The God Who Covers the Title
Contents
1. Words that begin
We should not question whether we can do it or not, but whether it is God's will or not.
God makes people bear it.
I have seen on TV a young man who lost both arms in an electric shock accident, living his life using his feet as hands and toes as fingers. He even has a word certificate for how skillfully he can hit the computer keyboard with his big toe.
I have seen on TV a life of a young girl who was born with a disability and can only sit in a wheelchair only if someone sits in it, and can only move if someone moves it.
Extremely disabled, unable to use both hands and feet, this maiden is a poet who writes poetry.
I make a living by composing beautiful poems while pressing a computer keyboard with my tongue and posting them on the Internet.
Everyone is created with work to do, just like Moses.
2. Jethro granted the petition of Moses who received the mission
Moses asked his father-in-law Jethro for permission to return to his fellow slaves in Egypt to see if they were still alive. It's hard to comprehend.
Who is Moses?
This is a person who enjoyed special treatment and wealth and honor for about 40 years, such as adopting an Egyptian princess who made her compatriots a slave for about 400 years and receiving education and training as a royalty in a developed country.
Acts 7:22 says, “Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was able to speak and act.”
Of course, Moses was brought up with the milk and prayers of his mother, who was hired as a nanny, so he had the basics as God's people.
Looking at Exodus 2:11ff and Acts 7:23ff, when Moses was forty years old, he thought of looking back at his compatriots Israel, who were slaves in Egypt. However, when he saw that one of his compatriots was being grieved by the Egyptians, he could not bear his anger. After looking around, he killed the Egyptian and hid it in the sand.
Moses thought that when he saw a murder committed by his own wrath, his compatriots would realize that God had saved them through his hand.
But that thought was an illusion of compatriots and an illusion of oneself.
The compatriots who had the slavish spirit formed after serving as slaves for about 400 years did not have the spiritual perception to realize such a spiritual fact.
And the murder of Moses, who killed the Egyptian, was according to his own feelings of wrath, not according to the word of God.
The next day, when Moses tried to reconcile his compatriots, who were also enslaved for one another, when Moses tried to reconcile, the perpetrator pushed him away and said, “Who made you over us as ruler and judge? ” he scolded.
When Moses found out that he had killed an Egyptian who was angry with his compatriots, he heard that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was looking for him to kill him, so he fled to the land of Midian. There, he was treated well because he protected the seven daughters of the Midianite priest who came to water the flock from the shepherds' tyranny, and he also became the Midianite priest's son-in-law.
One day, when Moses led a flock of sheep to Mount Horeb, he received a revelation from God appearing in the flames of a bush.
It is to become a messenger of God who will liberate our compatriots who have been slaves in Egypt for about 400 years and lead them to the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey.
This revelation of God is a command that makes absolutely no sense in a rational way.
Moses doesn't have followers, he doesn't have soldiers, and he doesn't have money for the military.
In addition, he ran away from Egypt with his bare body and was in hiding to live with his wife. So, isn't it natural that Moses jumped on his feet because he wasn't qualified? When Moses said that he could not obey because he was doing this and that with rational thoughts and judgment, God insisted that he would solve it one way or another. Besides, he gave a decisive word.
“Surely I will be with you.” After that, he obeyed and explained in detail what would happen when he confronted Pharaoh of Egypt.
Nevertheless, Moses, who excused himself as a man with a stiff mouth and a dull tongue,
He said, “Lord, send someone you can send.”
God was angry with Moses, and he appointed Moses' brother, Aaron, who was good at speaking, as a spokesperson, and gave him a staff to perform miracles. God works to make it happen.
In this way, Moses became a missionary to save the nation by liberating his compatriot Israel, who had been in slavery in Egypt for about 400 years according to God's will.
It was Moses who became the leader to take charge of the great cause of national salvation, which appeared for the first time in 400 years, but it was also the Moses chosen by God, but that Moses did not neglect trivial matters.
Moses was far from the proverb that ‘a frog and a tadpole never thinks of enemies’, and he was a man who never forgot even the slightest kind of grace.
Moses helped Moses when he was a fugitive, and he petitioned Jethro, a priest of Midian, who had been a father-in-law and cared for him for 40 years, to go on the road to fulfill his mission. Jethro, a priest with a developed spiritual sense, told Moses to take his family and go in peace.
Moses may not have known, but the journey of Moses' life during that time was God's education and training to create a leader and spiritual leader for national liberation. I listened to my mother's prayer from my womb, and when I was born, I was breastfed in my mother's arms and grew up listening to God's story.
After that, as a royal family in Egypt, for nearly 40 years, I learned the organization, system, law, and all kinds of academics of Egypt, an advanced country, and enjoyed a high-class life. In the Wilderness of Midian, he was homeless, but while living a downstream life with his wife, he acquired spirituality through his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest.
3. The God Who Gives You
God's command came when Moses was in Midian with permission from Jethro, the priest and father-in-law of Midian.
First, it tells us to return to Egypt, where our compatriots are slaves.
There is no need to be afraid that Pharaoh and his servants in Egypt who were looking to kill Moses are all dead.
God was well aware of Moses' biggest concern and fear of obeying God's command to set his people free.
People want their fears and concerns to be resolved as quickly as they want.
However, God, who controls human life and death and the rise and fall of the nation, will solve it as He wants and when He wants it. Much better than what finite and imperfect humans want and when they want it to be done, what God wants it to do and when it wants to be done.
Look back at the darkened problems and dark times before your eyes. As a result, was that fear a futile fear, and wasn't that concern a fallacy?
Moses took the staff that would perform God's miracles in his hand, put his wife and sons on a donkey, and set out for Egypt.
Second, when you arrive in Egypt, you must perform all the miracles that have been handed over to Pharaoh in Egypt.
But he also warned that he would not let Israel go because he hardened Pharaoh's heart.
These words are difficult to understand.
Isn't it absurd that God makes Pharaoh's heart difficult and stubborn, and sends a disaster if Pharaoh does not let Israel go?
These words of God do not mean that Pharaoh, who is meek and humble, and obeys God well, is hardened into an adversary.
It means that Pharaoh who oppresses and exploits Israel, the people of God, is further strengthened because he is already strong and self-proclaimed as a god, is worshiped by his servants and people, and is also taking the lead in idolatry.
Its purpose is to repeatedly oppose Pharaoh and experience the power of God's calamity again and again so that Pharaoh and all Egypt can understand God, the only Savior, repent and be saved by faith.
Another purpose is to help Israel understand God more deeply and grow in their faith as they see Egypt, a powerful nation that is stuck in the miraculous calamities of God over and over again.
It is God's mission for Egypt and a real professor for the growth of faith in Israel.
Third, he said to Pharaoh, “Say the word of the LORD, Israel is my son, my firstborn, and I say to you, Release my son to serve me, but you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your son, your firstborn.”
The second verse is a more serious verse.
The calamity of the death of the firstborn is the result of not repenting even after experiencing the miraculous calamity that God foretold through Moses and the miraculous calamity foretold due to the rebellion of Pharaoh nine times nationally.
4. Conclusion
Our God is an almighty God who makes us do what we need to do.
It is important to put the work in front of you and see if you have the ability to handle it, but more importantly, it is to check whether it is God's will that allows you to handle it.
Psalm 33:9 says, “He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and he stood firm.”
As children of God who have been saved from slavery to sin and death, I hope that we all participate in God's mission, the basic task, no matter what field we engage in.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperity Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. -3051)