The Assurance of God’s Presence

Exodus 4: 10-12

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

One of the biggest fears people have is speaking in public.  It is estimated that this fear affects 75% of the total adult population.  We do not like to speak at meetings or in church, etc because we are afraid we do not know enough, or people will not believe us, or they will think we are stupid.

Now, suppose you were Moses and God was asking you to go to Egypt and speak to the Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler in the world, and your message to him was essentially a demand from God, “Let my people go.”

You and I would be reluctant to do this, just as Moses was.  We read this passage and we are quick to point out how reluctant Moses was, yet I think 75% of us would react in the same way.

Moses has a very human reaction to God’s request.  Yet, God persisted and assured Moses that He would be with him every step of the way, helping him speak and teaching him what to say.

Christians have the same assurance of God’s presence and God’s power in their lives.  

All we have to do is believe.

I Am Who I Am

Exodus 3: 13-15

13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.”

Moses was raised by the Egyptian royal family.  The Egyptians worshiped thousands of gods, but only about 1500 are known by name.  Some of the most commonly known of their gods were Amun-Ra: The Hidden One, Mut: The Mother Goddess,

Osirus: The King of the Living, Anubis: The Divine Embalmer, Ra: God of the Sun and Radiance, Horus: God of Vengeance,and Thoth: God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

After Moses fled to the wilderness he married a Midianite woman whose father was a Midianite priest.  Midianite gods included Baal and Ashtaroth.

Moses had been exposed to hundreds of pagan gods throughout his lifetime. No doubt he knew the names of many and may have even participated in the worship of some of them, since he had been separated from his native culture since birth.

Moses was curious to know the name of the God that was speaking to him, since no pagan god had ever spoken to him.  The answer Moses received was mysterious.  

By saying “I am who I am”, God was telling Moses that He was the one true God, who had always existed and always would exist.  He was the God that the Egyptians and Midianites searched for but had not found.  He was the essence of life and all of human experience.

And He was the God of Moses’ ancestors.

At last, Moses had found his true compass, his one true God.

I Will Be With You

 Exodus 3:7-12

“7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God had heard the cry of the Israelites, and he revealed to Moses His plan to deliver them from Egypt.   I can imagine Moses listening and nodding his head, saying “Yes Lord!” until God got to the part about how Moses would be the deliverer; Moses would be sent to the Pharaoh to tell the most powerful ruler in the world to “Let my people go.”

And Moses replied to God, “Who am I?”  In other words, Moses was telling God to choose someone else; he was not the right person.  God had made a mistake.

But God knew Moses’ heart.  He knew Moses better than Moses knew himself.  God knew that Moses was the right person for the right job at the right time.

A shepherd in the wilderness would become the deliverer of thousands who were in bondage.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” 

(John 10:11)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Moses Meets the one, true God

Exodus 3: 1-6

“1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Moses, a Jew, was raised by the Pharaoh's daughter as her own son.  Moses had killed an Egyptian man that he had seen beating a Jewish man and fled to a place known as the wilderness.

In this scripture, Moses is tending the flock of his wife’s father who is a Midian priest.  The Midianites are thought to have worshipped a multitude of pagan gods, including Baal and Ashteroth.  We do not know if Moses was participating in the worship of these deities at that time in his life, but there is the probability that he was.

Moses led the flock beyond the wilderness near Mount Horeb, known later as the mountain of God because that is the site where Moses received the ten commandments from God.  

In the wilderness, near Mount Horeb, Moses met the one true God,  the God of his ancestors.

And the life of Moses was never the same.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Immigrants

 Exodus 1: 8-14

“8 Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.”

Thousands of Jews, fleeing the famine in the land of Canaan, followed Jacob and his family into Egypt.  They prospered and multiplied there and remained in Egypt even after the death of Joseph.  

With the passage of time, like so many things throughout human history, the wisdom and good deeds of Joseph were laid aside and forgotten.  The number and prosperity of the Jews began to be seen as a threat to the rulers of Egypt.  False rumors began to spread that they intended to align themselves with the enemies of Egypt and rebel against its government.

Over the years the Jews were oppressed and gradually became the slaves of the Egyptians.  And the Egyptians were ruthless taskmasters.  

Exodus 12:40 states that the total length of time the Jews lived in Egypt was 430 years, and in the passage above we are told that much of that time was spent in terrible bondage.

The Jews, fleeing the famine and death in the land of Canaan, thought they were fleeing to a land of abundance and life.  They found those things for only a short while, and then they were given something much worse, something that made them cry out in anguish to God.

And God heard their cry.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

God’s Love: Part 8

Genesis 50: 15-21

“15 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” 16 So they approached Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? 20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. 21 So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.”

Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt to buy grain and Joseph recognized them even though they did not recognize him.  He eventually revealed to them that he was the brother that they had sold into slavery.  Jacob, their father, was able to reunite with Joseph before his death.

After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers feared for their lives, thinking that Joseph had been holding back his revenge until their father was no longer around.

But Jacob told his brothers that even though what they had done to them was an evil act motivated by hate, God had used their evil to accomplish something good.

Through our limited vision, we cannot see beyond the evil and the hatred.  But rest assured, God is always present, always working, and can and will use these things to His good purpose.

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”  (Proverbs 19:21)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

God’s Love: Part 7

Genesis 41: 53-57

“53 The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.” 56 And since the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57 Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world.”

Joseph had become one of the most powerful men in Egypt and he used this power not to enrich himself (It was Pharaoh who became wealthy) but to save the people of Egypt.  

Joseph recognized that it was because of God’s presence in his life that he was saved from slavery and prison.  Without God in his life, he would have died in a dark, dank cell without hope.

It is important to note that the story of Joseph is not about Joseph’s material prosperity or his worldly success.  It is the story of God’s love for His people and for Joseph.  

God led Joseph to be elevated to a position of power so that he would be in a position to help the people of Egypt and the Jews when they migrated there.

God had plans for His people and he used Joseph for His purposes.  

He used Joseph because Joseph recognized His voice, listened to His words, and then he acted upon His words.

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”  (John 1:6)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)