Thank you for joining us here at Resurrection Parish, whether it is here at our Holy Name campus or online. We are starting the third week of our summer message series, “Moses: Lifelong Journey of Faith.” Moses lived about 1400 years before Jesus, and as you know, Jesus lived about 2000 years ago. So why are we spending 8-weeks looking at someone who lived nearly 3500 years ago? While certainly Moses came from a culture very different than ours, yet this remarkable person still has things to teach us for our own journey of faith.

Two weeks ago we look at how Moses really should not have even lived. The Hebrews had been reduced to slaves in Egypt, and in an effort to control their population, Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew boy babies to be killed. Moses’ mother hid him for a few months, and then put him in a basket in the Nile River. He was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, and raised in Pharaoh's household. Moses knew his story, and he was grateful for being alive. And this gratitude would become the foundation for greatness.

Last week we looked at Moses after he had fled from Egypt, and had settled into a good, but routine life. He was married, worked for his father-in-law as a shepherd, and had a son. Then he had this remarkable experience of encountering God in the burning bush. God tells him that He has seen the suffering of the Israelites and that He is going to set them free. Moses is like “Right on God! I have been hoping for this.” Then God tells him that He is sending him to talk to Pharaoh. Moses then goes on to say why he is the wrong person for the job. Basically Moses is telling God his “limiting beliefs,” and God counters with “liberating truths.”

Today we are going to look at an iconic part of Moses’ story – the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. But first, I want you to think about a vision you have for your life. What is something that you want?

So God gives Moses this incredible vision of what he wants to accomplish. Moses first step is to go to the elders or leaders of Israel and tell them about God’s plan. The elders are immediately onboard. Moses is pleased with this early success because he was afraid that they were just going to think he was crazy.

Moses’ next step is to go to the Pharaoh and he does not even ask him to let the Israelites out of slavery instead it is a much simpler request. Moses says to Pharaoh, “The God of the Hebrews has come to meet us. Let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God, so that he does not strike us with the plague or the sword” (Ex 5:3). That’s it. Moses just asks that the Israelites be given basically a week off; three days to get there, a day to worship, and three days to get back. The Israelites because of their hard work and labor and having spent so long in Egypt didn’t know God any more and so God wanted to remind them that he was their God.

So Moses asks for a week off, but not only does the pharaoh deny this request, he is incensed by it. Pharaoh orders, “You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brick making as before. Let them go and gather their own straw! Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they made previously. Do not reduce it. They are lazy” (Ex 5:7–8).

Not only do the Israelites do not get the week off, their work is made more difficult. The leaders of Israel are obviously and understandably upset. They get mad at Moses, saying you have made the situation worst. That happens often when we are working towards a goal. We have in our minds that if we are working towards a goal or a vision that it will be smooth sailing that it will just make progress and there will never be any setbacks. And yet that isn’t the case. Sometimes things get worst before they get better. That’s what happened to Moses.

“Then Moses again had recourse to the LORD and said, ‘LORD, why have you treated this people badly? And why did you send me? From the time I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has treated this people badly, and you have done nothing to rescue your people’” 

(Ex 5:22–23). Basically Moses goes and complains to God, “God, it has been all of five minutes and you still haven’t made the situation better.” God promises to accomplish great things in our lives. He has great plans for our life and wants to use us. He wants to use you, but it happens in his time not ours. God is patient, while we are impatient. 

God responds, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. For by a strong hand, he will let them go; by a strong hand, he will drive them from his land” (Ex 6:1). Unfortunately, some people only understand displays of power. This is why God unleashes ten plagues on Egypt. God would rather the pharaoh have agreed to let the Israelites go, but since he wouldn’t, now God is going to communicate with pharaoh in the only way he can understand, through pure power.

He sends Moses to Pharaoh to send a message, “Let my people go.” When Pharaoh says no, God sends a plague. Moses goes to Pharaoh and says that if he will let the people go for simply three days, then the plague will be removed. Pharaoh promises, Moses asks God to remove the plague and it is. Notice that. When Moses asks for the plague to be removed, God removes it. I think as Christians we are just not aware of the amazing power of prayer and the power that God puts into our hands. 

In any case when the plague is removed, the pharaoh reneges on his promise. And so God must send another plague. None of it moves the pharaoh until the 10th and most horrible plague, which is the death of the firstborn.

Pharaoh finally relents and tells Moses that the Israelites can leave, but not just for a week, but for good. Moses leads about 2 million men, women and children out of Egypt in the Exodus. God took the people through the wilderness towards the Red Sea. He did not take them the most direct route because there were battles and wars and he knew this would freak the Israelites out and they might want to return to Egypt. 

Then the Lord tells Moses, “Speak to the Israelites: Let them turn about and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Camp in front of Baal-zephon, just opposite, by the sea. Pharaoh will then say, ‘The Israelites are wandering about aimlessly in the land. The wilderness has closed in on them.’ I will so harden Pharaoh’s heart that he will pursue them. Thus I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD” (Ex 14:2–4). The Israelites do as the Lord commands them, and Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army to go after the Israelites.

With the Egyptian army coming from behind them, and the Red Sea in front of them, the Israelites complain to Moses, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (Ex 14:11–12). 

Now Moses shows his strength and now shows his leadership and trust in God and says: “Do not fear! Stand your ground and see the victory the LORD will win for you today. For these Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you have only to keep still” (Ex 14:13–14). 

Then the Lord says, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out. And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass through the sea on dry land” (Ex 14:15–16). If you have read the story or seen the movie, you know what happens next: the sea parts, the Israelites walk through the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is destroyed. That’s the way God acts. We do the possible. He does the impossible. We move forward and when we have moved forward, when we do all we know to do or all God asks us to do, then God moves us even further. There are times to be still and wait on God, but the time to wait on God is when we can do.

Whatever issue you are facing right now, whatever goal you have, you do all you can do, you move forward and then God will act. Start moving towards your goal and if it is a God honoring goal, meaning it will bring God glory and help people, God will help you. 

So let me ask you, “When it comes to your goal or the vision you are working on, what is the next step you need to take?” Make the phone call. Send the e-mail. Take the class. Hire the person, fire the person. Have the challenging conversation. Take the next step you know to take. Whatever the spirit is stirring up in you right now. 

God rewards people who move forward who take the next step and trust in him to act.