we have left. Let me give you three things we must do.
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If we would have the faith of Moses. Faith that doesn't begin in Midian, faith that begins long before, faith that begins four decades of being in the
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Egyptian palace is by faith, Moses not counting himself as an
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Egyptian, though everyone around him counts him as an Egyptian. Not concerning himself with the luxuries and the desires of the flesh, but concerning himself with the burdens of his people.
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So the first thing we must do if we would have the faith of Moses is simply this, we must submit to the means of maturity.
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We must submit to the means of maturity. I choose that carefully because.
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Generally speaking, I'm not talking about the means of grace, we must use the means of grace, there's a good application, but we must submit to the means of being made mature.
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And it tends to be that the way that God makes his people mature is through crisis and trial.
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And that's why I use the word submit, we must submit to the means of maturity.
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Calvin says that though certainly Moses was by faith, Moses, even before he fled to Midian, he was,
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Calvin's words, not yet ripe for the contest that awaited him. I think he's right, he wasn't ripe for the contest that was awaited, he was on the way.
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He was, to use the language of Mark four, he was the blade, but he wasn't yet the head and he certainly wasn't yet the full grain.
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He was bursting forth with all of this zeal and vitality, but he hadn't yet been tried and seasoned, and so he's not fully mature and therefore fully prepared to go and stand before Pharaoh and say, thus saith the
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Lord. Calvin picking up on this says, because he was not ripe,
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God in a manner withdrew him. All right, speaking providentially, in a manner, in a providential manner,
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God withdrew him away from Egypt, away from the daily encounters of his brethren, into the wilderness of Midian.
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For the experience of 40 years, it was another 40 years before God revealed himself to Moses at the age of 80, so for 40 more years in the wilderness, does that sound familiar?
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We talked about Moses prefiguring Israel's experience, being brought through the waters of death and delivered safely on the other side in the ark.
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He's prefiguring Israel being brought through the waters of death, delivered on the other side. And here he's prefiguring
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Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, waiting patiently and faithfully upon God.
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What a contrast between Moses and the people of Israel. For the experience of 40 years in such an ascetic mode of life, did not a little, in other words, did very much prepare him for enduring hardship.
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So that we may call the desert the very school where he was taught. The desert was the school where he was taught, he was on the way, he had the right heart, the right character, but the desert was the school where he had to be taught.
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In other words, he had to submit to the means of maturity. I mentioned
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Mark 4, let me go into that a little bit. Mark 4, verse 28, Jesus teaches from this parable, the earth yields crops by itself.
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First the blade, then the head, and then after the full grain, right? I'm not a green thumb, but I know there's gardeners in the room.
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First the blade, then the head, and then after the head, the full grain, right?
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Sprouting off of the head. Whatever fruit we have as believers was once in seed form, and only by God's blessing did it burst forth and become a blade or a bud.
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Now, certainly as a preacher, I feel the pressure that we would just bypass the blade stage and simply go from seed to full head with grain, luxurious grain sprouting.
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I wish that for my own life as much as anyone here, but that's not how God grows his people.
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First the blade, then the head, then the full grain.
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It's not true in my own life that I went from blade, you know, weak to full grain, right?
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Maybe it'll take 40 years. I don't know if I have 40 more years to be frank, probably not.
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John Newton, I think one of the best commentaries on this passage, on this explanation, and I'll spare a lot of the detail here, but just get to the main point.
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He looks at the characteristics of each stage of the believer, blade, head, full grain, right?
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Immature to maturing to fully mature. And he says, speaking of the blade, the immature believer,
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I think the characteristic of the state of the blade is desire. We see that with Moses, don't we?
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In Exodus 2, desire. Daily going out to see the burdens of his brothers.
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He has this desire. He has this pent up zeal. He wants to be used of the
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Lord. He wants to deliver. Even when he has no plan B, he just acts. He's immature in this way, but he has a right and godly desire.
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Now it needs to be matured. I think the characteristic, John Newton, the characteristic of the state of the blade is desire.
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And the head, the characteristic of the head, the maturing believer, is conflict.
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Submitting to the means of maturity. Conflict. Crisis. Trial. Not that the maturing believer, not that the head's desire has subsided, or even that the blade was immune to conflict, but rather there was such a keenness in the blade's desires.
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And that was probably the most characteristic thing about that stage. Think of it in your life.
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The most characteristic thing about when you first became a Christian, you were just a lightning bolt of desire.
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But then, as you're maturing in the Lord, that desire is almost replaced by turmoil.
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And he says, for a season after we have known the Lord, we usually have the most distressing experience of our lives.
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The most disturbing experiences of our natures. The Lord begins to appoint occasions and turns in our lives which try us.
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We are prone to spiritual pride, to self -dependence, to vain confidence, to creaturely attachments, and a whole train of evils.
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The Lord in this season will sometimes show us what he can do for us, what he can do in us. At other times, how little we can do, how unable we are to stand without him.
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By a variety of these things, the head, the maturing believer, is trained up in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of the
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Lord. He's being trained up to know more about himself, more about his patterns, more about his vulnerabilities, and more about God, and his patience, and his forbearance, and his mercy.
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Then he goes on to talk about the mature believer, the fully mature believer. The full grain. He says the full grain's superiority to the head.
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The fully mature believer's superiority to the maturing believer is chiefly this.
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His great business is to behold the glory of God. Now that sounds a lot to me like going from Exodus 2 in the wilderness of Midian to Exodus 3.
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To go from experiencing trials and weakness, what God can do and what cannot be done apart from God, to simply being only about the glory of God until the day comes when
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God reveals his glory to Moses. And by beholding the glory of God in the
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Lord Jesus, he is changed into the same image and brings forth the fruits of righteousness.
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Are you submitting to the means of maturity? Moses was content to dwell with the man, and to marry
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Zipporah, and to raise up Gershom and later Eleazar. He was content.
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He didn't have the same burgeoning desire as he did when he was a blade out on the
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Egyptian alleyways looking at the plight of his brethren. But because of the trials, and the weakness, and the vulnerabilities of 40 years of being in that wilderness, and of looking to the
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Lord, the Lord was preparing him, teaching him in that school of the desert, more and more about who he is, what kind of man he is, and more about who the
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Lord is, until the great revelation of the glory of God is given to him. He had only been receiving droplets and mists morning by morning or week by week.
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In Exodus 3, the floodgates open. You alone, Moses, have the greatest revelation of who
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I am. With you alone do I speak face to face, not in riddles or in mysteries, but as a man to a man.
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It is worth submitting to the means of maturity. It is worth not dropping out or getting kicked out of the school of the desert.
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Moses, as John Trapp said, Moses had learned much in Egypt, but far more in Midian.
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He had a world -class education in ancient standards, a world -class education in Pharaoh's court.
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He had a heavenly class education in the desert of Midian. So the first thing we must do is submit to the means of maturity.
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If we would have the faith of Moses, if we would have the faith of Moses, we must submit to the means of maturity.
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As a believer, that means when you recognize that you no longer have the desire that you once had.
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That same burgeoning desire is different now than it once was. Things are not as plain and as easy.
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They don't come forth as readily as they used to. And in its place are struggles and trials and dryness and discouragements.
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And if you would have the faith of Moses to press forward in that for 40 years, you must submit to it.
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You must recognize it for what it is. You're in the school of the desert. God is maturing you from that stage of being simply a blade to becoming fruitful, to becoming a growing head bearing grain.
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The second thing we must do is we must esteem the reproach of Christ. We must esteem the reproach of Christ.
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I .M. Haldeman, in his exposition, he just put together a running list of what he calls striking antitheses between, or in the life of Moses.
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Striking antitheses in the life of Moses. He was the child of a slave, the son of a queen.
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He was born in a hut, but lived in a palace. He inherited poverty, but enjoyed unlimited wealth.
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He was the leader of armies, but the keeper of flocks. He was the mightiest of warriors, but the meekest of men.
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He was educated in the court, but he lived in the desert. He had the wisdom of Egypt, but the faith of a child.
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He was fitted for the city, but wandered in the wilderness. He was tempted with the pleasures of sin, but endured the hardships of virtue.
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He was backwards in speech, but he talked with God. He had the rod of a shepherd, but the power of the infinite one.
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He was a fugitive from Pharaoh, but an ambassador from heaven. He was the giver of the law, but a forerunner of grace.
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By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction.
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Please note, that is an active verb. It is not passive, meaning he was not actively exercising the activity.
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It was not, he was made to suffer affliction, or because of circumstances beyond his control, he was brought to a place where he had to suffer affliction.
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Please notice what the writer of Hebrews is saying. He actively, personally, volitionally, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
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I don't want to claim to it, you can keep it all. And in the place of refusing the title, and the prestige, and the comfort, and the security, what did he choose in its place?
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Was he holding out for something better? Oh, that's really great, but if I just am a little more patient, I'll get something even better.
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A bigger kingdom, more wealth, more power. What does he choose in its place? He actively, willfully, volitionally chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
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He chose that. Daily he went out from his ostrich plume feather fanned throne to the streets, and he chose to be in the streets.
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He chose to take on the plight of those in bondage. He chose, as it were, slavery.
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Rather than happiness, bondage, rather than splendor. Don't you see what the writer of Hebrews is getting at?
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He chose the reproach of Christ's esteeming the reproach of Christ.
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You choose based on your estimation of something's worth, right? You esteem something.
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You go to a restaurant, and you have a menu. If you go to Cheesecake Factory, it's like an 18 -page menu.
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I generally, here goes my free coupons to Cheesecake Factory.
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Generally, when you have a menu that big, they can't do everything well. That's my little two cents of wisdom for you all.
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Go to a place with a short menu. They only do what they can do well, or what's not in the freezer for three years, right?
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You esteem something. You look on this big menu, and you say, oh, that sounds good, but that sounds better.
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I think I want that. I want the Alfredo with the scallops on the side. You esteem that, and because you esteem it, you choose it.
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What does Moses esteem? The writer of Hebrews says, what's of greatest value to him?
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Of Christ, the suffering of Christ, the suffering of his people.
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That's of more value than Egypt's gold, and he chooses it because he esteems it to be more valuable, more worthwhile, more worthy of his life and his time and his effort.
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He looked to the reward, not a reward that a pharaoh could offer, not a reward that any pursuit or ambition in his life could offer.
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He looked to the reward that only God could offer. By faith, he forsook
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Egypt. We read it as he was chased out of Midian. But what does the writer of Hebrews say?
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He forsook it. Why did he say that? He forsook it from the first day he had it.
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From the day that Jonkabed no longer was nursing him and said, my boy, remember everything that mom has taught you all these years.
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Remember how every morning I stirred you out of bed and we declared the Shema together. Remember how
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I told you and reminded you of the great testimony of Abraham. Remember all that mom has taught you. You're not an Egyptian, Moses.
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You're Hebrew. He had forsaken Egypt for 40 years.
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He might as well go to Midian. He had never been one in Pharaoh's court. That was of lesser value than the reproach of his people.
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That was of lesser value than the affliction of Christ. What does the writer of Hebrew go on to say in verse 27?
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By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, because he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
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Not fearing. Why? Because he just walks into Midian and he's content to marry and dwell. He's not afraid of Pharaoh's reach.
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And why is he not afraid? Why is he not filled with fear? He endures seeing him who is invisible.
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Seeking him who is invisible. Whether I'm in the palace steps or in the
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Egyptian alleyways or in the desert sand dunes of Midian, I'm seeking the one who is invisible.
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And as we get to chapter three in a couple weeks, the one who is invisible will now seek him.
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Show himself to him. Moses possessed all the ease, all the wealth, all the dignity of Pharaoh's house, the pleasures of sin, the treasures of Egypt.
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All of this was laid open before him. He had but to pluck and eat like Eve. But he esteemed to suffer better than to partake.
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He esteemed the reproach of Christ. There are many ways he could have vindicated having a leg in both.
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He could have said, from my position, the more I'm invested in it, I'll only better be able to advocate for my people.
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I'll be a philanthropist, a benevolent patriot. And I'll do that best from within my luxurious comforts and headquarters in Pharaoh's court.
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He could have assuaged his conscience. Let me chase out my ambition, enjoy the best things this life has to offer, and then, as tribute,
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I'll offer some hours here or there, some small token of my resources to help God's cause and God's mission.
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Is that good enough? That's not what faith requires.
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That's not what faith requires. Faith demands an identification with the people of God, an identification with the crucified but risen
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Savior. It demands it. And listen to me, you cannot straddle the
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Christian life. You cannot have one foot in the world, one foot in the pleasures of sin in Pharaoh's court, and pretend or suppose that you have one foot in the will of God.
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Faith demands an identification with Christ. You must esteem being identified with the
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Lord Jesus as of greater value than the pleasures of sin or all the treasures the world has to offer.
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What does it gain you to gain all that and lose your soul? What does it gain you? Faith demands to be identified with Christ.
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Do you know in New Testament parlance what identification with Christ looks like? Baptism.
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Baptism. It looks like a confession of repentance and faith, and then an eager desire to be baptized.
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Why? Why is baptism an initiation ritual that Christians have been engaged with for thousands of years?
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Why? Because it's essentially saying, I am no longer identifying myself with anything other than the
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Lord Jesus and the people that also belong to the Lord Jesus. I have been buried with him in his death, and my hope is to be risen with him even as he is risen.
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And I'm showing that forth to all by being baptized. Don't count me as an Egyptian any longer.
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I've forsaken Egypt though I stand within it. I'm not a Babylonianite even though I stand within the gates of Babylon.
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I'm identified with Christ. I esteem his reproach to be more valuable than anything the world has to offer.
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And therefore, my life is in his hands. And I'm no longer my own.
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Nothing belongs to me. It's all for him. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
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Moses chose rather to suffer affliction. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ.
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Why? Because he esteemed Christ though from afar.
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How are you going to esteem the reproach of Christ? How are you going to do it? Who esteems suffering?
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Who has a higher value on enmity and reproach? How could you possibly put a higher value on that than comfort and ease and not ruffling feathers and looking like everyone else looks and being thought of well by everyone?
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How could you put a value higher than that if it's suffering and being ridiculed and being mocked and being a loser?
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How are you going to put a higher value on that? The only way you will esteem the reproach of Christ is if you esteem
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Christ. And that brings us to the third and the last point.
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We must look to Jesus for encouragement. We must look to Jesus for encouragement.
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We are in the unique position compared to Moses and his fellow countrymen that we know clearly who to look to and we know clearly what he has done.
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We don't see it vaguely or from afar. We know it intimately because it has been finished.
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And we look to Jesus for encouragement because it's not easy to esteem reproach and it's not easy to submit to the means of maturity.
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You will not submit to the means of maturity. You will not esteem reproach and choose reproach rather than compromise unless you're looking to Jesus for encouragement.
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Hebrews 12, verse 2 and 3, looking unto
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Jesus. I much prefer the translation, which I think is more poetic than literal, but that's fine, fixing our eyes upon Jesus.
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This is not a glance. This is a concerned, eager look.
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This is the kind of look that Moses had when he every day left the palace. To look at his fellow brothers.
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He looked with concern, looked with intent, looked to act and respond. That's how we are, to look to Jesus.
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We look with intent, with the desire to respond. Looking unto
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Jesus, the author, the finisher of our faith. Who for joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame but has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Consider him, the writer of Hebrews says. Look to him, consider him.
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Don't just look and then look away, but look and consider. Think of him.
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Ponder his word, the activity he takes in the gospels, all that he has given.
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Ponder his excellencies, ponder his sufferings. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
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So why do you look to Jesus? Why do you consider Jesus? So that you don't be discouraged.
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When you're submitting to the means of maturity. And you're trying really hard to esteem reproach.
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God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power. And of love and of a sound mind.
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Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Paul says, don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner.
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Share with me instead the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling.
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Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus before time began.
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And now has been revealed by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel to which
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I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason,
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I suffer these things. But I'm not ashamed. I know who
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I have believed. I know who
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I've been looking at. I know who I've been considering. Paul says, and that's why
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I'm not discouraged. You must look to Jesus so that you will be encouraged.
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So that you, like Moses, can believe in the promise of God, whether you're in the Egyptian court or in the
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Midianite desert, that you can believe in the coming deliverer, a redeemer, a savior, a king, who will bring forth all that God intended at creation.
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Moses knew God is going to keep his promise. Whatever else the world may look like, whatever
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Egypt or Midian or any other kingdom may do, God is faithful to his word.
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God will bring forth even things that seem impossible. Moses believed God. He believed
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God, whether he was in the palace of Pharaoh or in the desert school. This, and I close with this, this
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I recall to my mind. Lamentations 321. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, I have hope.
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Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him.
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That is someone who's looking to Jesus for encouragement. He's my portion. All this world has to offer is not my portion.
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I'm a stranger. I'm a pilgrim. It's not my portion. My hope is in him. He's my portion.
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The Lord is good to those who wait for him. He's content to dwell, embrace
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Zipporah, raise Gershom and Eliezer. He was content. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, even in the place of suffering.
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The Lord is good to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the
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Lord. The subtext between verse 22 and verse 23 is 40 years of groaning and crying out as Moses is in the desert, vexed over the plight of his brethren, but not knowing what to do, seeking the
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Lord daily, considering him lest he be discouraged. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the
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Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.
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Bless it to our hearts, Lord. Do not let the seed that has been cast return to you empty, but give it increase,
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Lord. We pray that those who are blades here would press on to become heads, and those who are heads maturing would press on to bear full fruit and be fully mature, but more than that,
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Lord, we pray for those present this morning who are neither blade nor head nor full grain.
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They're strangers to you rather than strangers to this world. Bring them near,
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Lord. Break down that wall of separation, we pray in your son's name.