Latest / Admonition Podcast / Moses: A Study of Israel's Meekest Leader - Jacob Kennedy - March 22, 2026

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Moses: A Study of Israel's Meekest Leader - Jacob Kennedy - March 22, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

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As you can tell, I am not Aaron.
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ah He is under the weather at the moment.
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And so we'll be praying that he gets over whatever is ailing him at this moment very quickly.
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So you can actually have a competent teacher teaching you again.
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uh As per normal, we will begin with a word of prayer.
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So if you would please bow with me.
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Almighty God, most holy, most righteous heavenly father, we thank you for who you are.
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We thank you for all that you have done.
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We thank you for the blessing that we have today in coming to worship you.
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Lord, we're thankful for this time that we have this morning to study your word.
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We pray that as we look through the life of Moses that we will try to glean all that we can from his example, learn from his mistakes and try to follow after what he did right.
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Lord, we pray that in all things we will be students of your word.
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We will always be striving to grow in our faith in you and to be better servants of you each day.
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We pray this prayer in your son's most holy name.
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Amen.
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We will be discussing the life of Moses today.
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And as such, will be looking, of course, starting in the book of Exodus with his birth.
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What we'll do is we'll go through a very, I say brief, as brief as we can, a look over his life and then proceed in looking at some applications we can draw from his leadership,
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from his personality, from the things that he did in his life and how he followed God.
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But picking up in Exodus chapter one,
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In Exodus chapter one, we know the circumstances surrounding Moses's birth.
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In Exodus one, starting in verse eight.
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Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
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And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.
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Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.
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And it come to pass that when there falleth any war,
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They join also into our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land.
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Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithim and Ramses.
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But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
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Now what is happening here?
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If you notice what how verse eight begins, there was a new king who did not know Joseph.
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Why is this so important?
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Why is it so important to the rest of the study in the book of Exodus, the study in the life of Moses, why is it so important to note that this king did not remember or did not
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heed the example of Moses or of Joseph rather.
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doing it and things multiplied and flourished.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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You look in in the book of Genesis and you see the time in which Joseph lived that there was a great famine coming in the land and that Joseph was responsible as far as Egyptian
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history is concerned.
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He was responsible for helping save Egypt from this famine.
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Of course, all glory being going or all glory going to God in God allowing him to be able to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.
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But the point being that while Joseph lived and for subsequent years, Israel was viewed as a great ally of Egypt.
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They were viewed as friends of Egypt.
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In fact, the Pharaoh had even granted them uh plots of land to live and grow in.
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But this king rises up and he looks around and he sees the Israelites and he says, they're a threat to my power.
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If some other country would come in and would make an alliance with them, we won't stand a chance.
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And so naturally, instead of making, you know, confirming his alliance and making sure his friendship with Israel, he naturally thinks that the best idea is to enslave them.
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That'll work.
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That's a great idea.
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He acts in worldly wisdom is what we see.
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And as we keep reading, we note that he makes a command that is really, it's quite disgusting.
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picking up in verse 13.
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And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in
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the field, all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.
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And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the one was Sifra, and the name of the other was Pua.
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And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women,
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and see them upon the stools.
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If it be a son, then ye shall kill him.
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But if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
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Faro just ordered mass abortion.
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He just ordered that the Hebrew midwives and assisting the wives and giving birth that they would kill any male child that was born of the Hebrew.
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all because of fear.
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all because he was acting out of fear of losing his power.
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We see a sobering thought there of not letting fear drive us to do something that is quite despicable.
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We need to be careful and guard ourselves from letting fear control us.
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And of course we see the godly example of the midwives in that they feared God and they refused to obey Pharaoh's command.
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But then skipping down to verse
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number 22, and Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, that being the Nile River, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
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Now all this sets the stage for what happens with Moses when he's born, for the circumstances surrounding what happens right after he's born as well.
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So now we look at
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Chapter two note the act or the birth of Moses and there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi and the woman conceived embarrassed son and when she
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saw him that he was a goodly child she hid him three months and when she could know she could not longer hide him she took him took for him in Ark of bulrushes and daubed it with
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slime and with pitch and put the child there in and she laid it in the flat and the flags by the riverbank
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and his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him.
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We see here that Amram and Jacobed are Moses' parents and they see their baby boy Moses being born, they say, we're not going to fulfill Pharaoh's law.
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We are not going to murder our son and direct violation also of God's law.
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And so they hide Moses for three months as the text says.
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But when it became impossible for them to hide the child, they knew something had to be done.
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But what's very interesting is that we see great faith being expressed with Jacobin and with Amram too, as he no doubt was complicit in what happened.
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She lays her son in an ark of bulrushes, basically a little basket, a little, if you will, something to float on the Nile.
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And she lays him in that and puts him on the riverbank.
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Does she know what's going to happen to Moses?
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No, she would.
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She would have no idea.
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In fact, that's why Moses's sister, she's curious.
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She wants to know what's going to happen to her brother.
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And so she hides in the bushes to see what's going to happen.
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But with Jacob, you have this faith in her that says, you know what?
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If he stays with me, he's going to die.
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But I believe that God can work something out.
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But I am not going to kill my son.
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And she trusted in God that he would.
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take care of her son, whether that be in receiving him up into paradise or in allowing him to live.
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And as we see with God in his purpose for Moses that he doesn't leave him in the bushes.
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And as we keep reading, we note that Pharaoh's daughter came down to the side of the river and she notices this arc, she notices this basket, if you will, and
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She saves the life of this Hebrew boy.
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What's interesting is the fact that she knew he was a Hebrew and she knew her father's command.
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But when it came down to the time when she should have carried out her father's command, she says no.
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I'm gonna save this boy, I'm gonna raise him as my own.
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and you see uh very uh wise actions on the part of Miriam as she goes up to Pharaoh's daughter and she says, do you want me to fetch you a midwife or rather uh a nurse for the
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child?
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We find that later on in the chapter, specifically looking at verse number, sorry, I lost the verse there.
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Verse seven, 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?
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And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go and the maid went and called the child's mother.
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And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her,
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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.
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And the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.
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And she called his name Moses and said, because I drew him out of the water.
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It was so, you want to say humorous, but maybe that's not the right word, but it's interesting at least.
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to note that Jacob bed leaves that river thinking her son she's never gonna see again.
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She's never gonna see her son again.
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He might live, he might die.
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She doesn't know.
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And then not too long later, her daughter's coming up to her and saying, hey, so I just got you a job taking care of your own son that you thought was going to die.
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But Pharaoh's daughter just saved him and wants you to nurse him and to take care of him.
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It's amazing to see God's providence working throughout history and throughout this time.
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But skipping ahead, have Moses, you he's growing, he's learning.
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No doubt, Jacobet is telling him the things of Hebrew history and how God exists and how there is one true God, not the many gods of Egypt.
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But Acts 7-22 also tells us that Moses knew or was learned in all the learning of Egypt.
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He was given the best education, if you will.
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And there comes a point...
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where he decides that he knows what's best.
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He thinks that he knows how he's going to save his people.
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No doubt Moses would have been hurt by the fact that he as he was watching Israel, his fellow Hebrews suffering under the hands of Egypt, suffering under the hands of Egyptian
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bondage.
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And so he sees in verse 11, it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting in
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Hebrew, one of his brethren.
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And he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
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to a solely worldly view, Moses acted right.
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It makes sense.
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I here is this guy is wrongly attacking this Hebrew, wrongly smiting this Hebrew.
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Well, surely it's right for Moses to go and murder him.
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But when you really look at the situation, even Moses knew he shouldn't have done it.
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Why did he hide the body?
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Why did he look both ways to see there was no one around?
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He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he thought it was for the right reasons.
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He thought he was doing something that would be good, something that would endear him more to his brethren the Hebrews and something that would honor God.
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But as we know many times in the Bible, sometimes the worst things we can do, the worst thing we can do is say, behold, I thought.
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Because often what we think is not what God truly wants.
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That's why it's so important to look at scripture and let our decisions be based on scripture.
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So in verse 13, and when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together and he said to them,
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that did the wrong, wherefore smidest thou thy fellow?
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And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
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And tendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian?
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And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.
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We have a saying that actually comes from the book of Exodus, I believe.
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Be sure your sins will find you out.
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Moses witnessed that firsthand.
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He thought no one saw it.
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He thought that he had gotten away.
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but his sin was not hidden.
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Even if none of the Hebrews knew, God knew what he did.
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But it's interesting to note that you see Moses in his early years, these first 40 years, give or take, you have him as one who's very impulsive.
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He's thinking, okay, this is what I should do, so I'm going to do it instead of let's plan what we're doing.
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Let's think about what we're doing.
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Let's ask God about what we're doing.
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He just says, well, I know best, so I'm going to go murder this Egyptian
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and then he tries to put himself in a place of authority over the Hebrews.
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All that Moses is doing right here is giving glory to himself.
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He's grasping for glory for himself, thinking he's doing it to God's glory.
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But really, he's just grasping glory for himself
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and so God doesn't use him in this.
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But as we'll see later when Moses humbles himself, God will use him to great glory, to great effect.
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And so we have Moses running from Egypt.
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He flees in the land of Midian as we note in verse 15.
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And overall, it works out fairly well for him as he's able to meet Jethro and his daughter Zipporah.
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And he marries Zipporah, as we know in verse number 21.
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And Moses was content to dwell with a man and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
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And she bear him a son and he called his name Gershom.
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And he said, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
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Moses, he feels the consequences of his actions.
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He feels the fear of the wrong that he did, but even in exile, God still blesses Moses.
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And he still blesses him with a family, with people who care about him and for whom he cares.
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He blesses him with work to do as a shepherd of Jethro's flocks.
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And all the while,
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As Moses is in this time of exile, God is preparing him for the time when he would use him as a leader, when God would use him to lead his people out.
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Verse 24
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shows us the care that God has and the reason why God goes to Moses.
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In other words, as Israel is crying out, as they are finding themselves in immense hardship, as they're facing the turmoil, the persecutions,
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laid upon them by the Egyptians, they turn to God.
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And as they turn to God, God says, okay, it's time.
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It's time to deliver you.
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And so that Moses that he had been preparing all this time that has been wandering in the wilderness, or rather in exile and median, this Moses that had at one point been a little
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bit too impulsive, this Moses that didn't have all the facts together,
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who didn't know how to be a leader that honored God.
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God has been training him.
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He's preparing him and now he's saying, okay, the cake's ready to come out of the oven, so to speak.
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It's time.
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But what's very interesting is that when Moses is offered or is told rather, I should say, to go into the land of Egypt and to deliver the people.
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instead of jumping at the opportunity that he'd sought, not even a chapter later, he's like, I don't know about that, God.
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I'm not so sure about this.
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Look at this uh in Exodus chapter three.
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Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 9 give us this indication of or rather this
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the scene, if you will, of this bush that is on fire but not being consumed.
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It's not being burned up.
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And so, of course, this naturally catches Moses's eye and he looks and he says, I'm going to turn so I'm going to look into this.
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I'm going to see what's going on here.
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And as he approaches, he hears the voice of the Lord telling him that the place he's standing is holy ground.
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And so he needs to take off his shoes.
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He needs to just show reverence for the fact that he is in the presence of God.
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He's the in presence of the Almighty.
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And having this understanding, we come down to verse 10 of chapter three.
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Come now, therefore, and I will send thee into Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.
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And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
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And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee.
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When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
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And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What
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is his name?
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What shall I say unto them?
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And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
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And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent you.
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And God said, Moreover unto Moses thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me
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unto you.
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This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
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Moses at...
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let me get my words together.
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Moses tries to make two excuses here.
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He looks at God and he says, who am I?
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God, I'm nothing.
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uh They're not going to listen to me.
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Well, but God, you know, if I go to the people of Israel, if I go to the Hebrews, they're going to ask me who you are and what am going to say?
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Moses had gone from being impulsive to dare I say, whiny.
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When he looks at God and he says,
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you don't know best.
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God I know myself better than you.
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God I know that I'm not the one you really want.
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Sometimes the things that we think are being humble is actually slapping God in face.
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Should it ever be the case that we boast of ourselves?
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No.
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Should it ever be the case that we have lift ourselves and we say, well, I'm the perfect person for this.
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I'm the perfect person and everyone should bow before me.
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No, of course not.
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Should Moses had looked at God and said, well, it's about time you realized that I was the one you needed.
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No, of course not.
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but when we are given a task by God.
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and we can fulfill it, ought we not to do it?
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Rather than to make the excuse of, I'm not best suited for this.
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Well, there's someone better out there.
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Who am I?
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Sometimes in our desire to be humble, we end up forsaking that which God has told us to do.
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Let that not be the case, brothers and sisters.
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Moses would learn this very clearly, that you don't get to tell God that you're not capable.
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You don't get the right to look at God and say, I know myself better than you.
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Looking down to verse, or chapter four, continuing on with the excuses of Moses.
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Verse 1, and Moses answered and said, behold, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
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He tries to make the statement of, well, God, the testimony that you told me to give, the things you told me to say, it's not good enough.
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God, it's not good enough, God.
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They're not going to believe.
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Interesting that the one who doesn't know the thoughts of men is telling the one who does know the thoughts of men what they will and won't do.
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Again, Moses really had no right to argue with God as he did.
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But we notice God's patience in this too, as he then looks at Moses and he says, well, what's in your hand?
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And then he gives him signs to prove that he is from God.
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It gives him the ability to work miracles, to show that what his testimony was was true.
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to show that his message was from God.
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Again, pointing back as we note from the book of Mark, the purpose of miracles, that being confirming the word of God.
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But as he goes through this, Moses tries to make another excuse.
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Verse 10.
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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.
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And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth?
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Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
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Have not I the Lord?
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Now therefore go, I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." And notice Moses' response.
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And he said, Oh, my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of whom thou wilt send.
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Moses tried to make every excuse that he could think of.
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And when God shut down or gave a means of overcoming every excuse he provides, he simply says, God, it's not for me.
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This whole leadership thing, it's not for me, God
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find somebody else.
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It's at this point that God, in essence, you could say, has had enough.
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In verse 14, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.
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And he said, Is not Aaron the Levi thy brother?
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I know that thou that he can speak well and also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee.
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And when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
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And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth.
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And I will be with my mouth and with his mouth.
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and will teach you what ye shall do.
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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.
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And thou shalt take his rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do sign.
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God looks at Moses and he says, you know what, you're not getting out of this.
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And our modern vernacular, he says, you're not getting out of this.
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You're not getting away from this.
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This is the job you need to do.
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This is the job you can do.
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This is the job you're going to do.
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But even in this, one second brother, even in this though, he doesn't leave Moses alone.
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He doesn't say, you're just going to have to figure it out.
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He says, I'm going to be with you and I'm going to send Aaron with you.
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You won't even have to speak to Pharaoh.
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I will give you the message and you will give Aaron the message and he will speak it for you.
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God literally said all of your excuses don't amount to a hill of beans.
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They have no bearing because I am with you.
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And that same truth can be said of us.
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Our excuses that we can make for why we don't
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evangelize, why we don't do better as being faithful to God and growing in our faith, all those excuses, they fall on their face when we realize God's got this.
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He's with us and we can do it.
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Brother Philip?
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You know, I've often thought about Moses here.
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It really shows his human side.
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We know he was well educated.
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So I often thought, well, you know, he should be able to speak pretty well, would think.
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But it just shows
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His human side, he didn't want to go.
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He just didn't want to do it.
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So he sent Aaron along with him.
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So absolutely.
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And like you said, he was he was educated.
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Acts 722 again, it tells us very clearly he had all this knowledge, all these all the training that Egypt had to offer.
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And yet he still is like, I don't know enough.
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I'm not good enough.
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I'm not eloquent enough.
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But you know, there's another point to be brought out here too.
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Even when we don't think we're eloquent enough to speak the gospel, to speak the truth, to speak God's word, the power is not in us.
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It's not in any one of us.
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Justin, Walker, myself, OC, Aaron, we all can attest there are days our words don't come out right.
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We don't speak the way we're intending to speak because things happen.
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Your mouth gets dry.
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Your tongue gets tied.
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You forget part of your sermon.
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That's happened many times.
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But the power is never in the speaker.
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The power is always in the gospel he's speaking.
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And that's what Moses was forgetting here.
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It wasn't about how good he was, but it's about how great God is.
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And that's what Moses was not realizing.
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And that's what God shows to him is it's not about how bad or how good you think you are, Moses.
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because I'm going to be with you.
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I'm going to take care of you.
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And so we see Moses going down into the land of Egypt and talking to Pharaoh, these plagues befall the land of Egypt.
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I know we're skipping through a lot, but trying to get a little further in its history.
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What happens with Moses, he grows into becoming the leader that God wanted him to be.
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To the point where, and we will look at this, in Exodus 15,
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rather Exodus 14.
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In verse.
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Lost the verse there.
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In Exodus 14, we have the setting being set.
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that Israel has just come out of the land of Egypt.
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The tenth plague has happened and Pharaoh has told them, go, you have brought enough harm onto my kingdom, get out.
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But after he says that, verse five, and it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people.
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And they said, why have we done this?
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That we have let Israel go from serving us.
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It's interesting that that Pharaoh asked this question, having just gone through all 10 of these plagues that completely crippled Egypt.
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And he says, why did we let them go?
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Maybe it was because God humbled you and showed that he has power far greater than anything you think you might have.
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But how quickly we forget.
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And how quickly this Pharaoh forgot.
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But as we go down to verse 10.
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And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.
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and they were sore afraid.
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And the children of Israel cried 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?
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Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
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Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?
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For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians.
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then that we should die in the wilderness.
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Well, now it's the Israelites turn to complain into wine.
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Again, how soon we forget how soon they forgot that they did not say, well, leave us alone.
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Let us serve Egypt because they wanted deliverance.
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They wanted to go out of Egypt.
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They didn't want to be a subject to Egypt anymore.
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They didn't want those that the oppressors that were over them.
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They wanted freedom, they wanted the ability to be delivered.
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And yet when push comes to shove and when it seems as though the walls are closing in, they immediately turn on Moses.
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And they say, it's all your fault, Moses.
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I guess he must have prayed all those million so prayers to God for deliverance, right?
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That was just Moses praying.
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That was just Moses crying to God for deliverance.
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again how quickly we forget.
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But in facing this.
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In a time when the old Moses probably would have done something impulsive, maybe spout off back to the Israelites or maybe just run.
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Instead, we see a very different side of Moses.
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We see him as one who has grown in his faith and in his trust for God.
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Look at verse 13.
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And Moses said into the people, fear ye not.
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Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today.
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For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.
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The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace.
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Why was Moses in the land of Midian?
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What do we read?
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What was his reasoning for fleeing to the land of Midian?
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killed an Egyptian, but what was his reaction to being discovered?
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Fear.
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The same Moses that ran away the Midian out of fear is the same Moses that's standing on the banks of Red Sea saying, fear not.
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What changed?
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Faith, but not just faith.
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Here Moses is acting according to the Word of God.
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Here Moses has God's backing because he's obedient to God.
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In the land of Egypt he wasn't acting in God's will.
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God had not told him, go kill this Egyptian.
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He had acted against God's will.
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He had acted assuming that he knew what God's will was, but here he knows what God's will was.
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Confidence does not come from a self-trust, brethren.
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Confidence comes from a trust in the one who is almighty.
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The reason why we can have confidence as we go in and spread the gospel, the reason why Justin and Megan can have confidence that they're going to be able to get over in Japan
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and to preach the gospel over there is because it's not about them.
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They're not trusting in themselves, they're trusting in God who's given them the task to do.
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When we trust in God, when our faith is in the Lord and not in ourselves, suddenly the world seems a little less scary.
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Those things that to the world are detrimental, are so fearful and cause such agonizing stress.
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they suddenly become a little easier to bear.
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Now don't get me wrong, people who are faithful to God still face hardships.
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We notice this as we continue reading the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers, the people would wander in the wilderness.
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The people would encounter hardships throughout their time.
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Even Moses, he had those times of struggle.
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But through it all, the burden is able to be borne, is able to, it is not too heavy to bear because God is there.
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That was not an intentional rhyme.
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But looking again at Moses and continuing on, he leads the people out of Egypt.
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They cross the Red Sea and in chapter 15, we have what is called the Song of Moses.
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As they cross over the banks of the Red Sea, as this massive gap opens, the flood or the waters are pulled back and they're able to walk across on dry ground.
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And the Egyptians try to go through the same path, but
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God closes the sea on top of them.
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Israel stands on the side of the Red Sea and they begin to sing praise to God.
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Let's look at what they sang.
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Then saying Moses and the children of Israel this song unto unto the Lord and spake saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously and the horse and his
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rider hath he thrown into the sea.
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The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation.
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He is my God, and I will prepare him and habitation.
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My father's God and I will exalt him.
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The Lord is a man of war.
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The Lord is his name.
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The Pharaoh's chariots and his host have he cast into the sea.
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His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
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The depths have covered them.
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They sank into the bottom as a stone.
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Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power.
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Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
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and in the greatness of thine excellence thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
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Thou sentest forth thy wrath which consumed them as stubble.
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And with a blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together and the flood stood upright as in heap and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
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The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them.
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I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
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Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered thee, they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
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Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
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Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders?
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Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
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Thou in thy mercy has led forth the people which thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.
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The people shall hear and be afraid.
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Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine.
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That was a little bit of reading there, I know, but the point that I wanted you guys to understand, the point that we all need to understand with this, who is praise?
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Who is given glory?
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God.
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God is giving glory throughout this entire song of praise.
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Moses isn't even mentioned.
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Throughout this entire song of praise, the people aren't even mentioned except saying, this is what I will do because you are so great.
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all glory goes to God.
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And when Israel understood this, when they truly understood that it wasn't about them, it wasn't about what they wanted, but about what God wanted, wasn't about their power, their
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might, but about God's power and might, when they realized that God was better than any of these false gods that were around them, Israel thrived.
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but when they forgot God.
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When Moses was on top of Mount Sinai and they say, well, Moses surely is dead.
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and they look at Aaron and they say, make us an idol.
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we can be influenced by the world around us,
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And sometimes the influence is hard to overcome.
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For Israel, they were in captivity for many years.
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And so that Egyptian idolatry was around them all the time.
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And it was hard for them to overcome.
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But they had just witnessed God being greater than any false God that the Egyptians conjured up.
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They had just witnessed, even at the foot of Mount Sinai, the great power of God being shown
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to the point where they say, Moses, you go up on the mountain.
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We're cool right here.
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We're not going to approach the mountain.
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And they go from that to looking around and saying,
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this idol, this calf, this golden calf which Aaron has made, that's our God.
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That's the one who delivered us out of Egypt.
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Moses shows us that
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When we want to be faithful to God, sometimes it means going against our family.
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When we want to be faithful to God, sometimes it means doing the hard thing.
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But ultimately what Moses shows us is that when we humble ourselves before God, when we choose to be who He wants us to be.
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It'll all work out in the end.
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Now, does that mean that we're going to have an easy life?
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No.
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Well, let me show you what I mean by this.
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Look at Deuteronomy as we close.
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Look at Deuteronomy 34.
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Bear with me just a moment.
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Deuteronomy 34.
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Verse 5
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So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
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And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Bethpior, but no man knoweth his sepulcher unto this day.
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And Moses was 120 years old when he died, and his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
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And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Midian 30 days, so that the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
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Notice what is said to Joshua.
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and sorry, moving over to Joshua chapter one.
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The Lord speaks to Joshua and he says,
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It all works out when God says, are my servant.
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It all works out in the end when God gives us his stamp of approval.
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Thank you for your patience and for your attention.