Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090510.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 1:1-15:21
E. God's Call For Moses To Counter Low Self-esteem By Faith In Him
(Exodus 4:1-18)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Scripture predicts in 2 Timothy 3:1-2 that in the last days of the Church, among other sins, some people would become verbally abusive, a vice that can badly intimidate its victims and result even in physical violence.

    This problem is on the rise in today's society:

    (1) A murder occurred this past week on a Connecticut college campus where a man who hated a student for her Jewish heritage had turned his abusive e-mail messages to her about her heritage and the heritage of her Hebrew community into physical violence toward her!

    (2) However, verbal abuse occurs in Christian circles as well:

    (a) Just last Sunday, a concerned believer before Sunday School in our church showed me a letter he had received from a believer outside our Church that unjustly, errantly debased him! I tried to encourage him with the truth regarding the situation he faced, but I could see the lingering effects of the hurt involved!

    (b) Later in the week, another believer outside our Church told me of challenges faced with two verbally abusive Christian acquaintances!

    Now, the secular world usually tries to handle low self-esteem that is often created by verbal abuse with self-help efforts. Some teach "The Sedona Method" where the afflicted asks himself how he feels, and when he identifies a negative feeling, he seeks to release it from his mind! Others may suggest the afflicted avoid self-criticism, or avoid trying to be someone else or not to take one's self too seriously (cf. more-selfesteem.com) in the effort to counter low self-esteem.

    However, after thirty years of pastoral ministry, I am convinced that such self-help efforts inevitably fail with devastating effects: once a victim comes into contact with another verbally abusive party, if the victim is trying to handle the deceptive "mind games" of that particular party, but his or her efforts to counter it fail, such failure augments his or her sense of low self-esteem, hurting the afflicted all the more!



    This problem is not new, for even when MOSES spoke with God at the burning bush, Moses exhibited an EXTREME level of low self esteem that had resulted in part by verbal abuse!

    Thankfully, GOD gave Moses a TIMELESS SOLUTION, one we do well to heed in our needy era (as follows):

    Need: "Perhaps in part due to verbal abuse, I struggle with painful feelings of low self-esteem! What would God advise?!"

  1. When God spoke to him in Exodus 3-4, Moses suffered from very low self esteem due to past verbal and social abuses, Exodus 2:1-12:
    1. After the Hamitic Egyptians forced the hated Semitic Hyksos out of power, Moses was born to Semitic Hebrews, but was raised in the Hamitic Pharaoh's court that strongly discriminated against Semitic people groups, Exodus 2:1-10; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 106-107.
    2. Caught between his opposing Semitic roots and an Hamitic rearing, Moses courageously sided with Israel to help a Hebrew and signal he would deliver Israel from Egypt, Exodus 2:11-12; Hebrews 11:24-25.
    3. However, Moses was verbally repudiated by his people (Ex. 2:13-14; Acts 7:27-28), and when he realized Pharaoh knew he had slain an Egyptian, (Ex. 2:15a), Moses fled into the wilderness, Exodus 2:15b.
    4. Moses named his firstborn son, Gershom, "a stranger here" to reflect his pain (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Ex. 2:22), and he was left so demotivated, for the next 40 years (Ex. 3:1; Acts 7:29-30), he could only care for his father-in-law's flock versus owning his own herds!
    5. These events partly explain why Moses in Exodus 4:1, 10 and 13 kept objecting to God's Exodus 3:10 call to lead Israel out of Egypt!
  2. In handling Moses' low self-esteem, GOD did NOT suggest he try a "SELF-HELP" therapy, BUT to TRUST in GOD, Exodus 4:1-17:
    1. When Moses objected that Israel would not believe God had sent him, the Lord told Moses to trust in Him for this need, Exodus 4:1-9:
      1. Replying to Moses' fear, and to persuade Israel about Moses' divine calling, God equipped him to perform a miracle that, in that era, indicated Moses' God was enabling him to deliver Israel, Ex. 4:1-5:
        1. The pagan Egyptians believed the serpent symbolized "power and life," Ibid., Bible Knowledge Commentary, O. T., p. 113.
        2. Thus, when God responded to Moses' claim that Israel would not think God had sent him, and that by having him turn his rod into a serpent and back again, God signaled He was making Moses superior over Egypt's power and life so that God had enabled Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt, Exodus 4:1-5!
      2. In case this miracle did not convince Israel, God gave Moses the ability to make himself leprous and to heal himself again, a disease the pagan Egyptians thought was incurable! (Ex. 4:6-8; Ibid.) This would show Moses' God was superior to Egypt's gods so that Moses would be VERY equipped of God to deliver Israel!
      3. In case these two miracles did not persuade Israel, God told Moses to turn some of the Nile River's water into blood, Ex. 4:9! This river was the source of life and fertility in pagan Egypt, so this sign meant Moses had power over all of Egypt's existence, that God had ABUNDANTLY equipped Moses to help Israel! (Ibid.)
    2. When Moses objected that he was not gifted enough to speak to Pharaoh (Ibid., p. 114), God led him to trust in Him for help, 4:10-12:
      1. Remarkably, Moses' claim that he lacked verbal ability (Ex. 4:10) was false, for Acts 7:22 NIV claims he was a powerful speaker!
      2. Yet, God did NOT direct Moses toward a self-help solution (like telling Moses to believe in his native speaking ability); rather, God led him to recall the Lord had created Moses' mouth, and that God as its Creator "would be" ( ehyeh, the same "I AM" form as in Ex. 3:14, Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 83) with Moses supernaturally to teach him what to say, Exodus 4:11-12 KJV, NIV, ESV.
    3. When Moses objected to being the one used of God to deliver Israel, the Lord became angry at the disobedient attitude this displayed, but graciously sent his brother, Aaron, to be Moses' spokesman, 4:13-17!
  3. God's leading of Moses to TRUST in HIM OPPOSITE HUMAN MIGHT fit God's LONG-TERM PLAN to COUNTER PAGANISM:
    1. The Lord was calling Moses to be used of Him toward fulfilling His Abrahamic Covenant (Ex. 2:24-25; Gen. 12:1-3) that He had given to overcome Nimrod's "self-help" paganism way back in Genesis 11:1-6!
    2. Thus, God let Moses' self-esteem be crushed so that he might learn to overcome Nimrodian "self-help" paganistic effort by trusting in God!
  4. Moses finally HEEDED God and began to do His will, Ex. 4:18!
Application: If we suffer from low self-esteem, may we (1) trust in Christ to be saved and accepted in God's Beloved Son, John 3:16; Eph. 1:3, 6! (2) Then, may we (a) resist any self-help effort, but (b) trust our All-sufficient "I AM" God to equip us to do His will! (c) May we realize that God often lets our self-esteem get crushed to lead us to VICTORY over the "self-help" paganism in our world!

Lesson: When Moses who suffered from severe low self esteem objected to God's call to influence his formidable foes, God did NOT lead him into a SELF-HELP HUMAN solution, but to TRUST in HIM for blessing!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

A great illustration on overcoming the threat of low self-esteem that is caused by verbal abuse is supplied in 1 Samuel 17:42-48 NIV.

When the seasoned warrior and giant, Goliath saw the youthful David approach to fight him with a slingshot, Goliath sneered, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" That was a false, belittling, abusive statement, for David did not have sticks that a child would use, but the kind of a slingshot that was a lethal weapon. Goliath's statement was thus verbal abuse meant to influence David to think it was vain for him to fight Goliath. If David had yielded to Goliath's view, he would have been immobilized by fear to Goliath's advantage!

Goliath added, "Come here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" This claim supported Goliath's first statement in a further effort to persuade David not to fight him.

Finally, Goliath cursed David by his gods, passing judgment on the youth so as to use (false) guilt as a mental weapon so David would further believe Goliath's view was correct and thus not fight!

In response, David avoided Goliath's distortion of reality aimed at immobilizing him with fear by focusing on God's TRUTH. This is evident in David's reply as follows: "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

These words stated the Biblical REALITY. Such truth sharply countered Goliath's viewpoint and its effort to immobilize David. Realizing his verbal abuse effort was useless against David, Goliath began to approach him to fight! Bolstered by God's truth that he had stated, David began to run toward Goliath to boost the force of his shot before letting his stone fly! Thus, asserting the truth protected David's resolve and led to his triumph over the giant, Goliath!



May we overcome low self esteem even if it is caused by verbal abuse by NOT resorting to some (pagan) "self-help" effort, but by RELYING on GOD and HIS TRUTH in DOING His will!