Heroes of the Faith-Moses

August 17, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week, if you were with us, you realize that we left Moses at a point where he had just come over from Midian to Egypt again and was speaking to the Israelite leaders. Moses, if you will, was in Midian for a while. He escaped from Egypt, but all the rest of his people, the Israelites, the Hebrew people, were held captive in Egypt as slaves and had been that way for 400 years. Where we left him last week then was speaking to the Israelites about the fact that God had heard their cry for mercy and was going to deliver them. This week, in our lesson already, we find Moses speaking to God face to face and God giving His message back to His people.

Well, a lot has happened between last week and this week. There's a whole lot of scripture in there, and there's a whole lot more to the story of where Moses was last week and where we find him this week. He went from the reluctant recruit last week to now the man who speaks face to face with God. From last week with bantering with God saying that he didn't want to have anything to do with the Israelites to now this week where he intercedes for the Israelites asking God for grace and mercy.

I think we need to spend just a few moments filling in the gaps, if you will, of how did we get from last week to this week. Well, here we go. We have Moses and Aaron. They travel back over to Egypt, and they have news for the people that God has heard their cries for mercy and He's going to set them free, take them to the land He has promised them for generation upon generation, the land that He promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. That's the land He's going to be taking them to. At first, the people are excited. They can't wait. God has heard them. God is going to be merciful. Go get 'em, Moses. Go get 'em, Aaron. When can we leave? Can we pack our bags? Moses and Aaron say, "There's just one small detail that we need to see to. We need to inform the head of state, that is, Pharaoh of Egypt, that his million plus man force he's been using for free is going to leave." Yeah, Pharaoh's not going to take this real well when they go to him. So Moses and Aaron go up to Pharaoh, and they say, "Listen, Pharaoh, we've been here over 400 years. We have way overextended our welcome. We understand that. So, listen. We're going to pack up, and we're going to leave. I'm sure that you can find another million person force somewhere out there that will do your cities and that, but we're going to go." And Pharaoh said, "Yeah, right. Sure you are. No, you're not. You're not going anywhere." That leads to a little confrontation between Moses and Aaron and the Pharaoh's magicians. You can read about that in Exodus.

Anyway, what happens is Pharaoh says, "No, you're not going to leave." But God says, "Oh, yes, we're going to leave." Pharaoh says, "No, you're not going to leave." So God says, "Let me demonstrate that we're going to leave." God then inflicts upon the whole land a series of ten plagues. Maybe you've read about them in the Book of Exodus. Maybe you've seen it in The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. But, anyway, there's a series of ten plagues that happen. Note: Each one of the plagues attacks one of the Egyptian gods. In Egypt, they had many gods, different from the Israelites who had one God. So one of their gods, for instance, was the Nile River. The Nile River, of course, was their water source. That brought life to the land. Therefore, they worshiped the Nile. What does God do? God turns all of the water to blood. Thus, demonstrating that He is more powerful than their god. And He goes down the line for all ten plagues, really demonstrating that in reality God is the only God, the only true God.

Anyway, they go through nine plagues. Pharaoh says, "Yes, you can go." Then he relents and changes his mind. Then he says, "Yes, you can go." Then he changes his mind again. Finally, after the ninth plague, God says, "Okay. There's one more plague. There will not be an eleven. This is the last one. You will go free after this one." God said, "At midnight, the Angel of Death is going to overshadow the land. And he's going to travel throughout the land, and he's going to kill the firstborn of every household, both the firstborn child and the firstborn of the livestock. Now what you are to do if you are my people, you're to go out and get a choice lamb. You're to slaughter it and prepare it and make sure that you can eat the entire meal because you won't need leftovers. We're leaving. I want you to pack all of your bags. I want you to be in your traveling clothes. I want you to sit down and have this meal. Then take the blood of the lamb. Put it on the sides of the door and put it over the top of the door. When the Angel of Death comes through the land, when it sees the blood of the lamb, it will pass over that house and no harm will come to that house." Indeed that's what happens. Pharaoh finally is broken. Pharaoh says, "Get out of here. I don't want to have anything more to do with you."

So all the people pack up, and they head out of Egypt heading over to the promise land. Wouldn't you know it, they get a few days into the desert and the Pharaoh decides to change his mind one more time. Now you would think that the Israelites would be grateful for all that God has done. He has protected them through ten plagues. He has delivered them out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, and He is leading them to a promise land. But almost immediately in the desert they start grumbling against Moses saying, "Sure, it wasn't good enough that we had a bad life back in Egypt but now you brought us out here so we could starve to death in the desert." And so it goes on until it gets really bad. And that is they come up to the border of the Red Sea. They have nothing but water in front of them. Someone happens to notice, "I think the entire Egyptian army is coming at us." Sure enough, that's what is happening. The entire Egyptian army is coming on their backsides. In front of them, all they have is water. God, once again, steps in. He tells Moses to go to the edge of the Red Sea. He holds up his staff, and the Red Sea parts right down the middle. The Israelites walk across on dry land. And as the last Israelite steps out of the bank and onto the other side, the Egyptian army comes rushing in on the other side figuring they're going to go through, too. Wouldn't you know it, at that moment, Moses got tired. What the luck, huh? He pulls down his staff. The water comes crashing in. The Egyptian army is wiped out.

Now the Hebrew people are free of Egypt. They head over to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, God is going to make a covenant with his people. They gather around the base of the mountain. God's presence is there, in fact, so much so that the people are scared. They say to Moses, as all the thunder and lightening is happening, "Moses, why don't you talk to God and we'll wait down here, okay?" Moses goes up on the mountain to talk to God. Now, once again, you would think after ten plagues and God protected them, after walking through the Red Sea on dry land, I don't know about you, that would impress me, taking them through the desert, seeing God's presence at the top of the mountain, that they would remain faithful to God. Evidently not. Because then scripture tells us that while Moses is up on the mountain, the people down below decide to get a little bit impatient and they say, "This is taking too long. Who knows what happened to Moses. He's probably dead on the mountain someplace. We need a god." So they gather up all their gold, and they give it to Aaron. And they say, "Aaron, build us a god." So Aaron, not being a great leader, a hero of the faith, yes, but not a great leader, gives in to them and he fashions for them a golden calf.

Here is the picture. Moses is talking to God on the mountain, and God is giving him His covenant. Meanwhile, down below, the people are ignoring the one true God and worshiping a golden calf. You might ascertain that God is not pleased at this point in time. In fact, He's not pleased at all. He sends Moses down the mountain. He walks in. he sees Aaron. He sees the golden calf. He says, "I'm gone for a month and look what happens. Everything falls apart." God's judgment sweeps through the people. There's a remnant left. Now Moses goes to talk with God again. Now we're pretty close to where our scripture lesson is for today. God says, "I've had it, Moses. I don't want to have anything to do with these people." He said, "You can go to the promise land if you want. Go ahead, but I'm not going with you." Moses, who is so reluctant at the beginning, who didn't want to have anything to do with the people, starts interceding for the Israelites. Moses realizes that if God doesn't go with them to the promise land, they don't stand a chance, that if God removes His presence, it's nothing but death and destruction for them. So he starts pleading with God and interceding with God. God starts to give in a little bit and starts thinking about it. And then Moses says, "God, you call me your friend and I have been here speaking with you." He says, "Show me your glory. I want to see your glory." God responds back to Moses and He says, "You can see my glory, but you cannot look at my face because if you look at my face, you will certainly die. So the next time you come up on the mountain, I'll put my hand over you as I pass in front of you and then, as I'm walking away, you can behold my glory." That's exactly what happened just preceding the text we read this morning. God puts His hand over Moses, walks in front of him, and this is the part I want you to listen to:

And He passed in front of Moses proclaiming, "The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, yet He does not leave the guilty go unpunished.

This is the Lord's glory. This is what God is all about. God is compassionate, abounding in love and forgiveness, forgiving generation upon generation, yet, at the same time, God is a just God and a righteous God. This is God's glory that is revealed to Moses, and this is the glory that he radiates to the people when he comes down from the mountain.

It is this same glory that you and I have experienced from God. We know Him as a just God and a righteous God, but we also know Him as a forgiving God, compassionate God, abounding in love. And it is this God that should radiate from us, not just here but when we walk out those doors so that everyone we meet, and in every circumstance, would see God radiating from us.

Moses comes down the mountain. He goes to speak to the people. The people cower away in fear, because Moses is radiating this glory from God. In fact, he's radiating it so much that he has to cover his face with a veil. Now here's where we have an interesting part about God, something we need to understand about the God that we worship and we call our own. Our God is a just God and a righteous God, but He is also compassionate and merciful. They can seem contradictory at times. God is a perfect being. Therefore, God surrounds Himself only with perfection. He cannot tolerate imperfection. God is also just and righteous. Therefore, if God says to human beings, "Be perfect as the Lord your God is perfect," we are to be perfect. And if God says, "If you are not perfect, then there will be punishment," then God needs to stay true to that. Thus, He said. Yet, He does not let the sins go unpunished. But at the same time as being just and righteous, He is compassionate and He is gracious and He is forgiving. When Moses comes down from the mountain and the people see his glory, what they see is God's righteousness, God's holiness. Therefore, they are convicted of their unholiness. They are convicted of their sinfulness. They are convicted of the fact that they don't stand a chance. There's no way for them to escape that. All they see from God is a righteous judge who stands in judgment of them. All they can see is the old covenant, the old covenant which God established with them which says, "Be faithful to me. Here are my rules. Here are my commandments. As long as you abide by those commandments, then I will be your God. If you do not abide by those commandments, I will not be your God." They only saw the one part of God. They only saw the just part of God, the righteous side of God. Because the other part of God, the compassionate side, the loving side, the forgiving side, they could only see in the distance. They could only see it far off. Therefore, the people could not look at Moses. They could not look at that glory because it only convicted them and offered them no hope, so Moses would cover his face so that they would not see it. Then Moses himself would intercede for the people. He would go to God on behalf of the people.

Today, for us, we don't need Moses to intercede for us. We have one who has already interceded for us once and for all. We don't need to have a veil covering the glory of God. We can stand in the presence of God because not only do we understand God as a righteous God, as a just God, as a holy God, but He has also revealed Himself to us as one who is abounding in love and faithfulness and forgiveness. In other words, we understand that God demands perfection of us, that God demands that we would abide by all of His laws, by all of His commandments. We understand that if we do not abide by those commandments, then we are guilty. We are guilty of sinning against Him. And that guilt, that sin cannot go unpunished; but we also know, and this is the most important part, that God Himself took our guilt upon Himself, that God Himself took our sin away from us and took it upon Himself. We know that God's plan from all the way back in Adam and Eve, God's plan for Moses, God's plan for the entire kingdom of Israel, was so that He could bring His Son into the world, so that Jesus could come as the perfect human being, the one who abided by the Father's will down to the last letter of the law. And yet, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, Jesus who is guiltless in God's sight, He would take on our guilt. He would take on our sin.

If you want to understand the glory of God, look at Christ. And look what Jesus has done for us. Not only do we see the just side of God, but we see God and His mercy, God and His compassion, took the punishment that we were to deserve and put it upon Christ. That's why Jesus was nailed to a cross. That's why we had to watch Him die. He was the sinless Son of God and yet punishment had to be made. If God were to remain true to Himself and true to His word, then a debt had to be paid. When Jesus hung upon the cross, He suffered not only a physical death but a spiritual death. The spiritual death that each one of us deserved, but He took it upon Himself so that you and I can stand face to face with God just as Moses did. We can stand face to face with God, and we can take in all of God's glory and we can understand God clearly because we've witnessed it as the God of compassion and love and grace.

What I'm saying is today we don't need to wear a veil. In fact, we need to take the veil off of our faces. We need to take the veils off of our faces. What I mean by that is how we act here in God's house, how we act when we come into God's presence should be the same way that we act outside of His presence. Each time that we come together in God's house, each time that God is revealed to us in His word, each time God is revealed to us through the bread and the wine, each time that we come into His presence and we feel His glory in our lives, that's the glory we need to radiate to the world around us. You see, the world around us doesn't see God as we do. They only see the Old Testament God. They only see the righteous God, the angry judge of a God, the God who gives out rules and regulations impossible for anyone to keep, a God that then condemns you for not keeping the impossible. They need to see through you the God of love and grace and compassion. They need to see through your words, through your actions, just through your general behavior that you radiate God's love and grace to everyone that you come in contact with.

You see, Moses came face to face with God; but he could only see in a distance what God was going to do. We can come face to face with God, but we have experienced firsthand the love and forgiveness of His Son Jesus. Moses radiated that same love to the people, but they didn't understand it. You and I can radiate that love and that grace to everyone we come into contact with. Amen.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church