10/8/23 Exodus 1-16 “A Most Unlikely Leader”

04 Oct 10/8/23 Exodus 1-16 “A Most Unlikely Leader”

10/8/23   Exodus 1-16      “A Most Unlikely Leader”

You may not know this but just about any time I get up in front of people or an audience like this online, I feel very honored and privileged to be giving you this message.  I think that any pastor worth his salt will feel this way.  This past week, I had the honor of having breakfast with a pastor with over 50 years of experience in the pulpit.  We talked about many of the things you might think that a couple of old pastors might talk about and some other things also.  This fellow is considering retiring in the very near future for the second time.  He is obviously old enough and unfortunately; he is also tired.  Now I know exactly how he feels as I felt the same way when I retired but, and praise the Lord, I survived a massive heart attack.  They fixed my heart and I had more energy than I could remember having in a long time.  Most people don’t understand the amount of energy it takes to be a pastor.  Anyway, we had breakfast and I was trying my best to absorb all the wisdom that I could from this wise veteran of the pulpit.  And this reminds me that this is pastor appreciation month.  Don’t forget to do something special for your local pastor.  Today, we are going to look once again at one of the patriarchs of the Bible, Moses.  He was a leader, a prophet, and a man very faithful to God.  Let’s see if we can see any traits and wisdom in this great leader that might help us.

Andrew Chan tells the story of man in a hot air balloon who was lost.  He came low to the ground and spotted a woman below him.  He shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me?  I promised to meet a friend an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”  The woman replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon about 30 feet above the ground.  You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.  “I am,” replied the woman.  “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct but I’ve no idea of what make of your information and I am still lost.  As a matter of fact you have not been much help.  If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”  The woman below responded saying, “You must be management or a politician.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”  Personally, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a situation that has been helped by blaming others but it is a terrible trait that everyone in this country seems to have.  We have to blame someone whether they are guilty or not.   And unfortunately, that is what our so-called leaders are doing in this country just about every day.  Our politicians would do a lot better if they used Moses as an example. He would have done things a lot different.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you of who Moses was.  He was an Israelite who grew up in an Egyptian home.  As a young man, he witnessed terrible things against his people.  Finally, one day, he snapped and this young hot head killed an Egyptian.  Then he had to flee the country to save his life.  If this would have happened in our country today, there would have been a manhunt until Moses was brought to justice or we would ignore the whole thing.  We don’t like to think about Moses as being an escaped murderer but that is what he was.

So Moses is a bit less than a good character.  On top of this he had some sort of speech impediment so that he did not speak very well.  Moses might have been one of the most broken people that God has used in our Bible stories so far.  Then we have to top it off with his age.  Moses was an old man.  Experts figure he was about 80 years old when he went back to Egypt.  He was even older than my pastor friend is so maybe he might have also been a little tired.  When they first went up before the Pharaoh, it was almost a comical scene.  I’m not trying to be sacrilegious here, but I’m making some points by using a little humor.  This low-down murderer comes to see the most powerful man on earth, who is the Pharaoh.  This man can’t even talk right so he has to bring his brother, Aaron.  So here come these two 80 year old men, who lean on canes, to see the Pharaoh.  And these two old guys don’t ask the Pharaoh for things, they demand it.  This has all the makings of a comedy movie.  We all know people who are 80 and maybe there are some here today but I doubt it because they really don’t run computers or even care to run them.  I doubt if anyone of you or them would ever go before the President of this country and demand that they let the people of North Dakota go free.  And yet this is basically what Moses and Aaron are doing.  We have read this story so much that we don’t think about the reality of it.  Now here is some more reality.

As we look at the story of Moses and the Pharaoh, I think that we can see how it is a lesson in problem solving.  God sees a tremendous problem in that all of His people have been made into slaves by the Egyptians.  When we left the story with Joseph, he was all but the head of the nation.  Now 400 years have passed.  It is like how we might relate to the people of the 1600s.  A long time has passed.  What actually happened was a new family came into power in Egypt and they enslaved the Jews so that they wouldn’t be a threat to the nation because there were so many of them.

Anyway, God sees His people in trouble.  So He goes over to Midian, on the other side of the Red Sea, and he hires on this old guy with a cane who can hardly talk.  He then brings this guy and his brother to Egypt so that they can set the Jews free.  Now you try to tell me that God does not have a sense of humor.

The first thing to notice here is that there are huge problems.  The people are in bondage, the Egyptians are cruel, and Moses and Aaron have to figure out a way to see the most powerful person in the world, the Pharaoh.  There were other problems but these are just a few of the big ones.  I would like to say here that just because there are problems doesn’t mean that you are not in God’s will.

You see, problems of the world are kind of like temptations in that they are everywhere.  They are there for the people of God and for the nonbelievers.  Just because you are in the middle of problems or temptations, does not mean that God is not with you.  Just the opposite is true.  God is always there and He is always waiting for you to ask Him for help.  I would say from experience, that most, if not all, problems come from the devil.  We live in a world controlled by the devil and he wants us to be a part of his evil flock.  It is up to you to have the backbone, the fortitude to shout out loud, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Satan get out of my life.”  If you can say this one phrase when you get in trouble, or have problems or face temptation, your life will get easier.  Then continue to go to Jesus for help with anything and everything.

So problems are around us.  We also have to recognize that all things work on God’s timetable, not ours.  God has a problem and our human way of solving this would be to march in and have a war.  Or we would somehow just get the people out of this situation.  But the way of God is much more deliberate, with lots of things to learn and not so violent.  God could have just had the people march out.  But we need to remember that it has been 400 years since they have heard much about the presence of God.  Many or most of the Jews had made many aspects of the Egyptian culture part of their culture.  We can see this when the people wanted to return to Egypt at the first sign of hardship.  God wanted to show the Egyptians and the Jews that He is God.

Now I know that this is one of our biggest complaints.  Why doesn’t God just fix this situation?  Why did God do this or let that happen?  I would say that there isn’t a person here today who hasn’t asked questions like this at one time or another.  We have many people in this country, this area, who refuse to believe because they cannot control the timetable of God.  They want things done and they want them done now.  And if they aren’t done their way, then they just can’t believe in God.  This is very common and very sad.

God is so huge that we cannot even begin to understand what He has to deal with.  If God solves your problem right now, He might create 10 more problems around you.  We don’t know how something will affect us, our families, our neighbors or our community.  But God does.  He knows how everything will work, how it is all connected and what the solutions need to be.  Our job in all this is to just trust God.  As far as I can tell, He has not messed up one thing in eternity past and He will not mess up for eternity future.  We are the ones who mess up so we need to just trust God.

There is also a little warning in our story of Moses.  When you are faced with a problem, be careful which way you turn.  Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he killed him.  It doesn’t say God told him to do this.  I don’t think this was God’s way of handling the situation.  Moses just turned the wrong way to find a solution.  It probably cost God about 50 years before he could bring Moses back.

This is something that we all do.  You can be the best Christian in the world and you will still turn the wrong way in some situations.  Prisons are full of people like Moses who made bad decisions.  Our streets are full of people like this as are our churches, this broadcast.  I have to confess to you that I learn things the hard way.  It seems that I have to be conked on the head in order for me to do something that is new or out of the ordinary.  I have turned the wrong way many times in my life.  However, I think that I am learning to try do what God tells me, period.  God’s plan was always that I should be a pastor.  Unfortunately, I delayed it by not knowing and trusting God.
So now I ask, “What is God’s plan for you?”  Has God planned for you to be a farmer, or business owner, or a professional or a non-professional?  God plans our lives for us.  If you are feeling good about what you are doing, then I would say there is a good chance you are following God’s plan.  Also remember that God may want you to be a farmer today and a teacher of farming tomorrow someplace.

Also, it is hard for us to be satisfied with who we are.  We get bombarded with ads telling us to look beautiful.  We are told we have to be politically correct or we are doomed.  The devil is placing these types of things all around us.  This evil being has all sorts of ways to try to get you away from God’s plan.  My advice to you is not to follow any of them.  Every one of you is beautiful.  You are all politically correct. Don’t get pulled into a lifestyle where you one day wake up and find you have been serving Satan for years.  Be careful which way you turn.  And always, always pray about these decisions.

Moses, despite all of his faults and shortcomings, was a great leader.  For the most part, he recognized problems of the world.  Then he went to God to find out what to do.  In the case of the plagues, he waited for God to act.  He turned to God and not away from God.  He did all of these things because of the bottom line.  God had a plan for Moses and his people.  God was going to carry out this plan.  There is no stopping God.  He has a plan for you and He will see that it is done.

This is something that all our leaders should keep in mind.  God loves us so much that He has a plan for each and every one of us.  It is an easy plan to follow if we just set ourselves aside and trust God.  He will lead you to a life that is good.  Will bad things happen?  Of course they will!  But when they do, if you are following Jesus in all that you do, then you will have a way to cope and conquer adversity.  So, if you don’t have Jesus living in your heart then confess your sins to Him and ask Him to into your life today.  This simple little alteration in your life will become the most important thing that you will ever do.

Today, God has been showing us what happened to a man who was flawed in many ways.  We will see this time and again as we study these stories.  The difference between Moses and others is that Moses obeyed God, especially in crunch time, when he was in front of the Pharaoh.  Moses obeyed and God delivered.  God will do the same thing for any of you if you just try to obey Him in all, all things.  He loves you so much that He has given you this simple plan to follow.  When you do, then this world will open up like you never thought possible.  I just praise the Lord every day that He loves you this much.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.