The Story of God: Return to Egypt
July 9, 2018
When Becky and I left Oregon to follow God’s call to lead a church plant in Langley, BC back in February of 97, we had no idea what the journey would be like. All we knew is that God had called us and we were ready to go. What I didn’t know was that there would be some twists and turns and bumps along the way. Our first bump occurred shortly before we were to leave: I got deathly ill and we couldn’t make it to our first Sunday. Then after arriving the following week, I ended up spending the first month of my ministry living in a basement suite, while Becky and the girls prepared for the journey back in Oregon. After finally finding a house, I came back to Oregon, and we loaded our family and all our stuff for the journey to the home we just purchased. Upon our arrival we were greeted by about 20 people who came to help us unload. In about two hours we had furniture and boxes in every room, and we were quickly getting to know the people who would become our friends and partners in ministry. In fact, our first year was a total blessing. God helped us grow with a steady stream of new families every week and some of them came to faith in Jesus that first year. But it wasn’t all that easy. At one point I faced some opposition that made me question my call. At another point, we blew out the transmission on our Subaru and had no money to fix it. At another point, we had a real battle with Immigration that threatened our status in Canada. But at the end of the day, God was faithful. And God worked through His people to help us through the opposition we faced, the funds we didn’t have, and the legal battle we had no control over. You see, God had called us to serve with Him in Canada, but He never promised it would be smooth sailing. He never promised it was going to be easy.
In fact, whenever God calls anyone to be part of His story – whenever God calls you to follow Him, obey Him or serve Him you will encounter some bumps in the road. Life won’t always be easy and there will be unexpected things that happen – some good, and some not so good. And the fact is, that always been the case for anyone God calls to follow Him. And since God calls all of us to follow Him by faith, then what He has to reveal to us from His Story today should help us in our journey of faith as we seek to serve Him. So if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to find Exodus 4:18-13, where we get to travel along with Moses as he seeks to obey God’s call. And as we do, we’re going to see the challenges and blessings he encounters along the way. So if you’ve found Exodus 4, lets dive into his story and look at Moses’ first step of his journey as he is Preparing to Return to Egypt Let’s look at the text: Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” Exodus 4:18 The first thing we see here is that before Moses leaves, he honors his father-in-law by seeking his permission to return to Egypt. At first glance it may seem as though Moses is being bit dishonest. He says nothing about God’s assignment for him to go and deliver Israel. But what we do see is Moses being thoughtful and respectful of Jethro. After all, Jethro depended on Moses. He shepherded his flock. He carried for his daughter and grandchildren. So to go back to Egypt meant that he’s going to give back the sheep and take some of Jethro’s family away. So Moses comes to Jethro and says it’s time for him to go back to see if any of his family are still alive. This was a half-truth. Moses had not seen his family for 40 years. This was a good enough reason to get his permission.
And yet, what we need to see here is that Moses desires Jethro’s blessing. That’s the emphasis here. The emphasis is not on God’s call, but on Jethro’s honor. Moses is giving Jethro the respect due him. And Jethro acknowledges this and gives his blessing. Moses could have burned bridges with his family over God’s calling, but he didn’t. He honored Jethro. He gave Jethro time to adjust to his leaving. He gave his family time to prepare themselves. He was thoughtful and respectful. This was a good goodbye.
And so next we read: Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. Exodus 4:19-20 When Moses left he had his family at his side, but he also had his staff in his hand. Except that it was no longer his staff – it was “the staff of God.”With this subtle change we can see a transformation has taken place. Now with God’s staff in hand, he not only had the assurance that God was with him – but he also carried a tangible reminder of God’s authority – that God would help him succeed.
There are a couple truths we can take away from this. First, Whenever God calls you to serve, you serve under His authority. That’s what the staff represented to Moses. It was a constant reminder that he was serving under God’s call and his ministry was not really his ministry – it was God’s. And if you can understand that, it takes the pressure off. Whenever God calls you to serve, you serve under His authority. He will help you succeed, because the ministry He calls you to, is what He wants done. Your success in ministry is not up to you; it’s up to Him. And He gives you His authority to do it. He simply calls you to obey and trust Him to help you. That’s the first truth.
The second truth is this: When God calls you to serve; you will never do ministry alone. The staff was meant to serve as a tangible reminder of God’s presence. The staff itself wasn’t a magic wand. What it represents to Moses and should represent to us – is what is available to us: God’s saving power.
Today we too have a tangible reminder of God’s saving power: The cross. God’s power is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus put it this way: “Whoever wants to be my disciplemust deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 Moses took up God’s staff. Today we take up the cross. It’s a constant reminder that our power for ministry does not come from us, but from God. When we take up the cross, that’s when God’s power is the strongest. God never calls you to ministry alone. When He calls you to serve, He will be with you because He wants to work through you.
Moses took his family and the staff of God. Now he is ready to leave. But before he hits the road he receives one more thing from God: A Stunning Revelation: The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he willnot let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’” Exodus 4:18-23 God reveals two stunning truths to Moses here. The first is this: God will harden Pharaoh’s heart This will happen again throughout Exodus, as Moses attempts to deliver Israel. At times Pharaoh will harden his own heart. At other times we will discover that Pharaoh’s heart was simply hardened; and at other times, God will specifically harden Pharaoh’s heart. By telling Moses this, God was revealing to Moses that He was Sovereign even over the most powerful of men. And that God would use the evil of this one man for His divine purposes.
At first this may be hard for you to get our head around. But God told Moses this truth because he wanted Moses to understand that: The deliverance of Israel from Egypt is entirely God’s doing and under His complete control. If this were not the case, then Pharaoh, who claimed to be a god, could be seen as someone who had power on an equal footing with God. But God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart shows us that God is sovereign even over Pharaoh. He will use Pharaoh’s pride, Pharaoh’s selfishness and his own sense of power to harden Pharaoh’s heart. Although this might sound a bit weird, once you think about it, you can take comfort in the reality that God is sovereign over all the powers in this world. God is sovereign over all history. And all history is His Story. God is guiding the course of history, even when it seems we are in our darkest hour. And this will be helpful to Moses when things don’t go well. When Pharaoh opposes him. So God wants him to believe that in his darkest moments, when it doesn’t seem like he will succeed, God is in control. That’s a stunning revelation, but a needed one – because like Moses, we live in a dark world that is often ruled by evil men. And like Moses, we need to remember that God is Sovereign. He is in control even in our darkest hours.
Now if that wasn’t stunning enough, God now gives a second stunner. God calls the nation of Israel, “My firstborn son.”God brought this nation into existence when he called Abraham. God began to build this nation through Abraham’s offspring. He brought them to Egypt through His providential care by raising up Joseph to the highest position in the land. They were given the best land, and they prospered and multiplied. God was fulfilling His promise to build them into a great nation. But then a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph had come along and enslaved His sons.
This explains why God has a quarrel with Pharaoh. To Pharaoh the Hebrews were lowly slaves, but to God they were beloved sons. And Pharaoh was preventing God’s sons from serving their Father. Instead of being free to call God “Father,” the Israelites were forced to call Pharaoh “Master.” So in order to reassert His claim on Israel, God said to Pharaoh, “Let my son go that he may serve me.”
Of course, this appeal will be a grave insult to Pharaoh. He believed that he alone was the “son of the gods.” Yet God told Moses that He would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son if he did not let God’s firstborn son go. And so it is through this revelation that God reveals THE GRAND THEME of the Exodus: God saving his sons from slavery so they could serve Him.
And this Grand Theme of Exodus pictures the grand theme of life in our world today. God is still saving his sons and daughter from slavery so they can serve Him. Listen to the words of Paul from Ephesians 2 as it applies to us: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.Ephesians 2:1-2 What this says to us is that there is still a battle going on. The ruler of the kingdom of the air wants to keep everyone enslaved to sin. He wants people everywhere to live to themselves and rebel against God. This is why God sent Jesus – to set us free from slavery to sin by his blood shed for us on the cross. Here is the good news of Jesus: For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
This is why God calls each of us to play a role in His story. God is still saving, still delivering people from sin. That’s the good news of Jesus Christ. And He calls us to do our part to help free those captive to sin, so they might become sons and daughters of God who are free to worship Him.
Now, God has prepared Moses. He’s armed with God’s staff, he now knows what to expect in the heat of the battle, but as stops for the night, he faces something completely unexpected: An Unexpected Reaction from God Look at verse 24: At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Mosesand was about to kill him.Then Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)Exodus 4:24-26
Now this just seems crazy. Moses has finally gotten past his excuses, he’s taken up God’s staff, he’s received God’s message and he’s obeying God’s call. Now this? God is about to kill Moses. What gives? Here’s what gives: Circumcision was THE sign that you were one of God’s Covenant People, and as Israel’s deliver, his sons needed to bear this sign. Moses is going to deliver God’s sons, but his own son doesn’t bear the identifying mark of God’s people. And this was such a serious breech of obedience that God was about to kill him. That’s an unexpected twist. Didn’t see that one coming.
But one unexpected turn leads to another. Along comes Zipporah to save Moses’ neck. Then Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. Here’s the point of this plot twist: God takes our identification as His children seriously. For the Jews, the way you identified as God’s child was through circumcision. Today, we identify ourselves as God’s children through water baptism.
Jesus said to his followers: “Go into all theworld and preach the gospel to all creation.Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16
If you believe in Jesus but you haven’t been baptized, then God’s Word says you are living in disobedience. I don’t think God is going to kill you. But if you don’t practice what you believe, if you only obey commands that suit you, then let this passage serve as a warning to you. If you’ve neglected baptism, perhaps its time you identified yourself as one of God’s children by being baptized.
Now Zipporah stepped in and saved Moses’ neck and Moses survived a crucial test. Now their journey to Egypt continues. And what happens next is a good bump in the road. For what we see next is A Blessed Reunion: The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform. Exodus 4:27-28
God also called Aaron and sent him to meet Moses. And not only does Aaron welcome Moses with a kiss, but he listens to everything Moses has to say about his call of God. And so he now partners with Moses in God’s story.
And this reunion illustrates another great truth for us: We need partners in ministry.We need people like Aaron who will share in our calling. We need people like Aaron who will walk with us in ministry, share our burdens, pray with us and help us along the way. And the good news is that God DOES give us people like Aaron. Most of you know that I have a team around me that prays for me, encourages me, and helps me lead this Church. They are my Advisory Team: Dave Douglas, Dan Conrad, Steve Bishop, Ken Hansen and Donna Shepherd. I am grateful for their faithfulness, their support and help. I couldn’t serve as your pastor without them. But each of us need people like that as we serve together. Not all of us can be a Moses, but any of us can be an Aaron – someone who can share the load, someone who can listen and help.
My hope for our church is that every ministry is a shared ministry. That’s why we have teams. That’ why we have a media team, a worship team, a set-up team, an usher team, a hospitality team. That’s why we do Journey groups together. We want to have people helping people learn to follow Jesus together, not alone. And when we partner like Aaron and Moses partner, the result is blessing. That’s what God gave Moses and now Moses is ready to return to Egypt. And when he does, we see one final thing: A Favorable Return Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. Exodus 4:29-31
Moses returns to Egypt and what do we see: God is faithful to His Word – the elders listened to Moses. He performs the signs God gave him and all the people believed.
Aaron shares the message that God is concerned for them and has seen their misery. God has “paid attention” to them. And when they know God has cared for them and wants to do something about it. What happens? All the children of Israel bow down and worship their God. Now, the stage is set – the Exodus is about to begin.
This is a remarkable passage of Scripture that is often overlooked, but it offers us a rich glimpse into the roller coaster ride of following God’s call. As we have seen, the ride isn’t always easy… but along the way we learn that His Ways Are Not Our Ways:
He gives us His presence and power.
His instructs us on His purposes and His ways.
He is Sovereign over evil!
His Ways Are Not Our Ways:
He rebukes us when we stray and doesn’t give us what we deserve.
He gives us partners along the way.
His Ways Are Not Our Ways:
He is faithful to His Word.
He is concerned about our plight, and He does something about it.
This is our Great God. His ways are not our ways. This is who calls us into His story, to follow Him, trust Him and obey Him. So let us hold nothing back in serving Him. For some of you, that may mean you need to get baptized. For others of you, its time to remember to take up your cross, lean into God’s power. And for others, it may mean that you become an Aaron and come alongside someone in ministry, so that we be part of what God is doing to set people free to worship Him today.
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