Mid-Lent 4
Ex
6:1-13
3/14/18
As far as Moses was concerned, things
had not exactly gone as planned. Last
Wednesday we heard about how God called Moses to be his servant. Yahweh declared, “"I have surely seen the
affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of
their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to
a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
God told
Moses that he and the elders of Israel were to go to Pharaoh and say, “The
LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a
three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our
God.” However, Yahweh said that Pharaoh
would not allow it. Instead, he told
them, “So I will stretch out my
hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he
will let you go.”
God gave Moses signs to perform such
as being able to turn his staff into a snake and then back into a staff.
Accompanied by his brother Aaron whom God had given to Moses as a spokesman,
they went to see the elders of Israel.
We learn that, “Aaron
spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the
sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD
had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they
bowed their heads and worshiped.”
Moses and
Aaron went to Pharaoh and delivered Yahweh’s message. As God had said, Pharaoh didn’t let Israel
go. Instead, he made their life harder.
He commanded that no longer was straw to be given to the Israelites for
making bricks. The same quota of bricks would still be required, but now the
Israelites would have to provide the straw themselves. Pharaoh made their lives even more
difficult. And when Moses saw this he
said to God, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever
send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to
this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
God had not
said it was going to be easy. In fact, he had told Moses that Pharaoh would
only release Israel after he had struck Egypt with wonders. Yet Moses’
confidence was shaken by what had happened.
He wasn’t alone. In our text we
find that when Moses again announces Yahweh’s promise of rescue to the people,
they don’t listen because their spirit has been broken by the harsh slavery. So
when God commanded Moses to go and tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go
out of his land, Moses replied, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened
to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”
This is our
experience too. Jesus Christ said that
following him will involve difficulties and hardship. He said, “If anyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” He said, “In the world
you have tribulation. Take heart, I have overcome the world.”
Yet we act
like we are surprised when it actually turns out to be this way. Jesus Christ and the Scriptures do not
receive a fair hearing from many, and instead are rejected and even
mocked. We find ourselves in situations
where choices have to be made about how and where we are going to spend our
time – at church or at other activities.
We encounter the challenge of speaking the truth of God’s word to family
members who have decided instead to live in the ways of the world. We become discouraged. We doubt. Or we just
don’t follow through in living our faith.
Our doubts
and weakness don’t change God’s saving plans and power. Tonight’s text ends with the words, “But
the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of
Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of
the land of Egypt.” It ends on a note
that reaffirms what has just been said.
What has been said is in fact a
description of what God has done for us. God says, “I am Yahweh, and I will bring you
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from
slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great
acts of judgment.” God promised mighty
actions that would free Israel from slavery.
He promised redemption.
During Lent
we prepare to remember and celebrate the fact God had done this for us in Jesus
Christ. The incarnate One, Jesus, is the
outstretched arm of God that has redeemed you. Jesus Christ has freed you. He has purchased and won you from all sins,
from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold and silver, but with
his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death.
God tells
Moses that he is going to act, and that this will make all the difference in
the world. He says, “I will take you to
be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD
your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Because of Jesus, God has taken you to be his
people. He did this in Holy Baptism as
you shared in Jesus Christ’s saving death.
The triune God gave you a new status as he put his name upon you. Because of this, you know that the creator of
the heavens and the earth is your God.
In our text, Yahweh makes a very
specific promise. It is in fact the repetition
of an earlier promise. He says, “I will bring you into the land that
I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a
possession. I am the LORD.”
God had promised to give the land of
Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. Now God
was redeeming Israel from slavery in order to accomplish this. In his timing, the children of Israel – of
Jacob – had become a nation. Now, God
was going to give them the land. He was
going to give them a good land – a land flowing with milk and honey. This would
take time. He would bring them out of
Egypt. He would enter into a covenant
with the nation at Mt. Sinai. And then
they were to be engaged in the process of taking this land with God’s help.
Like your spiritual forefathers of
Israel, God has promised to give you the land.
He has promised to give you this
land – this creation. Jesus Christ died on the cross. But on the
third he was raised from the dead. His
resurrection is the first fruits of your resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, your
body will also be raised and transformed so that it can never die again.
But here’s the thing about human
bodies. They were created to live in this
world. That is what God said is “very good.” And so Jesus’ resurrection also points
forward to the new creation – the renewal of this world so that it too is “very
good” and no longer wears the effects of sin.
Sin, death and decay will be a thing
of the past. Instead life will be what
God intended it to be. The beginning of
the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God
plants a garden – the Garden of Eden – to be the home for the man and woman he
has created in his own image.
God’s Word
ends in the same way because the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus
Christ lead to his return on the Last Day. They lead to the day when the Lord
will transform our bodies to be like his and he will renew this creation as the
place where we will live. This was God’s intention in the beginning. This is God’s intention for the end – the new
beginning. As John tells us in the last chapter
of the Bible, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright
as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle
of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life
with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything
accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants
will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their
foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
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