So we're going to Exodus chapter
4 and we're going to read from verse 1 down through verse 17. These are kind of big chunks
but we're going to move through some of these passages quite
quickly as the Lord enables and we don't necessarily need to
read everything continuously as well. We may jump and change
from time to time. But here we go with Exodus chapter
4 and verse 1. You remember that the Lord has
been speaking to Moses from the burning bush. And here we're
told, And Moses answered and said, And the Lord said unto
him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses,
put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth
his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. and that they may believe that
the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham and the God
of Isaac and the God of Jacob had appeared unto thee. And the
Lord said further unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his
bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous
as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into
thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his
bosom again, and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it
was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass,
if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice
of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the
latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if
they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto
thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and
pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out
of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. And Moses
said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent neither heretofore
nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of
speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who
hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say.' And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand
of him whom thou wilt send. and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Moses. And he said, Is not Aaron the
Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth
to meet thee, and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his
heart. And thou shalt speak unto him,
and put words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth and
with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he
shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be, even
he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to
him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod
in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
also. We saw last time how the Lord
God, the Eternal Word, spoke to Moses from the bush that burned. Burned, but was not consumed. Moses was to go and to tell the
elders of Israel how God would bring them out of Egypt and into
the land of Canaan. But Moses was doubtful that the
elders and the people of Israel would listen to him and so he
asks for a sign to show to them to prove that God had indeed
spoken to him, met with him and spoken to him. He was aware that
the people might say, how do we know that you are not just
saying that? How can we tell that what you
say is true? Now the Lord was not displeased
with this request and he does indeed provide Moses with several
signs. There's a staff that turns into
a snake on the ground and then back into a staff again when
it is picked up by the tail. There's a miraculous coming and
going of leprosy on Moses' hand when he places it inside of his
cloak and then takes it out again. And a third sign was given as
well, that he would perform when he was back in Egypt where the
water of the river would turn into blood when it was poured
onto the ground. These powerful demonstrations
of power showed that God was with Moses and they were given
to provide proof to the children of Israel of this meeting that
had taken place. But Moses had another problem.
He felt inadequate for the task that he was being given because
he says to the Lord, I'm not a good speaker. Now perhaps there
was indeed a physical weakness in his speech. Or else maybe
it was something to do with his accent or his vocabulary. So that he became tongue-tied
and he became embarrassed and he became self-conscious. Moses
himself calls it slow of speech or of a slow tongue. And what we see happens next
is that God gives Moses a talking to. And he gives him a firm lesson
about who made mouths and who made ears and who made eyes.
Moses was to go and do as he was told. And Moses was left
in no doubt that God would enable him as was needed. The next verse is very interesting. It's verse 12 that we read together
there, I think. Verse 13 actually. Moses says,
Oh my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou
wilt send. I just say it's interesting because
some of the old writers suggest that what Moses was saying there
was Why don't you send the one that you've promised to send?
Why don't you send the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't
you send him right now? So that Moses, if this is the
interpretation of this verse, knew, as indeed Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob knew, that there would be a Messiah who would be sent. This message that had been given
right from the very beginning of time. It was even given in
the garden to Adam and to Eve that there would be one who would
come who would bruise the serpent's head. You know, some people even
said that was the reason why Moses was told to pick up the
rod by its tail. Because the only one who would
truly deal with the serpent's head was the Lord Jesus Christ. These are interesting thoughts
and we're not going to be able to spend too much time thinking
about them. But it just shows you how some
of these old writers endeavoured to see the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of these pictures and types in the Old Testament. So
Moses agrees to go and he still appears, however, to be hesitant
and somewhat reluctant. And we're told that the Lord's
anger was kindled against Moses. So the Lord now includes Aaron,
Moses' brother, as a co-worker and a spokesperson. How God's
anger was demonstrated against Moses is not clearly stated. Perhaps God had intended to take
Moses' slowness of speech away from him and now it wasn't removed. And yet we need to remember that
God's love for Moses remains unchanged because God still employs
him and God still went with him in this task. God tells Moses
that Aaron would also go with him. So perhaps Moses lost something
of the preeminence now that there were two involved in this delegation
to Pharaoh. But I've just got a couple of
lessons that I want to leave with you from this passage if
we can do that. The first one is this, that the
Lord was willing to provide Moses with these signs in order to
convince the children of Israel that God had spoken to Moses. And it was a great help to Moses
when he went to visit with the elders of the children of Israel.
But perhaps you're wondering today, why doesn't God give his
spokesmen today the same kind of powerful signs? Why doesn't
he give to preachers today the same kind of powerful signs like
he did to his apostles? And that's a very good question.
There are two reasons why God doesn't do that. The first is
that God has given us the scriptures and the testimony of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his apostles for us to teach and to preach. This gospel message is to be
declared to all who will listen. And God has said that he will
give faith to believe to whomsoever he will. And so we're not bringing
new revelations from God as preachers of the gospel, but we are simply
restating what God has already declared and what God has already
passed his authority upon. Faith, to believe that, is a
gift. Believing the gospel isn't about
having enough evidence to tip the balance in one way or another. Or as if we are trying to convince
an unbeliever that it would be a really good idea if he was
to place his trust in God. Preaching the gospel is about
declaring the truth and then leaving God to give faith. Faith to believe to all who should
be saved. God gave Moses and Aaron his
authority to speak and to bring about judgments on his behalf. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
the same for his apostles. But preachers today do not have
or indeed do not need that same authority. Our authority is the
message, not the man. In matters of faith, a preacher
is only to be believed to the extent that he preaches the truth
of Scripture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second reason
that we don't have these signs and wonders today is that the
signs in themselves will not convince hard hearts. And we're going to prove that
in the coming weeks when Moses comes before Pharaoh. Signs might
generate some curiosity and might generate some interest, but they
cannot make a hard heart soft, and they cannot make a dead soul
alive. It takes a miracle of grace.
It takes the sovereign creative work of God the Holy Spirit to
do that. And outward signs and wonders
have given place to an inward work. of grace and the new birth. When the Holy Spirit gives spiritual
life, the gospel will be believed and men and women and boys and
girls will themselves become the signs of God's work of power
as they are brought to salvation and joined into the church of
Jesus Christ. And there's another noticeable
point here as well, how that God reminds Moses that he made
mouths and ears and eyes. When we think about this, we
realize that nothing will be a hurdle to God when he is going
to accomplish something. The rod became a snake, the leprous
hand, the water turned to blood and many more miracles that would
be in the form of plagues were yet to be seen in Egypt. They show us that God controls
nature and he's not limited by what we think is possible or
not possible. Let us never limit God. He may not do signs and wonders
today, but he is still accomplishing his purpose, using frail, feeble,
and often foolish people like us to do that very thing. And just because God uses ordinary
means to achieve His extraordinary purpose does not make those accomplishments
any less wonderful. The death and resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation by His sacrifice is
a most marvellous work. And yet God uses ordinary people
like you and me to extend and make known the effects of Christ's
achievements. That's a great privilege for
us, just as it was for Moses. And as the Lord calls us to follow
him and to serve his church and his people, let us remember that
no barrier and no limitation in us will be too great to prevent
him from doing all his will. And here's one last point and
then I'm done. Do you remember who it is that was writing this
book of Exodus? He wrote all the first five books
of the Bible. Well, of course, it's Moses,
isn't it? So Moses is writing about himself. Moses is the writer of these
things, about Moses. So this part of Exodus is what
we call autobiographical, writing about himself. And it's to Moses'
credit that he writes so truthfully about himself. He writes about
his shortcomings, he writes about his doubts, he writes about his
hesitation and he shows himself to be a faithful historian by
recording his own weakness and indeed recording God's displeasure
about him. We often try to cover up our
own sin and cover up the mistakes that we make and our lack of
trust. But let us remember that the
finest of the Lord's servants were only poor sinners like us. The glory of God is not that
he uses us for how strong we are, but that he uses us despite
how weak we are. And it is my prayer today that
he will use you who are listening to honour Christ's name and to
serve his people. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.