Evangelist

A sermon waiting to fill out is the concept of Moses struggling with his two identities in the face of watching his own flesh and blood suffer in intolerable bondage.  How to help?  As with most needs there is man's way and God's way.  The work of the flesh or the way of the blood covering we still celebrate through the passover.  This dilemma came to me as I heard the words of the Jewish singers- The Maccabeats singing Les Miserables.  I quote:

LES MISÉRABLES MEDLEY – PASSOVER: LYRICS

Music and Lyrics by: Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Herbert Kretzmer

Look down, look down, you’ll always be a slave
Look down, look down, you’re standing in your grave
Look down, look down, don’t look em in the eye
Look down, look down, you’re here until you die

At the end of the day you’re another day colder
And the shirt on your back doesn’t keep out the chill
And the righteous hurry past
They don’t hear the little ones crying
And the guards coming on fast, ready to kill
One day nearer to dying!

At the end of the day there’s another day dawning
And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise
Like the waves crash on the sand

Like a storm that’ll break any second
There’s a hunger in the land
There’s a reckoning still to be reckoned and
We’re gonna be free someday!
At the end of the day.

I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that hope would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted

Who am I?
 
Who am I?
Can I conceal myself for evermore?
Pretend I’m not the man I was before?
And must my name until I die
Be no more than an alibi?
Must I lie?
How can I ever face my fellow men?
How can I ever face myself again?
My soul belongs to God, I know
I made that bargain long ago
He gave me hope when hope was gone
He gave me strength to journey on

Watch em run amuck, catch em as they fall
Never know your luck till there’s a free for all
Here’s a little nip, there’s a little touch
Most of them are goners so they won’t miss much

One day to a new beginning
[Raise the flag of freedom high!]
Every man will be a king
[Every man will be a king]
There’s a new world for the winning
[There's a new world to be won]
Do you hear the people sing

Tomorrow we’ll be far away,
Tomorrow is the judgement day
Tomorrow we’ll discover what our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn
One more day
One day more!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again
For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the ploughshed, the will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!
Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes.
Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!

Standing as we do on the resurrection side of the cross- members of the "blood washed" amongst the throngs still in bondage- we like Moses ask, "Who am I?"  We have the mandate, and the power for deliverance but "Can I condemn these men to slavery Pretend I do not feel their agony These innocent who bear my face Who go to judgement in my place?"

 

Commissioning

When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush in the Sinai desert He used a number of words that apply to our God given tasks that are timeless and appropriate.  I am borrowing from a sermon of Mat Friedeman who admitted that he was plagiarizing another preacher from the South US.

This all comes from Exodus chapter three.

Find these words:

"I see"
"I hear"
"I know (understand)"
"I am come down"
"I will send you (Moses)"
"I will go with you"
"I will put words in your mouth" Ex. 4

Think about this the next time you face an impossibility.

Exodus 3:7-12

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
		And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
		Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
		Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
		And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
		And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

The Word and Faith

Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 are sobering warnings about the importance about how we hear:  "but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it]."  Heb 4:2

The graphic example in both chapters three and four of Hebrews is that of the Hebrew children who were led out of Egypt but were left to die in the wilderness because they would not accept by faith God's command to enter the promised land (the new Sabath of faith rest).  How many of us refuse to enter the fullness of the stature of Christ out of either unbelief or unwillingness to exchange our "works" for His; or even worse for longing for the pleasures of Egypt.  "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Heb. 4:11