STIRRED UP FOR FREEDOM
Ex 5:1-10
FACING THE ENEMY
V:1. Afterward Moses and Aaron went to
Pharaoh and said, "This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to
me in the desert.'"
A. What God has for us to do will take
time and
effort.
1. When we answer God’s call to serve, He
may send us to places we may not want to go.
2. We can be sure, if God send us to do a job
He has equipped us with what we need to
accomplish it.
B. Moses did not want to go alone, so he asked
God for help.
1. He felt he was deficient in the area of
communications, so God prepared Moses brother, Aaron
to go with him to Pharaoh.
2. God will open doors for you to do what He called you to do.
3. The door was opened for Moses to speak God’s command
to the Pharaoh of Egypt
4. Moses a humble shepherd sent by the living God,
met with the proud Pharaoh of Egypt.
C. God intended for His people to be
free from bondage.
1. God commands us to worship Him in a place
away from idol gods.
2. It is God’s design for us to bring sacrifices to him.
3. Our fellowship with God should be a festive occasion
of worship and prayer.
4. Worship does not need to be in a building, but a place
where we assemble to dedicate
ourselves to God.
DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD DEFINES THE ENEMY
V: 2. Pharaoh said,
"Who is the Lord , that I
should obey him and let Israel Israel
A. We
should not always expect that the people we are sent
to proclaim the Word of God will
except Him immediately.
1.
Moses was sent to a king who saw
himself as god of
His nation.
2.
Moses request was unreasonable to the
Pharaoh.
a.
The Hebrew people were his slaves and
his free
Labor force.
b.
They were to numerous to set free and
could
rise up against Him.
3.
The Pharaoh didn’t know Moses’ Lord and had
no respect for Him.
a.
Moses walk with God wae the development
of his
relationship with God.
b.
Walking with his brother may have
comforted to him.
c.
Certainly they could compared notes
about what
each had learned about God.
d.
In the confrontation with the Pharaoh,
was Moses
learning to trust God.
e.
The indication we have is the first
personal
encounter with God was
the burning bush.
4.
The nation obeyed Pharaoh. He obeyed no
one.
a.
Certainly Pharaoh was not going to obey
the God
Of Moses who he never knew existed.
b. In his eyes, the Pharaoh was
god of his people.
GOD WANTS OUR WORSHIP IN A
HOLY PLACE
V:3. Then they said,
"The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day
journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he
may strike us with plagues or with the sword."
A. God is concerned about our worship of Him.
1. The Israelites for 400 years had learned the
worship
of many gods of Egypt
2. They were probably not allowed to publicly worship their
God for fear of developing an
opposition to the Egyptians.
B. Moses gave the Pharaoh God’s
direction for His people.
1. Notice Moses said the God of the Hebrews, not any
Egyptian god.
2. A minimum of seven days away from Egyptian labor
was required for God’s worship
3. God may have wanted a three day journey from Egypt
so that the Hebrew nation could focus on Him alone.
5.
Jesus spent three day in the grave
before His resurrection.
He spent 40 days in the desert
before He started His
Ministry.
MAN ONLY SEES WHAT YOU ARE WORTH TO HIM
V:4-5. But the king of
Egypt
A. Moses headed to Egypt,
had to deal with his own fears.
1. In the eyes of the Egyptians, he still was a murderer.
2. He killed an Egyptian 40 years earlier.
B. As He entered the Egyptians palace,
memories of his
Training by an adopted Egyptian mother could have
been triggered.
1. All of his 40 year Egyptian training as a prince
came to his memory.
2. His mother, father sisters and brothers were slaves
but Moses was never a slave.
3. He ran away from a life of luxury to another life
of luxury living 40 years as a midianite
shepherd.
4.
Moses had always been a free man while his people
were badly treated as Egyptian property.
5. Moses saw the pain of his
people, but never experienced
their pain.
6. He left Egypt
came back as an outsider.
C. Moses and Aaron had a Word from the
Lord, but were
treated by the arrogant Pharaoh as lazy Hebrews.
1. The Pharaoh saw Moses and Aaron as trouble makers
and ordered them to get back to the position of being
his slaves and his free laborers.
2. Men sees us in the light of their opinions.
3. God see us in His righteousness with His power to
glorify Him.
4. It is not how men sees us that matters. It is how we see
ourselves as children of the most Holy God that matters.
5. Our potential with man is limited but with God our
potential is unlimited.
IT MAY GET WORST BEFORE IT GETS BETTER
V:6-8. That same day
Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the
people: 7 "You are no longer to supply the
people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But
require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the
quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice
to our God.'
A. At first glance, Moses left Egypt
maker to the Egyptians, and came back a trouble maker to the
Egyptians and his Hebrew brothers.
1. Instead of making thing better
for his Hebrew family, he
causes more hardship.
2. When God is your guide, sometimes thing get worst before
they get better.
3. Moses may have felt awful that his campaign
for God only
increased the burdens on his Hebrew family.
4. Instead of having straw brought to them
they had to go get
the straw to make bricks.
5. Moses campaign for freedom doubled their
hardship.
OPPRESSION SHOULD STIR OUR HEARTS TO
TRUST GOD
V:9-10. Make the work harder for the men so that
they keep
working and pay no attention to lies."
10 Then the slave drivers and the foremen
went out and said to
the people, "This is what Pharaoh
says: 'I will not give you any
more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can
find it, but your work will not be
reduced at all.'"
A. Growing in the Lord
requires us to trust Him.
1. When the situation looks out of control, God is in control.
2. The burdens on the people increased, but God was in
control.
B. More
than likely, Moses people became angry and upset
with him and Aaron because of the extra
work.
1. When
you are going through a trial, it difficult to the see its worth and
benefits.
2. It
is difficult to see God working in the middle of your hurts.
3. We
pray to God to get rid of our burdens not to
bring on more pain.
C. Moses
looked like the enemy and not the friend.
1. There
are times when you are trying to help,
that you cause more pain.
2. The
work of God is designed to shake us from
complacency to a desire to be the
best we can
be.
3. The
Hebrews had settled into being slaves forever.
4. The
new heavier burdens made them realize that
the Egyptians valued them less than
animals.
5. The
Hebrew nation needed to awaken to their
desire to be free.
6. Moses needed to learn to trust
God’s plan.
Rev. M. Mitchell
Assistant Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
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revmmitchell.com and
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