Exodus 3:1-12

¹ Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your 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 at God. ⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God seems to work most in the contrasts of life.  For instance, when we are weak, He gives us strength out of the storehouse of His omnipotence.  When we are broken, He gives us healing from the great provisions of His own hospital of grace.  When we are helpless, He draws us near to His more-than-sufficient love.  This is evident in the Bible as well as in our daily lives.  God indeed seems to work in the contrasts.

This is perhaps nowhere clearer than in the story of the Exodus, in general.  In the Exodus, God’s power meets Israel’s powerlessness with staggering and wonderful results:  God saves His people.  So, too, we find intriguing contrasts in the events leading up to the Exodus, as in, for instance, the call of Moses.

I. The Holiness and the Lowliness of Moses (v.1-6)

The first contrast that strikes us is between God’s holiness and Moses’ lowliness.  This becomes evident in the way that God calls Moses to his task.  When we find Moses in the beginning of this chapter, he has had to flee Egypt after killing the Egyptian who was assaulting the Hebrew.  Moses flees to Midian where he rescues the seven daughters of Jethro from marauding shepherds.  Jethro then gives Moses one of his daughters in marriage and she bears a son.  Moses then takes up with the family and is helping his father-in-law with his flock when something most interesting and unusual happens.

¹ Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

You have perhaps read naturalistic explanations of the burning bush.  Those who want to downplay the miraculous nature of this appearance will say that there is a bush in the Middle East that, when the sun hits it just so, looks as if it is burning.  I hope I will be forgiven if I don’t spend any time on such an idea.  This is clearly a miraculous visitation by God through the medium of a bush that is burning and not consumed.

Moses’ response is telling.

³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

What is interesting about this is the implied suggestion that Moses might not have turned aside to see what this strange sight was.  He could have dismissed it as an irrelevant oddity.  He could have said he was too busy.  Tending a flock, after all, certainly requires the full attention of the shepherd, especially in such a rocky region.  But Moses turns aside to see what this unusual sight is.

It is not insignificant that God speaks to Moses only after God sees that Moses has turned aside:  “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him…”  It is significant because it suggests that God’s call was contingent upon Moses’ turning.  Meaning, had Moses not turned, God would not have called him, at least not at that time in that way.  Moses would have missed a divine encounter if Moses had been to busy or too disinterested or too distracted to turn and see.

Just think of that:  had Moses been too busy, Moses would have missed God.

It raises an awkward and unavoidable question for us:  how often do we miss God’s call because we are too busy or too distracted?  How often has God desired to show us some marvelous thing, tell us some life-changing thing, or call us to some world-changing task but we missed it because we were too busy to stop and see.  And how often have we missed even startling clues, our own burning bushes, we might say, that God gives us, calling us to step out of our preset paths to encounter the divine?

In Hebrews 13:2, the writer says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  That verse has always intrigued me.  It is an amazing thought:  sometimes we’re in the very presence of angels and don’t realize it.  And why don’t we realize it?  Because we’re too busy to turn our attention to divine things.  Or perhaps we’re too stuck in our routines even to entertain the thought that divine things might break into our world.

Moses was not too busy.  We may thank God for that!  He turned aside and God spoke to him.  What God said was fascinating.

⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your 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 at God.

Note that the very first thing God says to Moses is an acknowledgment of the distance between them.  God declares His holiness and Moses lowliness.  He declares His holiness by (a) telling Moses to keep his distance, (b) telling Moses to take off his shoes, (c) declaring the ground on which Moses was standing “holy ground,” and (d) voicing his name over Moses.

Why does God not simply commission Moses out of the gate?  Why this preface of holiness and power?  The people of God are suffering.  There is work to be done.  There should be a sense of urgency here.  Why this highlighting of the contrast between God and Moses?

It is almost certainly because the success of Moses’ endeavor would depend entirely on Moses’ awareness of the truth about God.  Only a great and mighty and powerful and holy God would be worth the trials through which Moses was about to journey.  Only a transcendent God of awesome strength could be a sufficient enough reason for the staggering courage that Moses would be called to display.

Conversely, it was crucial that Moses understand his own lowliness.  It was crucial that Moses understand that he was the instrument in the hand of an awesome God.  He was the instrument.  He was not God.  He was the tool of deliverance.  He was not the One wielding the tool of deliverance.  It was vital that Moses not trust in his own strength, his own wisdom, his own power.  God establishes the contrast because it is only in light of the contrast that we can have a right relationship with God.

Jesus does the same thing in the gospels.  Jesus’ first message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).  That, too, is the voicing of the contrast. God is holy.  We are not.  We must take our shoes off.  We must repent.  We must, like Moses, fall on our faces before God.  “And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Without the contrast, we do not come to God in humility.  Without the contrast, we dare to think that we are sufficient in our own strength.  Without the contrast, we are yet lost.

Do you realize that this God we worship is mighty, powerful, strong, eternal, everlasting, holy, pure, and true?  Do you realize that He is God and we are not?

II. The Strength of God and the Helplessness of His People (v.7-9)

There is an individual contrast in this calling, the contrast between God and Moses.  There is also a corporate contrast between God and Israel as a people.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

God voices the distinction between Himself and His people with powerful and encouraging bluntness.  The people are suffering, but God will give victory.  The people are in pain, but God will give healing.  The people are oppressed, but God will set them free.  The people have no hope, but God will give them a reason to rejoice.  The people have no home, but God will give “a good and broad land.”

It is as day and night, God and His suffering people.  There is no hint of worry in the voice of this great God.  He does not say, “I think I can do it.  I think I can deliver them.  I think I can set them free.”

No.  Here is simply the raw declaration of what will be from the mouth of one who knows what He speaks:  “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.”  In Psalm 2, the psalmist captured well the certain might of our holy God.

¹ Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?

² The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

³ “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.

⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

⁶ “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”

⁷ I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.

⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.

¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.

¹² Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Only a King above all kings can laugh at all kings.  Only a God above all gods can laugh at all gods.  The one true God is strong.  He is powerful.  He speaks out of the confidence of His own self-understanding.

In our limited understanding, we might question God’s timing.  In our limited understanding, we might question God’s means and methods.  However, we should never question God’s ability.  Our God is able.

There is comfort in this for those suffering today.  There is comfort in this for you.  In this world, we will experience fear and helplessness.  The gift of God to His people is, first, His ability to overcome any obstacle you are facing, any trial you are enduring, any suffering under which you currently struggle.

God sees you.  God remembers you.  God knows you.  God is able to act to deliver you.  Our God is able!

III. The Certainty of God and the Terror of Moses (v.10-12)

The third contrast is closely connected to the second.  It is the contrast between the certainty of God and the terror of Moses.  We have seen that God is confident in God’s own ability to do what only God can do.  Moses, however, while recognizing the holiness of God, shudders at the call God places on his life.

¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Who am I?  It is a valid question!  It is as if Moses sees the contrast between himself and God but does not realize that God will reach across the divide to lead, empower, and embolden him.  It is right to realize that you are not God.  That is a crucial piece of self-understanding that too many people do not reach.  But it is wrong, on that basis, to assume that God cannot use you.  On the contrary, it is only when you realize your weakness and insufficiency that God is ready to use you.  This is because, in the end, it is not you who is working, but God in you.  The Lord’s answer reveals this all-important fact.

¹² He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God sends Moses.  God is with Moses.  These two facts are necessary to understand.  Outside of them, Moses’ terror and fright are utterly justified.  Outside of the indwelling presence of the all-powerful God, Moses is right to shudder and dread this commission.  But when God sends you and promises you His presence, the time for trembling is over.

Any call that is not a call from God is a call that is doomed to fail.  J. Stephen Muse wrote, “There is a saying among monks that ‘if you go into the desert without being called by God, you will go mad.’”[1]  Indeed you will!

Without God’s presence, Moses would have gone mad.  He seems on the brink of it at merely the initial suggestion.  But God comforts Moses.  God will be with the one He calls.  It is a crucial bit of understanding:  God will be with the one He calls.

Has He called you to some task?  Is He asking you to set your hand to some plow?  It he calling you to something that you know only He can accomplish?

If so, tremble not.  Fret not.  Fear not.  When God calls, God equips, and what He equips us with more than anything is His own presence.

These contrasts between ourselves and God are important.  They must be acknowledged lest we lapse into arrogance.  But remember that God is the God who works in the contrasts.  He knows the gulf between us and Him, and, in Christ, has reached across that gulf to empower us for ministry and for life.

Exodus 2:11-25

¹¹ One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. ¹² He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” ¹⁴ He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. ¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” ¹⁹ They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” ²¹ And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. ²² She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” ²³ During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴ And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

I spent Monday through Wednesday of last week in Nashville where I attended a training seminar for pastors on developing disciples in the life of the church.  In preparation for that, we were asked to read a book entitled Transformational Discipleship.  I don’t know that I would have naturally picked up that book, but I actually enjoyed it very much.  It challenged me to think more deeply about the task of forming disciples.

The basic premise of the book is that discipleship is an act of transformation in the life of the believer.  As we walk with Jesus, we are transformed into disciples.  But that process usually involves, the authors say, three realities.  First, the people of God must be in a posture to receive the truths of God leading to transformation.  Second, there must be a leader who is equipped to impart these transforming truths to the rightly-postured people.  Third, there must be the divine truth that transforms.  Where these three truths overlap and converge – truth, receptivity to the truth, and a leader to lead in the truth – they create what the authors of the book call “the transformational sweet spot.”  I know that sounds like jargon, but the point is simple:  we are transformed when we reach a point where we’re ready for transformation, when there is a leader to lead us through the process, and when that leader has life-changing truth from God.

After I read Exodus 2:11-25 and outlined what I saw in this passage, I was struck by the fact that my three points tonight represent those three realities.

• A posture of receptivity on the part of God’s people:  Israel’s suffering and longing for God.
• The presence of a leader to lead through the process of transformation:  Moses.
• Divine, life-transforming truth:  God’s covenant faithfulness.

In these verses, we do not see the full convergence of these three into “the transformational sweet spot,” but we do see these three elements beginning to come together.  The people are suffering and yearning for divine help.  Moses begins to break free from his life as an Egyptian and move toward his call to be a leader.  And God, as always, is mindful of His covenant promises with Israel.  I’ve entitled this “Ascent, Pain, and Remembrance.”  I am referring there to the ascent of Moses to leadership, the pain of God’s people, and God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel.

Let us observe the slow convergence of these three realities.

I. The Rise of Moses (v.11-22)

First, we begin to see the rise of Moses to leadership.  It is a difficult and, seemingly, circuitous rise that involves his own personal flight from Egypt and eventual return to lead Israel out of bondage.  He has, up until verse 11, been living in the palace of Pharaoh.  One day, however, events conspire that lead to his break with his former life.

¹¹ One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. ¹² He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” ¹⁴ He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

We could debate, perhaps, the ethics of Moses’ actions.  Was he wrong to kill the Egyptian?[1]  It is an interesting question, but, for our purposes, not the primary question.  The primary question is, what does this act of violence reveal about Moses?  What it reveals is Moses’ initial ascent to leadership.  How so?

First, we see Moses’ initial ascent into leadership in his choice to break free from his life as an Egyptian in favor of embracing his life as a Hebrew.  I mentioned earlier that events conspired that facilitated this break.  In fact, the break with Egypt happened before Moses encountered the brutal Egyptian.  Before this happened, Moses determined to be free of Pharaoh’s house.  How do we know this?  Our text this evening does not say it.  Fortunately, in the great “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11, we are given insights into Moses’ spiritual and mental condition.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

The Holy Spirit revealed to the writer of Hebrews that Moses (1) “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” and (2) “cho[se] rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”  Furthermore, while Moses would not have known the name “Jesus” at the time of the events recorded in Exodus 2, Moses nontheless “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”

What does this mean?  It means that, behind the events we read of in Exodus 2, there was a spiritual awakening in the life of Moses.  He has set his feet on the path of obedience and leadership.  He does so, of course, roughly and with limited understanding.  He will receive greater understanding soon.  But, for now, there is an agitation in his soul, a sense that a mantle of responsibility has been placed on his shoulders concerning the Israelites.  He acts on the basis of what he can understand, but the significant thing is that Moses acts.

Second, Moses killing the Egyptian reveals an internal concern for justice.  Basil the Great, in commenting on Moses’ behavior, said that Moses possessed “naturally a love for justice.”[2]  Perhaps so, but we also see the hand of God in this, a supernatural grace of concern for the oppressed, we might say.  It is not that Moses did not naturally care, but that, undoubtedly, the Spirit of God pricked His heart at the sight of a Hebrew being unjustly beaten by an Egyptian.

His behavior, then, whether right or wrong, revealed a deep spirit of concern.  It was the concern of a leader.  Regrettably and surprisingly, the Hebrews did not interpret it this way, asking instead, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us” (v.14a)?  John Chrysostom rightly said that the Hebrew asking Moses what right he had to leadership over Israel was similar to somebody asking a man who had just performed successful, skilled surgery on another man’s diseased arm what right he had to be a physician.  Chrysostom imagines the doctor responding, “It is my art, my good sir, and your own ailment.”[3]  Moses had the heart of leadership and Israel had the need.

Third, Moses’ actions showed, more specifically, a concern for the Israelites in particular.  We are assisted here by some comments that Deacon Stephen made in Acts 7 about this situation.  This was the sermon, you might remember, that led to Stephen’s martyrdom.  In it, he said this about Moses:

²³ “When [Moses] was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶ And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

Significantly, Stephen says that “it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.”  What this means is that Moses was not just casually strolling along when he happened upon the Egyptian beating the Israelite.  However, while he did not necessarily know that he would encounter this exact scene, he certainly knew of the oppression of Israel.  Most importantly, he was driven to visit the Israelites because he saw the Israelites as “his brothers.”

Leadership among God’s people requires a love for God’s people.  Moses visited the Israelites out of a growing love for and sense of solidarity with them.  He killed the Egyptian, rightly or wrongly, out of that same sense of love.  It was not the vague, if sincere, interest of a sympathetic observer.  It was the love of a leader.  It was an awakening.

Moses flees Egypt to Midian.  This is important for a number of reasons, but let me mention two in particular.  For one thing, it prefigures the Exodus itself.  Moses must have his own exodus to be prepared for Israel’s.  He must know the necessity of fleeing Egypt to be prepared to lead Israel to do the same.

Secondly, he shows a continued maturation into leadership in his protection of Jethro’s (he is called Reuel here) daughters.

¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.

“Moses stood up and saved them.”  He is entrusted with leadership in great things because he was faithful in smaller things, like saving Jethro’s daughters from the shepherds.  We might also see this reality in the fact that God gives Moses leadership over a family in Midian.

¹⁸ When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” ¹⁹ They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” ²¹ And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. ²² She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

His decision to leave the house of Pharaoh, his decision to check on the Hebrews, his act of violence against the Egyptian, his attempt to mediate a dispute between two Hebrews, his saving of the daughters of Jethro, his watering of their flock, his marriage, his becoming a father:  these are the stepping stones of Moses’ ascent to great leadership.

II. The Pain of Israel (v.23)

The second element that we see converging toward the collision of these three elements that will culminate in the grand transformation of the people of God that we call “the Exodus” is the tragic element of Israel’s pain.

²³ During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

In his novel, Intruder in the Dust, William Faulkner writes that “the whole chronicle of man’s immortality is in the suffering he has endured, his struggle toward the stars in the stepping-stones of his expiations.”[4]  That is an overstatement (though not as much of one as we would like for it to be), but it is less of one when applied particularly to the Jews who have suffered in immeasurable ways.  Keeping in mind our introductory comments about how suffering affects our spiritual posture in general, making us open to the transforming touch of God, as well as our comments on Exodus 1 two weeks ago about the unintended (on Pharaoh’s part) benefits of his oppression on Israel as far as breaking them free from Egyptian enculturation is concerned, we can only weep with Israel over the immense suffering they have endured.

Pharaoh dies, but this fact is not reported in a hopeful way.  It is not offered to suggest that perhaps a better Pharaoh will take the throne and free the Israelites.  No, the people of God are suffering and, ostensibly, will continue to suffer even more.  They therefore cry out to God for mercy and for help, begging Him to move His saving hand.

He will do precisely that.

III. The Faithfulness of God  (v.24-25)

The third element is the most crucial:  the faithfulness of God.

²⁴ And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

We have already discussed God’s covenant faithfulness, but it is at the very heart of this great story, so it will be mentioned frequently.  God makes a covenant promise.  God remembers His covenant promise.  God hears the cries of His people.  God acts.  Here are the components of the faithfulness of God.

It is significant that God “heard their groaning.”  When David had been delivered from the murderous hand of Saul in 2 Samuel 22, he sang this:  “In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry came to his ears.”

The Lord hears the cries of His people and is faithful to act.  The book of Exodus is simply a chronicle of that fact.  We will see how this works out, but let me end now by applying this truth to us all for our encouragement.

God hears you.

God knows you.

God loves you.

God remembers you.

God will not forget His promises to you.

God will not abandon you.

God has not left you.

Cry to the Lord and know that He hears.

He heard Israel.

He hears you.

He is faithful to deliver.

He is faithful to deliver.

Matthew 5:9

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Cottonwood Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico, does something interesting in their new member class.  In each class, the following statement is read to those who are thinking about joining the church.  Listen:

“Since we are all sinners saved by grace, we hurt each other.  Successful church members make a habit of taking the initiative to clear up hurt feelings and damaged relationships.  By so doing, they keep their friendships intact and their emotions healthy through the years…All the leaders at Cottonwood Church commit to reconciling relationships in harmony with Christian principles found in Matthew 5:21-26 and Matthew 18:15-20.  At Cottonwood, we’ve made a commitment to being a peacemaking church!”[1]

I like that last sentence:  “At Cottonwood, we’ve made a commitment to being a peacemaking church!”  That’s intriguing to me.

Or how about this:  at Grace Fellowship Church of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, those who come to join the church are asked a number of questions in front of the whole church.  Then the church is asked some questions about whether or not they will love and welcome these new members.  The questions they ask the prospective new members involve an acknowledgment of their trust in Christ, an acknowledgment of the Bible as authoritative, and questions involving their intent to love their brothers and sisters in that church.  Then they ask them this question:  “Are you committed to preserving the unity of the Spirit in this church and to pursue the things that make for peace and build up other believers?”[2]

So at Cottonwood Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico, you are intentionally informed that the church is a peacemaking church before you join.  And to join Grace Fellowship Church of the Lehigh Valley you must make a verbal commitment to peacemaking.  Why do you think these churches and others would go to such lengths to communicate the expectation of peacemaking over their prospective and current members?  Surely it is because of (a) how important peacemaking is to the health of the body of Christ and (b) how easily a spirit of peacemaking slips out the back door if it is not intentionally kept in the house.

Peacemaking is worth the effort.  Consider the extremes to which Solomon went to offer the sacrifice that the Jews called “the peace offering.”  When the Ark of the Covenant wass brought into the Temple in 1 Kings 8, King Solomon does something quite dramatic:

⁶² Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

A peace offering of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep!  Whew!  If Solomon took such steps to offer a peace offering to God, perhaps we should consider our own efforts in this direction.

Why?  Because Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  The Lord Jesus said this because He is our peace and because peace resides in the heart of His Father.  Therefore, to be a follower of Jesus is to prize peace very highly.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon at Ophrah and commissioned him to strike the Midianites, Gideon feared that he would die for having seen the angel of the Lord’s face.  But the Lord spoke to him and offered him peace, assuring him he would not die.  So Gideon made an altar there and named it, “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24).  Indeed.  “The Lord is Peace.”  Thus, we are blessed when we draw closer to the heart of God by being about the business of making peace.

This morning I would like to do something a little different.  I am going to lean less on a detailed exploration of word meanings (though that is very important), and more on working out a practical definition of peacemaking by looking at numerous ways that we become peacemakers.  I’m going to take all of these ways from scripture, and we’re going to move through them in a summary fashion.  But let me encourage you to take note of these, literally, if possible.

Before we begin, let me offer a definition of a peacemaker.  If peacemakers are blessed, we do need to know what the words means.  To this end, I’m going to use the definition offered by Chromatius, a Christian who lived in the 4^th and 5^th centuries.  I do so because I think his definition is useful, helpful, and faithful to the biblical vision of a peacemaker:

The peacemakers are those who, standing apart from the stumbling block of disagreement and discord, guard the affection of fraternal love and the peace of the church under the unity of the universal faith.[3]

Furthermore, I realize that being a peacemaker in the world in which we live is very difficult.  When you set out to do this and to become this type of person, you will likely feel like the psalmist in Psalm 120:

⁵ Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, 
that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! ⁶ Too long have I had my dwelling 
among those who hate peace. ⁷ I am for peace,
 but when I speak, they are for war!

It is tough work.  It is often lonely work.  Oftentimes we find that when we want peace, others don’t.  More often than we would like to admit, we are the ones who don’t want peace ourselves!  Even so, regardless of whether or not you have been a peacemaker or are being a peacemaker at present, let me challenge us all with God’s Word this morning concerning the need to embrace this life.

How do we become peacemakers?  Let us begin.

I. Love the truths of God.

First of all, peacemakers love the truths of God.  They love His law.  They love His word.  They love His truths.  There is a direct connection between loving the truths of God and becoming a peacemaker.  Consider Psalm 119:

¹⁶⁵ Great peace have those who love your law; 
nothing can make them stumble. ¹⁶⁶ I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
 and I do your commandments. ¹⁶⁷ My soul keeps your testimonies;
 I love them exceedingly.

If you love the law of God, you will have peace and you will make peace.  If, however, your mind and heart is far from God and the things of God, you will not know peace or make it.  In Isaiah 26:3 we read, “You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.”

So let us be clear this morning:  you will not become a true person of peace if you do not have your mind and heart turned toward God and the truths of God.  Why?  Because it is out of the storehouse of the truths of God that we are equipped to have peace and to make it.

Practically speaking, to ignore your Bible but hope simultaneously that your heart and mind and soul will become inundated with peace and peaceful intentions is a fantasy.  To distance yourself from the God of peace by distancing yourself from His truths is to distance yourself from the very possibility of being blessed as a peacemaker.

II. Live the truths of God.

If you love the truths of God, you will live them.  We become peacemakers when we live holy and righteous lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.  I love the imagery of Psalm 85:10b where it says that “righteousness and peace kiss each other.”  That is true!  Righteousness and peace (ideas at the heart of two of the Beatitudes, I might point out) kiss each other, they live in peace with one another, they love one another, they are connected.  Be a man or woman of righteousness and you will become a man or woman of peace.

In fact, God blesses the righteous with peace.  Thus, Proverbs 16:7 says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Jesus talks about being salt and light in the world just after the Beatitudes in our chapter this morning.  He speaks also of being salt in Mark 9:50.  In that verse, He connects saltiness (i.e., godliness, righteousness) with peace.  He says, “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

In Romans 8:6, Paul puts it in glorious bluntness:  “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”  Reject the truths of God and you will find death.  Live the truths of God and you will find peace.

III. Love peace.

Furthermore, we are called on in scripture specifically to love peace.  We read this in Zechariah 8:

¹⁸ And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.

The Lord God established fasts and observances with His people to lead them to joy and peace.  “Therefore love truth and peace,” He says.  You are commanded to love peace.  Do you?  Would you say that you love peace?  How much should you love peace?  Simply as much as you love conflict.

Love conflict?  Are there Christians who actually love conflict?  Yes.  Yes there are.  As a pastor, I have seen it.

Some years ago I led a business meeting in a church I pastored.  An issue arose in that meeting that was somewhat controversial.  While the meeting did not get out of hand, there was some measure of disagreement among some of the people.  One person in particular (a person who, it seemed to me, had a penchant for being around conflict when it happened) was fairly vocal in the meeting.  The meeting concluded with a degree of lingering disagreement, but not with any real rancor or hostility.

Three days after this, I entered the sanctuary for Wednesday night prayer meeting.  The first face I saw was this person’s face.  The person had come to prayer meeting.  Now, why did that surprise me?  Because in my years there as pastor, this person had never (never!) attended prayer meeting.  And what struck me was the person’s face.  The person sat there, unsmiling, looking clearly out of place and awkward during prayer meeting.  The person was certainly welcome in prayer meeting.  I’m simply describing how he/she looked.  The prayer meeting and bible study commenced and continued happily and peacefully with no comment about the prior Sunday’s business meeting.  Afterward, we all went home.

The next Wednesday, as usual, that person was not at prayer meeting.  In fact, the person never returned to prayer meeting again.  I was not surprised.  In truth, the week before when the person showed up, I knew that he/she would not return to prayer meeting again.  And he/she did not.

How did I know that?  How did I know the person would never again show up at prayer meeting?  Easy.  Because I knew, the moment I saw that person in prayer meeting, why he/she had come.  I knew, instantly, that the person came to prayer meeting that night only because he/she thought that the conflict from the Sunday night business meeting might continue on into that prayer service the Wednesday afterward.  When it did not, the person did not return.  Why?  Because the person was more interested in conflict than prayer, and more interested in a lack of peace than in the presence of peace.

It is a tragedy to love conflict more than peace, but it happens.  Let me ask you a question.  I want to ask this question carefully.  I want, specifically, to ask it of those of you who do not attend, say, Sunday evening services here at Central Baptist Church.  No, don’t worry, my point is not to beat you up about Sunday night attendance.  I restrict the question to you only because the hypothetical situation I am going to propose will not work on those who do attend evening services.

Imagine this:  it is Sunday.  You are at church on Sunday morning.  You are in Sunday School and, following that, you will attend morning worship.  You will not come back that night simply because you are not in the habit of doing so.  However, on this Sunday morning, just before Sunday School, a friend leans over to you and whispers, “Hey, you need to come back tonight.”  “We don’t come on Sunday nights,” you answer.  “Yeah, but you really need to come tonight.”  “Why?” you ask.  “Because there’s going to be a big argument tonight, a big fight in the business meeting.”  “Really?” you ask, “What about?”  The person then mentions some item of business that has caused a division in the church.  It seems that two sides have formed around this issue and that night, at church, they were going to go at it publically in the business meeting.

After Sunday School, you hear more people discussing it in the hallway.  After lunch, at home, you are awakened from your nap by a phone call from another friend in the church.  “You comin’ tonight?”

Now let me ask you a question.  Be very honest with yourself.  If that happened to you, if you knew there was going to be public conflict at church tonight, and you don’t normally attend church, would you come?  Some of you would not.  Many of you would.  I know that because it happens in churches all the time.  I’ve seen it.  You’ve seen it too. Word circulates that there will be a conflict on a Sunday night or a Wednesday night, and, all of a sudden, people who never attend these services show up.  On any other given week, worship and prayer and praise is not enough to bring them.  But the promise of possible conflict?  That brings them out of the woodwork.

Why?  Because there is something within us that loves conflict more than peace.  There is something within us that loves a fight more than unity.

Which do you love more, peace or conflict?

IV. Deliberately and intentionally run after peace.

We must also be deliberate and intentional about peace.  In fact, we must be passionate about peace.  The Bible tells us we must run after peace.

Psalm 34:14 tells us to “turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.”  In Romans 14:19, Paul says, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” The writer of Hebrews is even more descriptive when he says in Hebrews 12:14, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

Seek peace.  Pursue peace.  Strive for peace.  That speaks of deliberate intentionality.  That speaks of wanting something so badly that you hunt it down ruthlessly.  Do that with peace!  Hunt it down and do not stop until you find it!

That is the type of person who becomes a peacemaker:  the person for whom peace is so important that they cannot stop until they have it!

V. Pray for peace.

We are also commanded in scripture to pray for peace.  Psalm 122

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! ⁷ Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!” ⁸ For my brothers and companions’ sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!” ⁹ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.

“Peace” is in three of those four verses.  We must pray for it.  We must speak peace over people.  We must beseech Almighty God for the peace of others.

This may sound strange to us, but it should not.  Have you ever prayed for others to have peace?  “Lord, let them live in peace!  Lord, let them be at peace!  Lord, give them your peace!”  Have you ever prayed that?

When two people are at odds, say, in your family, do you pray for peace or are you involved in the drama?  Do you strive in prayer for peace between and among people in your Sunday School class, in the youth group, in your circle of friends, at work, in your home, in the church?  Have you ever cried out to God for peace between two people?

VI. Understand what you can and cannot do to make peace.

At this point, let us offer a caution lest we think that we ourselves can achieve peace for everybody and everything.  In Romans 12:18, Paul says something intriguing: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

You yourself cannot actualize peace in other people.  But you can strive to “so far as it depends on you.”  I believe this is important lest we become discouraged.  The Bible offers no naïve, mechanical approach to peacemaking, as if, if you do steps 1, 2, and 3, you will always be at peace with others and you will always be able to make others live in peace with one another.

Peacemaking can be very painful and frustrating work because we are not the Holy Spirit.  You cannot force peace.  You cannot make it materialize.  But hear me:  we would certainly see a lot more peace individually and corporately if we all set about to become godly men and women and boys and girls committed to peacemaking.

The perfect is not the enemy of the good, and the fact that we cannot make peace happen in every case does not free us from the responsibility and privilege of striving for peace “so far as it depends on us.”

VII. Plan for peace in the same way that wicked people plan for wickedness.

Proverbs 12:20 introduces an intriguing thought:  “Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
but those who plan peace have joy.”  Interestingly, that verse parallels a wicked man devising evil and a godly man devising peace.  What that means is we should plan for peace in the same way that wicked people plan for wickedness.

What can that mean?  Let me give you an example.  You’re at the grocery store.  It’s Friday afternoon.  In front of you are a couple of men.  They are pushing two carts.  Their carts are loaded with cases and cases of beer and alcohol.  They are talking loudly and swearing profusely.  It is awkward and embarrassing.  They are talking about what is going to happen to them and with them that night at the party.  They have planned a night of wickedness.

Have you ever seen or hear anything like that?  I have.  People planning wickedness:  it happens all the time!

I have a question:  why can’t we plan peace just like that?  It’s Saturday night.  You’re having dinner with friends.  You look around sneakily.  You lean into the center of the table and whisper.  “Guess what I’m going to do tomorrow at church?”  A sly smile spreads across your face.  Everybody giggles expectantly.  “What?”  You answer, “I’m going to help people live in peace with one another!”  The table laughs!  “No way!”  “Oh yeah,” you say, “I’m going to have so much peace in that church that we’re not going to know what hit us!  I’m going to help people love each other more, resolve conflicts, overcome grudges, stop feuding, and live peacefully!  I kid you not!  I’m going to do it!  Been thinking about it all week!”

Now I ask you:  why do we not plan for godliness the way the ungodly plan for godlessness?  Peace doesn’t just happen.  It happens when we plan for it.  When we say, “At some point tomorrow this person is going to say something about that person.  She always does.  And I’ve decided, when she says it, to speak a word of peace and forgiveness and restoration into the situation so that maybe they can reconcile.”

Plan for peace.

VIII. Be patient and understanding with others.

Peace usually flies on wings of patience and understanding.  Would you like to be a peacemaker?  Then cultivate patience and live in understanding with others.  We find this in Ephesians 4:

¹ I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Humility.  Gentleness.  Patience.  Love.  Eagerness for unity.  Peace.  The fact of the matter is that our internal dispositions, what we have allowed the Lord to make of us in here, largely determines the amount of peace that surrounds us.

In 2 Corinthians 13:11, Paul told the church at Corinth to “aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

Restoration.  Comfort.  Agreement.  Peace.  Brothers and sisters, this is what makes for peace.  Be gentle with one another.  Be patient with one another.  Be calm.  Have an agreeable spirit.  Be humble.  Love one another.  Do this, be this, and, by God’s grace, you will be a peacemaker.

IX. Be truthful and fair with others.

Peacemaking is also connected to truthfulness and fairness.  The Lord says this in Zechariah 8:

¹⁶ These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; ¹⁷ do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”

Speak the truth.  Make fair judgments.  Do the things that “make for peace” and you will be a peacemaker.

Here’s how human relationships lose peace:  we traffic in exaggerations, half-truths, shades of accusation, and unfairness.  When we do this, we do not have peace.  When we behave like this, we are not making peace, we are making enmity.

It is easy to treat one another unfairly when we are in conflict, is it not?  When we decide to interpret each other’s words skeptically or look at what another person does in the worst possible light, we are being unjust.  This does not make for peace.

Furthermore, peace is delayed when we are not truthful.  A wonderful maxim to live by is this:  speak truth in love.  Sometimes we avoid truth simply because we do not want to give another person the benefit of truth.  Sometimes we avoid truth because it is awkward to speak the truth.  Sometimes we think we will achieve peace by not being truthful.  But peace founded on a lie is not peace.

Speak truth and be fair.

X. Listen more and talk less.

Practically speaking, I am tempted to call this the most important step toward becoming a peacemaker.  Listen more and talk less.  In James 1:19, James writes, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Quick to hear.  That does not simply mean hearing.  It means being eager to listen, to hear, and to understand.  Do you realize how much conflict results from the simple fact that we do not take the time to listen and understand one another?  We form opinions of one another, categorize one another on the basis of those opinions, then hold one another in the prison of those opinionated categories.  If we are not careful, we can reach the point where we simply refuse to try to listen, to hear, and to understand.  We reach that terrible point where we have demonized the other person or the other people.  This happens in churches all of the time!  Never abandon the grace of listening and trying to understand where other people are coming from, what other people are saying, and why other people are speaking as they are.

“Be quick to hear” and “slow to speak.”  The two are connected.  The more deliberate we become in listening, hearing, and understanding, the slower we will become in speaking.  Why?  Because we’re too busy trying to hear!

Our tongues are our greatest hindrances to becoming peacemakers.  Our tongues keep us from become agents of peace.  When we make verbal jabs, cutting comments, sly insinuations, sarcastic dismissals of others’ motives, and verbal assaults, we tear down peace.  On the other hand, it is astounding how words of peace push back conflict.  Words like, “You know, I understand what his words sound sound like, but maybe we should ask him what he meant before we assume too much.”  Words like, “I understand that what she did was hurtful to you, but maybe she’s going through something very painful and is just acting out of that pain.”  Words like, “Have the two of you ever just sat down and discussed this issue?”  Words like, “You know, I realize that she doesn’t ‘deserve’ forgiveness…but, then, none of us ever really ‘deserve’ it, do we?  But God has given us all forgiveness.”  Words like, “I know that you’re angry with that person, but why don’t we stop for a moment and you let me pray for peace between the two of you.”

Do you see?  Instead of oily agreement over another person’s faults, what if we drug peace into the mix?  That’s what peacemakers do, and they are blessed for doing it.

XI. Reflect frequently on the peace that Jesus has secured for us.

Finally, and certainly most importantly, peacemakers reflect frequently on the peace that Jesus has secured for us.  What peace has Jesus secured for us?  Well, He has won us internal peace, to be sure.  Because we are redeemed through the blood of Christ, we can now be at peace with our own formerly fragmented selves.  But, most importantly, He has secured peace between us and God.

The idea of Christ bringing peace to those He redeems is present even in the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah.  For instance, we find this in Isaiah 53:

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
 yet we esteemed him stricken,
 smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; 
he was crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
 and with his wounds we are healed.

The crucifixion of Jesus brings us peace by granting us forgiveness of the sins that separate us from God.  In Romans 5:1, Paul says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Having been made right with God through repentance and faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus, we now have a peaceful relationship with God.  Through Jesus, we are no long enemies of God.  Jesus came to offer us peace with God.

Maybe the greatest expression of this truth is found in Ephesians 2.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Thus, through the crucifixion Jesus gives us peace in our relationships with one another and then establishes peace between our redeemed, unified body and God.  The Son of God makes peace between us and God.  The Son of God was a peacemaker.

Suddenly, I think I understand the second part of our Beatitude:  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

“…for they shall be called sons of God.”

Could it be that being a peacemaker warrants the name “son of God” simply because the Son of God, Jesus, was the ultimate peacemaker?  Could this not simply mean that we are most like the Son of God when we tear down walls of hostility and establish peace?  After all, that is precisely what Jesus has done for us.

It is impossible to think long and deeply on the cross of Jesus and not desire peace.

It is impossible to think long and deeply on the peace that Jesus has made for us and not want to make peace with and for others, ourselves.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”