September 15, 2006

MOSES’ CHOICE

Exodus 2:11-22

Oh, the glories of Egypt! It was one of the most sophisticated and highly developed civilizations of the ancient world. It still has the capacity to fascinate us today. When the treasures and artifacts of the pharaohs’ tombs are displayed around the world, they never fail to draw crowds of interested people. The statues, the intricate art work, the incredible wealth of the kingdom. Engineers still speculate on the technology that built the massive pyramids. This civilization, this opulence, this sophistication formed the environment of Moses’ growing up years.

Last week, we looked at the story of Moses’ birth. We saw how God, in his providence, not only spared the baby’s life, but so arranged circumstances that he would be raised in the palaces of Egypt as an adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Rather frustratingly, we know very little about those years. This has led to endless speculation and different takes on Moses’ development and his life in the palace. Movies have tried to fill in the blanks. I’ve been reviewing a couple of those. The classic Cecile de Mille movie, The Ten Commandments tells the story as though Moses grew up ignorant of his Hebrew heritage, and in a deadly rivalry and competition with Ramses for the throne of Egypt. The more recent animated feature film, The Prince of Egypt paints a story of friendly competition and brotherly affection between the two princes, making their later rift a poignant side-plot of the story.

Such speculations remain just that. The only divine commentary we get on Moses’ life during those years is actually given to us in the New Testament in the preaching of Stephen in Acts 7:22: Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in speech and action. That is all we are told for sure. The rest is left to our imaginations.

The actual Biblical account in Exodus picks up in Exodus 2:11, in the passage we read in the Scripture reading this morning (Exodus 2:11-22). What can we conclude about Moses on the basis of these verses? What kind of man is he? What kind of character does he have? What are his values?

The author relates three incidents in Moses’ life. The first occurs when he goes out to watch his own people at work. We know he is a grown man at this point. In fact the Biblical chronology puts him at around 40. We don’t know if this is his first visit, or one of many. But on this occasion, he witnesses a particularly vicious Egyptian, beating a Hebrew slave. Overtaken by a strong passion, he looks around, and seeing no one, he defends the poor slave, and kills the Egyptian. Did he do it with a weapon or with his bare hands? Did he intend to kill him or just to teach the man a lesson? We don’t know the answer to these questions. But when he was done, the Egyptian man lay dead at his feet. So he disguised his deed by burying the body in a shallow grave in the sand. That is the first incident.

The second incident took place the next day. Once again, he went to where the Hebrew slaves were working. Once again, he witnessed an act of violence; only this time, it was not an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. It was two Hebrews fighting each other. He went to intervene. He determined one to be in the wrong, and challenged him. “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” It is often dangerous to intervene in a quarrel, as Moses quickly found out. The man turned on him and with angry sarcasm shouted at Moses: “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me like you did the Egyptian?”

At this point, Moses knew he was in trouble. His murder of the Egyptian must have become common knowledge! In fact Pharaoh did hear of it, and determined the death sentence for Moses, and he was forced to flee for his life. He fled fast and he fled far to the east, into the region of Midian; a desert area, either in the Sinai peninsula, west of the Gulf of Aquaba or on the Arabian peninsula to the east of it. From the palaces of Egypt into the empty wilderness. From the densely populated and fertile Nile delta into the harsh and lonely desert.

There is one more incident related to us by the author. There in the desert, Moses finds himself sitting beside a well. He is roused by the arrival of a flock of sheep or goats. They are being tended by seven sisters. Quickly they go about their work, drawing the water from the well, filling the troughs for the sheep. But in the midst of their work, there is a shout of challenge. Other shepherds have arrived on the scene. Rudely they push in, driving away the girls’ flocks, putting their own animals to drink from the filled troughs. Moses will not allow himself to stand by. With a shout of indignation, he confronts the shepherds. Whether verbally, or with a few well-placed whacks of his staff, he soon has the shepherds and their flocks on the run. He then calls to the young women to return and begins to fill the watering troughs for them.

Those are the three incidents recorded for us in the text today. Now, the question is, what conclusions can we draw about Moses from these three events. Do you see a common theme emerging? Here is what I concluded. Moses was a man with a strong passion for justice and the rights of the oppressed. That is a common element in all three of these incidents. Someone is being oppressed, persecuted or treated unfairly by someone else: the Hebrew slave by the Egyptian, the weaker Hebrew being struck by the stronger one, the young women’s flocks being chased away by the stronger shepherds. In all three cases, Moses intervened to protect the rights of the underdog, to right the wrong, to strike a blow for justice.

Let me ask you a question. If you’re choosing a man to lead a nation of slaves to freedom, is that a good quality for him to have? If you are choosing a deliverer, a savior for your people, is that a useful passion for him to display? I think it is! Do you know the words to the old song sung by slaves in America about Moses? Go down Moses! Way down in Egypt’s land. Tell old Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” You need passion for a job like that. Moses had it. Somewhere in his upbringing that passion was kindled and grew to a hot flame. Admittedly, Moses’ early actions were misguided. He acted out of turn and out of order, and actually caused more harm than good, at least in the first two cases. His methods and his timing will need tempering and channeling. But I believe these incidents still tell us a lot about what is in him. And I think it’s good stuff! I think this passion of Moses was one that God himself put in his heart and kindled there for the task that lay ahead. It’s the stuff of which deliverers and saviors are made. Don’t ignore the passions and deep urgings of your soul if they align with God’s purposes. With tempering and guidance, they may be just what you need to fulfill the task God has for you to do.

What else do we know about Moses during this stage in his life? Here we have to do a little more reading between the lines, but we still have some strong Biblical evidence to go on. At some point during these years, Moses recognized his dual heritage. We are not sure how or when he found out. He may well have known about it from his very earliest years when he was nursed by his own mother. But 3 or 4 is pretty early to be taken from your family, and still remember their lessons. Maybe they continued to have some contact during his years in the palace. Or maybe he grew up without any knowledge of his background and was only made aware of it in some way as an adult. As I said, we don’t know the details. But we do know that as an adult, he was aware of his dual heritage: born to Hebrew parents, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter: Hebrew by birth, Egyptian by upbringing. Also we know that at some point he became aware that he would have to make a choice. This is the second crucial thing we know about Moses in this formative time in his life: The most important choice of his life was grounded on eternal values.

We know this by the New Testament commentary on his life, given to us in Hebrews 11:24-26. (Read) This is crucial! Life faced Moses with an excruciating choice! At a fundamental level, every believer, every follower of God ultimately faces this same choice. But few face it with quite the same stark contrast that Moses did. To continue to identify himself as a son of the palace and a member of the royal family or cast his lot with a nation of slaves; what an agonizing choice! We can only imagine the nights and days of soul-searching that must have torn him apart! The easy choice, the pleasant path, the luxuries and pleasures of the palace; and yet, he could not keep himself from going to see the plight of his people, his own flesh and blood. When he did, he witnessed the whips falling, and they cut into his own heart. And so he made his choice. And he made this most important choice of his life with his eyes firmly fixed on eternal values.

Look at how the writer of Hebrews describes what he gave up, what he turned away from. He refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter… (v.24)  He determined not to enjoy the pleasures of sin…(v.25) He gave up the treasures of Egypt…(v.26).

But more important than that, what did he turn toward? What did he choose instead? He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God…(v.25) He chose disgrace for the sake of Christ...(v.26) That one puzzled me at first. It struck me as an anachronism, to introduce Jesus into Moses’ story. But then it clicked. It doesn’t say “Jesus” does it? It simply says “the Christ”, in other words, “the Messiah”. Remember, God was at work in history to prepare a nation through whom would eventually come “the Christ”, the Redeemer. Moses made a choice to identify himself with that nation, for that Cause, even though it meant disgrace in the world’s eyes. He did it for a Messiah yet to come, even as we are sometimes called to suffer disgrace for a Messiah already come, a Messiah we know as Jesus.

Why did he make such a choice? The rest of the verse tells us why: He was looking ahead to his reward. A more complete expansion of the vocabulary here might go like this: “He turned his eyes away from all other things and fixed his eyes attentively on the eternal reward.” There is the key. He made his choice based on eternal values. Remember the earlier phrase about the pleasures of sin? He recognized something else. The complete phrase reads, to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. The King James Version says to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. That was the choice that Moses saw. The temporary pleasures of sin, the transitory treasures of Egypt, the fleeting thrill of fame and deference as a member of royalty. Or the opportunity to identify with the people of God, to cast his lot with God’s plan to send his Christ, and ultimately the reward of enjoying the eternal pleasures of heaven.

Moses made his choice. He chose the permanent over the temporary. He made the most important choice of his life based on eternal values. What choice are you making? Because you are making a choice. The contrast may not be as clear and as stark as the choice Moses faced. But you are making choices every day, and these countless small choices all grow out of one fundamental choice. Temporary or eternal? God’s way or man’s way? Sin’s pleasure or faith’s reward?

Jim Elliot, one of the missionaries who died at the hands of the Auca Indians in 1956 said it so well in his diary. This is what he said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He could have been describing Moses, couldn’t he? Could he also be describing you and your choice?

I was only 16, at a young people’s meeting sitting around a bonfire. The speaker challenged all of us to make a fundamental life choice and to dedicate our lives to Christ, to do whatever he asked us to do. I made that choice that night, and I have never regretted it. I’ve made plenty of blunders since, and fallen short of my commitment on countless occasions. God’s had lots of work to shape and mold me, to temper me and channel me, just like he did Moses. And he’s still working on me. It took Moses 40 years of tending sheep in the wilderness for God to complete his education and prepare him for his great task, so maybe there’s hope for me! But the key is this: I got the big choice, the most important decision of my life, right! I grounded it, like Moses, like Jim Elliot, on eternal values.

Won’t you join me in that choice?