The Dream of God
08/13/2006 - The Dream Reclaimed: Moses
There are some people that appear larger than life. They just do. John F. Kennedy was one of those people. Regardless of what you think of his presidency or his politics or even his person he was a larger than life figure.
I'll never forget walking home from Cedar Road Elementary School on Friday, November 22, 1963, and hearing the crossing guard at the corner of Huntingdon Pike and Rockledge Avenue say that she just heard that President Kennedy was shot. I was in fourth grade at the time.
I hurried home and when I walked in the door I saw my mom watching our little black and white television set and there were tears coming down her cheeks. And that was unusual because my mom rarely cried. I didn't really understand what was going on, but at that moment I knew it must be serious. And the TV stayed on round the clock it seemed for the next four or five days as we watched some unbelievable events unfold.
Not long after the assassination articles started to appear about the amazing coincidences between the assassination of John F. Kennedy, our 35th president, and that of Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president.
For instance, Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. Both presidents were concerned with civil rights and both of their wives lost children while living in the White House.
Both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln were shot on a Friday and both were shot in the head.
Lincoln's secretary, whose last name was Kennedy, warned him not to go to Ford's Theater. Kennedy's secretary, whose last name was Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas.
Both were assassinated by Southerners and succeeded by Southerners whose last name was Johnson.
Andrew Johnson the president who came after Lincoln was born in 1808 and Lyndon Johnson the president who came after Kennedy was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth who shot Lincoln was born in 1839 and Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939. Both assassins were known by their three names which contain fifteen letters.
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
And both John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were themselves assassinated before they came to trial.
That's weird stuff! Those are some strange and eerie parallels between John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, both larger than life figures.
This morning we continue our series called The Dream of God: Bringing Heaven to Earth by looking at another larger than life figure, a man by the name of Moses who also shares some amazing parallels with another larger than life figure, our Lord Jesus Christ, in teaching called"The Dream Reclaimed."
If you have a Bible please turn with me to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible and the second chapter of that book, Exodus 2. But before we see how Moses contributes to the dream of God let's rewind this series for a minute.
Remember we've been talking about the dream of God, this dream that God has for his creation. Jesus put it this way in the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father in heaven. Holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
God's dream is that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And for awhile it was. For a time there was harmony between God and his creation. In the garden things were good. Things were very good. Adam and Eve were in community with God and with each other. They walked with God in the garden, in the cool of the day. They were both naked and unashamed, completely safe and secure with each other. In the garden heaven and earth overlapped and it was wonderful.
There was no sin in the garden. But there was freedom in the garden, the freedom to choose to obey God and maintain that peace and harmony or to disobey him and upset the balance of everything. And that's what Adam and Eve chose to do. They took matters into their own hands in the form of a piece of fruit that God told them not to eat. And when they bit into that piece of fruit the dream of God was shattered.
Was God surprised? I don't think so. Did God know it would happen? I believe he did. But he was still grieved. It broke his heart. In fact, in Genesis 6 we read that it grieved God that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. God has feelings too, you know. And when his dream was shattered it hurt, just like we hurt when our dreams get shattered.
And at that point God was tempted to pull the plug on the whole project until he found Noah who he describes as a righteous man who walked with God. And for the sake of Noah and his family God destroyed the earth, but spared the human race, hit the reset button and started all over.
But now it took only two chapters for the dream to unravel. This time, instead of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to become like God, humankind attempts to build a tower to reach the heavens and become like God.
And we wouldn't blame God one bit if he destroyed it all again. He certainly could have and his justice would have been served. But he doesn't. Instead, he takes his finger off the trigger and calls a man named Abraham out of nowhere and decides to reclaim the dream, to bring heaven to earth, and to bless the world through him and his descendants, which we are if we belong to Jesus Christ. Our role as Christ followers, as spiritual descendants of Abraham, is to be a blessing to this world.
We are the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham to reclaim the dream and bring hope and healing to this world. We are the sand on the seashore. We are the stars in the dark night sky that Abraham couldn't count. We are to be God's light in this dark world. That's why we're to speak up for justice and live for more than our eyes can see. That's why relationships are such a high value to Christ followers and beauty is something to behold.
And if you read through the rest of Genesis you discover that Abraham's son Isaac had a son named Jacob whose name God changed to Israel, and he had twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. And when we come to the book of Exodus those twelve tribes have grown to over a million people who are being held hostage in the land of Egypt. For four hundred years they have served as Pharaoh's slaves and now God says, "Enough! Let's go! It's time to move to the Promised Land."
And to lead God's people out of Egypt he raises up a man named Moses. Look at Exodus 2:1-11, Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. 7Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" 8"Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. 9Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."
Like Jesus, Moses' birth was traumatic. Because the Egyptians were being overrun by the Israelites, Pharaoh had ordered that every Hebrew baby boy be thrown into the Nile and killed just as Herod would one day order every Hebrew baby boy two and under be killed at the time of Jesus' birth.
But Moses is rescued, by none other than Pharaoh's own daughter, who hires Moses' own mother, Jochebed, to nurse him for a paycheck. Not a bad deal. And so Moses grows up the son of one of the richest, most powerful men on the planet. He benefits from all the perks of the palace and is educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and the book of Acts says he was powerful in speech and action.
But at the age of 40 he does something that almost costs him his life. Look at verse 11,One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" 14The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known." 15When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
One day Moses sees injustice and takes matters into his own hands and kills a man in cold blood. God's deliverer becomes a murderer and then a fugitive running for his life to a land called Midian which today we call Saudi Arabia.
And for the next forty years Moses will spend his life shepherding sheep in the vast, silent desert regretting that day and thinking his life is over. But it's not. The final, most exciting chapter is yet to be written, but won't begin until he's 80 and has another life altering experience.
Look at Exodus 3:1-15, Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up." 4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." 5"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." 11But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." 13Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" 14God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'" 15God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation."
Moses sees a bush burning in the desert which is not unusual in the Middle East. Bushes burn all the time. What's unusual is that the bush doesn't burn up, instead it talks. That's different. And just like God spoke to Abraham six hundred years earlier, God speaks to Moses. And he, as a descendant of Abraham, is called by God to be the deliverer of Israel. He goes back to Egypt, confronts Pharaoh, and performs ten miracles each designed to show the superiority of his God over the pagan gods of Egypt.
He conducts the first Passover as a means of protecting Israel from the killer angel who will take the life of every firstborn son in Egypt. He spearheads the Exodus and leads an estimated 1.5 million people across the Red Sea and on to Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai. There he receives the Ten Commandments and the rest of God's law which is intended to reveal the holiness of God and to make Israel a separate, holy nation that will attract the world around them to want to worship the one true God. They are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others.
Moses leads God's people through the wilderness which is not a leisurely walk through the woods, but a forty year trek through the scorching hot desert until a whole generation dies off. He never steps foot in the land flowing with milk and honey, but he does see it from a distance standing on Mount Nebo where he dies while still a strong man at the age of 120.
He is one of the world's all time greatest leaders, a larger than life figure. But he was far from perfect and would be the first to admit it, yet he's described as the friend of God who spoke with God face to face. Many believe he authored the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, as well as Psalm 90. He's the George Washington of the nation of Israel, the stuff of legend, and his live is in many ways is intended by God to be a type of Christ.
In seminary I was fascinated by this man Moses, so much so that I wrote my thesis on the parallels between Moses and Christ based on Deuteronomy 18:18 where God says to Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their people, and I will put my words in that prophet's mouth. My prophet will tell them everything I command.
The New Testament tells us that the prophet who would be like Moses is Jesus the ultimate rescuer, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. And the parallels between his life and Moses' life are astounding. Moses is mentioned more times in the New Testament than any other Old Testament figure. Jesus himself saw the similarities between his life and the life Moses. Let me give you just a few.
Jesus birth came as a fulfillment of prophecy as did Moses birth. Pharaoh gave orders to kill all the Hebrew baby boys, just as Herod did. Jesus escaped death because Joseph was warned in a dream to take his family and run. Moses' father, Amram, is told by God in a dream that that his child would be saved from harm.
Egypt is the country to which Joseph flees with his family, so that later Jesus, like Moses, may come out of Egypt. God commands Joseph to take his family and return home because those who wanted to kill Jesus are dead. God commands Moses to return home because those who sought to kill him are dead.
Jesus fasts on the mountain of temptation for forty days and forty nights, like Moses fasted on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights. In facing temptation, Jesus quotes three passages from Deuteronomy written by Moses.
Jesus goes up to a mountain to deliver his famous sermon on the mount just like Moses went up to the mountain to receive the law. After the sermon Jesus performs ten miracles paralleling the ten wonders performed by Moses. After the miracles he calls his twelve disciples and sends them out, just like Moses gathered his people and led them out of Egypt after his ten wonders.
Jesus is described as meek and lowly in heart. Moses is called the meekest man on the face of the earth. At the mount of transfiguration Jesus face shines like the sun and his followers are commanded by God to listen to him. When Moses returns from Mount Sinai his face shines like the sun and his followers are told to listen to him.
In both cases Jesus and Moses each took three leaders up on the mountain with them where God appeared in a cloud after six days. While on the mount of transfiguration we read that Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus about his exodus. Moses' obstacle after Passover was the Red Sea. Jesus' obstacle after Passover was the cross. Moses was the redeemer of Israel. Jesus was the redeemer of the whole world.
After the mountain top experience Jesus comes down to confusion and faithlessness on the plain just like Moses came down to confusion and faithfulness in the camp. Jesus refers to them as a perverse and unbelieving generation the same terms used to describe Moses' generation.
Jesus is a prophet rejected and mistreated by his people just like Moses was a prophet rejected and mistreated by his people. Yet, like Moses Jesus was powerful in speech and action.
Moses gave bread from heaven. Jesus is the bread from heaven. Moses provided water in the wilderness. Jesus is the water of life. Moses led the way to the Promised Land. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Both were shepherds and were willing to give up their lives for the sheep.
Moses is a huge player in the dream of God. Through Moses, more than any other human being, God revealed to the world his holiness and his desire that we be holy too. I like the way Brian McLaren puts it when he says, "Centuries later, Abraham's descendants have fallen on hard times. They've become oppressed slaves in a world superpower of the day - Egypt. And they have no hope of escape until God calls a man - Moses - to lead them to freedom about 1,400 BC. But how can Moses help Abraham's descendants reclaim their high and holy calling? They have been degraded and humiliated through generations of abuse and slavery. How can they be restored? Moses receives from God and gives to the people the Law or "Torah" - a wise way of living that will shape the people individually and as a community, restoring their dignity so they can rise from slavery's degradation and fulfill their original purpose in the healing of creation."
"The prophet-leader Moses is joined by Aaron the priest, who will pioneer a priesthood to help the people be instructed and trained as a holy, healthy, and exemplary people. The work of the priests will be supplemented by the prophets and by others who will carry on a conversation across generations with and about God and about their special relationship - or covenant - with him."
God used Moses, more than anyone else, to reveal to the world how holy he is, how different he is from all the phony gods of our imaginations. And he calls us to live holy lives, different lives, exemplary lives that attract people to him. That's how we are to be a blessing to this world. That's where Moses fits into the dream of God. If through Abraham God calls us to be a blessing. Then through Moses God calls us to be different. To live a life that's winsome and attractive and pleasing to a holy God. We will never bless the world until our lives reflect the love and goodness and kindness and holiness of God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come!
Does living a holy life mean sucking it up and trying to keep the Law of Moses, all 613 commands? No. If anything the Law of Moses shows us how needy we all are. Instead, Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
That's what living a holy life is all about, loving God and loving each other. And as we do that with the help of the Holy Spirit we will be different. We will be a blessing to this world.