Moses And Aaron

I have always wondered about this interplay between Moses and his brother Aaron. Was it God's will or was it a 'compromise' of sorts?

"But Moses said to the LORD, 'Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.' Then the LORD said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.' But he said, 'Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.' Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, 'Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him." - Exodus 4:10-16 ESV

Also, Did God predict that Aaron would be happy to step into this role or did God move on Aaron's heart in some way to produce the outcome?

Either way it comforts me that God is willing to make us interdependent in ways. Moses is a 'type' or Christ. He was a Savior of Israel in that God used him to get them out of Eygpt and to the edge of the promised land.

"...You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do..."

Reminds me of this.

"When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." - John 20:20-23 ESV

There is this grand interplay between the Trinity and us as individuals. If we have a Pastor God sometimes uses words from that person to speak to us. He gives the pulpit the words and we are both taught together.

Maybe sometimes we feel like saying...

'...Oh, my Lord, please send someone else...'

Even in that there is a provision for companionship in the sending.

Oh that is good. I'm praying we all run into more people who are 'glad in their heart' to see us and work with us. No one should have to go alone in this world.

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He Wrote Twice

I think this next passage is so unique and meaningful...

"The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, 'Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?' This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.' And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.' " - John 8:3-11 ESV

You can just picture the religious taunts of the people seeking to bait Jesus as He serenely writes in the dust. Jesus wrote twice and it always makes me think of Moses and the two sets of tablets given to Israel.

"And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God." - Exodus 31:18 ESV

"But he said, 'It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.' And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain." - Exodus 32:18-19 ESV

"So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.' And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped." - Exodus 34:4-8 ESV

"For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." - Romans 10:3-4 ESV

Moses had a sense of outrage when he smashed the first set of tablets but we don't see that same outrage in Jesus. He has compassion and awareness.

Christ is the 'end of the law'. Wow. That road should bring us to a place where we see Jesus and want Him.

I like that Jesus didn't pound them with words. He just quietly wrote in the dust. He never directly addressed their accusations. He didn't react.

God, Please give us this heart and mind. Let this be what we express. Compassion without compromise. Love. Thank you for sending Your Son. He Is just what we need in every way.

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The Dangers of One-Upmanship

I have tried for a few minutes to summary this chunk of scripture but anything I do just seems to take some aspect of the impact away so I will just quote the whole thing...

"Then Moses answered, 'But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'' The LORD said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' He said, 'A staff.' And he said, 'Throw it on the ground.' So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, 'Put out your hand and catch it by the tail' - so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand - 'that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.' Again, the LORD said to him, 'Put your hand inside your cloak.' And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, 'Put your hand back inside your cloak.' So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 'If they will not believe you,' God said, 'or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.' " - Exodus 4:1-9 ESV

Ok. Now Here is the actual confrontation.

"So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said." - Exodus 7:10-13 ESV

So, God has Moses use the first proof of His authority, the staff, and the overriding authority of God is revealed. Moses ran from the serpent at the burning bush but He doesn't budge now. He exercises the authority of the rod.

"Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent... Thus says the LORD, 'By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood... Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart." - Exodus 7:14-15, 17, 20-23 ESV

But then the hand turning leprous then made clean is skipped and God moves Moses right to the water turning into blood but on a much larger scale then described by the bush. God said to Moses at the burning bush that water could be taken from the Nile and be turned into blood on a small scale but then has Moses turn all the water into blood. Even the water in containers drawn from the Nile before the miracle was turned into blood.

I don't see another place where the 'hand turning leprous then made clean again' was ever used anywhere else but at the burning bush.

Pharaoh just wasn't available for that kind of miracle. He was living in arrogant one-upmanship. It was a contest he (Pharaoh) was determined to win. Moses was moved by the first two miracles he didn't need to see the third one. God skipped step two with Pharaoh and amplified the third sign.

I don't pretend to fully understand the 'why's of this but i see a great danger in one-upmanship as a mindset. Debates often have this quality and it just isn't edifying.

"Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile. Seven full days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile." - Exodus 7:23-25 ESV

I must see that my heart is sick but can be made clean. If I am not even available to that idea God might have to ramp things up to get my attention and the people around me will suffer because of my stubbornness when it could have been a small one on one exchange.

Do i have the three signs working in my life? Is God's authority overriding? Do I know my heart without God and then the cleansing that comes by knowing Him? Am I just drinking in knowledge from a cosmic source or is it communion with God that sustains me? Good questions to ask.

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Cast That Bread Upon The Waters

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth." - Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 ESV

Cast your bread upon the waters. Bread is useful. Our body needs food. What a risky way to live... or is it?

I think of Moses mother putting him in a basket on the Nile.

"The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children.' " - Exodus 2:2-6 ESV

This isn't a story. This is an account.

Risky. Trouble is coming. The instinct is to hoard.

Giving is risky. Grace is risky.

Cast it on the water. Cast the time you could have used on yourself on someone else. Cast the resources that could have built bigger barns. Cast the money on a missionary or send some children you don't know to Christian summer camp. Cast it. Throw it. Don't just toss it down where you can reach it. Throw it over a wall into another country.

God will repay. Let your belly rumble a little. God will fill it tenfold.

Moses turned out to be a great man. I think his mother made a good choice.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16 ESV

I know I quote this passage a lot. I try not to rehash ideas again and again but can you imagine it?? God cast His Son out on the harsh dark waters of this world. He didn't give something extra He had laying around. He gave the person most important and central to His eternal existence because He had confidence that His Son would lead a sinless life and because of that death would never hold Him in the grave. Jesus would return to Heaven again.

Can we live this way?

Will we?

It's a risky way to live... or is it?

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Grace In Psalm 103

I'm reading Psalm 103 over and over again this morning.

"Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." - Psalm 103:1-5 ESV

This part really made me think of my youth. I could run all day. If I hurt myself it was just a matter of time and I healed up and was virtually new again. This is what God does. This is who He Is. He isn't ever old and frozen. He Is full of power. He Is eternal.

"The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." - Psalm 103:6-14 ESV

Not only is He full of life. He Is full of high holy thinking and Moses got to see His ways. The people of Israel saw His acts but Moses got to know God's ways of love and compassion.

"As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." - Psalm 103:15-19 ESV

Because of the fall we live but for a moment and generation follows generation. The flower we saw last spring is gone. The store we shopped at as a child might be gone when we get older but God's throne isn't like that. It is forever.

"Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!" - Psalm 103:20-22 ESV

I like this ending. The Psalmist is made bold by his vision of God. He starts telling the angels to worship God like some old man who attends the symphony commanding the orchestra to play. They are playing at the conductors command but he feels emboldened by the music. Worship emboldens us to take dominion and command our own souls to bless God.

As I read this Psalm vigor returns to me and possibilities start churning. I become a young man who know things that only an old man like Moses knows. The Moses spoken of here is the Moses we see at the Mount of transfiguration. He is the Moses that has passed  through death and is alive forevermore because he has a Saviour.

Bless the LORD all you people reading this. Bless the LORD O my soul. Knowing God is full of benefits. Let the knowledge of who He Is and what He has done restore youth to our thinking.

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The Gentle Message

"One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, 'Why do you strike your companion?' He answered, 'Who made you a prince and a 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.' When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian." - Exodus 2:11-15a ESV

'Why did you strike your companion?' Ouch.

Instead of being seen as a Savior Moses was seen as just another man who beats people up. That wasn't his heart but it was the outcome of his rough actions.

Those who freely slander others are in danger of a similar judgement. There are always a few in the group who will wonder, 'When will I be next?'

After Moses did his time on the backside of the desert he returned as a man who wasn't a brawler.

"Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness." ' " - Exodus 5:1a ESV

He held a staff in his hand. He could cast it on the ground and it would turn into a serpent. He could put his hand into his garment and bring it out as leprous and then put it back in again only for it to come out clean and healed. He had power with God. He wasn't just beating on Israel's oppressors. He had a place to bring the people he wanted to help. He was to bring them into the wilderness for a feast... it wasn't going to be just one glorious meal either. They were going to be brought to freedom and into a liberated destiny.

If men truly meet God and taste his grace their balled up fists loosen. They realize that their hands (and hearts) are leprous and destructive and only God can heal the hard stony heart by giving them a new one that fills with thanksgiving instead of anger.

I care deeply about my fellow man. The Gospel is my way to help people without using my fists. If requires no hate or insult. It is peaceful toward flesh and blood.

God make us harmless today. Let evil tremble at the gentle approach of Your Son's message but let people rejoice at the discovery that they are loved.

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The Leadership Of Grace

God always finds a voice. The Bible is full of accounts where this principle is revealed.

I've been thinking of Moses and his leadership style the last few days. It's funny how in an emergency some people rise up as leaders that would not normally be considered leaders. The fire alarm sounds and for those few moments a person becomes a leader because there is a crisis. Moses was that kind of leader. He was a voice that God raised up for the generation he was in.

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high," - Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV

Jesus wasn't filling in because it was an emergency. Jesus is leadership incarnate. He came as a servant. He heeded the voice of His Father in Heaven. He was responsive not reactive.

Perhaps our first response can be a reactive one. If we are not prepared we rely on crisis oriented leadership that just wants to get everyone to safety. But the voice that speaks to us isn't trying to corral us. Grace is more than that. It isn't just an emergency measure.

I need to hear His voice first in order to be prepared for life.

"Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them." - Hebrews 13:9 ESV

Moses was a provision for His generation. Jesus is the provision for every generation. He is my portion in this life. If I hear Him then I can respond crisis or no crisis.

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Logical Fallacies - Part 5

Temptation. I've been pondering the pull of feelings and things this morning.

"By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." - Hebrews 11:24-25 ESV

Moses knew the feeling of being respected and saw what it was like to be disrespected. One was a good feeling and one was bad.

An APPEAL TO EMOTION is when someone invokes an emotion in the midst of an argument and asks people to make a decision based on that emotion and not purely based on the facts.

If Moses was going to be drawn away it would have been based on a false rational that had emotional appeal. Couldn't he make more of a difference as a respected person? Then he would enjoy himself also. Maybe he could have the best of both worlds?

If he did that then an APPEAL TO AUTHORITY would be open to him as an option. That fallacy says that one person's opinion is better than another based upon their position, accomplishments or position. It is good logic to listen to an expert witness because they have proven knowledge on a subject but it is bad logic to think that because a person is successful, has a title or has been given a position that their opinion is better than anyone else's opinion.

Surely as a son of Pharaoh's daughter he could work within the system to affect change? But Moses was flawed and when He tried to act as a Savior to his people his own passion got the best of him.

We have noted cosmologists and comedians who are outspoken atheists but do their opinions stand up to a historic crucifixion and resurrection? No. They really don't. I'd trust a man who rose from the grave whole and full of love over anyone with a suit and tie or a quick wit. Only one man has authority that can impart hope and that is Jesus. Everyone stands on even ground at the foot of the cross. There is only one name lifted up there. The name of the man who says 'forgive them Father they know not what they do.'

That brings us to the last fallacy of the day... APPEAL TO NATURE. This thinking blames our makeup for our decisions and rules out our will. It uses partial truth to come to conclusions and says things like 'Well you're only human. You couldn't help it.'

"Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. ... That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.' " - John 3:3, 6-8 ESV

The phrase 'born again used her twice is the Greek phrase Gennao (Strong's G1080) Anothen (G509) and it means to be born anew or to be begotten from above. God must give man a new nature because the old nature has limitations. Each soul in accountable in the midst of those limitations so nature can't take the full blame.

"The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts." - Proverbs 20:27 ESV

Our soul is like a dark room without a light to reveal it's shape and terrain.

Moses was born again at the burning bush. God gave him a new life and a new mission because his spirit was ignited with the fire that he saw that sent him back to Egypt. Now he carried God's words and authority not his own. Now he had something to give that had substance and was not based on appearance.

So, When things try and draw us away we can hold on to the rope God has throw to us and not be drawn away.

"I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them." - Hosea 11:4 ESV

Yes. Grace thinking becomes that will lead us in life. It isn't just another person's opinion and it does rely on good feeling as a basis. We are free in grace because God removes bit from our mouth there and feeds us.

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The Treasury Of Hail

I was thinking this morning about hail stones and how the process of their formation mirrors our thought process when we are readying ourselves for war.

"Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war? By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth? "Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, Or a path for the thunderbolt, To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, A wilderness in which there is no man; To satisfy the desolate waste, And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth? The waters harden like stone, And the surface of the deep is frozen." - Job 38:22-30 NKJV

Our thoughts harden suspended and kept aloft in our minds. They are frozen nuggets that gather more weight as they swirl and swirl. Snow is gentle and beautiful but hail is ferocious. Hail is often accompanied by lightning and thunder.

God used hail against Egypt.

"And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation... Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail... And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD'S... And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth." - Exodus 9:23-24, 26, 29, 33 KJV

If you hold people captive the hail is going to come but if you let God's people go the hail that has taken time to form will cease in an instant.

In the garden there was only mist that formed dew. There was not even the violence of rain there. Water mingled and gently formed droplets of dew and nourished this garden.

"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:" - Deuteronomy 32:2 KJV

This is grace thinking. This is the thinking of one who has had the need for vengeance satisfied already.

Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sin of the person our thoughts swirl about. As that nugget hardens in our mind God is not angry the way we sometimes are.

"The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe." - Revelation 16:19-21 ESV

God's treasury of hail is still swirling. How long does it take to form hail stones that are a hundred pounds? How fierce must those winds be to keep them aloft before they fall?

God is angry about evil but not about sin. The hail will fall on evil but God has already expended His wrath on what we and every other human being has done in the way of transgression and missing the mark of what is right and good. The hail that fell on Egypt did not fall in the land of Goshen.

"Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." - 1 Peter 2:24-25 NKJV

God's thoughts are gentle towards those who have trusted in His Son. Sin doesn't add up and gain weight in God's mind. Sin is paid for.

I want to spread my arms to the Lord and think about the cross when the fierce winds begin to howl in my mind. The debt has been paid. Jesus is in my boat and the storm is gone.

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He Came To Save

"And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."

When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!"

And he said, "Here I am."

Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of 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 place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them." - Exodus 3:3-9 ESV

Moses was afraid but God clearly said that He only came to save people.

That struck me this morning. It the midst of our sometimes bad emotions God comes to save. God shows up in my world to save. To save me. To save people crying out to Him. His very presence is a saving one.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." - Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV

Moses was sent into exile by his own bad emotional decisions but God came in due season to save him.

Jesus is a Savior. He is the Savior. He comes to save.

If we believe if Him we are saved. That salvation is lasting because He Is a lasting Savior.

But today's situations need a Savior. He Is that Saviour.

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Three New Tools

Moses at the burning bush is such a fascinating encounter on so many levels. Moses is a man with a calling he couldn't fulfill. There was a great need. His people were in bondage he felt their pain as a young man but was able to do little to help.

"One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, 'Why do you strike your companion?' He answered, 'Who made you a prince and a 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.' When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well." - Exodus 2:11-15 ESV

His individual violence could not bring salvation. Later he meets God only to find out that God knows about the need.

"Then the LORD said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey' " - Exodus 3:7-8a ESV

God then gives Abraham some new tools. They are non-violent and non-political in nature.

"But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go... The LORD said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' He said, 'A staff.' And he said, 'Throw it on the ground.' So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it... Again, the LORD said to him, 'Put your hand inside your cloak.' And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, 'Put your hand back inside your cloak.' So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 'If they will not believe you,' God said, 'or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.' " - Exodus 3:19-20, 4:2-3, 6-9 ESV

Those three signs speak volumes. The staff, the hand inside the cloak turning then leprous then being healed and the water into blood are amazing tools. What they represent is amazing. We use the same tools today.

The staff speaks of authority, assistance and political klout. Pharaoh chased Abraham out of Eygpt. It was not even Pharaoh himself that did it. Abraham was afraid of what Pharaoh could do and he ran. When Moses threw the staff on the ground it became a snake but when he took it by the tail it turned into his staff again. That staff would later swallow up the serpents that the magicians of Egypt conjured up (see Exodus 7:10f). There is bad authority. God knows it and has a way to deal with it. Moses' answer in frustration years ago was to kill each issue one by one hoping to sweep it all under the rug and get momentum of some kind. God taught Abraham to throw down Heaven's authority against the authority of fear. God is going to win those contests. Each individual fear, although deadly to us, is smaller and weaker than God's staff.

The first tool addresses external authority but the leprous hand talks to internal guilt and pain. No one is born leprous. It is a disease that is caught and then it takes a horrendous toll on it's new victims. Man's heart is leprous because of bondage. The hand coming out leprous the first time and then coming out clean the second revealed to those who saw it that God knew and identified with them. Bondage hurts. Fear deforms. God knows and God can make you clean. There is no need to hide. Hope is here.

Lastly, We have the water turning into blood. People relied on the Nile to live. Just as people today rely on information. They think what they know will save them but it won't. Only blood will save them. It something that is useless to people in comparison to the thing that they value and rely upon. Cain thought that his vegetables were a better offering because they were tasty and the fruit of great time and effort (see Genesis 4:3f) but God had little regard for Cain's fruit. All Cain's work was tainted by the leprosy in His heart. God desired a blood sacrifice. The person who has denied the first two signs can still be turned by this one. It is their last hope to be turned. Their arguments are blotted out by blood.

The Gospel of grace takes these tools and puts them in our arsenal. Grace trumps rules and fear based authority. Grace addresses the leprous heart and provides a second pure clean start born of freedom. The blood is where the power is located. Jesus' shed blood becomes the judicial basis for a continued freedom.

On a political level this is a huge contest. God was going to move on a massive scale to secure the freedom of his people. These three tools were for small groups or one on one encounters. These are tools we can use one on one also and they get great results.

God, Help us. We are just people and the system we walk into each day is big and imposing. Make us wise implementer of truth so that one at a time people can see your deliverance through our lives.

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