Slices
Prepare
Moses encountered God in the form of a burning bush and was terrified. We can be too casual about our intimate access to the Holy of Holies. Consider the glory and majesty of God with awe and wonder.
Bible passage
20 ‘At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. 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.
23 ‘When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being ill-treated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defence and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realise 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 ill-treating 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.
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.”
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.
Explore
As we’ve read about the unstoppable force that is God’s people, the church, certain factors in its survival have emerged: the Holy Spirit’s work, courageous evangelists and a clear and transformative message. But although there have been glimpses of strong, visionary leadership along the way, the miracle of today’s worldwide church is perhaps in spite of rather than owing to any particular leader. Even the best of them are glaringly flawed.
In today’s reading, Stephen reaches the part in his narrative where one of the greatest biblical leaders makes his appearance. Moses was God’s instrument in rescuing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and teaching them their new identity as a nation set apart for worship. And look, here he is committing murder and fleeing the scene for four decades (vs 24,29,30). An inauspicious background to say the least.
There is something deeply reassuring about the failings of Moses. We can’t expect our churches to be led by superheroes, but flawed leaders won’t hold God back.
Respond
You might be a leader who feels inadequate, or you might be in a church under a leader you judge to be inadequate. Thank God that neither scenario hinders his purposes for good. Pray for your church, that it would thrive with the leadership it has.
Deeper Bible study
‘Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.’1
Stott comments that Stephen’s third epoch (vs 20–43) was dominated by Moses, through whose ministry God kept his promises to Abraham.2 Key to Stephen’s bold argument to the Sanhedrin is that a holy place is not holy in its own right but is where God is to be found – and that can be anywhere, as Moses discovered during his life. God is not trapped in the Temple, but this means seeing things in a new way (see the Sanhedrin’s objection to the apostles’ preaching in vs 13,14). Moses gave up a kingdom to lead his people out of Egypt into the desert on a great adventure for God.
It is easy to be an armchair theologian, but to step out in faith and to do what God has called you to do is a very different kettle of fish. In 1880 a young Christian graduate was a teacher in a school run by German missionaries in British Malabar in India. When the missionaries left they handed over the school to him. He wanted to get its programmes accredited by the British educational authorities, but the English inspector refused because he was teaching the Bible in the morning assemblies. ‘If I cannot teach the Bible there is no reason to run the school’, said the young man. He prayed and went to meet the Director of Public Instruction in Madras. God went ahead of him and they agreed that he could do the Bible teaching an hour before the school started. Many young people, including Hindus, came to the Lord. God blessed him and he became an Inspector of Schools, the first Indian Director of Public Instruction in Madras and a member of the Governor’s Council. This is the story of my great-grandfather!
Can you trust God to look after you, whatever problem you are facing? He is our Immanuel who will accompany us into the unknown tomorrow!
Pray for God’s help, guidance and comfort in your problems. As Job said, ‘I know that my redeemer lives’.3
1 William Carey 2 J Stott, The Message of Acts, 1991, p134 3 Job 19:25
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Nehemiah 11,12; Luke 9
Pray for Scripture Union
Local Mission Partner Fleet and Crookham Churches Together in Schools planned to run Youth Alpha throughout the summer term for young people from school CUs. Pray that they will be able to help young people to find ways of meeting with God.
