Last week, my friends, we focused on a few stories from the life of Jacob, the son of Isaac, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. Jacob inherited the Covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah and was promised to be blessed by God and to become the father of as many children as the stars in the sky. Jacob got a good start on the many offspring promise – he had 12 sons and a daughter.
When his sons were adults, there was a famine in the land of Israel and Jacob and his descendants all moved to Egypt. Initially, they lived in the region of Goshen which was perfect for grazing their sheep. And, Joseph, Jacob’s son, was a powerful figure in the Egyptian government, so his family was protected and safe. But, over the decades and centuries that followed, Jacob’s descendants became slaves in Egypt – they were resident aliens and the Egyptians started to exploit the labor of the foreigners in their midst.
The Egyptian government, led by their Pharaoh, became fearful of their slaves. They made them live in substandard housing, allowed them smaller and smaller food rations, gave them unreasonable work quotas to fill, and finally told the midwives who worked with the slaves to murder all the boy babies born to the Hebrew women. The Egyptians wanted to control the population of the outsiders who lived in their midst.
Moses was born to a Hebrew family when things were very difficult for the slaves. The midwives had been ordered to kill the boy babies by throwing them into the Nile River – so when Moses was three months old, his mother placed him in a basket and put the basket in the river – a bit of malicious compliance. Moses’s basket was discovered by an Egyptian princess who adopted Moses. He was raised in the royal palace among the princes and princesses, but always knew he was different – he was a slave adopted by the royal family.
When he was a young adult, Moses killed an Egyptian man who was tormenting a Hebrew slave. Afterwards, the Hebrews still viewed Moses as a privileged overlord, not one of them, and the Egyptians wanted to kill Moses for being a murderer, not one of them. So, he ran away to the country of Midian, married the daughter of a priest, and became a shepherd. Once again, he was a foreigner living as an outsider in another strange land.
Today, we read a portion of Moses’ story….his calling by God to become a prophet and leader of the Hebrew people….
Listen now to our Scripture reading, starting in Exodus chapter 2.
Scripture Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; 4:10-17
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.
24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you.
15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.
16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.
17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray…..
Message The Burning Bush
Moses was a reject. He was rejected by the people of his birth – the Hebrew people saw him as one of the Egyptians, the people who forced them into slavery and who constantly tormented them with added labor. The Egyptian people saw him as a Hebrew – perhaps he had been adopted by an Egyptian princess, but he was still not one of them. He wasn’t born as an Egyptian, and therefore, he would never fit in, he would never be one of them. Moses was rejected by both the people of his ethnic background and the people of his adopted background.
After he murdered an Egyptian bully, Moses was hated by each group. And, the Egyptians totally were against him – they wanted to execute him for being a murderer. So, Moses ran away. He ran away to Midian.
There, he found refuge in the family of a priest. Good to know that a minister overlooked the problem of Moses being an outsider, a refugee from Egypt, someone born into slavery. In Midian, Moses found hospitality, found welcome, found acceptance, and found a family.
As the son-in-law of Jethro, Moses also had a vocation. He became a shepherd and tended to the family’s sheep. Perhaps this was a demotion from being a Prince in Egypt, but Moses finally had a place to which he belonged.
And, then God appeared.
God interrupted Moses’ finally calm life.
God sometimes appears in very strange ways – a whisper – a baby – a pilar of cloud and fire – a dove…. And in a burning bush. Moses saw the bush burning…there was explanation for how it caught on fire. And, the bush was not being consumed.
When he walked over to investigate, God began to talk to Moses. God told Moses that God had work for Moses to do. God was going to send him to Pharaoh to appeal on behalf of the Hebrew slaves.
And, Moses threw out a bunch of excuses. He wanted to continue his safe, calm life as the son-in-law of Jethro in Midian. But, God didn’t allow Moses to turn down God’s proposal. God would send Moses, accompanied by his biological brother Aaron as his spokesman, to appeal for the release of the Hebrew slaves.
This is a lengthy and complicated story. But, we know Moses answered God’s call – he fulfilled God’s command. He went back to Egypt. He negotiated with Pharoah. He eventually got the Hebrew slaves to be released. When Pharaoh changed his mind, God parted the Red Sea and the Hebrews crossed into safety. Moses led the Hebrews through the wilderness for forty years and to the Promised Land.
Again, this is another example of an unlikely person who was put into an important role to further the Kingdom of God. Moses was an outsider….a reject…a murderer…a refugee…an immigrant…a lowly shepherd. And, God used him to negotiate with the powerful Pharoah, lead the Hebrews to safety, guide and lead them for forty years, and nurture them until they were prepared to enter the land of Israel.
Sometimes, we are uncomfortable when people say they are changed for the better. We are suspicious when people who have been convicted of crimes say they are reformed, that they are ready to turn over a new leaf. If we know what they have done in the past, we are always suspicious they will commit the same crime in the future, will behave the same way in the future or worse.
Yet, in the Bible, God repeatedly uses people who have made terrible mistakes to do God’s work. Moses was a murderer. David was a murderer. David committed adultery. Abraham lied about his relationship with Sarah. Rahab was a prostitute. Paul encouraged the killing of Christians. Jonah ran away from God. Mary Magdalene has been accused of having an unsavory past.
God repeatedly uses people who have made terrible mistakes to do God’s work.
This is a reminder for us. If we feel unworthy, remember God uses broken people to do God’s work. God uses people with sad and terrible pasts to do God’s work. God uses outsiders, and refugees, and liars, and murderers to do God’s work. God uses us, and people like us to do God’s work.
This story is also a reminder for us to treat each other with grace and compassion. We can be judge-y. We discriminate against people who have stains in their pasts. We struggle to accept when people say they have changed, that they have turned over a new leaf. We must remember that with God’s help, everyone is capable of transformation. With God’s help, everyone is able to start over again. With God’s help, all people can change for the better. So, when people tell us they are different now, we can still be cautious, but let us be open-minded and allow them to show us. And, when people show us that they have changed, let us work to forgive them.
God uses broken people to do God’s work. People like Moses. People like us. Let us work to listen to God’s guidance in our lives and do the work God calls us to do.
Amen.
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