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“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 wilderness.’”

2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

First of all, note the possible implication at the end of verse 3b that if the Israelites fear God, Pharaoh and the Egyptians certainly ought to! He is not to be messed with. They have been warned.

Secondly have you ever been in a situation where you felt valued only because of your work? (Maybe under-valued because of it?) Perhaps you were at a social gathering and someone asked what you did, and they quickly moved on to find someone ‘more interesting’ or ‘more important’ to talk to. Your status (or earning capacity) wasn’t quite high enough.

What of the unemployed, the parents who choose to stay at home, those who work in the voluntary sector, or the retired?

Henri Nouwen chose to spend seven months in a Trappist monastery from June to December in 1974, and afterwards he published a report of his time there in ‘the Genesee Diary.’ One entry I always remember referred to his father who had recently retired as an academic. His dad told him that stay in the monastery  would be ‘good preparation for that time which only seemingly is far away from you” (meaning retirement). His father, who he describes as a joyful man, not bitter, nevertheless felt something of the anonymity of his new status.

In Pharaoh I see an emblem of a world system which values work over worship, if it values worship at all. Pharaoh was not concerned about the Israelites as people; he was only interested in them as economic units – contributors to the Egyptian economy.

But in the beginning man/woman had a relationship with God before they were set to work. First and foremost we are called to worship God, then our work flows out of our worship. It is empowered and informed by our worship. In fact we should not drive a wedge between worship and work. Our work can be an act of worship when we do everything in the Name of Jesus.

“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 wilderness.’”

“Why is it,” comedian Lily Tomlin asks, “that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?” Dallas Willard.

At this time, in these circumstances, Moses and Aaron knew God’s mind; they were aware of what God wanted. When you have such an insight it tends to give you a boldness to be able to speak to people – those inside and outside the church. They may or may not listen; they might or might not like the content of your message. But you have the courage to speak it regardless.

This is a crucial element of Biblical leadership. We need to so position ourselves that we are in a place to hear from God should He choose to speak to us. We are not asked to come up with our own clever strategies for growing the church. It’s not about going to a conference and picking up a brilliant idea from someone else’s context and then trying to make it work ‘here’. Of course we can learn from other churches and leaders, and I think we should want to, but our essential call is to walk with God.

As God leads you, He may not give you the whole map, but if He let’s you have even a fragment showing you the next step it will be sufficient.

As I reflected on this I thought about those from “Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” 1 Chronicles 12:32.

May all church leaders be in their tribe!

Thought: “Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes or toast and eggs.” Dallas Willard.

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Before moving on in Exodus I want to share another thought on ‘divine appointments’.

Recently, Jilly and I visited Morecambe, and we walked past ‘353 Marine Rd’ where I lived, in my early twenties, in a cramped (and slightly damp!) bed-sit, for almost three years. I was there between 1980 and 1983 as the first pastor of a church plant in near-by Lancaster. While I was there I met two men who became close and dear friends. I have no doubt that God brought them into my life. They gave me so much practical help and support. At the same time I know God made me a blessing to them. These were divine appointments, and they were mutually beneficial.

I’ll tell you about one of the men. His name was John. Prior to the church holding its first Sunday services, an evangelist, George Canty, held a month of meetings in ‘Ryelands House’, the former home of Lord Ashton who was an MP and a great public benefactor. One night I noticed a rather rugged and serious- looking man who came to the meeting along with his wife. Just a few weeks later I ‘happened’ to pass him in the street. He was stood by a shop door-way, dressed in his ‘Rediffusion’ overalls. (He installed and fixed telly’s for a living). There was recognition between us, and shortly afterwards he turned up at church. I arranged to visit him, and so began a very rich friendship, with numerous coffees and conversations. I loaned him a book by John Stott on Romans chapters 5-8, entitled ‘Men made new’, and I think he read and re-read it. It lit a fire inside him. As his story tumbled out, I discovered that as a young man, living in the highlands of Scotland, John had been a Christian. In fact, he had been a preacher, and God had so blessed and used him that there had been a kind of revival. But then something went wrong (I can’t remember the details now) and for years and years he had been a ‘backslider’. He had come to the mission meetings with his wife ‘kicking and screaming’, as he put it. He only came because she had seen the meetings advertised in the local press, and at the time she was feeling a need, an emptiness in her soul. But John came whole-heartedly back to Christ. He was a faithful member of the church, and eventually one of its first deacons. He has been dead many years now, but I treasure the memory of this dear friend.

As God took Philip to the desert to serve the Ethiopian (Acts 8), I believe I was sent to Lancaster to meet  John. He was not the only reason, I’m sure. But if it were just for him, a thousand times and more it was so worth it!

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you bring people together. May I always be ready and available to do your bidding

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

It came to pass just as God had said it would:

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

Whatever God decrees must take place. We can count on it.

‘Moses had expressed fear that the Jewish leaders wouldn’t believe his message or accept his leadership, but they did, and so did the rest of the nation when they saw the demonstration of God’s power in the signs. On hearing that God was concerned for them and was about to rescue them, they bowed in grateful worship. Worship is the logical response of God’s people to God’s grace and goodness.

This was the lull before the storm. God was about to declare war on Egypt and Pharaoh, and life for the Jews would become more difficult before it would get better.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: Old Testament Commentary, p.152.

PRAYER: Lord I want to thank you for the lovely truth that you are concerned about us.

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

Around this time last year I was reading a book by A.P.Boers, entitled ‘The way is made by walking.’ I found it to be an encouraging read, full of insights gained from his pilgrimage on ‘the Camino.’ One of the things he said was that time and again he met the people he believed he was meant to meet. He clearly didn’t view these encounters as coincidental. He saw them as divinely orchestrated. God orders the movements of His people. Sometimes, as with Aaron, we know we are being directed. But on other occasions, it happens without our obedient participation. We are just where we are meant to be, and God has His reasons.That said, let’s do all we can to be sensitive and alert so we can hear whenever God says, “Go…”

These verses describe the reunion of Moses and Aaron after forty years of separation.The Bible teaches that:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour…” (Ecclesiastes 4:9: see also verses 10-12). We also remember that Jesus sent out His disciples in two’s (Mark 6:7), and God called Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2). In spite of his faults, Aaron ministered alongside Moses for many years, and he became the founder of the priesthood in Israel.

 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

This is in some ways a difficult passage, but I think it teaches a simple principle: namely that leaders need to live it at home. We are called not just to a public ministry, but to private integrity. This is not about perfection, because no-one is going to hit that standard in this life. But leaders can’t be ‘off-duty’ in their morals. What we preach and teach in the public arena we must strive, with God’s help, to live in the privacy of the home.

‘Moses was chastened by God and almost died because he had failed to make his child a son of the covenant (Gen.17:10). How could Moses lead Israel if his own family was not dedicated to God? (See 1 Tim.3:5).’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.50.

In his Old Testament Commentary, Wiersbe also says:

‘After all, Moses couldn’t lead the people of Israel if he was disobedient to one of the fundamental commandments of the Lord (Gen.17:10-14). Even if the Jews didn’t know it, God knew about his disobedience, and He was greatly displeased.’

The need to ‘live it at home’ is, of course, applicable to all believers, but today’s passage speaks particularly about the responsibility of leaders to be people of integrity. Let’s ensure they have our prayers.

The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

If God has called you to a particular task, you can be sure He has also ‘given you the power to do’ it. It’s not a matter of whether you feel you have this power. Feelings have very little to do with it. Some days you may feel massively empowered, and at other times as weak as the proverbial kitten. We live much of our lives unaware of what we actually have ‘under the bonnet’.

God expects us to use what He has given us. It may be ‘ten talents’, ‘five talents’ or ‘one talent’. But whatever we’ve been entrusted with He expects us to invest.

Make sure you do in the world whatever God has given you the power to do.

Back to Exodus next week…I do hope you have enjoyed these short thoughts.. Here is the final one:

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie Ten Boom

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

 “Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.” –Oswald Chambers