Moses, Hero of Faith - Dan Weaver

Greeting is in the precious name of Jesus. This morning. It's privileged to

be gathered here in the House of God with other worshipers on holy ground in

a way, and I hope to get into what makes this holy ground later.

I don't think it's necessarily the physical building. But I really was blessed

by this devotional And one verse that I don't think Leland mentioned too much of

Jesus' words here anyway, it was verse thirty one. Both all of little

faith work before this, no doubt that was a rebuke to Peter. And

I don't know. I guess as I go through Bible stories, I have

a I try to put myself in the place of the person and what they

were facing. And I guess when I put myself in Peter's place in his

story, that feels like a pretty unfair rebuke. But Jesus, Jesus was

being fair. Remember that Jesus was being fair. And there they were in

the storm, and he bid Jesus, he bid Peter to come, but

Peter took his eyes off Jesus. And I think there's a there's a tremendous

lesson there, and the lesson I have for us this morning is very closely

related to that. I would like to turn to Hebrews eleven for an introduction.

And we know this as we hear as the Faith chapter or it's the

it's the book or the the record of the heroes of faith. And there's

a verse in James. It's just a it seems like, just sort of

out of the middle of nowhere in the teaching of the of the Anointing with

oil that says Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are.

And it's something that we need to be reminded of sometimes, and that all

these heroes of faith, and we have this way of at least this is

maybe just confessing my own way of looking at it. But I go through

here and I look at these these heroes of faith, these monsters of faith,

of Abel, of Enough, of Noah, of Abraham and all he

did, and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses's parents, Jacob and Amram

and Moses and Joshua and Rahab and many other heroes of faith, as if

they were some very very special people ordained of God to give us examples of

what true faith looks like. And then maybe we can do our best to

attain as much of that faith as we can. But that's actually not the

teaching of Hebrews eleven. It's now faith. Faith is the substance of things

hope for and the evidence of things not seen. And Paul arguably, well,

we're gonna stick with that. That this was Paul for now went through

this history and is saying they these men had faith, and they had so

much against them, and they could only see a part of it, but

it was amazing how much they did see. And so this morning, I

would just like to go and look at one of these characters. And so

it's a character study a bit. But I'm taking my outline from Hebrews chapter

eleven, and I'll be reading verses twenty three to twenty nine, and that

character is Moses, and it starts out with Moses' parents. So I don't

know, it seems like, well, we're going through we should look at

Moses' parents as well. So we're going to look at this, and then

we're going to spend a fair amount of time in Exodus. This morning,

I may be reading quite a bit of the story of Moses in Exodus.

There's a that we'll just see what we have time for there. But first

of all Hebrews eleven, verse twenty three through twenty nine. By faith,

Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents,

because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of

the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years,

refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer

affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a

season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,

for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith, he

forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as

seeing him who is invisible. Through faith, he kept the passover and the

sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By

faith, they passed through the red Sea, as by the dry land,

which the Egyptians assayed to do we'd drowned, a saying to do we're drowned,

it's more accurate. So starting with so you can turn back to Exodus

too now, And I think First of all, I just talks about by

faith Moses when he was born was hit, and I'd like to just read

that story, the first ten verses of Exodus two. I'll just go right

into that. And there when a man of the house of Levi and took

to wife, a daughter of Levi, which later it talks about this wife

being his aunt. I believe actually his father's sister, this Jacobin, and

the woman conceived and bear a son. And when she saw him that he

was a goodly child, she hid him three months, And when she could

no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and dabbed

it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein and she lay

it in the flags by the river's brink, and his sister stood off afar

off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh

came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along the

river's side, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent

her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw

the child, and behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him,

and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children then said his sister

to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the

Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee. And Pharaoh's daughter

said to her, go, And the maid went and called the child's mother,

and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse it

for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took

the child and nursed it, and the child grew, and she brought him

unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name

Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water.

So the record of faith says they were not afraid of the king's commandment.

And if you think about the situation there in Egypt, and of course we

didn't, we didn't read Exodus one about the king's command and that the children

should be first, that they should be slain by the midwives. And the

midwives feared. God said, and that the children were too lively, and

so he said that all the young under two should be born, should be

slain. They were cast into the river. Excuse me at this point,

and it's interesting that jacobed obeyed and cast him into the Moses, into the

river. But in that respect, but it seems like to maybe to to

Jacobed and Amram this report in Hebrews that they were not afraid of the king's

commandment. In their current day, when they were going through this, they

might have felt some fear, but the record was they did they followed God

and wisdom. There's this aspect of wisdom that that comes from God, that

we see him. They she hit him for three months and then she put

him in this archipal Russia's probably where probably where she knew that the daughter of

Pharaoh would come. In a way, she was putting her up for adoption.

She was she had her daughter stay there and watch probably marry him.

And you think of the of the risk she was taking to preserve this proper

child. It says in Hebrew's goodly child. It says in exous, which

you know, sometimes when we like to look down and see what's behind these

words and dig deeper, and I find sometimes when you when you dig deeper,

it's fairly simple. That word in Hebrew means he was a handsome child.

He looked good, and what mother with her little baby that's three months

old. Isn't going to look down and realize that this is a pretty good

child. Do you think that act of Jacabed that was faith is because she

liked her baby. I think it was more than that. There's also an

aspect of her faith where there is something in her time of nursing which it

could not have been real long. It's argued traditionally anywhere from three to six

years. But there is something that I believe Jacobed and faith instilled a concept

of God in Moses. That was Jacobed going on to Moses. As I

mentioned Ely, Moses was a man subject to like passions as we are,

and we see that in him him. We see his anger when he he

slayed the Egyptian. He was he had a penchant for fairness. See that,

well, we'll read that soon. When he was out in the when

the shepherds were chasing off Jethro's daughter Rule Rule, it calls him in this

chapter he had emotions, he had feelings. And yet there's I think I

think there are more recorded words of God talking to Moses than any other in

the in the scriptures that direct I remember when I was very young and the

family devotions. We're reading through Exodus, and after after the Bible reading,

Dad would always have a say, a memory verse. And I noticed as

we're going through and this is I think I could barely read. But my

memory verse became as we're going through Exodus, and God spake unto Moses saying,

and God spake unto Moses and Aaron saying. And this faith, of

this faith of Moses a man developed into a very close relationship with God.

How did that happen? And so I had my outline is based from Hebrews

eleven. Like I said, but I am going to now I'd like to

read verses eleven, from verse eleven of chapter two to verse six of chapter

three. So Moses as a child, and this we're skipping about forty years

here. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown,

and he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he

spied an Egyptian smiting and Hebrew one of his brethren. And he looked this

way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man,

he slew the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. And when he went

out the second day, behold two men of the Hebrews strove together, and

he said to him that did the wrong. Wherefore smitest thou, thy fellow?

And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us?

And tendest thou to kill me? As he'll kill us the Egyptian.

And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. And when Pharaoh

heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the

face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat down

by a well. And the priests of Midian had seven daughters. And they

came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And

the shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up and helped them

and watered their flock. And when they came to a rule their father,

he said, how is it that he are come so soon today? And

he said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds,

and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock. And he said,

unto his daughters, and where is he? Why is it that thou

hast left the man call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was

content to dwell with the man. And he gave Moses Zipra his daughter,

and she bare him a son. And he called his name Gersham, for

he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. And it

came to pass in the process of the time that the king of Egypt died,

and the children of Israel's side by reason of bondage, and they cried,

and their cry came up unto God by reason of bondage, and God

heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and with

Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect

unto them. And Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law,

the priest, a Midian, and he led the flock to the backside

of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb,

And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out

of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold the bush burned

with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said I will

now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned.

And when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see, God

called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses.

And he said, here am I. And he said, does thou

draw hither? Put thy shoes off from off thy feet, for the place

where thou stands this holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the

God of thy Father, and the God of Abraham, and the God of

Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for

he was afraid to look upon God. So we're going to pause there.

The first phrase regarding regarding Moses that we want to look at is he refused

to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He refused to be the son of

Pharaoh's daughter. And I have titled this choosing identity. He chose an identity,

and he went out there, and he was filled with wrath when he

saw the Egyptians fighting, and he chose to align with the Hebrews. And

when we look at least when I read this passage, we just read about

his fight out there and his leaving The word faith doesn't scream in my ear

as the identifying characteristic, that's what Hebrews calls it, this faith. He

chose an identity. And it's really interesting to me as you read through here

the different aspects of the identity. When he was when he was drawn out

of the water by Pharaoh's daughter, she identified him as what he said,

here is one of the Hebrews children. And then he comes to the place

that later that he was raised as an Egyptian but wants to identify with the

Hebrews. And because of that and that action, he takes off and fleeing

for his life. And what did what did Jethro's children say? What they

tell Raoul to tell Jethro, why'd you come back so far? There was

an Egyptian. He went from a Hebrew to an Egyptian. In Moses mind,

he's running, he's not being an Egyptian anymore, but he still has

the identity of an Egyptian. And then in this passage we quickly went through

another forty years, and he has a wife. God heard their cry,

and we come to chapter verse one of chapter three, and through forty hard

years in the wilderness, all the Egyptian is stripped from Moses he has an

identity. He's a Bedouin shepherd out on the backside of a mountain in the

southern portion Midian, not the Sinai Peninsula most likely as most just a side

note there currently what and even it's called the Sinai Peninsula because Constantine's mother,

Catherine the Great, after Constantine converted and made Christianity legal, she she went.

She spent a lot of her her life identifying the places of Christ and

the holy places in the Holy Lands. In fact, there's still monasteries today

that are developed from I wouldn't say they're the original monasteries, but there are

some that date they say date back that far. You know how things are

rebuilt. But she identified Mount Sinai, which is now called the Sinai Peninsula.

If you my opinion and some others, if you read through the Bible

in where she identified it is absolutely doesn't make sense. I believe the Mount

Sinai was in south and in current days Saudi Arabia. But that's just a

little bit of scenery as we go by, and that's where that's where Moses

was. He was out in the backside of this mountain and he sees this

bush sees this bush that wasn't burning, and he's willing. He you know,

there's there's something about the faith of Mo here that saw God in the

unusual, and he stopped and God told him to take off his shoes.

And this is because this is holy ground. And that's related to the comment

I made about this being a holy place this morning. And I recognize that

it's only in faith, as much as we meet God that this is a

holy place. This can be a place where you can you can plan your

week, you can do a plan your business, you can think about how

to fix a lot of things, or it can be the holy place where

you meet God. But what's to say here? He chose he refused to

be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction. And then

the next phrase. I had to think about this esteeming the reproach of Christ's

greater riches than the riches of Egypt. And we see here that he moses

in the end somehow through his upbring through he had this vision of Hebrews calls

it Christ's greater riches, And I find that interesting that terminology when we think,

you know, Christ is the New Testament, but we see there's something

he saw, the spiritual. He saw, he saw it for what it

really was, And it reminds me of of Psalm seventy three. And this

is an aspect of faith I believe starts out, Truly, God is good

to Israel, even to such as our clean heart. But as for me,

as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well

nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity

of the wicked for their for there are no bands in their death, but

their strength is firm. And it goes on praising how the wicked just prosper

for another ten verses or so. But then it says in verse seventeen,

until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end.

And I believe as Moses spending his forty years in God's school the backside of

the desert, that although it wasn't very clear to him, I don't think

it was all that clear to him when he slew the Egyptian. But I

think it got more and more clear, and it came to the place that

when he saw a burning bush, he knew it was worth turning aside for

and God spoke to him and gave him direction. And this goes on.

Then for the rest of the chapter talks about the goodness of God, and

Moses developed that vision. And I think it's so easy for us to lose

that focus, to see the riches of Egypt rather than the riches of Christ.

I'm already to the first point under my first so I better keep going.

He said he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. He had

a vision, passed the moment, he had ability to see the bigger picture.

Second, he chose to forsake sin. He forsick. He forsook Egypt

verse twenty seven. By faith. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath

of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible. He

forsook Egypt, which is a type of sin. And as an Egyptian he

left, and we already looked at that, and he came back as a

Bedouin shepherd forty years later. He says here he not fearing the wrath of

the king, which in Exodus it says that now when Pharaoh heard this thing,

he sought to slay Moses, and Moses fled the face of Pharaoh.

So I think this is probably even referring more to when he comes back.

But you know, he probably felt and probably it was known in Egypt that

he was the man that did fear the king and left. But he went

down in the history of Hebrews as the man that did not fear the king.

Must have overcome that fear. He endured as seeing him who is invisible,

and that's a I believe that Moses developed that god awareness and communication out

in the desert, and he met God there on his holy ground point number

three, choosing to follow God's plan. So we're skipping ahead a bit,

but let's go to Exodus twelve and it says by faith he kept the Passover,

and we know the story how he went through the plagues, and I

think I'm going to read I'll read verses one to fourteen, and this is

just the instructions for the Passover. And I guess as as I thought about

this, and how the Hebrew writer pointed this out as a specific point of

faith, and Moses went back there and he was introducing something completely new.

And you think of how it might have been for him when he went to

the to the children of Israel to the elders. It's flat footed, never

heard of this passover, But by faith he had. Moses had enough confidence

in the word from God that he gave instructions and it was carried out.

That's a that's a pretty big deal to introduce that, And I think I

will just read that summary of these first fourteen verses, and the Lord's bakonto

Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying there's one of those times.

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be

the first month of the year. To you speak ye unto all the congregation

of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month, they shall

take to them every man of lamb according to the house of their fathers,

a lamb of an house foreign house, And if the household be too little

for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it

according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall

make your count for the lamb. The lamb shall be without blemish, a

male of the first year. He shall take it out from the sheep or

from the goats, and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the

same month, and the whole assembly of the Congregation of Israel shall kill it

in the evening, and they shall take the blood and strike it on the

two side posts, on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall

eat it. Shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and

unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs. They shall eat it, eat out

of it raw or sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his

head, with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall

let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it

until the morning you shall burn with fire. And that shall you eat it

with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in

your hand. And ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's

passover, for I will pass through the land of the Egypt this night and

will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast,

and against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I

am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon

the houses where ye are. And when I see the blood, I will

pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.

When I smite the land of Egypt, and this day shall be unto

you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord

through your generations, and you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

And I believe that Moses never just kept the original passover faith, but

in every passover in faith. And I think there's there's an aspect where as

we keep the passover, what took the place of the Passover communion, that

it's we should be keeping it with the same faith. It's a challenge to

me to keep it with that same faith. Moses didn't just leave Egypt.

He left Egypt with a mandate. The first time. He left as an

Egyptian, this time as a result of the keeping of the Passover and following

God's plan. He left Egypt with God leading him in a pillar of fire

by night and a pillar of cloud by day. And my last point then

is choosing faith is not a dead end. By faith, he passed through

the Red Sea, and we should at least read part of that passage.

Let's go to Exodus fourteen. Let's read verses eleven to sixteen and or ten.

We'll start at ten. And when Moses drew and I, the children

of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.

And they were sore afraid. And the children of Visual cried out unto

the Lord. And they said, unto Moses, because there were no graves

in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness. Wherefore

has thou dealt with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not

this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying let us alone,

that we may serve the Egyptians. For it had been better for us

to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses

said, unto the people, fear, ye not stand still and see the

salvation of the Lord. But ye shall show to you today. For the

Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

And the Lord said, unto Moses, where for Christ, thou unto me,

speak unto the children of Visual, that they go forward, But lift

thou up thy Rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it.

And the children of visual shall go on dry ground through the midst of

the sea. And you know, one thing Hebrews doesn't record here is the

faith of Israel going through the Red Sea. But if you remember when the

Spies went to Ahab, that's what they were known for, God being with

them because they went through the Red Sea. And this is why Moses is

a hero of faith. You see, this was a pretty difficult situation.

He gets them here. It seems like they're coming to an apparent dead end

at the corner of what's now called the Sinai Peninsula, and they're saying,

why just bring us out of Egypt. We didn't want to go anyway.

Weren't their graves in Egypt. You just brought us out here to die.

But Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. He

had faith because there's no dead ends when you're following God's plan. And then

it goes on to say in Hebrews, which the Egyptians assayed to do and

were drowned, They tried to do it and were drowned, and that it's

interesting that God saved Israel. In this it seemed like they didn't have much

faith. But I think a lesson we can learn here is that genuine faith

is not copied. You know, there are a lot of counterfeits, and

sometimes the results of faith are attractive and people want to copy it. But

if it's not real faith, it doesn't bring forth the fruit of the spirit.

And we can't just ride through the Red Sea on the shirt tails of

the Hebrew faith while still wearing the Egyptian uniform. You know, moses Egyptian

uniform was put off a long time ago before he went through the Red Sea

wearing the Egyptian uniform and fighting for the king of Egypt. Where as a

servant of Sin, we cannot find a path through the Red Sea, we

will come to dead ends. Moses was known as the meekest man that ever

lives. Number twelve three says now that man Moses was very meek above all

men which were upon the face of the earth. And this was the time

when when Miriam and Aaron said, hey, Moses, you're taking much on

yourselves on yourself, and the cloud came over them. And this this verse

is writ in a context. And the cloud came over them, and Mariam

was struck with leprosy. And it's just so interesting Moses' response to that.

It's like he didn't take offense that they're against me. He's praying for Miriam

for her recovery, and God granted that after she was outside the city seven

days. And I believe that Moses walked with some self doubt. He was

willing to question himself, but relied on God. And I think that's an

important distinction. As men of faith, we should doubt ourselves and rely on

God. And it's too easy for us to doubt God and rely on ourselves.

And I have noticed this in my own life and have tried to get

less sure about some things. That I feel pretty adamant about is that there's

been times where I've been absolutely sure about something and push it and expound on

it, and later find out I'm just simply wrong. And I believe,

and generally it's about things that don't matter that much, and I think it's

a good. It's actually an exercise of faith to doubt ourselves. And we

see that, especially if we have kept reading back there in Exodus three.

We see that in Moses just one example of Moses meekness. And this is

in Exus thirty twenty eight thirty two. Excuse me, I'll read verses ten

to fourteen. This is when Aaron had made the Golden Calf, and Moses

interceding for Israel. And it's just a beautiful picture of moses faith, his

intercession, his care, and his relationship with God. Now, therefore,

let me alone, that my wrath may this is God talking, may wax

hot against them Verse ten of Exus thirty two. Now therefore let me alone

and my wrath, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I

may consume them, and I will make a the a great nation. Think

of the opportunity for Moses right here. It certainly if it'd be his children'

be such stiff necked and difficult people. There are his children he can control,

and there the outcome a little better. It seems like a great opportunity.

But what's Moses' response? And Moses besought the Lord his God, and

said, Lord, why dost thou thy wrath wax hot against thy people,

which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and

with a mighty hand. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief,

did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains into the consume

them from the face of the earth. Turned from thy fierce wrath, and

repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel,

thy servant to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and set at unto

them. I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven. And

all this land that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed,

and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil

which he had sought to do unto his people. An intercession of Moses is

such a challenge to me. And his jealousy we see in his faith here,

in his meekness. This is jealousy to protect the name of the Lord.

You know, I believe God is the author of this story. To

educate Moses so he could write, so we have the written history. He

had him educated in Egypt, but then he wasn't worthy to be the leader

he needed, so he had him educated in the desert as a Vedoan shepherd

to become a godly leader of Israel. I said he was forty years in

Pharaoh's school, forty years in God's school, and forty years in service.

And my experience with service is that sometimes we're still in God's school as we're

serving him. As I mentioned, Moses was the meekest man that ever lived,

and Jesus calls us to be meek. He says, blessed of the

meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And I'm not sure what the

meek want with the earth, but those are the words. Also in Matthew

eleven, Jesus words says, coming to me, all you that labor and

are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,

and learning me, for I am meek and Lillian hart, and you

shall find rest unto your souls. And I think Moses had this, had

this same persona in his leadership. That is, that is consistent with these

verses. Jesus said, for my yoka is easy and my burden is life.

Now I'd like to go back to Hebrews eleven inclosing. Now we mentioned

about these men that were men of like passion as we are, but they

were men of faith, they were heroes of faith. But verse thirty,

i'd like to go to verse thirty nine to forty. I says in these

all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise God

having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be

made perfect. You read what that's saying here. They're heroes of faith,

but their faith was not made complete. But it says that without us they

should not be made complete. And so the faith of Moses, the writer

of Hebrews. His call here is that the faith of Moses lives on in

us. That we be heroes of faith, that we're making a difference,

that were meek, that we see God in the burning bush, that we

flee Egypt, that we keep the passover and choose God, and see God,

see the God's way in the dead end. Let's have a song.