Failure Isn’t Final – Message 4 -Moses
5/5/24
Moses has a tendency to try to do everything on his own…and in the midst of this he often fails…but God provides encouragement and discernment through his father-in-law Jethro.
Main Idea: God uses others to provide direction and correction. In this he helps to save us from our selves.
Primary Scripture:
19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
1) Moses the Murderer
Exodus 2:11-15 (ESV)
Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Moses rushed into this situation, he was impetuous.
Theologian Robert Jamieson:
“These two incidents prove that neither were the Israelites yet ready to go out of Egypt, nor Moses prepared to be their leader (Jam 1:20). It was by the staff and not the sword—by the meekness, and not the wrath of Moses that God was to accomplish that great work of deliverance. Both he and the people of Israel were for forty years more to be cast into the furnace of affliction, yet it was therein that He had chosen them (Is 48:10).”
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 49.
God’s plan was to work through Moses meekness not his impatience or rashness or position in Egypt:
Numbers 12:3
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Moses goes to Midian for 40 years (referenced in Acts 7) where he works as a shepherd..protecting and leading sheep so that he could be prepared to lead the people of Israel.
2) Moses the Doubter
Exodus 3:9-14 (ESV)
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Moses doubts himself, yes, but his uncertainty is also leveled at God…
Consider the exchange:
God: I have heard my people crying out under oppression and I will send you to free them.
Moses: Me? Who am I?
God: Don’t worry about it! I will be with you?
Moses: Oh..that’s better…Who are you?
God: I am who I am!
אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה,
EHE-YE ASHER EHE-YE
His name—Now he desires to look at his commission, and asks, What is His name. With the Hebrews proper names were not simply labels attached to individuals—they were significant—they indicated character. So the change from Jacob to Israel—from Abram to Abraham—indicated change of character and relation. So when Jacob pleaded with the Angel, “Tell me thy name,” he meant “Reveal thy character.” Name is thus constantly used by the Scripture writers to mean a cluster of attributes. To praise God’s name, is to adore the holiness, justice, truth, signified by that name. To profane it, is to slight his character, his person. We pray through Christ’s name; that is, through his character and work as Redeemer. At successive epochs of revelation God has revealed himself by different names to set forth different phases of his glorious character, and he promises to write upon the redeemed at last “his new name,” that is, to show them glories in his character which can never be seen till then. Moses asks, then, in this question, What new phase of God’s character is to be revealed? God replies by unfolding afresh the true significance of a name which had long been known, at least to a few, but whose meaning was now to be stamped anew by wondrous works into the national consciousness.
Milton S. Terry and Fales H. Newhall, Genesis and Exodus, ed. D. D. Whedon, vol. I, Commentary on the Old Testament (New York; Cincinnati: Eaton & Mains; Jennings & Pye, 1889), 378.
Moses was impetuous when he was young.
Moses was reluctant as he aged.
God was willing and able to work with him in light of both of these limitations and their resultant failures.
But, Moses still needed assistance (we see this in his relationship with Aaron and we see it again when Moses sits to judge the people of Israel.
So, how does God use others to redirect our failures and teach us in the midst of struggles?
3) God Uses those around us to Redirect Us
Exodus 18:13-23
13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
Moses had shown a tendency towards impetuousness and reluctance. So pay attention to what God does, he speaks to Moses through Jethro.
God provided good, healthy, input through the voice of Jethro and it would go onto to reshape the very nature of the way that judgment would be handled in Israel. Listening to his father-in-law would lead to the establishment of judges that would aid Moses and eventually take his place when he would die prior to reaching the Holy Land.
Jethro’s advice affirmed Moses position and acknowledge the work that he was accomplishing but this also advice set the stage for the establishment of the legal system in Israel where less difficult issues were felt with locally and more complex issues were dealt with in higher courts. We see evidence if this in the way that Rabbi’s of local synagogues would inform the Sanhedrin (the supreme council of Jewish Law).
Moses had already shown a tendency to strive to exert control of situations (even prior to being called by God to do so). He had also shown resistance to doing as he was instructed. And so, God, speaks to him in a manner that provides encouragement and direction, through Jethro.
God can use you as voice of reason in the lives of others. He can also use others as the voice of reason in your life. May you, and I, have ears to hear the direction of the Lord and may we be ready to share such direction in response to God’s call.
Questions:
1) Have you ever been impetuous like Moses? What were the results?
2) When have you been reluctant to respond to God’s call? Why were you reluctant? What did you learn from this situation?
3) What have you learned about the character of God (from this message and from your experiences)?
4) Who has provided you with direction and correction that was beneficial? Why are we more apt to listen to some people more than others?
5) Why might God speak through others when offering course correction?
