1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word, as we continue our Lenten Midweek Service Theme Set Free: The Gospel in Exodus is taken from Exodus 4:1-20 and is entitled, “The Good News of a God Who Sends a Deliverer,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Moses, sent by God to deliver the Israelites, and Jesus, sent by God to deliver the world. Looking back to the biblical accounts of their lives, a question almost immediately suggests itself: Could these two deliverers be any more alike? The similarities practically jump off the page already in their infancy.
3. As soon as Moses was born, his life was in danger. Because the Egyptian pharaoh feared that the large Jewish population could become a threat to Egypt, he ordered that every son born to the Israelites be thrown into the Nile to drown. But God had plans for Moses. So, working through Moses’ mother, the Lord preserved his life. And in a remarkable turn of events, Moses ended up being raised in Pharaoh’s own household.
4. Now fast-forward through the centuries to the time of Jesus’ birth. Already in his infancy, Jesus’ life was in danger. When King Herod learned that some believed the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, he feared that any such “newborn king” could be a threat to him. So, he ordered that all male children in Bethlehem two years old and younger be killed. But God, of course, had important plans for Jesus. So, in his love, he worked through Jesus’ mother, Mary, and father figure, Joseph, to preserve Jesus’ life. To save the infant Jesus, they took him to Egypt and stayed there until it was safe to return.
5. The parallels between these infancy experiences of Moses and Jesus are so noticeable, and both are so different from practically anyone else’s infancy, that it’s almost impossible not to see the hand of God at work here. These similarities didn’t come about by chance. God’s fingerprints also stand out in another feature shared by Moses and Jesus.
6. Few people would have seemed a less likely liberator of Israel than Moses: raised in Pharaoh’s household; previously rejected by Israelites; absent for the last forty years, working as a shepherd in Midian. It’s no wonder that when God, from the burning bush, called Moses to return to Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to bring Israel out, Moses felt nervous about how the Israelites would receive him.
7. As for Jesus, people had certain expectations about what the Messiah would be like: probably someone from a prominent Jewish family; surely someone known and respected among the people; someone with strong support from their religious leaders. Enter Jesus: raised in a carpenter’s household; hailing from the lowly regarded town of Nazareth; unknown to the religious and ruling elites, and uninterested in seeking their seal of approval. On top of that, the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were rumored by some to be scandalous. To say that Jesus seemed an unlikely Messiah would be an understatement.
8. God’s choices of Moses and Jesus both flew in the face of Israel’s expectations in almost every way. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways. This is the same God who, later in the Old Testament, chose a young shepherd (David) to be king of his people and, later in the New Testament, would choose the leading persecutor of Christians (Saul, also called Paul) to be his apostle to the nations. Only this God would choose someone like Moses to lead Israel to freedom. Only this God would send someone like Jesus to redeem mankind.
9. That brings us to another point of similarity between Moses and Jesus. As unlikely as they seemed for their missions, both proved faithful. Moses faithfully went to Pharaoh and spoke the words that God gave him, supported by signs and wonders God worked through him. And Jesus faithfully taught, preached, and reached out to the lost, supported by the testimony of his merciful miracles. Moses and Jesus were both rejected as they brought God’s Word to prideful people with hard hearts. But both were faithful in their service and persisted to the end. In Jesus’ case, he was faithful even to the point of death on a cross.
10. That raises the most important parallel between these two deliverers: Through them, God’s plans were brought to completion and his promises were fulfilled. His people were set free. As we’ll see in the coming weeks, God worked through Moses to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt. And in Christ, God has freed us from the chains of sin, death, and the devil. So, again, as we asked at the beginning, could these two deliverers, Moses and Jesus, be any more alike?
11. With that, I’d like to move on to highlight one more thing that stands out when we read in our Bibles about Moses’ and Jesus’ lives. As we read, it’s almost impossible not to find ourselves asking, could these two deliverers be any more different?
12. As we’ve seen, both Moses and Jesus were chosen by God to set his people free. But their responses were different. Moses was resistant to God’s call and went to Pharaoh reluctantly. He even offered excuses not to go. Jesus, on the other hand, was a willing Redeemer who embraced his mission of saving us—even knowing all along that the price he would pay for our redemption was his own life.
13. Another difference between these two chosen deliverers: Moses himself needed a Deliverer. While he wasn’t personally a slave in Egypt, he did need, as we also do, someone to set him free from the chains of sin and death. He was a sinner in need of a Savior. Christ, on the other hand, had no such need. Though he was tempted in every way as we are, he remained without sin, and so had no need for a savior from sin.
14. And that points to another difference: the greater Deliverer accomplished a far greater deliverance. When God worked through Moses to set his people free from slavery in Egypt, that was a great and gracious thing. But when our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us all from sin, death, and the power of the devil, that was the single most important event in the history of the world.
15. In a number of noticeable ways, Moses and Jesus are a lot alike. And in some important ways, they are different. And both of those are important. In the faithful deliverer Moses, God was giving his people a partial preview of the greater Deliverer to come, Jesus Christ. And in Israel’s liberation, God was foreshadowing our redemption. He was giving his people a glimpse of how he would fulfill his promise of salvation. You could say that in Moses, they were essentially being shown a blurry black-and-white photo of what would be seen in high-definition color in Jesus Christ. The parallels between Moses and Jesus did serve this valuable purpose.
16. But the differences between them are essential! Moses is deserving of our appreciation and respect, but Jesus deserves our reverent worship and praise. Moses can be seen as a role model of faithful, steadfast, dedicated service to the Lord. But Jesus is the Lord who came to serve us, whose steadfast love toward us is beyond our understanding, whose dedication to us is as immeasurable as it is undeserved, and who alone is truly worthy of our faith. Moses is a fellow sinner and saint to whom we can relate and respect. Jesus is the Savior of Moses, us, and all sinners. What a blessed difference!
17. And this shouldn’t surprise us—because just as Moses is both significantly similar to and vastly different from Jesus, the same is true for all of us. Like us, Jesus is truly human; unlike us, he is also truly God. Like us, Jesus experienced the sorrows, pains, and temptations of life in this fallen world. Unlike us, he remained sinless through it all. As we will, Jesus died; but unlike us, he died not because of his own sin but because of ours. So, like him, we will live forever; but unlike him, it is not because of our merit but because of his mercy—not because of our goodness but because of his grace. Jesus is like us. And he is radically, blessedly unlike us. Both of these are extraordinarily good news for us! For we need deliverance, and In Jesus, God Has Given Us the Perfect Deliverer. Blessed be the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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