Deuteronomy 34:10-12
(KJV)
And there arose not a
prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
In all the signs and the
wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to
all his servants, and to all his land,
And in all that mighty
hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all
Israel.
Moses spent:
A. Forty years learning to be somebody
These were his years
growing up in Egypt. A Jew, but extraordinary circumstances had placed him in
the house of Pharaoh.
Many Bible students
believe that, had Moses not chosen to identify with the Jews, he would have
been the next Pharaoh.
Can you imagine that?
Joseph had been second
in command of Egypt, under only Pharaoh.
Moses could have been
Pharaoh himself.
The first few years of his life had been with his own mother
serving as his nurse, hired by the Pharaoh’s daughter.
It must have been in
those formative years that Amram and Jochebed were able to instill into him his
heritage and birthright as a Jew.
Never underestimate the
importance of those earliest years of your children’s lives.
You might give them
everything they need to stand for God in just those first 3-4 years.
After that he would have undoubtedly been ushered into the
Pharaoh’s palace, likely not seeing his parents again
It was during those
years he was trained in leadership and history and taught pomp and civil duty.
Somewhere near 30 years
old, he was placed out in the fields, representing Pharaoh before his guards
and directing the work of the Egyptians, accomplished on the backs of their
slaves, the Jews.
It was then that Moses
saw an Egyptian beating a Jew and killed him, supposing that his kinsmen would
appreciate it.
They did not and Moses
had to run for his life.
After that Moses spent
B. Forty years learning to be nobody
Having escaped Egypt
with nothing but his life, Moses found himself in the camp of a Nomadic priest
of Midian named Reuel.
Moses won the heart of one
of the priest’s daughters, Zipporah, they married and had two boys.
Consider where he has
gone.
· From the palace of Pharaoh to the tent of a wandering priest
· From the leadership of the greatest nation of its time to
the shepherd of a small herd of animals
· From the promise of future greatness to an expected life of
mere subsistence
When God called him out
of the burning bush Moses had:
· Lost confidence in himself
· Feared for his life at the hand of both Egyptians and Jews
and
· Questioned the name and nature of God
But God did call him so
Moses spent his final
C. Forty years learning to be
I do not mean to say
that Moses was not a great man, those years of leading the Jews through the
wilderness. He was.
I just mean to say that
Moses never gave his own greatness a second thought.
He was what he was
because God had placed him there.
Would to God we had leaders today who understood that
principle!
Other than Abraham, no
man is revered in Judaism more than Moses.
And all of that
reverence has to do with what he did in those last 40 years of just being who
God made him to be.
The spirituality of
Moses is demonstrated in four qualities I would like to present to you this
morning,
I. IN BOLDNESS
Exodus 5:1 (KJV)
And afterward Moses and
Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my
people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
A. None of us were there when Moses spoke
those words to Pharaoh,
so we do not know
exactly what his voice inflections may have been.
He probably told Pharaoh
these words up to nine separate times and I imagine each one may have been
spoken in a different tone.
I can tell you what it
never was though – it was never a question.
He may not have demanded
it the first time he said it, but I’ll guarantee you he did not whisper it.
It would have required boldness and nerve just to enter into Pharaoh’s presence.
No other Jew could have
done it.
He had an audience
because of his upbringing – but he didn’t have favor.
Moses demonstrated
boldness.
B. But it was not a natural boldness. He was
personally terrified
Exodus 3:11 (KJV)
And Moses said unto God,
Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the
children of Israel out of Egypt?
Moses proceeded from
there to offer God one reason after the other why he was the wrong man for the
job
· I am a nobody
· They won’t believe You sent me
· I am not a great speaker
Sounds a lot like the
sort of excuses you and I make for not talking to people doesn’t it?
It is true that we don’t
have the miracles that Moses had, but we have something he didn’t – we have the
Bible, and it is the power of God unto salvation.
Moses never did display
an arrogant boldness before the Pharaoh. Every time he went in, he did so at
the command of God and every time he said “Let my people go.” He began with, “Thus
saith the Lord.”
Truth is, we can do what Moses did.
We can tell people what
God said.
You think it was easy
for Moses?
He went in to Pharaoh
time after time after time.
· Every time, Pharaoh got mad
· The first time the Jews got mad for making Pharaoh mad
Moses didn’t presume.
He didn’t browbeat
Pharaoh and pressure him like he didn’t care.
All he did was obey the
voice of the Lord. When he was sure God wanted him to speak to Pharaoh, he
spoke to Pharaoh.
Moses demonstrated
spirituality by boldly speaking for the Lord.
He demonstrated
spirituality secondly
II. IN LEADERSHIP
Exodus 14:13 (KJV)
And Moses said unto the
people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he
will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall
see them again no more for ever.
Exodus 14:21 (KJV)
And Moses stretched out
his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east
wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
I told you a couple of
weeks ago that I have made Romans 4:20 (KJV)
He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
my life verse.
That verse is about
Abraham.
But I made Moses my life
character.
I mean no disrespect to
the Apostle Paul, but I think Moses is the greatest example of pastoral
leadership in the Bible.
Moses led the “church
in the wilderness”[1]
for forty years.
· They complained about him
· They murmured against him
· They tried to replace him
· They disobeyed God
· They refused to go in to the Promised Land the first time
they came to the border
And yet when God said,
“Stand back, I am going to wipe them all out and start over with your family.”
Moses pled for God to
spare them.
And he spent the rest of
his life wandering around in circles, going nowhere, burying them when they
died.
I have failed the mark
of a pastoral ministry like Moses’ but I still aspire to it.
He wasn’t after power or
fame or notoriety.
All he wanted to do was
love those people and lead them with the help of God.
He was spiritual
· In his boldness
· In his leadership
And
III. IN HUMILITY
Numbers 12:3 (KJV)
(Now the man Moses was
very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
When the people
complained about him and wanted to replace him, Moses simply knelt his face to
the ground and let God deal with the situation as God chose.
Numbers 16:1-5 (KJV)
Now Korah, the son of
Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of
Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
And they rose up before
Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of
the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
And they gathered
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye
take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of
them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above
the congregation of the LORD?
And when Moses heard it,
he fell upon his face:
And he spake unto Korah
and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are
his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom
he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.
I do not mean to imply
that Moses couldn’t display a temper.
He did one time, and it
proved to be his undoing.
But notice how he
handled this crisis.
One of these days I want to do what Moses did here.
One of these days when
someone comes to accuse me and complain and tell me all the things I should be
doing and I am not doing – I just want to lay down on the ground right in front
of them and start praying.
He didn’t take any
action, I think for two to three reasons:
1.
It was God’s
ministry and if God wanted to replace him God was free to do so
2.
It was God
who called him and he knew he was only doing what God had called him to do
3.
it was God’s
problem and he knew God was perfectly capable of solving the problem without
Moses’ getting involved
Do you remember what happened?
The earth opened up and
swallowed Korah and his whole lot.
Moses was spiritual
· In his boldness
· In his leadership
· In his humility
And finally he was
spiritual
IV. IN SACRIFICE
Numbers 14:11-20 (KJV)
And the LORD said unto
Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they
believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
I will smite them with
the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and
mightier than they.
And Moses said unto the
LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in
thy might from among them;)
And they will tell it to
the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this
people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over
them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and
in a pillar of fire by night.
Now if thou shalt kill
all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee
will speak, saying,
Because the LORD was not
able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he
hath slain them in the wilderness.
And now, I beseech thee,
let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
The LORD is
longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by
no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation.
Pardon, I beseech thee,
the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as
thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
And the LORD said, I
have pardoned according to thy word:
I know I already alluded
to this passage but it seemed right to present it to you here.
As great as we think
Moses was, God offered to make him even greater.
Moses sacrificially
A. Stayed with them through the wilderness
For forty long years
they wandered around in the wilderness.
They could have been in
the Promised Land within days of leaving Egypt.
Moses could have been in
the Promised Land just days after they left Egypt.
But these stiff-necked
people ruined it for him.
He stayed with them
anyway.
A few years ago I read a
book by a so-called successful pastor. In the book he recounts a story where he
wanted to lead his church to do a thing and the church drug their feet and
would not do it.
He told them that if
they would not follow where he led then it was time for him to resign.
That is not the spirit
Moses demonstrated.
B. Prayed for them that God would spare them
I confess to you that
there have been times when I prayed just the opposite.
Moses spent his life
interceding on behalf of his people.
I want to be that kind
of man.
Finally
C. Died previous to entering the Promised Land
It was their fault that
he didn’t go into the Promised Land soon after they left Egypt.
All of those years later
and after all of those trials with the people of Israel, Moses broke.
He had been angry
before.
But this time he let it
cloud his head.
He presumed to act for
God and did something God had not told him to do.
The consequence was that
he would not enter in to the Promised Land at all.
Do you know how he
handled that?
· He gathered the people together and reminded them of all
that God had done
· He urged them to obey the Lord and keep His commandments and
· He asked God to give them a good man to lead them in his
place
It just never was about
Moses to Moses.
God had a plan for His
people and His glory.
Moses only wanted God
plan to go forward.
Moses was spiritual
· In his boldness
· In his leadership
· In his humility and
· In his sacrifice
Conclusion
We need some spiritual
people today.
We need some Christians
who will decide they don’t have to be somebody and that they won’t crawl in a
hole and be nobody, but they will stand for God and just be what and where He
wants them to be.
Will you be that
Christian?
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