Minister: Rev. Olon M. Lindemood

September 3 and 4, 2011

Exodus 2:11-22

Moses Flees to Midian

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?’ ¹⁴He answered, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’ ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. ¹⁶The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defence and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’ ¹⁹They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ ²⁰He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ ²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. ²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien^* residing in a foreign land.’

Bible Basics:  The Old Testament Continues today with Moses … the main man in the development of the Law!  Torah … first five books of the bible… the books of Moses …

Awakening the best parts of Scripture is one of our goals throughout this Old Testament series. Today the fun is in the amazing person of Moses.

In this sermon know two things: 

First, Moses was sinner, saint, buffoon and leader.

Second,  The Lord makes good use of Buffoons, Leaders, Saints and sinners!

FIRST:  Moses was sinner, saint, buffoon and leader…

Born in the days of Hebrew people labor / slavery camps in Egypt.  Somewhere near the capital Memphis.  The intensity of oppressive measures against the hebrew people was severe!  At the birth of Moses … Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, at the time decreed that all the male babies were to be killed.  Moses at three years old was placed by his mother and big sister Miriam into a reed boat , an ark, just up stream from the princess of Egypt, pharaoh’s daughter, she was bathing with her attendants … and the when she heard the baby crying … she rescued him and in that moment … Miriam, Moses big sister … said … Hey … why don’t you use a hebrew mom to suckle him?  So … Moses was suddenly growing up in the court of Pharaoh! … and he did… he grew and he grew and he grew … as though he were one of the princes in the court of pharaoh!  That is when we discover his moment of extreme change … he over hears the beating of an hebrew slave … and he becomes so enraged that he kills the Egyptian doing the beating …

He was known now as a murderer… he flees into the wilderness and then becomes a son in law to Jethro of Midian …. So he settled into the life of a shepherd tending sheep for his father in law jethro. 

William Barker says, “In the wilderness, God confronted Moses and commissioned the reluctant, stammering, excuse-making fugitive to go back to egypt to lead the hebrews out of captivity.”

Moses become the man that God used to confront the king of Egypt! …

Many think of Moses as Hollywood did … Charleston Heston … and big powerful man … majestic in presence and dignified in courage and poise at all times. 

(one rabbi says … Hollywood was wrong… Moses was actually Woody Allen…)(or maybe even Napoleon Dynamite!)

Friends … the idea of this series of sermons on the old testament is to help you know that it is okay to read a little scripture from time to time… the first few chapters of Exodus are good reading about Moses… Chapter 3 is really good stuff in the moment of Moses having a conversation with God…

Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come,( or SO, NOW, GO!) I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ 11But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ 12He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

Who does the Lord use to be his agent in the hour of need… “reluctant, stammering, excuse making fugitives…”

Second,  The Lord makes good use of Buffoons, Leaders, Saints and sinners!

Buffoons, Leaders, Saints and Sinners…

There is the key to the character Moses as a man of faith.  There lies the hope for you and for me… you see the Lord takes hold of each of us … sinner or saint!

The Lord uses us all … and there does not need to be a cosmic confrontation of good and evil at stake for the Lord to use us…

Edward Grinnan … a Guidepost friend… in the midst of flu and cold season was on a subway train car in NY City… he was worried about surviving the season without getting the flu…

Suddenly in front of him… a man starting coughing … dramatic coughing and hacking … Edward prayed, ‘ God, please make him stop, I can’t afford to get sick right now.” 

The man did not stop … he kept coughing … I sank lower in my seat … and my anger and anxiety as the seat bucked with each cough … and then a young woman across the aisle reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of water…  she handed it to the man… sir … here you go, this might help.”

The man took a sip … and said, “I must have had something stuck.  Thanks.”

She said… keep it!

…

Then all was quiet…

… Edward could only hear the little voice in his own spirit… you had a bottle of water, you had a mint, you had a cough drop …except, I did not think about that as I was lost in my own worries … The Lord heard the cry of the needy and then told a young woman to “GO!”

You see when we are lost in own worlds of hurt and pain and anguish, unwilling to think of anything but ourselves … we deny the best that God can do…

Friends…  there is a simple message today that comes from the stories of Moses … “Listen … Listen” the Lord’s voice comes after there is a cry of the needy …

It comes to the buffoons, leaders, sinners and saints…

The whisper of the Lord is a simple little world in such moments:  “go”

“Go”

And if we don’t have what it takes… the Lord has someone near … ‘go’

Children, go where I send thee

How shall I send thee?

I’m gonna send thee one by one

One for the little bitty baby

That was born, born

Born in bethlehem

Children, go where I send thee

How shall I send thee?

I’m gonna send thee two by two

Two for Paul and Silas

One for the little bitty baby

That was born, born,

Born in Bethlehem

Three for the Hebrew children…

Four for the gospel preachers…

Six for the six that never got fixed…

Seven for the seven that never got to heaven…

Eight for the eight that stood at the gate…

Nine for the nine all dressed so fine

Ten for the ten commandments…

Eleven for the eleven deriders…

Twelve for the twelve Apostles…