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Reading Acts 7:17-53

When you set out from home on a long car journey you're not likely to see your destination immediately indicated by the signposts as soon as you set out. Certainly not when on our imaginary journey we're off to Aberdeen! Some of the signposts you see will be small and contain the names perhaps of small insignificant places that hold little interest for you and don't serve particularly in helping you on your way. Some you may speed past without even noticing them or without having the time to read what they say.

Then as your journey advances you begin to see some larger signposts (assuming of course that you haven't made a complete hash of things already). These give much more help pointing out significant places ahead – the M25 for example. You follow the signs and soon you're going through the Dartford tunnel speeding in an anti-clockwise direction. But still Aberdeen doesn't figure but a great sign looms large A1(M). Now that is useful and you put the indicators on and  you're ready to leave the M25, as you approach the roundabout at the end of the slip road things become suddenly a lot clearer and reassuring – turn right on the roundabout and you're really on your way as the road is marked A1(M) The North.

Now the Bible is full of signposts and Moses is like one of those great big signposts indicating the A1(M) and The North. The destination of the Bible is Jesus Christ and Moses is a massive signpost pointing the way to Him. Moses doesn't mention Jesus by name any more than sign on the M25 mentions Scotland and Aberdeen. But Moses wrote of Jesus nevertheless – just as Scotland and Aberdeen are included in THE NORTH!

Moses' importance is easily noticeable even to the casual observer. His name appears in nearly 800 verses of the Bible and figures in 18 books of the OT and a further 12 in the NT. He was the author of the first five books of the Bible (we have that on Jesus' own authority) and wrote at least one of the Psalms (Ps.90).

Listen to just a few of the remarkable descriptions of this man Moses that are to be found in the Bible:

Ex 33:11 "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."

Deut.34:10 "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face"

And yet this man was not proud!

Num.12:3 "the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth."

In Ps.106:23 he is described as being God's chosen one and in Ps.90:1 as "The Man of God".

He was the instrument by which God communicated His Law to His people. He was present along with Elijah when Jesus was transfigured. And Jesus spoke about Him. Stephen in making His defence before the tribunal that was to condemn him to death spoke at length about him too. The writer to the Hebrews included on the roll call of the heroes of faith in ch.11:23-28.

So, our stall is set out. Moses occupies an important place in the Scriptures and in the coming weeks I plan to look in some detail into the life of this remarkable man. But interesting as biography and biographical accounts may be our interest lies not so much in the man himself but in His God who called him and used him in the furtherance of His own plans of salvation.

In subsequent weeks we will, by the grace of God, immerse ourselves in the details of Moses' life but this evening we will content ourselves with something of an overview of the period in which Moses lived and in which he served the LORD God Almighty and His people.

Israel's family had been living in Egypt for many years by the time Moses was born. The family clan had reproduced quickly and had developed into a nation of more than a million. However their circumstances had greatly changed with the march of time. No longer were Israel's descendants considered as welcome visitors. Attitudes towards this people were changing. The political leadership in Egypt came to fear such a large "foreign" community living in their land and programmes of forced labour leading to slavery were imposed upon the Israelites. In order to try to contain and control this sizeable group the new King of Egypt decided further to embark upon an extreme policy of population control. This was the policy of male infanticide which, had it been successful, would have prevented the baby ever from growing into the man Moses!

The context into which Moses was born and grew up was a context where the people of God were being increasingly oppressed and downtrodden. The people of God lived under the yoke of slavery from which they were unable to set themselves free. Moses himself tried to take matters into his own hands and made an attempt to help his people but it all turned pear-shaped and he fled away to the land of Midian where he was to live for ears in obscurity

And yet this desperate context of the people of Israel was not unknown to the LORD God. Indeed He knew exactly what was going on and was preparing to intervene in order to secure the release of His people:

Ex.2:23-25 "During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel––and God knew."

How wonderfully this is for us to read!

ü  God heard their groaning.

ü  God remembered His covenant ie. He remembered the commitments He had freely undertaken on behalf of this people. And that doesn't mean merely an act of the memory but signifies His intent to act on their behalf.

ü  God knew – ie. He knew absolutely all there was to know about their sufferings, their feelings as they suffered, the harshness of the treatment meted out to them by their Egyptian masters, the unjustness of it all. But He also knew of His own commitments, plans and purposes. He knew what He was about to do and exactly how He would proceed. He was about to act in a way that would not only bring glory to His own name, not only would it secure the freedom of His own people, but it would still be being talked about  some 4.000 years later!

Not that Moses was worthy of having this central leading role – after all he was a murderer and demonstrated something of the coward's spirit when God did call him. Moses knew what the LORD wanted him to do but how Moses wanted the LORD to send someone, anyone else!

The LORD appeared to Moses in the incident of the Burning Bush and He spoke to him in ways which echo the declarations we've already been considering. The LORD's call to Moses is found in Ex.3+4. In the NT we can read how Stephen summarised that call in his defence before the Jewish Council:

Acts 7:34 "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’"

 Moses is certainly not a volunteer nor an eager recruit – as we read chs.3+4 we find him very much to be a reluctant conscript! Nevertheless he is the man God will have! Poor material Moses may have been but the frailty of the servant does not impinge upon the power and authority of the LORD. In due course the reluctant leader leads God's people safely out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land and he does so because God carrying out His own purposes which cannot be thwarted.

As Moses tries to wriggle out of his call the LORD counters objection after objection with significant revelations concerning His own character and His own settled plans.

The plan the LORD has for His people is to deliver them out of the slavery of Egypt and to lead them away from that country so that they might serve the LORD with sacrifices and true worship. His plans don't stop at bringing the people out of Egypt though but He plans to bring them into a choice land that will be all their own.

The LORD assures Moses that the Hebrews will heed him and backs up this promise by enabling Moses to perform a number of miraculous signs which will serve to convince any waverers.

Before during and after this assurance is communicated to Moses the LORD leaves Moses in no doubt as to who the LORD is! How important it will be for Moses to know the God who has called him into His service. Without this knowledge Moses would be reduced to the level of those Athenians who dressed that altar to an Unknown God!

The people had been crying out for a long time and when God heard and decided to intervene that intervention did not lead to an immediate painless resolution of His people's problems.

Having revealed Himself to Moses and commissioned His reluctant servant to speak to Pharaoh the LORD God then acted in ways that His people may well not have appreciated! At least some of them were tempted, as their circumstances worsened, to imagine that Moses was no part of a divine plan or solution. How dangerous it can be to focus upon circumstances!

Pharaoh not only didn't appreciate Moses making representations to him about the people of Israel in his stubborn rejection of Moses request he made the conditions of the people slavery yet more arduous. The task of brick-making became more difficult!

God's purpose in saving His people was, as always, the promotion first and foremost of His own glory! It would have been easy for the LORD to have delivered His people just like that but He deliberately chose to harden Pharaoh in his opposition and opposition which would be broken down by demonstrations of great power and might in the sequence of the Ten Plagues.

Here are just a couple of verses which illustrate this:

Ex.7:5 "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them."

Ex 9:16 "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

Deliverance for God's people would come, God was at work, but it would come in the way and at the time that God chose. Whether or not the people approved of God's method and timing was not the point!

The description of the succession of plagues suggests the passing of a certain amount of time – the people would have to wait patiently and yet expectantly as God went about His business. How we too need to take such ideas on board too! Just because God does not fit in with our ideal schedules does not mean that He is inactive. Rather it means that our particular schedules are wrong and wrong probably because we fail to realise that the greatest good God is pursuing is not our comfort but His own glory!

It is not until Exodus ch.12 that the people of Israel actually leave Egypt and still the deliverance is not yet complete. The Egyptian army chases after the people and there is the little matter of the crossing of the Red Sea. But by the end of ch.14 the army is destroyed and the Red Sea crossed:

Ex.14:31 "Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses."

Chapter 15 is largely given over to congregational celebration as Moses and the people sing of the LORD's triumphant victory. But sadly the chapter ends with the people grumbling against Moses.

Free the Israelites might be but so much progress has yet to be made! The covenant people had to be transformed into a true covenant community.

And the LORD purposed to bring about progress through the continued leadership of that man Moses!

The people needed to be given directions as to how to worship the God who had so clearly acted to deliver them.

Nor was this all the people now were to exist as a free nation and needed to know what structures and what principles were to govern them.

Having led the people out of Egypt Moses now becomes the channel whereby God revealed His laws to the Israelites. The Laws wasn't given in order to save the people – rather it was given to those people whom God had already saved. The Law defined how God wanted His covenant people to live out their covenant life.

The progress of God's people under the leadership of Moses would be anything but smooth. Again and again the people would fail to trust the God who had already done so much for them. Complaints and grumbles would be accompanied by idolatry and rank disobedience. Yet The LORD would continue to lead them on in the direction of the Promised Land.

Yet sin has consequences and sin prevented the people entering quickly into what would become their homeland. 40 long years they were be forced to wander in the Wilderness before they would finally enter that land that flowed with the milk and honey of God's rich blessing.

Moses would lead them through those wilderness years but Moses was not a perfect leader and was himself guilty of dishonouring the LORD God. The consequence for Moses was that while he would be allowed to catch a glimpse of the Promised Land he would not be allowed to enter it. He was to die shortly before the people enter the land to conquer it.

Moses couldn't finish the task because of his sin and every leader after him suffered from the same deficiency. The story of Moses leaves us longing for a successful successor who won't fail. The world would have to wait many centuries more before that One was to come but come He did and His Name is the Lord Jesus Christ:

Jn.1:17 "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

May God open our eyes that we don't fail to see the signpost that is Moses and arrive at the destination he indicates – the Saviour of the World, Jesus!

Amen.