Last week we looked at some events in the early life of Moses. We talked about how Moses, when grown up, killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and how Moses, after his secret was found out, fled from Pharaoh into the desert and started a new life as a simple herdsman. After 40 years of living in the desert, God appeared to him in a burning bush that did not burn up, and charged Moses with going back to Egypt and being the vessel God was to use to rescue the Hebrews from Egypt. Moses was reluctant, to say the least, and ultimately, after God explained how He would be with Him through everything, said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else to do it!” I talked about how we can be like this as well – even though in the gospels we are told that God will be with us even until the end of the age, we are hesitant to do many things that take us out of our comfort zone. Sharing the gospel with friends and neighbors and even strangers is something over which we tell God, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else to do it!”
In Moses’ case, God told Him that He would was sending Aaron to him, and Aaron would be his mouthpiece. Moses still had to go along, though, and he was the one who would show Pharaoh the miraculous signs including the turning of his staff into a serpent. Moses and Aaron did meet up together, and then together they went back to Egypt.
Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. – Ex. 4:29-31
You may well remember what happened next. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him to let his people go, and Pharaoh said “No” and also began to make the Israelite slaves gather their own straw for the bricks in addition to everything else they had to do. How did the Israelites respond? They complained to Moses.
When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, "May the Lord look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us." – Ex. 5:20-21
How did Moses respond? He talked to God.
Moses returned to the Lord and said, "O Lord, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and You have not rescued Your people at all." – Ex. 5:22-23
For a man who has trouble gathering the courage to speak to Pharaoh, I find this an astonishing thing to say to the Lord! God did not get angry, though, but reiterated His message that, nevertheless, He had a plan and would indeed bring His people out from under the bondage of the Egyptians. He would honor His covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country." But Moses said to the Lord, "If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?" – Ex. 6:10-12
Here is what God said in response:
Then the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it." – Ex. 7:1-5
And this is exactly what happened. Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord, and again and again, God would show Pharaoh a sign through Moses, and again and again, Pharaoh would start to say they could go but then his heart was hardened and he again said “No.”
The signs included Aaron’s staff becoming a snake, the waters of the Nile changing to blood, frogs covering the land of Egypt, swarms of gnats covering men and animals, flies throughout Egypt except for the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, the death of the livestock belonging to the Egyptians (but not the Israelites), boils covering the men and animals, a terrible hailstorm out in the fields, locusts that devoured everything, a plague of darkness, and finally the plague of death to the firstborn. In all these things, Moses did what the Lord told him to do, instructing the Israelites and even Pharaoh – Moses overcame his fear of speaking to Pharaoh.
After God killed the firstborn of all in Egypt (all except the Israelites), Pharaoh finally consented to let the Israelites go. As they left, they plundered the Egyptians just as foretold when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush.
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. – Ex. 13:17-18
I find God’s thinking here fascinating. He knew the Israelites. He knew that they were prone to change their minds at hardship and actually go back to their slave drivers in Egypt. Because of this weakness in them, He had them take a longer path. This passage makes me wonder about me, about us. Does God sometimes give us a harder path or a longer road because He knows that the shorter path would make us give in to temptation? I believe so. It is an unpleasant lesson, but it is true that sometimes the easiest or most pleasant things are not the best things for us. This is a lesson that applies to parenting as well. Sometimes we should withhold good things from our children so that they can learn greater lessons in character. Parenting well requires great wisdom, wisdom that we can only find through diligent study of God’s Word in through staying on our knees in prayer. God displays great wisdom here. He knows that the easy thing would lead to disaster for His people – they would reject their freedom and deliverance and willingly go back into slavery if given the chance.
Exodus further explains that the Lord led them visibly through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Have you ever thought about what this would have been like? This is such a clear, visible sign of God’s being with them, leading them. It wasn’t really Moses who was leading them.
You may remember what happened next – Pharaoh once again changed his mind, so he pursued the Israelites on horses and chariots and overtook them.
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" – Ex. 14:10-12
Now, being terrified is perfectly understandable. But blaming Moses is not. As I have pointed out, Moses isn’t really the one leading them! They are shouting out these mean, hurtful things to Moses in the present of the pillar of God.
Now, as I see it, there were three ways Moses could have responded. The first would be to respond in fear. Fear is highly contagious. Moses could have cried to God the very same things that the Israelites said to him- “Why did to you take us here, only to die?” The second way Moses could have responded would have been to express his deep disgust for the Israelites lack of faith in God, and even “quit” and left them behind. The third way is what we see, humble yet confident leadership.
Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." – Ex. 14:13-15
Moses shows no fear, and no anger or frustration. He instructs his people to trust God as he does.
Scripture goes on to say that an angel of God as well as the pillar of cloud moved to block the armies of Egypt from attacking. And Moses raised his staff and stretched out his hand over the sea, as God had commanded. And through the night, God drove back the sea with a special wind until there was dry land. The Israelites then went through the sea on dry land, and the Egyptian armies pursued them. But after the Israelites made it to the other side, the Lord made the waters return and they utterly destroyed Pharaoh’s armies. In celebration, Moses and the people sing a song that includes these words:
"In Your unfailing love You will lead the people you have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling. – Ex. 15:13
They understand so much of God here: His unfailing love, His redemption of them, His strength, His continual guidance, His holiness. So is it “happily ever after”? Hardly! Just as we can do, the Israelites go from total faith and trust in God to totally doubting His character in shockingly quick order.
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" – Ex. 15:22-24
Remember that all this time, it is not really Moses leading them, but God through the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. Now it is certainly understandable to be worried about traveling in the desert with water supplies running out, and it would certainly be a giant disappointment to be led to water only to find that it was undrinkable. But if one were to live by faith, the response would be to ask God to help them, not to grumble and complain to Moses. It goes on to say that Moses asked of the Lord, and God showed him a piece of wood that he threw into the water, which made the water become sweet, and their thirst was satisfied.
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." – Ex. 16:1-3
In response the Lord provided manna and quail. Moses and Aaron, in telling the people how the Lord would provide for them, make a telling statement: The people were not grumbling against them, but against the Lord Himself. Once again, I am struck by how I can do this as well. There is a world of difference between grumbling and what we are in fact instructed to do:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Phil. 4:4-6
How different this is! Rejoicing may be the direct opposite of complaining. Does this mean you need to rejoice about your lack of food, or water, or money? I don’t know that you need to rejoice about these things, but you should rejoice despite these things. Surely you can find something to rejoice about – how God has been preparing a better place for us, how He will be with us for eternity, how He has saved us, purchasing us with the dear cost of Jesus’ blood, how He is always with us, how He loves us – there is plenty to rejoice about!
I am also struck by that word “gentleness” – what the Israelites did again and again in the desert was hardly gentle; it was mean, cruel, harsh. We should be gentle. Even in the midst of hard, frustrating things. Especially then!
And I am struck by how we should not be anxious – not in anything! The Israelites were always anxious. Part of me is quick to defend them, but that is only because I too would likely be anxious in their situations. Indeed, it is hard for me to explain this, but as an unbeliever, when I began to read the Bible for myself “once and for all” to decide whether I would become a full-fledged atheist, it was this very fact that somehow convinced me of the truth in this Book. The Bible is honest, and it is true to real life. The pillar of fire and of cloud were still leading them, and they had already been delivered from so much, seen so many miracles, but when each new crisis came, they fell back on fear, and anger, and harshness, and grumbling, and even wishing they could go back to slavery in Egypt. I understood this! I knew that I would have been no different.
This wasn’t the Israelites’ only sin: God gave specific rules about the Manna – that they were not to keep any until morning. But some of them did. Not only did this reveal disobedience, but it showed they still didn’t really trust God. Here they are having this strange “what is it” substance literally materialize out of nothing, and yet, holding it in their hands, they cannot trust God to give more tomorrow!
They were also instructed to gather twice as much before the Sabbath, and not collect any on the Sabbath, and yet, there some of them were, out on the Sabbath, once again defying God’s commands.
A little later we see a repeat episode: once again they don’t have water. Following God’s command, Moses strikes a rock, and water comes from it. Moses says this: “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."
In the third month since they left Egypt, God met with Moses and explained that He would come down to Moses in a dense cloud on the top of Mount Sinai, “so that the people will hear Me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Surrounded by thunder, lightning, and smoke, and with a loud trumpet-like sound, God descended and told Moses the 10 commandments. The people trembled with fear at the sight, stayed at a distance, and begged Moses to not let God speak to them directly. Moses told them not to be afraid, and said that the fear of God would help keep them from sinning.
In Exodus 24, after the covenant was explained, it was confirmed with sacrifices and burnt offerings. It is interesting to me that the blood was even sprinkled directly on the people. Moses then went up the mountain again, with his aide Joshua, to receive stone tablets containing the laws. Some of the details I find very interesting.
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. – Ex. 24:15-18
This is a long time! What was going on up there? It is true that God was giving detailed instructions to Moses about the tent of meeting, sacrifices, and so on, but forty days! This is a very long time. What was the purpose? Certainly the required information could have been given more quickly!
We aren’t told outright what the reason is, but I think it was once again to “test” the Israelites, to reveal their lack of faith and trust in God.
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." – Ex. 25:1
“This fellow Moses”?! The cloud is still on the mountain. God’s presence is right before them! But they decide to fashion their own images of god in exchange for the real thing. And for reasons that are a mystery except for the sinful nature of man, Aaron not only goes along with it, but takes charge of the operation, taking the people’s gold jewelry and making it into a golden calf.
Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. – Ex. 25:4-6
Who do the Israelites think they are worshiping? They want to worship not the real God still up on that mountain, but images they have made, and they want to give credit for their deliverance from Egypt to them. Why? Because they seem safer. They are quite literally putting God in a box – in this case, a box made of gold with four legs and a tail. Not only is their god safer; he is also less demanding, less restrictive, more “fun.”
The Lord’s anger was great at this, and Moses spoke with God, the result of which was that God agreed not to completely wipe out the Israelites. The results still were terrible – Moses smashed the tablets, destroyed the idol, and then there was much killing as well as a plague, effectively a curse as punishment for what they had done.
The Lord threatened to the people that He would not go with them further, but again Moses interceded and God said this:
And the Lord said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name." – Ex. 33:17
Two more stone tablets were made, and the Lord renewed His covenant with them. He also saw, in a fashion, the Lord Himself, protected through a cleft in a rock. From then on, when Moses would speak with the Lord, his face would be radiant.
The people, under Moses’ direction, went on to make the tabernacle and the ark, as well as other things needed for worship. Everything was set up, and then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Many regulations were established, and the priests were set up, and much more was arranged. Finally, in the 2nd month of the 2nd year after leaving Egypt, they began to move regularly again.
And once again, the people began to grumble and complain regularly again. They even complained about the manna. At this point, something seemed to break inside of Noah, and this is what he said:
He asked the Lord, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin." – Nu. 11:11-15
Now, this is not how I would suggest you talk to your boss. What are we to make of it? Is Moses overreacting? I don’t know – I do think he is overworked, to the point of collapse. God’s response is one of compassion – there is no criticism of Moses’ outburst. God arranges to have 70 elders share the responsibilities that Moses has.
As for the meat, God says he will provide. In fact, they will be overwhelmed with meat for a whole month. But Moses, still apparently exhausted, says this:
But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?" – Nu. 11:21-22
God is the one who provides – an enormous flock of quail are blown into where they are, and God’s words are fulfilled.
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this. (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) – Nu. 12:1-3
God calls Moses, Aaron, and Miriam together, and declares how special and unique His relationship with Moses is. “With him I speak to face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Miriam then is suddenly leprous. Moses does not hold a grudge, but asks God to heal her, which He does, after she spends seven days outside the camp.
Moses, then, under God’s direction, sent scouts to explore the land of Canaan, which God was going to give to them, in honor of His covenant with Abraham. When they came back, they talked about its bountiful supplies and brought back some giant fruit. But they also said that there were powerful people there, in large, fortified cities. Caleb, one of the scouts, said they should still go there and take the land, but some of the other scouts went on to apparently exaggerate the situation and say they were like grasshoppers compared to the giant people there.
That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." – Nu. 14:1-4
Joshua and Caleb tried to convince the people that God would lead them, and give them that land, that they need not fear, and should not rebel against God as they were doing. But the people talked of stoning Moses. Then God spoke with Moses and spoke of striking them all down and making a new nation out of Moses. Moses pleaded with God not to do this, and instead, God said that they would wander the desert 40 years, until the current generation passed away. Only then could they enter the promised land.
The people mourned over their fate but then decided to go take the land after all. Moses warned them they were disobeying and would fail, but they went ahead and tried anyway.
Then Korah and two others led a rebellion against Moses. Hundreds of Levites joined them. The nature of the rebellion was that they wanted to be priests too – they said they were opposed to the idea of a priestly class and said everyone was equally holy. The people in general were leaning towards their side, until the earth swallowed up Korah and the other leaders and fire destroyed the other Levites. Moses explained this would happen right before it did. The next day the people grumbled about what had happened, and a plague was the result.
There is much more I could say, but I want to cover one important event. The people complained one more time about needing water and wanting to back to Egypt.
The Lord said to Moses, "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." – Nu. 20:7-8
So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. – Nu. 20:9-11
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." – Nu. 20:12
Some people say this seemed harsh, but I think there is something serious here. It says that Moses and Aaron did not honor God as holy. Perhaps the people heard or knew what Moses was supposed to do – speak to the rock – and so they saw his disobedience when instead he struck it. Perhaps it was Moses’ attitude while he did it, one of frustration with God for having to continue to deal with this obstinate people for what he knew would be 40 more years. But whatever it was, it was a heart issue, and heart issues are serious with God – just look at Jesus’ sermon on the mount.
There is more, much more, but I think this gives you a good taste of Moses’ life with the Israelites. Here are some thoughts I have when taking a big picture look at his life. First, God may have given him the most difficult job a man has ever been given, other than Christ. Can you imagine what it was like to lead these obstinate people who, most of the time, resented and hated their leader and even hated the God who had delivered them? Imagine being a prison warden – I would imagine this is a pretty challenging job in any case – but now imagine being a prison warden who has doesn’t get to go home but has to live in the prison with the prisoners for the rest of his life. Moses had to experience the 40-year punishment of wandering the desert not because of his own sins, but because of those of the people. Reflecting on this puts my own trials in perspective.
Second, Moses had would I would call a mature relationship with God. Moses is respectful and worshipful of God, but he is also himself around Him. Moses tells God what is truly on his heart, including his frustrations. He doesn’t hide things from God. I find this a powerful challenge. It is so easy to slip into a kind of fake piety when talking to God all the while not coming to Him with our real challenges and problems. Moses did not do this. Moses was not shallow with God. His relationship with God was not superficial.
Third, Moses had a godly love for a people who would not love him back. We didn’t have time to get into the book of Deuteronomy, but read it. You will see in it Moses’ love for his people. He is honest with them and tells them what they are, but he cares for them wants more than anything to see them truly follow after God after he is gone. It would have been easy for Moses to disengage his people, to “burn out,” to go through the motions with them while just waiting to die. It would have been easy for Moses to become bitter to the point of hating them and even asking God to wipe them out. But this did not happen. Moses loved these people, broken vessels though they were. I also find this a powerful challenge. It is a challenge to every parent, for Moses’ adventures may be more similar to parenting than they are to anything else. God calls us, more than anything else, to be lovers – lovers of God, lovers of our families, lovers of the people we work with, lovers of each other in this body. God does not want us to become bitter, or to develop enemies – this is not His way.
Fourth, Moses was humble. We read that he was the most humble man on earth. Have you thought about the temptations Moses must have had with his position? He could have asked to have been treated like royalty. He could have asked for the choicest foods, the best of everything. But more than this, he could have started to think of himself as extra special, as more important than the others. Remember too that Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s own courts. He did not live the life of a slave like all the others. Do you ever think of yourself as better than others? You might say, “But sometimes it is true!” Ah, you are caught! The problem is really that you are thinking of yourself at all. You are comparing yourself to others. This is not humility. Humility is to count yourself as a vile sinner saved by grace and no more.
When I look at Moses’ life part of me wants to say to God that the hardness of his task, the harshness of his life was not fair. But Scripture says, and this is my final point, Moses lived by faith. He did not live for the rewards in this earth, but for the future promise. I believe he knew that Jesus was coming – he even told his people to be on the watch for “a prophet like me.” Hebrews 11 says this of Moses:
He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. – Hebr. 11:26
May the same be said of us!
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