Matt Chandler - God is Able

Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those; we’ll be in Exodus chapter 4. In fact, we’re going to cover that entire chapter in our time together today. If you don’t have a Bible, it should be a hardback black one somewhere around you. If you were here a couple of weeks ago, it’ll look very similar to that. We’ll read through the entire chapter, and then we’ll go back, and I’ll kind of point some things out. I have a singular point today; it’s not «kind of» — I have a singular point with about 40 proofs, and so that’s our plan.

Here’s my singular point: I believe the weight of Exodus chapter 4 is that the omnipotent might of God almost always flows through obedience rooted in faith. That’s what we’re going to see in Exodus chapter 4 — that God’s omnipotent might, His power, His strength, His ability to be sovereign over all, almost always flows through obedience rooted in faith. So that’s my point. Now let’s see if I’m right.

Exodus chapter 4. If you remember Exodus chapter 3, God finally speaks; God shows up, «I am who I am.» Moses does a lot of listening, not a lot of talking, and then finally Moses is going to respond. Exodus 4, starting in verse one: This is the word of God.

Then Moses answered, «But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.'» And the Lord said to him, «What is that in your hand?» He said, «A staff.» And He said, «Throw it on the ground.» So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, «Put out your hand and catch it by the tail.» You ever try to catch a snake? You probably shouldn’t do it by the tail; it doesn’t go well. The Bible said not to catch it by the tail — bad things happen. Right?

Put out your hand and catch it by the tail. So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.

And again, the Lord said to him, «Put your hand inside your cloak.» And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, «Put your hand back inside your cloak.» So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.

«If they will not believe you,» God said, «or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter. And if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.»

But Moses said to the Lord, «Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.» Then the Lord said to him, «Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seen or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.»

But he said, «Oh my Lord, please send someone else.» Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said, «Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand the staff with which you shall do the signs.»

So Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, «Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt and see whether they are still alive.» And Jethro said to Moses, «Go in peace.»

And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, «Go back to Egypt, for all the men who are seeking your life are dead.» So Moses took his wife and his sons and made them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

And the Lord said to Moses, «When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.» That’s going to become really significant next week.

Okay, then you shall say to Pharaoh, «Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn, and I say to you, 'Let my son go that he may serve me.' If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.»

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’s feet with it and said, «Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.» So He let him alone.