Exodus 3:7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

8a And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land…

10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12a And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;

Exodus 4:1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

2 And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?

12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;

25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

MEMORY VERSE: And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. —Hebrews 3:5

CENTRAL THOUGHT: Moses, born a Hebrew but raised in Egyptian royalty, having in his heart a burden for his own people, after a rough beginning and many years of desert training, was commissioned by God to be a prophet to God’s people and lead them out of Egyptian bondage to the Canaan land of promise. Feeling inadequate and unfit, he nevertheless obeyed God and faithfully carried out his calling.

LESSON BACKGROUND

Our lesson today focuses on another very important Old Testament man of God. Something very special about Moses at his birth caused his parents to refuse to surrender him to the king of Egypt’s murderous command concerning Hebrew boys; instead, they kept him hidden three months, then placed him in God’s hands as they put him in a little vessel and set him at the river’s edge.

God took over from there, even making a way for him to be trained the first few years of his life by his own mother at the request of his adoptive mother, the princess of Egypt, who had discovered him hidden in the water. Later, Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). When he was forty, his heart became touched by the plight of his Hebrew brothers, and he tried to avenge their suffering by killing an oppressing Egyptian, supposing that his people would understand that he was God’s chosen deliverer to them. They did not understand, however, and in danger of his life, Moses fled to the desert, there to marry, become a father of two sons, and serve as a shepherd to his father-in-law’s sheep.

For forty years he was thus trained by God, until one day he took notice of an unusual burning bush and turned aside to examine it. God called to him out of the bush and revealed to him that it was now time for him to go back to Egypt and deliver his brethren out of their bondage.

He may have been mighty in words and deeds and in Egyptian wisdom, but by this time, his heart was humble and he knew his weakness. Questioning God to the point of angering Him, Moses was given answers of comfort and assurance that he would not be alone; back in Egypt, his brother Aaron was also being called to go with him, and most of all, God assured him of His presence.

At one point of protest, God asked, “What is that in thine hand?” When Moses showed Him his rod, God then used the rod to work several miracles or signs with which he could prove to his brethren and to the Egyptians that he was working at God’s command.

Another protest, “Who shall I say is sending me?” brought God’s answer in an awesome revelation of His name which had never been revealed to mankind before: “I AM has sent you.”

The verses from Hebrews tell us that Moses, through faith in God, laid aside his royal Egyptian status, the pleasures of sin and idolatrous living, and chose instead to suffer the reproach of Christ and be identified with the people of God, even in their afflictions. He counted these things as true treasures and looked ahead to an eternal spiritual reward. The courage and endurance he had throughout the many years of leading more than a million headstrong, rebellious people was because he had a vision of something invisible and unseen by mortal eye. I believe it was an image stamped upon him from that burning bush, don’t you?

—Sis. Angela Gellenbeck

DISCUSSION:

1. Counted it Loss: What are some of the things Moses counted as loss when he left Egypt to serve God and His people?
2. Given a Sign: What did God use to verify His call to Moses before the people and Pharaoh?
3. Given a Promise: When Moses protested, “I am not eloquent,” what promise did God give?
4. Given a Vision: What did Moses see that gave him strength to endure?

COMMENTS AND APPLICATION

How could one adequately express the importance of this one man to the history of mankind? Certainly it is impossible in this short lesson. When we put it into the perspective of using his life as an example of how God calls and equips men to fulfill His message and His purpose, there are many lessons from which we can draw instruction and encouragement.

We too are called, many times, to places where nothing upon which we might have placed human dependence matters—royalty, education, riches, human wisdom, youthful strength. All must be laid aside and only God is to be our support.

We must also lay aside our feelings of inadequacy, as Moses had to do. Humanly, it was preposterous for an eighty-year-old man to take on the task of leading the migration of an entire nation from one country to another, on foot, with herds of animals; while establishing a civil government, a system of worship, and a military; providing food, water, and waste management, and facing hostile enemies! No wonder Moses drew back in protest. But Scripture says he was faithful. He was meek. He took all his troubles to God and did what God told him to do.

Just like Abraham, Moses had his time of failure and weakness. He forfeited his privilege of being the one to take the children of Israel on into Canaan because of it. Still he maintained a heart for the people and the vision he received at the burning bush.

He was a great prophet. He received the law and the covenant from God’s mouth and led the carrying out of all those details into the actual construction of a working system. He wrote the first five books containing the history of man from the beginning of time, the books of laws, and the journeys of the Israelites. He wrote poetry and psalms. In many ways, he typified Jesus, of whom he prophesied (Deuteronomy 18:15) and with whom he appeared in the Mount of Transfiguration, along with Elijah, and spoke concerning Jesus’ death (Luke 9:28- 36).

—Sis. Angela Gellenbeck

REFLECTIONS

Like Moses, many of us can minimize our contributions and concentrate on our inadequacies, but if God calls us, he also qualifies us. We should understand that God’s process of qualification is initiated long before the call and continues well beyond our acceptance of it.

Moses’ qualification did not begin with this initial conversation with God. It started when he was just a babe in a basket by the river. God ordered the events of his life and used them as part of the qualification process. He does the same with us. He orders the circumstances of our life then uses them to equip us for the work he calls us to do.

God asked Moses: “What is in thine hand?” His answer—a simple rod. God uses what we have, not what we don’t have. He then instructed Moses to cast the rod on the ground. In other words, release it and give God control of what we have in hand, no matter how insignificant or inadequate we may deem it to be. Prompt obedience and trust are vital principles that must be learned by everyone whom the Lord uses.

This was a “teaching moment” for Moses and is for us as well. Encapsulated in this lesson is the fact that God doesn’t need our commentary on our inadequacies. He already knows them. The key is that we must be obedient to the call, relinquish control, and allow the Lord to animate our insufficiencies with his Spirit. As the scripture teaches us, our sufficiency is of God.

–Bro. Darrell Johnson