Yesterday morning, I spoke at Hathern Baptist Church on Hebrews 11:23-29. It is the depiction of Moses (and his parents) in the “chapter of faith” and it got me thinking about the subject of identity and particularly how we find our God-given place in life. There was an issue with the sound system (it turned out the main speakers weren’t working so most of the sound was coming from an upstairs speaker) which made it harder for people to hear so I’m posting the audio and also the notes I spoke from.

Moses and Identity

You Can’t Run from Yourself

Have you heard of the musician Larry Norman? The radical, evangelical Christian music he was producing in the 1970’s was part of the soundtrack to my growing Christian faith in the late 1980’s. I was influenced by his lyrics such as this one from Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music (1972): “They say to cut my hair, they’re driving me insane / I grew it out long to make room for my brain”! Another song that sticks with me to this day is Nothing Really Changes from the album Upon this Rock (1970). Larry’s point is that nothing really changes unless Jesus Christ sets you free but he illustrates this by imagining various historical figures in modern times still exhibiting the same characteristics we would recognise them by:

Would Henry the Eighth use etiquette
In a busy New York luncheonette?
Would Cleopatra die when bit
Or save herself with a tourniquet?
Would Beethoven join a jazz quartet?
Would Ben Hur drive a blue Corvette?
Would Aristotle be an acid head?
Would Cain kill Abel with a bayonet?

That was “modern times” 50 years ago! Today we live in a society which is deeply confused about the question of identity. You might feel a need to be careful about what you say about identity but two statements that would be uncontroversial in even the most progressive of settings are (a) “we can choose who we want to be” and (b) “we need to live as who we really are”. They sound nice and accepting but aren’t they pulling in different – or even opposite – directions?

In Alice in Wonderland, The White Queen proudly says, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” That was written in 1871 suggesting this tendency to hold incompatible views isn’t uniquely recent. It is probably an innate human trait. In Isaiah 44, written around 2,700 years ago, and Psalms 115 & 135, which may be even older than that, we find pictures of people who use natural materials like wood and metal and then worship what they make from the leftovers. Here is Isaiah 44:16-20:

¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
‘Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.’
¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
‘Save me! You are my god!’
¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so that they cannot see,
and their minds closed so that they cannot understand.
¹⁹ No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
‘Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?’
²⁰ Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’

Humans have always been prone to odd ideas, since Eve was persuaded to eat the forbidden fruit and Adam hopped on the bandwagon right alongside her. Yesterday, today or tomorrow though, the truth about identity is that you can’t run from yourself.

Who are you?

So, who are you? What are your habits? What roles do you tend to fall into? I know that in churches I always seem to end up involved in music, in home groups, in doing some computer things and so on. Having been involved in several churches over the years, I’m beginning to be able to pick out the patterns. It is partly my skills, partly my choices but the bottom line is that God has given me a shape and I find the places I fit.

What about you? Where do you fit? Are you connected into the fellowship here in a way that suits that or do you still need some help figuring out what your shape is or finding opportunities that look like you?

Do you remember the wristbands that said WW JD (“what would Jesus do”)? I was cautious of them because it is easy to find you are answering the question “what do I feel like doing”. However, the more we know Jesus and walk in his footsteps, the better our answer will be. Perhaps a better acronym would be WDITJWHMD, which stands for “what do I think Jesus would have me do”? It is a bit of a mouthful but it might just fit around my wrist. Alternatively, what about shortening it to “HMG!” or, in other words, help me Jesus?

Who was Moses?

We’ve thought about identity and things that might help us find our God-given shape but I’ve got there from thinking about today’s Bible passage, which is the description of Moses in the Hebrews 11 roll-call of faith. For a while, set aside who you are and instead let the Bible help us understand who was Moses?

Like Noah, who I talked about last month, and like most of the other heroes covered so far, you have probably heard of him. An average person in the UK might remember Moses for parting the Red Sea. An observant Jew would be more likely to remember him as the giver of the law. Both of those views are partly true: God worked through Moses in parting the Red Sea and, through Moses, God gave the law.

His name means “to draw out”, which happens to be the story of his life. The first thing we learn about Moses is that, as a child, he was put in the Nile in a small basket and Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out, adopting him as her son. Incidentally, that makes her the first financier in the Bible, because she went to the bank and came back with a little profit! More seriously though, God always had a plan to use Moses to draw his people out of Egypt. It would be fair to say that Moses was not an overnight success. He spent 40 years as a “Prince of Egypt” and another 40 years in exile after trying to rescue the Hebrew people his own way. Finally, in his last 40 years, he was ready to lead God’s people on God’s chosen path of redemption.

Moses is one of the most often mentioned people in the Bible. I recently discovered that he comes up 85 times in the New Testament and, even if you strip out the 600 or so times his name comes up in the first five books while he was an active participant, over 100 more times in the Old Testament. He is a key character in the story of God’s long-term plan for salvation. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that, like Abraham before him, Moses gets a significant chunk of Hebrews 11 dedicated to his part in our heritage of faith:

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. ²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Here is an interesting point to ponder. If you are familiar with how the story of Moses is told from Exodus chapter 1 onwards, you might be wondering how to line Hebrews up with that account. In Hebrews, everything Moses does is an act of faith; in Exodus, some things appear questionable. One thing that might help is to consider how God sees things differently from us, with his perspective above and beyond time. Just using a camera, you can get remarkable results by slowing the shutter speed. This photo (above) was taken at 7:15pm on a January night but, by leaving the shutter open for 20 seconds, it looks almost as bright as day despite no additional lighting. God has infinite control over his “shutter speed” or, in more biblical terms, he can make known the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) so it is no wonder that, as Psalm 139 says, even the darkness is not dark to him and he sees us differently to how we see even ourselves.

Moses is drawn out of the Nile and trained as a leader of Egypt. Exodus doesn’t tell us outright that he rejected this privilege although he did find himself knowing the people he came from and spending time observing them. He strikes down an Egyptian guard and Exodus makes it sound more like fear than faith that led him into exile in the wilderness. From God’s view though, I wonder if that 40 years living in the desert as a humble shepherd was what Moses needed to break his pride in his upbringing?

It isn’t for us to judge which version we prefer or which makes us less uncomfortable. We must discern what comes into focus as we put both pictures side by side. What I see is someone who had a calling – who was made in a particular shape – but it was a slow process for God to refine that and make him ready for his most significant tasks. That sounds like a story I can identify with and it also brings hope. God sees us not as constant sources of failure and frustration but as people he loves and, even though it might feel like the long way round for us, people for whom he will go to great lengths to keep us on a good path.

You might say, “how does this help me? I’m not like Moses,” and you’d be absolutely right. Did you spot I was a bit crafty with what I read as our passage for the day? If you had jotted down the Bible reference that was on the screen at the start, you would have noticed I missed off the first verse, which says:

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. (Hb 11:23)

Some translations say that his parents hid him because they saw he was a beautiful child but doesn’t every parent think that about their offspring? More likely that they were granted to see that there was something special about this child, worth taking extraordinary measures for. Remember the definition of faith from Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” The act of faith that saved him was nothing to do with Moses; he might have been a bonny wee laddie but he was utterly helpless. It was his parents, acting in faith, who provided the opportunity for life. That reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Ephesian church (2:4-10):

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved…. 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.

Those of us who have become followers of Jesus have made some kind of choice and followed through on that decision but God was reaching for us before we began to reach for him. If you wouldn’t yet say you are one of the “Jesus-people”, have a think about how you’ve come to hear this message. Was it an accident or are there hints that God is on your case and calling you to find your home in him?

We know a little more about Moses’ parents than you might realise – for example, Exodus 6:20 tells us their names were Amram and Jochebed – but we don’t know much. I’m pretty sure none of have a calling like Moses but perhaps we could at least be a bit like his parents, glad to be a brush stroke or two in the bigger picture God is painting?

You have probably heard of the evangelist Billy Graham. He passed away in 2018 but it will be a long time before he is forgotten. Attending a Billy Graham meeting in London was a significant part for me becoming a committed “Jesus-person”. I expect Graham has blessed some of your lives too. However do you know the name of the person in whose revival meeting Graham gave his life to Jesus? I’ve done my homework and the answer is Mordecai Ham, who is on the left in this picture. That is someone relatively unknown playing a pivotal part in the life of someone we’ve all heard of.

You don’t need to regret that God didn’t make you like someone “better” or “more effective”. God doesn’t make mistakes. He made you who you are and he loves who he made you to be. I’d like to invite the band back to the stage and we will be ending the service with some songs that express the source of our true identity. We’d love you to join us in singing them but also use the time to think about the shape of your life. There might be areas where you need to change but there are also going to be things equip you to fit into God’s plan in a way that even Moses couldn’t do.

Who are you and – today and in the life that lies ahead – how will you give that back to God in his service and praise?