Moses
ID
cc011
Langue
EN
Durée totale
00:28:25
Nombre
1
Références bibliques
inconnu
Description
inconnu
Transcription automatique:
…
I would like to ask you to turn to the Book of Acts, the seventh chapter of Acts.
This, of course, that we are reading from is the speech of Stephen just prior to his martyrdom.
I want to read from verse 17.
But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers,
so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months.
When he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed,
and smote the Egyptian.
For he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God, by his hand, would deliver them.
But they understood not.
Further down the chapter, verse 35.
This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
The same did God send, to be the ruler and a deliverer,
by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
He brought them out, after that he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,
and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, forty years.
This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me.
Him shall ye hear.
This is he that was in the church, in the wilderness, with the angel which spoke to him in the Mount Sinai.
With our fathers, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us.
To whom our fathers would not obey, but trust him from them.
And in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron,
Make us dogs to go before us, for as for this Moses,
which brought us out of the land of Egypt, be what not what is become of him.
Now could I also add to that a few verses from the epistle to the Hebrews, in the third chapter.
The first verse,
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus,
who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.
For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after,
of Christ as a son over his own house,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope,
firm unto the end.
Anyone who attempts to speak about Moses finds, if he didn't know before he started,
that he has a good-sized problem on his hands.
This problem is not greatly reduced by the fact that only one side of the scriptural teaching
about which centers around this man of Moses has to be dealt with.
The problems consist mostly in the total volume of the material which is relevant,
and the need for thinking rather carefully as to what is more important than other things
to concentrate on and to deal with in order to present a simple and coherent account
of the typical teaching which can be gained by thinking about this man, Moses.
Our earlier pairs of speakers on all three earlier evenings
have found all that basic biblical material in the one book, the book of Genesis.
But as soon as we think about Moses,
admittedly we can find nothing about him in Genesis,
though I suppose we must bear in mind that he was the author of that book as well.
Turn over the page into the book of Exodus and we can carry on for four books at least,
the remainder of the Pentateuch, and we can find material there
over which we can range and over which we have to decide
what is the more essential kind of thing to talk about.
We have felt the need of a good deal of seeking for wisdom as to how to deal with this problem.
As compensation for that, one is thankful to find verses
here in both of these passages that I have read to you
that make it extremely plain that this is a valid thing to try to do.
We read in the seventh of Acts
how that Stephen reminded them that Moses himself had said
that someone else greater than he was yet to come,
the prophet, shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me,
him shall ye hear.
You couldn't wish for a more straightforward verse
to confirm that it's right to look at Moses and to see there
more than just Moses, but to see there that one
who is greater than Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Not only do we find that one verse that confirms this,
but we find another verse in that third chapter of Hebrews that says
Christ Jesus was faithful, even as faithful to him that appointed him,
even as Moses was faithful.
That tells us that not only in what he did,
but also in the way in which he did it.
Moses is an example of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Moses is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now it seems to me that these verses that I've read to you
not only give us the authorization for trying to do this kind of thing,
to look at Moses and to see Christ,
but they also give us some lines on which we can proceed.
And the lines on which I do wish to proceed are to
say a little about the birth and the early years of Moses,
to see there a few things which remind us of Christ,
to say a little about the attitudes of others to Moses,
and to see there the attitudes of others to Christ too,
and then to spend the most of the time I expect on
what Moses actually did, the functions which he performed,
and how there is a reflection there of all that Christ did.
And then finally at the end I would like just to say
a little about the spirit of Moses,
which in some of the instances particularly
is such a reflection of the spirit of Christ himself.
Look at what Moses did, how he showed his attitude
to the people on some of those occasions,
and see there more than just he,
to see the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
You would note on the first verse that I read,
it said the time of the promise drew nigh,
and then a verse or two down it says
in which time Moses was born.
And the first thing I want to say about the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ is this,
that it was time, that it came at the right time.
His arrival into this world was according to schedule so to speak.
The time of the promise drew nigh it says here,
and at that time the Deliverer was born,
grew up and was there for the moment when he was needed.
When the fullness of the time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law,
that they might become, receive the adoption of sons.
Christ came in due time.
Here we have a suggestion of it in this verse.
Not only was it correctly timed,
but it was very opportune that Moses should be there
to relieve these people who were feeling the brunt
of Pharaoh's enmity against God.
The slavery and the opposition from Pharaoh
was reaching its limit and God had seen it
and he had his man ready.
And need we say that the greater than Moses,
when he came, he came at the opportune moment
and there was a great need, a crying need for his coming.
And he came in time and to achieve that which God intended
to relieve those who were under the bondage
and those that were in the power that they could never
have relieved themselves from apart from his coming.
In the early stages it was unnoticed his arrival.
Moses was born there.
No one knew what he was destined to be and to become.
It all happened undercover, so to speak, for many a year.
This man was growing up and being prepared.
No one knew.
God had his man, God had his man being prepared
and God brought him out at the right moment
and sent him to the end that he was to achieve.
There is that providential element, too,
in the survival of Moses as a child,
which I suppose we can see to have a fairly close parallel
with the same kind of thing which happened
when Christ came into this world.
A cruel edict was in force when Moses arrived,
was born into this world.
The enemy of God was at work.
And Moses escaped it.
A lot of misery was being caused,
but the target of that enmity was not touched.
It wasn't at the precise moment of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ
that this happened, of course,
but after one who was more precisely his enemy
and his enemy alone.
It was after him and him alone
was seeking to have him dead,
but he escaped it.
Providentially, he went away down into Egypt
and there he escaped the wrath of the enmity of his adversary.
His birth then and his early years
remind us of Christ.
Then shall I say something briefly about his reception.
He wasn't recognized, Moses.
An enemy was there that was against him.
Those that should have known better, too,
did not recognize him.
He was in the world, it says, of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the world was made by him
and knew him not.
Then what is perhaps almost worse, it says,
he came unto his own and his own received him not.
Here we read of Moses approaching his own people
and yet not recognized.
And this is the whole point of this speech of Stephen's.
He's repeating time and again throughout the story
of the children of Israel, instances of their
unawareness of God's approach to them,
their unawareness of God's intervention
for their good and for their blessing.
Joseph was dealt with evilly by their fathers.
We had it mentioned last night.
Moses, too, he thought they would have understood
that God by his hand was going to deliver them,
but it says they understood not.
Stephen goes on accumulating the evidence against them
and he says the worst thing of all has happened,
that the greatest one that God could send has been here.
You have put him out and you have refused him.
He challenges them with this.
The Lord Jesus Christ was not recognized.
And we see this in type and in shadow,
suggested to us, anyway, in the story.
Of Moses.
Delay in their recognition of him.
He presented himself to them the first time
and they wouldn't help him.
And he went away to the backside of the desert.
Second time he was received, of course.
It's a continual story throughout the scriptural
account of the life of Moses.
This, that his own people
were not entirely on his side.
They refused him.
They wouldn't have him when he first presented himself to them.
Later, they would not obey him.
To whom our fathers would not obey, it says.
But in their hearts turned back unto Egypt.
It was hardening on Pharaoh's part,
but there was a good deal of unbelief
and a good deal of unawareness
as to who he was.
The privilege of their position
of being led by this wonderful man
on the part of his own people.
He came unto his own, the Lord Jesus Christ did,
and his own refused him not.
That isn't the whole story, of course.
He came with a mighty mission to achieve,
and I want to spend a little time
talking about those functions
which Moses achieved
and which are so suggestive
of those functions which Moses fulfilled
and which are so suggestive
of what Christ has done.
A little difficult to put this into a coherent whole,
but I would like to suggest to you
that we see Moses as the one
who was God's agent, so to speak.
God's sent one, God's envoy, shall we say.
The one whom God sent
and the one who worked for God in his day
with his people.
Sent by and acting for God.
I have seen, God said,
the affliction of my people
and I will send thee.
And you know, over and over again,
do we not read of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the one whom God sent
and he is indeed, in this sense,
greater far than Moses
and yet we see a picture of him
in this man, Moses.
Consider the apostle and high priest
of our confession, the writer to the Hebrews says,
and you know that word apostle means
one who has been sent
and the parallel is drawn there
between Moses and between
the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
God sent him.
Last of all, he sent his son.
The scripture says
that Moses was God's apostle.
I suppose it doesn't have to be demonstrated.
He was, of course, also
his people's most effective intercessor
and that's the other side,
the apostle and high priest of our confession.
We are concentrating just for the moment
on the fact that God sent him
and God sent that greater one
than Moses in due time.
He was sent to be a deliverer,
does it not say here?
This Moses whom they refused,
saying who made thee a ruler and a judge,
the same did God send to be a ruler
and a deliverer.
He refused him as was the thing
that God sent him to be,
according to that verse.
God sent him to be a ruler
and a deliverer.
I would suggest the word leader
could be included there
because it says in the next verse
he brought them out
and we think about the Lord Jesus Christ
as the greater deliverer of his people,
the greater ruler of his people,
the greater leader of his people
than Moses was.
That deliverance was needed
and if it was needed in Egypt
how much more it was needed
in this world into which
the Lord Jesus Christ came.
That need was noted
and the oppression,
the oppression which the oppressor
meted out to those people
was fully sensed by God
and in due time
it reached its limit
and in due time
the deliverer was sent.
The intervention when it came,
though there was a good deal of patience
and a good deal of waiting
for the appropriate moment,
it was effective
and it was complete.
The enemy of the people of God
in Moses' day was routed,
his grip was broken
in a most patent way
with a high hand
God delivered them out of Egypt
and they saw their enemies dead
upon the seashore.
What a wonderful story that is
but what a more wonderful story
is the answer to it
in what Christ has done.
God has waited long
but God has intervened in Christ.
God has sent his well-beloved son
and his intervention
though he has met with unbelief
and though he has met with opposition
and though he has met with unawareness
and ignorance
of what he is
nonetheless he has achieved
all that he set about to do
and all that God intended
should be done
and that mighty deliverance
has been effected in Christ
and we can rejoice
in all that he has done
in the way of a deliverer
and we can well wish to follow him
as our leader and ruler
more so than the children of Israel
to follow Moses
as their leader
and ruler perhaps.
He broke them out
what a mighty exodus it was
out of the land of Egypt
they were committed to him
from that moment onwards
our fathers doesn't it say
in the Corinthians were baptized
unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea
he was their leader
they were committed to him
obedience
what was right with him
was what was right
and what was expected
and what was risky
to avoid
too
it was expected
it was a serious thing
to challenge the leadership
of Moses
as more than one incident
in the remaining story
will tell us
they were committed to him
we are committed to the one
who has brought us out
and the one after whom
we follow
who is our lord
and deliverer
he was also
not only the deliverer
but he was the spokesman
for God
much might be said
about this time is slipping by
God's word
and God's message
was made clear
through Moses
that he sent the Lord
and though it wasn't taken notice of
and though it only hardened
Pharaoh's heart
was God's word
and it ended in Pharaoh's destruction
to harden himself
against that word of God
through Moses in that day
how many times did Moses
speak to the children of Israel
and give them guidance
on their journey
what a wonderful speaking that was
that God brought about
when he himself took place
at the mount of Sinai
when God revealed himself
in all his law
in all his lofty standards
his character
that was made plain
by
through Moses in that day
it had its limitations
it had its shortcomings
it was short
the shortcomings of this
in essence
were connected with
the other partner
in the bargain so to speak
it was a bipartite arrangement
God said if you do this
I will do that
God said thou shalt do this
but the other party
had no strength
to do what was required
it was a wonderful revelation
of God
but it brought little comfort
to those that received it
you know
as a greater speaking
has taken place
through the Lord Jesus Christ
God who spoke in times past
and spoke in certain ways
wonderful ways
has spoken in this last day
in Christ
in his son
and that is perfect
and that is complete
and that has made up
for the deficiencies
he will do this he says
and he has done it
the Lord Jesus Christ
is the mediator of a better
covenant it says
than the first covenant
if the first had been perfect
there would have been no need
for the second
it had its limits
Christ has brought in
something which is
better
something which is complete
something which is final
the Lord Jesus Christ
the other wasn't lowered
in any way of course
all God's standards were maintained
the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled that law
up to the hill
and he was the end
towards which it looked
he has rounded it off
so to speak
and completed
that mighty speaking
from God
God has spoken
by speaking
not only about what
Moses did
but about the way
in which he did it
and
the spirit of Christ
is so plainly
there
in this man
Moses
in more than one place
but particularly
in some places
and it says
in Hebrews here
for instance
he was faithful
even as Moses
was faithful
in all his house
the faithfulness
to him
that appointed him
and that I am sure
is one of the things
that we can
see very plainly
when we look at the story
of Moses
he failed
as we have been reminded
but once
perhaps earlier
on occasions
there were small imperfections
but the general
impression that one gets
as one looks at that
life of Moses
is its
consistency
and its faithfulness
to God
over long years
and it reminds us
of that
one who was faithful
in a greater way
than Moses was
as that passage
that I have read to you
seems to underline
there is a parallel
drawn
but there is also
a contrast drawn
in those verses
Christ
not merely as a servant
but a son
over his own house
greater he than Moses
though the parallel
is made
plain there
and it is suggested
that we should look
at Moses
and see how faithful
he was
and see beyond Moses
to look at the faithfulness
and the devotion
of the Lord
Jesus Christ
himself
he was faithful
to him
that appointed him
but he was faithful
to his own people
and he had a lot
to put up with
from them
but his patience
and his
concern for them
and his interest
in them
all along the years
despite many provocations
and despite many occasions
when he might well
have been exasperated
what faithfulness
and what consistency
and what steadiness
showed itself
in the
life of Moses
and need we say
to look at Christ
we say this in
perfect fashion
the imperfections
are not there
when we look at Christ
the small imperfections
though they are
completely missing
not a flaw
not a shortcoming
a shortcoming
in that wonderful
life of Christ
he was like Moses
but he was greater
than Moses
in this too
faithful to him
that appointed him
faithful to those
that were under his care
and you know
I think to round off
I ought to
refer just to that
one incident
which is in some ways
one of the most
moving incidents
in the story
of Moses
where Moses
is in the mount
with God
and the people
as we've already told
were transgressing
so shamefully
down there
at the foot
of the mountain
God's wrath
is kindled
against them …