God Encourages Moses

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter 6. Exodus chapter 6. And today, God is going to encourage Moses. Moses, having been called by God to do a great and mighty task, and having just spoken to the leaders of Israel. Goes to Pharaoh and says, It's time for you to let your people go for three days into the wilderness, that they might go and worship their God. And then, of course, return back again. Pharaoh said, No, I'm not going to do that. I don't even know who your Lord is. I don't even know your God.

That's not going to happen. And instead, he en upon the children of Israel. an even greater bondage as they will have to search for their own straw to make their brick and they can't maintain the same quota. And so the leaders go to Pharaoh and they cry out to him because of the situation they find themselves facing. And they are beaten because they are unable to meet the quota of bricks each and every day. And so they get angry with Moses. After all, if Moses had not gone to Pharaoh, they wouldn't be in this predicament.

And so they blame Moses. So Moses goes to God and says, God, why have you punished them? Why have you picked me? And why have you promised and not delivered? And instead of God criticizing Moses, instead of God condemning Moses, he consoles Moses. And he comforts Moses. And this is what he says. Exodus chapter 6, verses 1 to 13. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land.

God spoke further to Moses. And said to him, I am the Lord. And I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them. And I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourn. And furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians Are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

And I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out. From under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.

Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. How then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech? Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel, and to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. God responds to Moses. Moses takes that response and relays it to the people of Israel.

And then God comes and reiterates one more time his mandate to Moses and to Aaron. That's our outline for this morning. Point number one, God responds to Moses.

In the first eight verses, I want you to notice with me four things about how God responds to Moses and instills courage in him.

Because this is the way God wants to instill courage into you. If you need encouragement this morning, this message is for you. If you need to be bold this morning, This message is for you. God is speaking to you today. While this message was written thousands of years ago to a man called Moses. God has recorded it that we might learn how to receive encouragement from our God. And the first thing that God addresses with Moses is his own p.

He says these words in verse number one. Then the Lord said to Moses. Now we'll stop right there for a moment. Remember Jeremiah 33, verse number 3, call upon me. And I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Remember, Moses cried out to the Lord. The leaders of Israel cried out to Pharaoh. God wasn't going to answer them, but he was going to answer Moses because Moses went to the right person, he went to God. And therefore, because he cried out to God, God now, therefore, is going to explain to him the great and mighty things which Moses does not quite understand.

And doesn't even have to understand, just needs to believe what God's going to do. And so the Lord says to Moses: this word: now.

Now you shall see what I will do. To Pharaoh. Now you're going to see it, Moses. You haven't seen it yet. I've only told you about it. But now you're going to see it before your very eyes. I am going to unleash my power. And you will see something you've never seen before because now I'm going to act. God was about to unleash his power in such a way that it would lead ultimately to Israel's deliverance. And God says to Moses, now's the time.

Now's the time. Oh, there's going to be deliverance, but now you're going to see my power that's going to ultimately lead to the deliverance. And notice what he says: he says, For under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land, or under a mighty arm, or under a mighty hand.

You see, what Pharaoh is going to do is that he is going to be compelled to let you go. He's going to have to let you go. In fact, he's going to make you want to go. And this reminds me of something. You know, God works in a very strategic way. You know, God's outside the realm of time, we are not. And yet God's deliverance always comes when the enemy think they are at the height of their control and power. And when we are at our weakest points. And you see, that's how God works. Because He wants to display to your enemy that He has no power.

And so He wants to get your enemy at His highest point. Where he thinks he's in complete control of you. And then God unleashes his power to show him that he has no power at all. But it's at the point where we are extremely weak and we are impotent and we can't do anything. And that's where Moses was. What am I going to do? Pharaoh's not going to listen.

Your people aren't going to listen. They hate me. Pharaoh hates me. Everybody hates me. What am I going to do? And God says, now's the time.

Now's the time. Meaning that it's at the point where you realize, Moses, you can't do anything, and I'm going to do everything. And your enemy thinks that he is in complete control of my people. And he's not, because I am in control. Of my people. God's power can cause the enemy to do the very thing the enemy doesn't want to do. And that's what God's going to do with Pharaoh. Second thing I want you to see is that God not only encourages Moses by helping him understand his mighty arm, his powerful, powerful arm, but his own person.

Listen to this. He says in verse number 2, God spoke further to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. And I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them. Wait a minute. How can that be? If you go back and you were to read Genesis chapter 13 and Genesis chapter 26 and Genesis chapter 32, you'll realize that God made himself known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So what is he telling Moses? He is telling Moses something that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were unable to see and understand.

He was going to explain to Moses exactly who he was. You see, there's something unique about the revelation of God. As you progress from Genesis to Revelation, you get a composite picture of God. You need all 66 books. You just can't have one book and get a composite picture of him. They all display to us the great character of our God. And God says to Moses, listen, Moses, my memorial name, remember back in Exodus chapter 3?

My memorial name. The name that will be, I will be remembered from generation to generation. I am that great Yahweh name. It was his redemptive name. You see, they, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were not able to see the redemption of Israel, but Moses will see it. And as we read our Bible, and as we begin to study the Bible, we are able to see a great picture of our God, to understand the greatness of his character. His wonderful person because God was getting Moses to focus in on God, on who He is.

You see, when we find ourselves discouraged, the only way we can be encouraged is to focus in on God Himself. If you focus in on anything else, you're going be discouraged. And God wants Moses' attention riveted on him. He says, In chapter 6, five times I am the Lord. Verse 2, verse 6, verse 7, verse 8, and verse number 29. Moses, you've got to focus in on me. Peter says the same thing. Peter says, listen, if you want to live a holy life, you've got to be riveted on God and your future hope. That's going to come at the appearing of your great Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And God tells Moses the same thing: you've got to be focused on me. Don't be focused on what Pharaoh said. Don't worry about what Pharaoh's going to do. Don't worry about how the people are going to res Moses, you got to be focused on me because I am the Lord. I am the great God of the universe. You got to believe in me. You've got to be committed to me, Moses. Because I am the Lord, and I'm going to do for you what I didn't do for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that's going to encourage Moses. That would encourage me.

That would motivate me. And so God goes from his power to his person and how Moses needs to understand the character and nature of his God. Then he says these words in verse number four, it speaks about God's performance, specifically in the past. It says, and I also Established my covenant with them, that is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. And furthermore, I have heard the groanings of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage.

And I have remembered my covenant. I also, I have, and I have. God says, I also, I also established my covenant.

He says, I have a covenant. I made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I'm going to fulfill that covenant. Not only that, but I have heard the cries of the people of God. And not only do I have a covenant, but I have compassion for my people. I have heard their groanings. I understand the cruelty that they are experiencing. And not only that, but I am committed to fulfilling it to the end. I have a great commitment to my people. And therefore, you must understand that my performance is based on my nature and my character.

And what I did in the past should encourage you, Moses. In the present. Isn't that what Romans 15:4 says? These things are written for your instruction, that through perseverance and encouragement we might have hope. The things that were written beforehand, everything in our Bible is written that we might have encouragement, that we might obtain hope, that we might be able to persevere in the pressure. You know, there's a funny thing about the people of God. We sure do tend to forget what God has done, don't we?

That's why we celebrate the Lord's table the first Sunday of every month, because we have a tendency to forget what God has done.

And we don't want you to forget. The fourth thing I want you to see about how God responds to Moses is his promises. Now, I want you to know something. Seven times God says, I will.

If you were to go back and read Genesis 17, you will notice that seven times God says, I will in the Abrahamic covenant.

If you go back and you read Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 and 34, you'll realize that seven times God says, I will in the new covenant.

Because the new covenant is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. And God says seven times, this is what I will do.

And God says to Moses in Exodus chapter 6, this is what I will do. And before he gives them, he says, I am the Lord. Then he says, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this, seven times. And then he cl Cl it with Iron the Lord. They're like brackets in the text. I don know if you color your text or not. I write in my Bible, I color-code it. I use pink, and green, and orange, and blue, and purple, and I use different color pens because I want to be able to see. When I look at my text, the contrasts that are there and the brackets that are there and how God operates and what He does.

And seven times He says, This is what I will do. This is the promise of God. Now, listen. What he does in these promises is foreshadow what he will do at Calvary. This is great. This is good. Look what he says. He says, in verse number 6, say therefore to the sons of Israel, remember, he's supposed to tell this. To the sons of Israel. This is what he's going to tell them: I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. God says, Number one, I'm going to give you rest.

I'm going to bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. They had no rest. They were weary. What does Jesus say? Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Give you rest. I'm going give you rest. If you're tired of trying to work your way to heaven, if you're trying to get to heaven and gain acceptance with God, if you're tired of all that stuff, quit it. Come into me, and I will give you rest from your weary labors. You know, we, for the most part, spend our whole lives trying to gain acceptance with God, trying to gain approval from God.

You just can't do it. You can't. You've got to throw yourself on his mercy. And God says, I'm going to get you out of that burden.

That's what he says to the nation of Israel. And God promises rest to his people. Next thing he promises them is he's going to rescue them. He says, I will deliver you from the bondage. They're going to be rescued. The third I will, he says, I will also redeem you with an out arm.

There's going to be a price that's going to be paid. Now, at Calvary, Christ paid the price. In Egypt, the Egyptians paid the price. And then, the fourth I will, verse number seven, then I will take you for my people. That's God's reception. He receives us. That's how you're going to know that I am God. How are you going to know that I'm the Lord? You're going know that I'm the Lord because I'm going to receive you unto myself. And therefore, I am going to be your God. This is what we call our recognition.

We're going to recognize God. The one who bought us, the one who rescued us, the one who redeemed us, the one who received us, the one who ultimately gives us. Rest. And then he says this: verse 8: And I will bring you to the land. What's the land? The land of Canaan. He's going to relocate them. That's our reloc. He's going to give them the promised land. Our promised land, of course, is heaven. Our promise is presence with God forever. And then, lastly, he says this. I will give you or give it to you for a possession, he says.

I will bring you to the land and I will give it to you for a possession. That is our riches. This will be your riches. And they became a very rich people in the land of Canaan because of God. An unbeliever is in poverty. Oh, they may have a six or seven figure income, or they might live in the biggest and best houses in the world, but they are poverty-stricken when it comes to the things of God. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Bible says that everything is Christ's, and so whatever is His is ours.

And one day we're going to obtain it all. And we become rich because of Jesus Christ our Lord. And God says to Moses, this is what I will do for you.

And God says to us today, this is what I will do for you. That's how God encourages Moses. I read that this week and I said, Man, this is great. This is so good. And I'm thinking, I wonder what Moses must have been thinking. Wow, it's going to happen. He's going to do it. And look what we get. How long is it going to take? I don't know. So what does he do? Moses, point number two, relays the message, verse number nine.

All right? Verse number 9, here it goes. So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel. Stop right there. He goes and he declares the message. He goes and he speaks to them exactly what God said to say. Now that's important. Why? Because you see, when you go and speak for God, you can't change what he said. You can't reinterpret what he said. You can't misrepresent what he said. You got to go tell people what God said, right? And that's what Moses did. He declared what God said. This is what they said.

Latter part of verse number 9. But they did not listen to Moses. Can you believe that? They did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage. They didn't listen.

Why? Because they were so consumed about their bad circumstances. They couldn't even begin to focus on God. They were irritated, they were impatient, and they blamed Moses. You know anybody like that? Everything around them is just so bad that they can't even see God. They don't want to see God. That's the truth. They don't want to see God. They want to sit in their despondency. God said, This is what I'm gonna do. Moses said, This is what God's gonna do. Are you ready to go? Oh, no, we're not interest.

We don't care. You don't care. No, we don't care. We're just going to stay in bondage. We'll stay right where we're at. We like being punished in a cruel way. So we're just going to stay right here. And so you come to the point, number three.

And God reiterates his mandate to Moses. First of all, verse number 10. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Now, it's interesting to note that God comes and speaks to Moses. He comes to speak to Moses because he knows how the people are going to respond. So the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the sons of Israel go out of. His land. Ah, the message changes. Before it was just for three days. Now it's let him go permanently. Before it was just a temporary vacation for three days out, one day of worship, three days back.

He says, Moses, you go tell Pharaoh, because this is part of the now, see? Now's the time. How are you going to begin the now? You tell Pharaoh you're leaving. You tell Pharaoh to let you go because you're leaving for good. Forget about the bricks. Forget about his buildings. You guys are out of there. And Moses had to be thinking, whoa. Wow. You see, God was testing Pharaoh. Testing him. Maybe if Phar would let him go for three days, he'd have him back for a while. But now he's going to have him gone forever now.

So you tell him this is the way it's going to be. And I want you to know something. That this is the grace of God. This is God's grace. Because you see, He could have judged Pharaoh immediately, He could have killed him immediately, but He didn't. And each plague, as we will see them in extreme detail in weeks to come, is the grace of God upon Pharaoh. Oh, while there is devastation in the land of Egypt, it's the grace of God being displayed, giving Pharaoh one more opportunity to repent. And he kept refusing.

So God gives the command. Listen to Moses' concern. Verse 12. But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me. How then will Pharaoh? Listen to me. That's a legitimate concern. He says, after all, he goes on and says, I'm unskilled in speech. The point being is that the messenger is irrelevant. It's the message that's re. And Moses needed to be obedient. And so God gives this charge. He says this in verse number 13. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron.

and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel, and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the l of Egypt. God repeats the same message again. He wants to give no doubt as to what he has just said and what needs to be done. And you know what? Moses was right where God wanted him to be. Absolutely helpless. Everything around him completely negative. And God says, I got you right where I want you, Moses.

You need me. And you know what about Moses? He learned a lesson. He did learn. Because if you read these words in Exodus chapter 14, as they stand, At the borders or the border of the Red Sea, after the people complained about why they were there, can't we go back to Egypt? What did you do? Bring us out here to die? Moses says, Do not Fear. Verse 13 of chapter 14. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.

The Lord will fight for you while you keep what? Silent. Moses learned. God's going to do it. Why? God encouraged him. God instilled boldness in the man because he believed in what God said. The question is: do we believe it? Let's pray.