Exodus - Pastor Rick Rusaw

I. Introduction: History-Changing Moments

History‑shaping moments rarely feel historic while they are happening
Stephen’s final message before martyrdom (Acts 7)

Big Idea: God is able when we are not
II. God Was Working Before Moses Knew It (Acts 7:20–22)

Acts 7:20–22
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house.
21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.”

A. Moses Born Into Oppression
Born in Egypt, tribe of Levi, youngest of three children (Miriam, Aaron)

Hebrews were Egyptian slaves; Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew boys killed

Exodus 1:22
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Mother hides Moses for three months, then places him in a basket on the Nile

Exodus 2:1–3
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman,
2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

Pharaoh’s daughter finds and raises him

Exodus 2:5–6
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.
6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

Named Moses (“drawn out of water”)

Exodus 2:10
10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

His mother is hired as his nursemaid

Exodus 2:7–9
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.
9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

B. The Empire Raised Its Own Deliverer
Raised in privilege as Pharaoh’s “son” and potential heir
Finest education in mathematics, astrology, chemistry, administration
All the luxury and privilege of aristocracy
Though raised Egyptian, he remained an Israelite in heart
III. Moses Thought He Was Ready – False Start (Acts 7:25–29)

Acts 7:23–29
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.
24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.
25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?
28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.”

A. Hebrews Face Injustice
Moses raised with power, prestige, and privilege in Pharaoh’s house
Hebrews were slaves facing a lifetime of injustice
Moses could no longer sit on the sidelines
B. Moses Takes Matters Into His Own Hands
Sees injustice and murders the Egyptian (he knew better)

Looks around – thinks he got away with it (see Exodus 2:11–12)

Exodus 2:11–12
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

Next day he tries to reconcile two fighting Hebrews

Hebrews reject his leadership: “Who made you ruler and judge over us?”

Moses flees Egypt to Midian (life on the run)

Exodus 2:13–15
13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

The would‑be deliverer cannot even save himself

IV. God Does His Best Work in the Desert

A. Living With the Past (40 Years)
Forty years in Midian – a desert of regret and reflection
Moses goes from Prince of Egypt to shepherd
Time to think about what might have been different, what he “should” have done
B. Desert Times Are Tough
We carry rocks of past mistakes, insults, and regrets

We cannot change yesterday, but often spend today rehashing it

We need to quit hoping for a better past

Paul’s example: Forgetting what is behind

Philippians 3:13–14
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

C. Time to Put the Past in the Past
Make amends where you can
Lay it down before God
Forgive or ask for forgiveness
Cut loose the bag of rocks that drags you backward
Don’t spend so much time looking backward that you cannot move forward
V. God Says to Moses: Now You’re Ready (Acts 7:30–34)

Acts 7:30–34
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:
32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’”

A. Not From Moses’ Perspective
Now about 80 years old, a shepherd in the middle of nowhere

Any dreams of helping his people had died long before

God shows up in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1–10)

Exodus 3:1–4
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father‑in‑law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 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.
3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

Exodus 3:5–10
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 Then he said, “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.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Moses “steps aside” from his rut and God speaks

B. Moses Gets Stuck in Excuses
Forty years earlier he had power, resources, prestige, youth

Now he feels weak and inadequate – “You’ve got the wrong guy”

“You wanted the earlier me, not this me” – so he protests (Exodus 3–4)

Exodus 3:11
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:10
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

C. Stephen’s Summary (Acts 7:35–38)
Acts 7:35–38
35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’
38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.”

The same Moses they rejected became their God‑sent deliverer
Led them out of Egypt with wonders and signs
Led them forty years in the wilderness
Received “living words” to pass on – ultimately pointing to Jesus
VI. God Keeps Writing His Story – He’s Able When We Are Not

A. Like Moses, We Sometimes Say:
“I am ready” – but maybe we aren’t, or it’s not the right time or place
“I am in the desert” – stuck in regrets, disappointments, or consequences
“I’ve got excuses” – I don’t have the answers, gifts, experience, resources…or, honestly, “I don’t want to”
B. God Invites You Into the Story

Ephesians 2:8–10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Saved by grace through faith – a gift, not your achievement
In Christ, you are God’s workmanship – His poem, His handiwork
There are good works God prepared in advance for you – a part of His story for you to live out

Stephen uses Moses’ story to point to Jesus, then is martyred for his unwavering commitment to Him (Acts 7:54–60)
The same faithful God is still writing His story
You are invited into that story: God is able, especially when you are not