Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.30 – July 1966

 

Moses’ Calling

 

Sermon by Rev. G. Hanscamp on Exodus 3:7-15

Scripture Reading: Acts 7: 30-38; Exodus 3: 1-15

 

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

As Reformed Churches of Australia and New Zealand we must count ourselves greatly blessed.  For before long no single Church will be left in our countries without its own minister.  And by God’s grace we will even be able to assist sister denominations with servants of the Word.  We may well thank God for this!  In our sister Church or should I say our mother Church – in Holland – scores of congregations have no minister for years on end.  And this same pattern is found in the United States also in the Christian Reformed Churches, the churches that have been helping us to such a great extent.

But let us never forget our responsibility.  The Lord requires us to remain on the alert.  In connection with this we bring you God’s Word this day from that part which deals with the life of Moses.  We speak to you about: MOSES’ CALLING.  We will see why Moses was called and then what promise he received.

Why was Moses called?

In the first part of our chapter (Exodus 3) we read about the angel of the Lord Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.  Moses was attracted by that sight.  The bush burned but it was not consumed.  As you know, that angel of the Lord was the Son of God, He Who was going to redeem His people from their sins.

The burning bush was not consumed and that unnatural, not- earthly happening, attracted Moses’ attention.  The earthly bush touched by the heavenly fire without being destroyed.  From this we may learn a lesson.  The way in which the Lord reveals Himself shows His peaceful intention.  But the most important thing is this: That what is humble and despised, just a bush, only good for fire, sometimes it is even a nuisance, for it can really hurt, an insignificant plant, the picture of the humble – oh glory be to God – it can be filled with the fire of God and not be destroyed.  This portrays the way in which the Lord will deal with His people.  His people shall be sanctified, yes it shall be acknowledged as His people, it shall be filled with His fire, without being destroyed.  The Lord shall count with the weaknesses of His people.  He knows that they are dust, He knows their frame.  So can your and my frame be filled also with that heavenly fire without being destroyed.  God, our Father, knows all those weaknesses, all those failures time and again.  He knows them better than you and I know them ourselves.  He counts with His child’s weakness.

But why now does the Lord appear to Moses?  We read that in the verses 7 and 8.  These verses, brothers and sisters, are filled with divine dynamite.  Almost each word is loaded with meaning.  Let us have a look at the verbs.  The Lord says: I have seen… and have heard… for I know.  He is come down to deliver… and to bring His people out of… into.  And then says vs.9: Now therefore… and verse 10 starts with: come now therefore..!

So that is why Moses is called.  The Lord had seen and heard the cry of His people, for He KNEW their sorrows.  “Seen” here does not just mean see and forget, or see and remain untouched’ – as you and I can see a picture of the war in Vietnam and ask straight after, Say mother, is the tea not ready yet?  God’s seeing here indicates that it is a seeing of a father, an observing and regarding with understanding.  It is the seeing of a mother, who looks at her child that had an accident.  Mother sees that her child suffers, oh that does not leave her untouched.  The form here used indicates an emphasis also.  This is brought out in the Authorized Version, ‘I have surely seen…’ and then we read literally, ‘and their cry I heard…!’ The cry for help.  How can we sometimes think that heaven is closed?  That no- one hears anyway.  What is the use of praying?  This morning I prayed, O Lord deliver me of this awful thought’ or ‘Please Lord set me free of my anger’.  But nothing happened and that thought is with me just like other days.  Or when the boys did not listen this morning at the breakfast table, I lost my temper again.  Does it make sense to pray again tomorrow?

My brother and sister, imagine those people in Egypt.  For at least eighty years now they had been afflicted.  When Moses was born they were in trouble already, when he went out and killed that Egyptian he was 40.  Then God needed (humanly speaking) another forty years in the desert to mould him.  Eighty years did the Israelites live an oppressed life, eighty years at least.  And they were God’s people -the Church of the Old Testament.  And I am sure that such people as Amram and Jochebed, Moses’ parents, have prayed for years.  And they will not have been the only ones.  For we read, ‘God heard their cry for help!’  Would you be amazed if there were scores of people in that O.T. Church which thought: What’s the use anyway?  No one hears..  What is the use of praying?  Today I can ask, Lord, deliver me of that nasty Egyptian with his horrible whip.  Tomorrow there is that same fellow again to chase me up.  Should I pray tomorrow too?

But the Lord said: ‘I have SURELY SEEN the affliction of My people and have heard their cry for I know their sorrows.  Again, here are words loaded with meaning.  God does not just say: Oh I know, I know that two plus two makes four or I know that when you drop a stone that it falls down and not up.  God has heard the cry because He knows.  He knows about their troubles very intimately as a loving husband knows his wife.  So intimately, so real is the knowledge of God of the sorrows of His people.  Shall we not worship such a God with great reverence?  Because God has such an intimate knowledge of the affliction of His people, therefore He does surely see and hear their cry.  The cry of His own.  Now you may say: but the affliction of Israel was a bodily affliction and mine is a spiritual one.

Israel was in need because of people that did them wrong.  I am in need because of satan’s attacks and because of my own evil nature.  But people of God, is not Egypt and the Egyptians in the Bible a picture of the oppression of the evil one?  God led His people out of the house of bondage in Old Testament times.  This is a picture, a type of His leading out His people through the death of the cross, of His Own Son, when the power of satan and of his angels in principle was crushed.  The words in verse 8 are prophetic in this respect.  The Lord says there: “I am come down to deliver and to bring My people out of that land -where they were in bondage – unto a good land.”  That was Canaan.  And Canaan is compared with heaven in the Bible.  Has not this in the fullness of time become true?  God the Son came down, ‘Jesus shall be His Name for He shall save His people from their sins.’  He brings His people out of the hand of Satan, out of the bondage of his enemy.  And He said, I go and prepare a place for you that you may be there where I am also.

Why was Moses called?  Because God saw the affliction of His people.  He heard their cry.  Moses was the instrument through which God was going to deliver.  How much more privileged are we, we need not look forward for our deliverance.  We may look backward.  For while you and I were yet sinners Christ died for us.  And you know, brothers and sisters, we may know that God sees our affliction.  But let us not forget God sees the affliction also of them that have not heard yet about that saving Name of His dear Son.  God hears the cry of that man or that woman that one day shall say (with his finger pointing to the church not judging but yet accusing): Why was there not one soul that told me earlier what a joy it is to belong to the Saviour.  Why did nobody tell me so many years ago that in this life the Lord Jesus Christ is a reality?  Do you and I see our responsibility?

The first answer in our Catechism dealing with the art of thankfulness closes with this phrase: “…that by our godly walk our neighbours also may be won for Christ.”  Moses was prepared and called to be God’s instrument in the salvation of Israel.  God has prepared you and me, after so many years of catechism classes and so many Sundays hearing His Word, shall He be able to use you and me to lead others to salvation.  Are we willing to be filled with power?  Surely the lack of power is not because the Lord is not able to supply.  What do you and I do with all the gifts we have received?

We have seen why Moses was called.  God had seen the affliction of His people and Moses was the man, God was going to use to deliver them.  But then we see also that when God calls, He gives a promise.  When the Lord says to Moses I will send you to Pharaoh, Moses’ answer is: But Lord who am I, that I should go?  Moses is not anymore that fighter.  He has been caring for sheep for many years now.  He has become a quiet man, drawn back.  Oh, it is wonderful indeed that the Lord is going to deliver His people, but please Lord take someone else in my stead.  Then comes the promise: ‘I will certainly be with you Moses’ and to prove to you that I will do it all, I will cause you to come here on this mountain to serve Me.  Next, Moses asks, but whom can I say has sent me?  And then follows the revelation of that great Name JAHWEH In our hymnbooks also called Jehovah.  I AM WHO I AM, the UNCHANGEABLE One.  The God of the Covenant, He has sent you!  He Who remains the same He is steadfast.  I am the same God Who promised Abraham a son and as I kept My promise to Isaac and Jacob, thus will I keep My promise to you also.  Men may depend on their feelings and their moods Moses, but I do not!  For I AM WHO I AM.  And with that Name you may go to Egypt and tell My people that they will be delivered.  I AM has sent me unto you.  What a promise: I the mighty and strong One.  I Who am feared.  I will certainly be with you.  I am, the God of the Covenant, has sent you.  Is there anything to fear Moses?  I Am…!  This Name is the guarantee, that the deliverance will not only start, but it will be brought to full completion.

We know from what follows in the book of Exodus that in spite of Pharaoh’s severe opposition AND Israel’s own rebellion, I AM kept His Word.  For I AM WHO I AM – the Unchangeable One – brought His people into Canaan, the land promised to Abraham.

So may you and I, my brother and sister, living in the New Testament time count on the fact that the Lord shall accomplish His salvation in Christ, in spite of all opposition of the enemy and in spite of all rebellion and weakness of His people.  What encouragement you and I may receive from this passage.  Would your salvation depend on your changeable heart and on your own will, a will that may desire to-morrow something different, something else than it desires today, would or wouldn’t I ever be saved?  Praise Him then Who is the Unchangeable One, in Whom there is no change or even shadow of turning.  When He has put His hand on you He will not leave you, until He has accomplished His work, when as believers we may see Him in glory, Who brought us with His precious blood.

But what have all these promises to do with our responsibility?  Well congregation, when He Who bought us with His precious blood, had risen, before He went to heaven to take His place at the right hand of the Father in glory He said: ‘Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world.’  Is this not the same sound as Moses heard when it was said to him: “Come, now I will send you!”?

To His disciples the Lord Jesus said before He gave them the promise to be with them: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

About a missionary who was burdened with the need of the people who still walk in darkness it is told that when he preached on a Lord’s Day in his homeland, he started his sermon by saying: “No go, no lo…..no go, no lo…..no go, no lo…..!”  People in the congregation thought that as a result of his prolonged stay overseas under hot climatic conditions he had suddenly lost his memory and was talking in a foreign language.  But what this man wanted to drive home soon became clear.  He referred to that text in Matthew that says “Go ye…” followed by the promise “…and lo I am with you always.”  He wanted to say: when you do not follow up the command of the Master, His promise to be with you will be invalid, will not count.  Now I believe that the Bible certainly does not teach that God will only be with you and me when we follow up His commands.  For that would take all certainty away from the I AM WHO I AM.  Everything does not depend on you or me, but on Him.  Yet if this is true, should then not everything that is within you and me be desirous to do whatever He commands?  What about those works of thankfulness about which our catechism speaks… that by our daily walk our neighbour also may be won for Christ.’  And the Canons of Dort speak so clearly about our task in this world when it says: …the promise of the Gospel is whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have eternal life.  This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously (indiscriminately) and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the Gospel.”  The Gospel ought to be declared by missionaries only…?  by ministers only…?  by elders only…?  Does then the promise of God to be with you, then also count for them only…?

Oh my brother and sister, how many are there around us in Australia and New Zealand, whose affliction God sees, and whose cry God has heard.  People still walking in darkness, yet belonging to God.  How many are there, brothers and sisters, new Australians seemingly going under in their misery of loneliness, how many millions are there in Japan who never heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?

I have seen the affliction of My people and have heard… for I know He is come, And we may say He has come and paid the price.  The words, “It is finished”, they may sound over the earth in all directions.  Come now, therefore, people of the covenant.  I AM WHO I AM is with you, rejoice in His presence.  You may be sure for yourself that no-one shall grab you out of His hand.  But then go.  That by your Godly life, your and my Godly walk our neighbour here or overseas may be won for Christ.  That is our joint responsibility too.  Can there then ever be too many Ministers of the Word?

Amen.