“MOSES: FROM LAWBREAKER TO LAWGIVER”
The Faults In Our Stars
January 18, 2015
Cornerstone Community Church
He is one of the biggest stars in the biblical galaxy. Moses is his name. He is the author of the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. He led the people of Israel to freedom after 400 years of slavery to the Egyptians. He performed great miracles, turning water into blood and parting the Red Sea among them. He is the great lawgiver, giving us the Ten Commandments and hundreds of other laws that have shaped the morals of cultures all over the world, including our own.
But while a star of the faith, Moses was not without his faults. Major faults, as a matter of fact. Long before he became the great lawgiver, Moses was a great lawbreaker. And that’s what this series is all about – how God is able to redeem our flaws, our failures and our faults to do great things through us for the good of the world.
Have you ever heard this expression before – to shoot yourself in the foot? Not only have we all heard it; we’ve all done it. Maybe it was a financial thing. We were doing so well on our budget. Just like the experts tell us, we had been saving 10% of our income, giving 10% to church, and living on the other 80%. We had paid off the credit cards, and for the first time in a long time we weren’t afraid to go to the mailbox because of the bills that might be waiting for us. Then we did it – we shot ourselves in the foot. It wasn’t something we needed, but it was something we really wanted, at least after we saw one in the neighbor’s driveway. And now we’re back in the hole again, but the truth is that we did it to ourselves – we shot ourselves in the foot.
Or maybe it was a relationship thing. We were working so hard on becoming a better listener, to think before we spoke, to look at things from our partner’s perspective. Sure, the tension had been growing over the last few years, but we had really been working hard to rekindle our love for each other and we seemed to be making some real progress. Then we did it – we shot ourselves in the foot. She did something that really got under our skin, and it’s like we couldn’t help ourselves; we just couldn’t hold the sarcasm in any longer. And as soon as the words left our mouth we knew it was the wrong thing to say. Her face said it all – the hurt in her eyes, the tightness around her mouth. And if her face didn’t say it, the door she slammed in our face did. We had said something stupid and hurtful, and we knew it. We had shot ourselves in the foot.
There’s other ways of saying it. “You made your own bed, and now you have to lie in it,” is how it’s sometimes put. “You’ve dug your own grave” is another, as is “you’ve painted yourself into a corner.” The bottom line is this – you’re in a bad place, and you did it to yourself. You’ve come to a dead end – financially, relationally, vocationally, personally – and you have no one to blame but yourself.
But here’s the good news – what are dead ends for us aren’t dead ends for God. Have you ever watched any of the Spiderman movies? There’ve been a bunch of them over the last 12 or 13 years. First there were the three Tobey McGuire “Spider-man” flicks, between 2002 and 2007. More recently we’ve had Andrew Garfield’s “Amazing Spider-man” movies in 2012 and 2014. And if you’ve watched any of those movies you know that there’s pretty much no such thing as a dead end for Spiderman. It might look like he’s trapped in an alley, like there’s no way out, but Spiderman always seems to find a way. If he can’t go forward or backwards, he’ll just go up, where no one else is able to go.
Dead ends aren’t dead ends for someone with “spidey” powers. “But that’s just in the movies,” you say, and you’re right. There is no such a person as Spiderman. But there is such a person as God. And dead ends aren’t dead ends for God. You might have shot yourself in the foot; you might have dug your own grave; you might have painted yourself into a corner. But we have access to something far greater than “the Amazing Spider-man.” We have access to God’s amazing grace. And because of God’s amazing grace, what seem to be dead ends aren’t.
Moses, as we’ll see in just a few minutes, was at a dead end. And it was his own fault. Moses messed up in a big way, probably in a bigger way than any of us ever have. But what seemed like a dead end wasn’t the end at all; it turned out to be just the beginning of an extraordinary life that quite literally changed the world. Let’s jump into his story and I’ll show you what I mean.
Saved At The Start
Years before Moses stumbles into a dead end of his own doing, God rescues him from a dead end he had nothing to do with. If you’ve read the beginning of the book of Exodus, you know that Moses was an at risk baby even before he was born, that he very nearly didn’t even make it into this world. Here’s the backstory.
Genesis tells the history of how the people of Israel happened to have made their home in Egypt. But when the book of Exodus opens, Egypt is not so much their home as their prison. The Egyptian people, who at first welcomed the people of Israel, had become afraid that the Israelites were getting way too numerous. They were afraid that these immigrants were taking over their country. So they made them into slaves. Exodus 1:14 says, “They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.”
But even making them slaves wasn’t enough; the Egyptians wanted to stop the people of Israel from reproducing. So the king of Egypt gathered the Hebrew midwives and gave them an order. From now on, he said, if the Hebrew women deliver a girl, you can let her live, but if they give birth to a boy, your order is to kill it.
Now this is right when a woman named Jochabed is about to give birth to the son we come to know as Moses. In other words, Moses’ beginning seems destined to be a dead end. And it would have been except for two courageous women who out of their devotion to God chose to disobey the king’s order. Their names were Shiphrah and Puah. Here’s what the text tells us about them: “The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live … So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” (Exodus 1:17, 20-21)
Bob and Pam were missionaries in the Philippines; it was 1985. Pam contracted a disease called amoebic dysentery and fell into a coma. Doctors gave her strong drugs to combat the infection in an effort to save her life. In doing blood tests they also discovered that Pam was pregnant with her fifth child. Unfortunately, the drugs they gave Pam to fight her infection caused the placenta to detach from the uterine wall, depriving the unborn baby of oxygen. When Pam was told that she was pregnant, she had the doctors stop the drugs they were giving her. But the doctors warned Pam
that the high doses of medicine had already irreversibly damaged the baby.
The doctors advised Bob and Pam to abort the baby because he would very likely not survive, and even if he did, he would have serious problems. Beyond that, Pam’s own life was in danger. Bob and Pam wanted another opinion. They tracked down the best doctor they could find. But his advice was the same: “An abortion is the only way to save your life.”
But Pam refused. Instead, Pam and Bob prayed and asked God to spare Pam’s life and to spare her baby. Finally the day came for the baby to be delivered. The doctor who delivered the child reported that while only a small part of the placenta was attached, it was “just enough to keep your baby nourished all these months.” They still weren’t out of the woods, though. Both Pam and her baby faced some serious health issues. The baby was seriously malnourished. But he was a fighter, and quite miraculously he survived.
Oh, Bob and Pam Tebow named their fifth child Tim – Tim Tebow. Tim went on to become one of the toughest college quarterbacks the game has ever known. He won the Heisman Trophy, given to the person voted the best college player in the country. And in addition to football, he’s done some remarkable things. The foundation he started and funded is currently building an orthopedic children’s hospital in the Philippines. And he’s helping his father’s foundation, which is committed to church planting and orphan care in the Philippines. His story was very nearly a dead end right from the beginning, but God in his grace spared Tim Tebow’s life and has done great things through him to bring blessing to a needy world.
God spared Moses from being killed at birth; he was spared because of two brave women who feared God. But Moses wasn’t out of the woods. When the Pharaoh heard that the midwives weren’t killing the baby boys born to the Hebrew women, he issues another order: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:22)
And that’s when Moses is born. It is not a good time to be a Hebrew baby boy. Moses’ mom – Jochabed – hides him for three months. But then, the text, explains, she could hide him no longer. So she comes up with a plan. She makes a papyrus basket – the Hebrew word for this basket, by the way, is the same word for “ark,” as in “Noah’s ark.” She puts Moses in the “ark” and then places it in the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. It all seems a bit desperate, but it’s really part of God’s plan to rescue Moses from a literal dead end.
After Jochabed puts baby Moses in the Nile River, she tells her daughter – Miriam – to stay at a safe distance and watch. And quite likely you know the story; you know what happens next. The adult daughter of Pharaoh is walking along the Nile when she sees the papyrus basket floating on the water. She sends her slaves to fetch the basket and discovers the baby boy. She immediately determines that it’s a Hebrew baby, but for some reason she has pity on the child. Miriam then comes up to her and asks, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” (Exodus 2:7) And amazingly Pharaoh’s daughter agrees! So who do you think Miriam gets to nurse baby Moses? Jochabed, of course – Moses’ own mother.
Do you ever watch the TV show “NCIS”? It’s the most popular show not only in the United States, but in the world. When we were in Jordan last September we saw an episode of NCIS in Arabic, and then when we went to Israel the next week we saw an episode in Hebrew. At any rate, if you’ve seen the show you know that Gibbs, the lead investigator, has a long series of unwritten rules. Rule No. 1 – never let suspects stay together. Rule No. 10 – never get personally involved in a case. And Rule No. 39 – there is no such thing as a coincidence.
And that rule applies to the circumstances of Moses’ rescue. The Bible wants us to understand that it’s no coincidence that Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses in a basket in the Nile River; it’s no coincidence she feels sorry for him; it’s no coincidence Miriam was there; and it’s no coincidence that Moses’ own mother was the one chosen by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse Moses and raise him until he was old enough to be adopted into Pharaoh’s own household. Right from the start, God is at work in Moses’ life.
And by the way, right from the start God was at work in your life. Listen to how the Bible puts it: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb … My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalms 139:13, 15-16) When it comes to your life, your birth, your DNA, it turns out Gibbs is right – no coincidences. Long before your parents met each other, God had made plans for your birth and your life. You aren’t here because of an accident or because of a mistake or because of a coincidence. You are here on this planet and in this place because of the plan and providence of God.
Moses Shoots Himself In The Foot
So it’s through the grace and intervention of God that Moses gets off on the right foot in life. While an infant he’s nursed by his birth mom. Then he’s raised in Pharaoh’s court and given the best education in the world. Acts 7 tells us this: “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” (Acts 7:22) But while he starts out on the right foot, he then does something we’ve all done – he shoots himself in the foot. He messes up. Look at how Stephen tells the story in the book of Acts: “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.” (Acts 7:23-25)
Now that last verse is key, because it tells us that Moses understood that God had called him to rescue the people of Israel from the Egyptians. We don’t know how he knew that, but at some point in his life God had tapped Moses on the shoulder and said, “You’re my guy. This is why I orchestrated your life so that you, a Hebrew, would grow up in Pharaoh’s court, so you would get the best education, so you would get to know the people in power. You are my guy to rescue my people from the Egyptians.” And here’s another key point – how old does verse 23 tell us Moses is? He’s 40. In other words, if he’s going to rescue Israel, it’s about time he do it, he thinks. It’s time to act; it’s time to lead.
But this is not the way to do it. Killing an Egyptian is not part of God’s plan. And the thing is, Moses knew that. Look at how Exodus describes the scene: “Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:11-12) Moses knows this is wrong, but he does it anyway. The Israelites who see him do this know it’s wrong, and they let Moses know in no uncertain terms that after what he’s done there’s no way they’re going to listen to anything he has to say. And the Egyptians are none too happy with Moses either. The text tells us this: “When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian.” (Exodus 2:15) Want to know where Midian is? It’s in the desert. It’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s a dead end. And Moses has no one to blame but himself. He’s shot himself in the foot.
Now let me fill out the picture just a little bit. First, guess what the only job Moses can get in the desert? For the first 40 years of his life he’s been living in the palace, the adopted child of the most powerful person on the earth. He’s got an Ivy League education. He is smart and he’s powerful. He could be anything he wants to be. But things have changed now. Now he’s a fugitive; he’s hiding in the desert. And the only job he can get is as a shepherd. You heard me talk about the lowly reputation shepherds had in Israel during the Christmas season. But look at how shepherds were viewed by the Egyptians. Genesis 46:34 says this: “For all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.” From the perspective of the Egyptians, Moses was now doing a job no respectable Egyptian would ever do.
But it gets worse. Moses wasn’t even a shepherd of his own flock. The flock he tended belonged to his father-in-law. Yikes – that’s a low blow. Oh, and guess how long Moses worked as a shepherd for his father-in-law in the middle of nowhere? For another 40 years. And in his book on Moses, Charles Swindoll makes this point – there’s no record of God saying anything to Moses during those 40 years. In every way – spiritually, vocationally, chronologically – Moses at 80 years old is at a dead end. The one who had been picked and prepared by God to lead his people out of slavery is rotting away in the desert. What a sad ending to a once promising life.