Purpose-Driven God
Exodus 4:1-17
Ryan Smith
Our backstory is found in Exodus 4. Moses is living in the land of Midian, having fled there from Egypt after he had killed an Egyptian. He has lived in Midian now for almost 40 years, and Moses is 80 years old. He is married to one of Jethro’s daughters, Zipporah, and Moses has been tending flocks for his father-in-law for a while now.
One day Moses is tending to the flocks on the hills of Midian and he comes across a burning bush. The curious thing about this burning bush is that it is not being consumed and it starts talking to him and says it’s the voice of God. God tells Moses that he is to to the Pharaoh of Egypt and tell him to set the enslaved Israelites free.
We’re going to see the human side of Moses come out…
Exodus 4:1-17
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’” So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.” Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.” So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
Purpose – the reason we exist. What is the purpose of each of our lives? Each and every person on the planet is designed for a purpose.
Jesus knew his purpose and He lived with purpose. Jesus knew his purpose was to die on the cross and nothing would deter him from it.
John 12:27-28 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
In Exodus 4, God is telling Moses his purpose – “this is what I want you to do.” However, Moses was making the whole thing about himself.
The first sentence of the book The Purpose-Driven Life is “it’s not about you.” We live in a me-centered culture that tells us that it is all about me. Taylor Swift just came out with the song with the title “ME!” and it instantly went number one. In order to realize our purpose we have to start by realizing that our purpose is bigger than ourselves.
Excuses
Moses is worried about what people might think or what they might say. “What if?…” God tells us to do something and we talk ourselves out of it because of the What Ifs: “What if I look foolish?” “What if I’m embarrassed?” “What if people don’t like me?” “What if they criticize me?”
Moses is worried about what people might think or what they might say. “What if?…” God tells us to do something and we talk ourselves out of it because of the What Ifs: “What if I look foolish?” “What if I’m embarrassed?” “What if people don’t like me?” “What if they criticize me?”
I remember the first time I gave a teaching at a youth group a long time ago. I was so nervous and gave it my best. The next day a girl told me that it was way too much information. I decided early on that God’s voice was going to be the loudest voice in my life. “If you live for the praises of people, you’ll die from their criticism.”
2 Corinthians 5:9 We make it our aim to be well-pleasing to God.
May we calibrate the crosshairs of our life to hit the bullseye of that target: to be pleasing to God.
In Exodus 4:2, God asks, “What is that in your hand?” It was a shepherding rod, an ordinary tool for an ordinary job. Moses raised his rod and God parted the Red Sea. He would strike a rock with it and see water pour forth. It would be raised over the battle until Israel won.
God can use the little we have and do big things with it. God used what was in David’s hand, that little slingshot, to defeat Goliath. Think about the little boy who brought his little lunch of a couple fish and a few loaves of bread and Jesus took that little contribution and and worked a miracle, multiplying it to feed thousands. He’s not asking for lots of faith, He’s just asking for a mustard seed of faith. God can work miracles with the ordinary things we have in our hand.
Moses uses another excuse in verse 10: ‘I’m not good at speaking – I’m inadequate – I’m unqualified!’
Have you ever seen the old classic movie The Ten Commandments where Charlton Heston plays Moses? When I saw that movie, I thought, “of course God chose Moses – he’s like Charlton Heston!” But when Moses talks about himself he doesn’t see himself as Charlton Heston. Moses sees himself as Forrest Gump.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
In Exodus 4:11, God reminds Moses of who He is as God. He shows Moses all these miracles as a demonstration of His power as God. God is trying to get Moses to take his eyes off of himself, and put them on God. We realize our purpose in life not when we look inward, but when we look upward.
God is saying to Moses, “I made you and I’m with you.” Whenever God’s people are afraid of something, God’s number one response to them is “I will be with you.” He wants us to get our eyes off of how small we are and get our eyes on the how big God is; get our eyes off of how weak we are and get our eyes on how strong God is.
In verse 13, Moses finally tells God that he should choose someone else. This type of behavior will keep us from stepping into God’s purpose – thinking that someone else should do it – when God wants to use US. Yes, God could’ve chosen someone else but He’s choosing you – he wants to use you.
God is not quick tempered, he is patient. He’s been patient with Moses as Moses has been putting up excuse after excuse, but finally God gets angry with him.
Surprisingly, God accommodates Moses’ request: He allows Aaron to go with Moses to help him with the talking. Prayer is not only conversation with God, prayer is collaboration with God. We can make bold requests…the answer might be No or Yes.
If I was invited to the White House, I would probably go. We’ve been granted access into heaven’s throne room to have audience with the King of Kings – why wouldn’t we take him up on that offer?
We get to collaborate with God as He reveals His purposes and plans for our life. We can only truly understand our purpose in life if we understand its place within this greater purpose: to glorify the Name of Jesus.