Sunday Worship Service October 8, 2023

Call to Worship Matthew 28:20b
Hymn JBC # 105 There is sunshine in my soul today
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture Exodus 3:1~12
Prayer
Sermon “I am sending you to Pharaoh”
https://youtu.be/BTJBIiyUT6U
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 21 Worthy of worship
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction


Today we will continue to hear God’s message through the story of Moses in the Old Testament book of Exodus.
Moses was born to Israelites who lived in Egypt as slaves, and was hidden by his mother for three months after his birth.
At that time, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, feared that the number of Israelites would increase and become a threat (enemy) to Egypt, so he ordered that every newborn baby boy be thrown into the Nile River.
Unable to hide baby Moses for more than three months, Moses’ mother put him in a papyrus basket and placed him among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River (Exodus 2:3).

Moses’ mother must have felt great sadness and pain at having to let go of her child in a situation where, as a mother, she could no longer protect her child.
However, Moses’ mother must have also prayed desperately to God at that time. And I believe that through her prayers, she believed that the Lord God, the God of Israel, would definitely rescue her son.
Even in the midst of suffering and sadness, we can pray to God. We can trust that God will help us even in situations that seem painful, sad, and hopeless.
We are promised this throughout the Bible. The book of Exodus is also a story of God’s help (salvation).
Moses was found and pulled out of the river by the Egyptian princess, Pharaoh’s daughter. Surprisingly, Moses’ mother was called and ended up raising Moses as his wet nurse.

　When Moses grew up, he was brought to the princess and raised as a child of the Egyptian princess. God saved Moses’ life through a miraculous event that no human could ever imagine.
Then one day when Moses was an adult, he saw one of his fellow Hebrews (Israelites) being beaten by an Egyptian, and in a fit of rage, he struck the Egyptian to death.
Moses thought that no one knew about it, but the people and even Pharaoh knew that Moses had killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand.
Because of this, the king, Pharaoh, tried to have Moses killed. Moses had no choice but to flee from Egypt and ended up in the region of Midian.

There Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of a priest of Midian, and together had a son and named him Gershom. (The name sounds like the Hebrew word for “foreigner.”)
At that moment, Moses said, “I have become a foreigner (Ger) in a foreign land.” This is explained in Exodus 2:22, one of the verses leading up to today’s passage.
Moses could only feel that he was a “foreigner/temporary resident” because he was so far away from the royal palace where he grew up and from his fellow Israelites, too.

Today’s passage is a continuation of this story.
In chapter 7 of ‘Acts’ in the New Testament, it is recorded that a man named Stephen was persecuted for his faith in Jesus Christ, and was brought before the high council (Sanhedrin) to be judged.
At his trial, Stephen told the history of the Jewish people, starting with Abraham, based on stories from the Bible (Old Testament).
By carefully retelling the story of the Bible, Stephen told of how their ancestors, the Israelites, were stubborn and continued to sin against the Holy Spirit and the will of the Lord God.
Stephen appealed to the high council, “Do not commit the same sins as your ancestors. Do not disobey God and reject God’s grace.”

According to Stephen’s speech, Moses was forty years old when he killed the Egyptian who was attacking his fellow Israelites. (Acts 7:23)
Furthermore, it is recorded in Stephen’s speech that forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush (today’s our passage). (Acts 7:30)
Therefore, in today’s passage, Moses was 80 years old. In other words, Moses spent forty years in Midian, a land that was foreign to him, tending to his father-in-law’s sheep.
The sudden change from living in the royal palace to herding sheep must have been a very painful experience for Moses.

　However, I think those forty years as a shepherd were necessary in allowing Moses to grow as he would later be chosen by God to become the leader of the Israelites and become a prophet entrusted with God’s words and lead the exodus.
Life as a shepherd, a complete change from a luxurious, perhaps extravagant, life in the royal palace, taught Moses the patience he would later need to become a leader of his people, and the ability to rely on God rather than himself.
Therefore, we too can believe that any current suffering we may experience is part of the process of building strength for growth or for fulfilling the important responsibilities that will be given to us in the future.

One day, when Moses was tending his flock, he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
It was then that an angel of the Lord appeared in the midst of the flames burning from within a bush. And when Moses looked, he saw a strange thing: while the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.
Here Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up,” and approached the bush.
Then God spoke to Moses, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

　This shows us that God is not someone the people can just easily approach. It is impossible for a person to approach God, see his face, and understand his presence.
First of all, God is so much bigger and greater than us. God is so great that we cannot fully understand His true nature and existence.
And then there is our human sin, which is what separates us from God.

Because humans committed the sin of becoming self-centered, disobeying God’s will, and separating from God, humans were no longer able to see God and receive His glory.
However, as God Himself says in verse 7 onwards, He heard the voices and cries of His suffering people and did not leave them alone.
Our God is like that. No matter how many sins we commit, no matter if we live away from Him, turn against Him, or against each other because of our sins, God will not leave us suffering, crying, and hurting.

This is because God loves the world He created, and He also infinitely loves us humans, the beings He created.
“I am concerned about their suffering,” (Exodus 3:7) does not mean that God only had knowledge of the pain, but that God felt the pain of His people as his own pain and felt empathy from the bottom of his heart.
Rather than simply knowing this or understanding it to some extent, God has taken on our suffering and pain as completely His own.
This is shown in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that is recorded in the New Testament.
The cross of Jesus Christ makes it clear that God, who created this world and everything that lives on earth, knows our suffering, pain, and troubles as His own.
We face hurdles and hardships in this world, but we can rely on God with each new day. We can rely on our God who is fully aware of our suffering and takes it on as His own.

　Therefore, I am not alone even if there is hardship — the cross of Jesus Christ continues to show us this. We can live by relying on God’s grace.
God said to Moses, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10)
The Lord had a plan for Moses’ life. Why was Moses pulled up from the river and transferred from life in the royal palace to the life of a shepherd?
This was because Moses received God’s call and was to be used as a vessel for God’s plan of salvation to rescue the Israelites from a life of slavery.
God has a plan for each of us. God created us with love, mercy, and a plan based on His will. That’s what the overarching message of the Bible tells us.

The plan given to us may probably not be something as big as what was recorded in the Bible as the “Exodus” like in the case of Moses.
However, even if it is small and unnoticeable to the human eye, God has a wonderful plan for each of us. Through our faith, let us discover that plan that God has in store for us.
When Moses was told by God, “I am sending you to Pharaoh,” he was extremely hesitant.
Moses answered God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)
When people are about to embark on a new path, even when they know it is God’s will, they may hesitate. It may make you feel anxious. We would hesitate saying “why, me?”.

Even though God spoke to Moses directly, he was still afraid to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. So much so that he even questioned God.

I will read God’s words from verse 12.
“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.”
God made a promise to Moses. And God makes this same promise to us even today. “I will be with you.”
God is always with us—this truth of grace supports us every day. God is always with us.
God is not just with us when we read the Bible or attend church meetings.
God is always with us—this is God’s unchanging promise. We can live by relying on the truth of God’s words (promises) at all times.
God is always with us, and God’s blessings are poured into us every day. Let us look for God’s presence through eyes of faith, and live each day with gratitude and joy.