When I was younger, my neighbors had a dog they named Mitsy. They also had another dog. Their other dog was a mean-spirited, ankle-biting poodle mix with a fiery, short-fused temper. They gave that poodle the most vulgar name. Because of its name, people in my neighborhood could never tell if the family was shouting obscenities at each other or if they were just trying to call their dog.
One day, a photographer took a picture of their dog when they were walking it uptown. The photographer published the picture of their dog on the front page of our town's paper. In the caption under the dog's picture I noticed that the family had renamed their dog for that day! Whenever that dog chased me on my paper route I always found myself in a predicament as to what to call the dog as I didn't want to shout its name out loud! But if you didn't scream its name, the dog would just keep coming at you with its teeth.
Anyhow I got along really well with their other dog Mitsy. That dog never chased me. It always seemed very friendly and sociable. Over time I grew comfortable with the dog, as if it were my pet. But one day I approached that dog when it suddenly leaped straight up into the air and nipped at my face, just barely grazing my nose. I was astounded. I gasped. I ran like mad fearing the worst. I'd never seen that side of the dog before. From that moment on I had to rethink my steps when approaching that dog.
That story came to mind this week as I read the story of Moses in Exodus. Moses had this budding, blossoming relationship with the God we worship. He worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Because of his mother's faith, God had protected Moses' life from the violent waters of the Nile River. Things were good between Moses and God. I would venture to say that Moses had developed a level of comfort with God. He had confidence. He had a special kind of certainty about his relationship with God.
But I was reading the story of Moses this past week when I came across the verse in Exodus 4:24 (NIV) that reads, "At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met (Moses) and was about to kill him." I had never really paid that much attention to that verse before. It is the kind of verse we don't like to talk about. It is the kind of verse preachers want to skip over. It is the kind of verse that forces us to rethink our steps before God. It forces us to pull back and reevaluate everything we ever thought and knew about God. It is the kind of verse that paints quite the opposite picture of God from what we like to think about him. It is a picture that stands in contrast to what our touchy-feely, tolerant culture might have us imagine.
I mean, can such a verse even be reconciled with our current understanding of God? Why would God, a loving God (mind you) want to kill a man like Moses? This was a man he had gone through all the trouble of saving. Some believe it wasn't Moses but rather Moses' son that God wanted to kill. But still, why take a life? Why wish death on the family of Moses? It seems absurd.
That verse forced me to step back and look at the greater context of Moses' life. In Moses' life there were several formative moments between him and God. Moments in which God was trying to reshape Moses' understanding of himself. Moments that shook Moses up. Moments that ought to shake us up. Moments that ought to reshape and remold our understanding of who God is as well.
A defining moment involving God's holiness.
The very first encounter that Moses had with God can be found in Exodus 3. Moses had just fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was abusing one of his fellow Hebrew brothers. He fled to Midian where he happened across seven sisters who were out tending their flocks. Some shepherds were harassing them and Moses came to their rescue. Having nowhere else to stay, Moses settled down in Midian and married one of the sisters he just saved. Her name was Zipporah. Together they gave birth to a son. Moses became a shepherd.
One day Moses was tending his flock near Mount Horeb. While there, "the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight-- why the bush does not burn up." Exodus 3:2-3 (NIV)
When the Lord saw that Moses had gone over to the burning bush, God called to him from within the bush. "Moses! Moses!" Then God said to him, " 'Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God." Exodus 3:4-6 (NIV)
There was a family in my home church who lived a block from my home church. They invited our family over to their house one evening for some refreshments and we had to walk down a muddy alley in order to get to their house. Over and over Mom and Dad kept telling us, "Now gang, they just got brand new carpeting in their front room, so take your shoes off!" No sooner had we arrived than one of my brothers just strolled across their front living room, smearing mud on their beige carpet in the process. That careless mistake sparked a rather awkward moment.
I wonder how many of us have been taught to take our shoes off in God's presence? The first lesson the living God gave Moses was, "Moses, take your shoes off." On the one hand God is extending a warm welcome. "Take your shoes off. Come stay for a while. Enjoy yourself. Relax." But on the other hand God was making a statement about his character. He is holy. We are sinful. He is perfect. We've been ravaged by sin. Our feet are dirty.
To relate to a holy God we must carefully prepare ourselves. We don't just carelessly waltz into God's presence tracking in sin. We stop. We check out shoes and sin at the door. We remember just who it is we have come to see. We come with humility and respect. We carefully calculate our every step. Moses trembled in the presence of God. He hid his face. He was afraid!
So I ask again, how many of us have been taught to take our shoes off in God's presence? Do we prepare ourselves with repentance and confession of sin? Do we prepare ourselves by seeking forgiveness for our sins? Does the presence of sin in our lives weigh heavily on our hearts and consciences? Or have we grown comfortable and confident in our muddy shoes?
A defining moment involving God's limitlessness.
During that first encounter Moses discovered that God wanted him to return to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and to demand the release of the Israelite nation. From the beginning Moses had cold feet. He asks God a bunch of questions. In Exodus 3:11 (NIV) Moses says, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" In Exodus 3:13 (NIV) Moses says, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, 'What is his name?' 'Then what shall I tell them? "
At this last comment God confronts Moses and in effect tells him, "Moses, this isn't about who you are! This is about who I am!"
Some time ago the artist formerly known as Prince replaced his name with a symbol. Unsure just how to address him and not wanting to offend him people everywhere just began calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." But even this offended him! He didn't want to be defined. He didn't want a label. He didn't want his greatness reduced to mere vowels and consonants. He didn't want to be placed in a box. Of course this further annoyed people.
The point is well taken though! Names can be a terribly dangerous thing. The wrong name can convey the wrong idea about a person or thing. In the case of the artist formerly known as Prince, we don't really care. But what if the name we give God conveys the wrong idea about God? What if the name we give God somehow limits his glory, greatness, and identity? What if the name we give God defines him as something he is not? What if the name we give God entangles him in the vast theological malaise?
In Exodus 3:14 (NIV) God tells Moses his name. "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you." What a limitless name! I am!I am!
This name reveals that God cannot be put in a box. God cannot be defined. We cannot imprison him in our limited thoughts and imaginations. We cannot quantify him with mere words because as soon as we do, he shatters our understanding and confounds the wisest and most intellectual among us. God is who he is. He is eternal. He is infinite. He is beyond us.
In practical terms let me tell you what this means. It means that God can do absolutely anything he wants to do. If God wants to turn Moses' staff into a snake then it will be done. If God wants to part the Red Sea into two divisions then it will be done. If God wants to draw water out of a rock in a desert then it will be done. If God wants to provide bread from heaven like the morning dew then it will be done. If God wants to change the raging Nile River into blood, or if God wants send waves of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts to shred the land of Egypt, he can. If God wants to strike all the livestock of Egypt or afflict every Egyptian with boils or rain hail down on all of Egypt, he can. If God wants to cover the land in darkness or take the firstborn child of every Egyptian household, he can and will.
What God's name means is that he can do whatever he wills and he can do it whenever he wants. He can create life out of nothing. He can create the entire universe as we known it with one big bang. He can use evolution-like processes to create the world. He can raise the dead. He can cure cancer. He can make the blind see and the lame walk. He can defy science. He can defy natural law. He can defy reason. He can defy gravity. He can defy the physical realm. He can confound doctors.
He is God. He is the great I Am. He knows no limitations. He just is! There is nothing too difficult or too impossible for the holy living God.
A defining moment involving God's graciousness.
Earlier I mentioned that when Moses stopped at a lodging place on his way back to Egypt, "The Lord met (Moses) and was about to kill him." Exodus 4:24 (NIV). What we find is that the Lord actually did not kill Moses. But instead Moses' wife Zipporah takes a flint knife, cuts off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it saying in Exodus 4:25-26 (NIV), "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So the Lord let him alone." The bridegroom of blood is a reference to circumcision, an act God required to be done to all men from the time of God's covenant with Abraham. For whatever reason, Moses had not met this requirement and he and his family had fallen out of covenant relationship with God.
Now on the surface of things, we are left scratching our heads. Why death? Why would Moses' life be taken because of this covenant infraction? But we need to plunge beneath the surface of things and realize that death is the inevitable consequence and the punishment for sin. We need to realize that apart from a covenant relationship with God, we are under a death sentence. We are all on death row awaiting God's judgment.
In the divine economy of things, blood must be shed and a life must be taken as a just payment for sin. This is necessary in order to satisfy God's just judgment. Romans 3:23 (NIV) says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 (NIV) says, "For the wages of sin is death..." Galatians 3:10 (NIV) says, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." That curse and that penalty has to be paid and God's justice has to be satisfied.
One of the reasons we struggle with Exodus 4:24 is that we have not yet grasped the severity of our sin in the face of a holy God. Every sin, no matter what the degree in our book, carries the death penalty. The sins in our lives that we deem insignificant, the seemingly trivial infractions, carry the weight of death in God's eyes. We must not be deceived into thinking that any one sin is insignificant. The Lord met Moses and was about to kill him for one little sin.
Now by itself God's holiness is bad news for us. We are lawbreakers under a curse. And by itself, God's limitlessness is good news for us. We stand to benefit from God's creative ability to make possible the seemingly impossible.
Could God open a way for sinful people to relate to him?
But could it be that somehow a limitless God could open up a way for sinful people like us to relate to him in his holiness? The good news is that the living God is gracious and compassionate. He is a God who is slow to anger and who is abounding in love. He is a God who relents from sending calamity.
Despite our sinfulness he provides a means of salvation. Romans 6:23 (NIV) says, "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Galatians 3:13 (NIV) says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.' "
Colossians 1:21-22 (NIV) says, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--."
In his limitless creative power, God in his graciousness opened up a way for us to become related to him in his holiness. And that way is through Jesus Christ. The perfect, sinless Christ took the chair for us. He paid the penalty of death. He died on the cross for each of our sins. In Christ, God satisfied his own justice and made it possible for us to relate to him, not through our own holiness but rather through the righteousness of Christ.
In our dirty shoes, in our sins, in our lodging place, death was imminent. But now in Jesus Christ we have received eternal life.
A simple invitation.
This morning there is only one option for those of you who do not know Christ. This morning you need to make a decision to get right with God through Jesus. We don't pull any punches here, no long drawn out emotional appeals. We just offer a simple invitation. He who has the Son, Jesus Christ, has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life.
The scriptures instruct us to take four steps in getting right with God. During our invitation time you can take all four steps. First, you need to believe that Jesus Christ's death on the cross covers your sins. Second, you need to repent of the sin that offends our holy, living, father and God. Third, you need to publicly confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Last, you need to pledge your life to Christ in the waters of baptism.
Will you respond?