Out of Egypt
Now let’s return to the children of Israel in Egypt and solemnly follow what the Lord wants to teach us. The Lord God Almighty, the I AM, and the Self-Existing One spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Midian. Here, as Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, the priest of Midian, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in the burning bush. When Moses looked, “behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Ex 3:2).
Moses turned to see this great sight and to examine how on earth a bush could be on fire and not be consumed. Just as Moses was approaching to see this wonder in the wilderness of Midian, God Almighty spoke to him out of the burning bush, saying, “Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Ex 3:4-6).
To help us understand the context of this passage, we need to step back a little and find out who this Moses was and how he got to the backside of the desert of Midian.
It all started with the call of God to Abraham, the son of Terah of Mesopotamia. We’ll go to the New Testament for a narration of this and have Stephen lead us step by step through these God-appointed events. The apostle Stephen, at his trial before the high priest, gave an inspired, concise, and accurate survey of Israel’s history beginning with Abraham,. This passage in the Book of Acts is really the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the Old Testament account. It is the most succinct and accurate survey of the history of God’s people, given to us as only the Holy Ghost can.
We will therefore listen to the Holy Ghost as He leads us step by step along the journey with His people. Stephen began, saying:
“Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell (Act 7:3-4).
God called Abram while he was still in his native pagan land in ancient Babylonia, telling him to come out of his native country and go to a land that He would later show him. God promised him a child and a land. Though Abram had neither at the time, he still believed God. He came out of his native land as commanded, and was eventually brought to the land of Canaan. Because of his uncommon faith, he became a friend of God, with whom God made a covenant accompanied by several promises. One of these was that he would become a father of multitudes, even as his new name, Abraham, implied.
God then told Abraham a little about the future of his descendants, saying that “his seed would sojourn in a strange land; and that they would bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years” (Act 7:6). God told Abraham this before he had any child, while his wife was still barren. Abraham believed God and went around answering to the name Abraham, which means “father of multitudes.”
The Almighty continued His revelation to Abraham by telling him that He would, at the appointed time and by a strong hand, bring his children out of bondage. He said to Abraham: “And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place” (Act 7:7). God Almighty told Abraham this about 430 years before the Exodus: that He would bring the Israelites out of Egypt and that they would serve Him in the place where He was speaking to Abraham.
When Abraham was 100 years old, after he had waited in faith for more than 25 years, God began to fulfill His promises and His plan and purposes began to gradually unfold. “And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs” (Act 7:8).
Stephen proceeds from Abraham to talking about the patriarchs. He speaks of the brethren of Joseph, who sold him into Egypt motivated by envy and hatred. But God was with him; God overruled them and used Joseph to prepare sustenance for them. In the next seven verses of our main passage, we meet Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, whose life story takes the family of Israel to Egypt. .
And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers (Act 7:9-15).
Now Stephen comes to a major milestone in the history of God’s people. He begins to narrate the plight of the Israelites in Egypt after the death of Joseph, especially after a new regime came to power that did not know Joseph, at which time the Israelites became slaves in Egypt. This was when Moses was born.
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: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds (Act 7:17-22).
We now come to the end of the first forty years of Moses’ life. He was now a mature prince of Egypt, well educated and highly competent. He knew that although he’d been brought up in Pharaoh’s palace, he had Hebrew origin. He also knew in his heart that God would one day deliver his Hebrew brethren from slavery through him.
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 his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not (Act 7:23-25).
Yes, Moses was well-bred, well-read, and mighty in words and deeds, but he was not ready to lead God’s people. As a prince of Egypt, he had all the learning of the world of his day, but that was not sufficient to equip him to lead God’s people. And as it was with Moses, so it is with us today. All the wisdom and knowledge that men acquire in institutions of learning today cannot equip them for understanding the things of God. This is because the natural man, by natural knowledge, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. “They are foolishness to him and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons (Act 7:26-29).
Although Moses was learned in the wisdom of his day, he was not ready to deliver God’s people. He had not yet gone through God’s boot camp at the backside of the desert. Because of his natural upbringing and quality training in Pharaoh’s palace, he thought he was ready and the time was ripe for him to deliver his people, but he was running ahead of God—in fact, he was forty years ahead of God. He thought he could begin the work of delivering the Lord’s people through the arm of flesh. Yes, Moses was strong, capable, and mighty in words and deeds, but God has never depended on the strength or ability of any man to help him bring deliverance or salvation to his people. No one man has the ability to even save himself, much less someone else.
This may come as a shock to you, but God is not depending on your education, intelligence, or political power to bring deliverance to His people anytime or anywhere. He is not depending on your political party to move His gospel forward. It is not by power nor by might but by my Spirit says the Lord (Zech 4:6).
The Lord is trying to make it abundantly clear to us through the life of Moses that the deliverance of His people and the nations of the world is going to come from Him. It is all of Him and by Him. We are going to be used as instruments in the deliverance of God’s people, but we must understand that it is by His Spirit and not by the reason of our education or political influence. It is important to remember that Moses was a prince in Egypt. He was the adopted son of a queen, and at 40 years old, he was the man who would be king and wielded great political power in the court of Pharaoh. Moses knew the kind of power that he had, and he knew that God had chosen him as the instrument to bring deliverance to his people. But he did not understand that God does not save by sword or spear, but by His Spirit.
God orchestrated the incident that drove Moses out of Egypt to the Midian desert to teach him (and us) that He does not depend on man’s ability and political position to deliver his people. We, in this present generation, must ponder on this. May the Lord God grant us understanding in these things.
So, after completing the first of the three phases of his life, each forty years in length, Moses left Egypt, according to the plan of God, and went into the desert of Midian to be trained for the ministry ahead of him. He had to go there to learn a different lesson. It was part of the “making of the man of God.”
Here is the account the Holy Ghost gave through the apostle Paul in the letter to the Hebrews:
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them (Heb 11:24-28).
Out of the king’s palace to the desert; there Moses would learn the art of being a shepherd. There he would learn brokenness and lose the superman-superpower attitude he acquired from his upbringing in the palace. There he would become weak, empty, and less self-reliant than he once was. And then, in his emptiness, God would fill him, and in his weakness, the Almighty would become the strength of his life. It was this transformation that would make Moses into a man of God, ready to be sent to Egypt to bring deliverance to the people of God.