Sunday, February 28, 2016

Mighty Authority

Mighty Authority from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.

Exodus 6:1-13
1Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”

2God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD. 3I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The LORD’ I did not make myself known to them. 4I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens. 5I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. 8I will brings you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession, I am the LORD.’” 9Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.

10Then the LORD spoke to Moses, 11”Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land.” But Moses spoke to the LORD, “The Israelites have not listened to me; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am?” 13Thus the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them orders regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, charging them to free the Israelites from the land of Egypt.

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

Luke 20:1-8
1One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders 2and said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” 3He answered them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me? 4Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” 5They discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6But if we say ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.


We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh.

We have followed him out of the protection of our wealth and stature. We have followed Moses and Aaron into the working field of Egypt and seen the oppression of God’s covenant people.

When Moses saw the pain of his people, how their workload increased as Pharaoh sought to control them, he cried out to God. While the overseers and taskmasters cried out “Complete your work!” Moses was begging the LORD to do something to bring his people out of bondage.

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom from our bondage to injustice.

And as we stand with Moses and Aaron, looking over the oppression of God’s covenant people, we hear: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.’”

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, and have seen what the mighty hand of the King of Egypt can do to those Hebrew slaves. Yet the LORD is saying to Moses “by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty hand he will drive them out of his land.”

This is a prophetic pun, where the Word of the LORD sets us up with one expectation, and then reverses it. Pharaoh thinks he has a mighty hand. He believes he has the power over these Israelites.

But Pharaoh is about to become God’s instrument, a tool through which God will display his wonders to all the nations, not least of whom are the Israelites, who have forgotten how to hope. God’s mighty hand is already at work, bringing down the king of Egypt to show that not even empires can match the mighty authority of the LORD, and not even slaves are too lowly to choose as a covenant people.

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom. Along our journey, we will see God’s wonders.

“God also spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The LORD’ I did not make myself known to them.” This is not a new God, this is the God of our ancestors, making himself known to us in a new way. Two weeks ago we remembered together that we are one a first name basis with the LORD, we are in an intimate relationship with the Holy One of Israel, and he will not let us go.

We don’t even need to know the right words to pray, there’s no magic word that holds God’s ear, only a promise that God will continue to hear us, even when our prayers cannot take a form other than the groans of an oppressed people. “I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.” The mighty authority of God does not wait for a formal invitation, the LORD is already watching for a need for the mighty authority of God’s redemptive hand.

And God heard the groans of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and the covenant is remembered, still active in God’s mind, refreshed by prayers we don’t even realize are heard.

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom. Along our journey, we will see God’s wonders. Because God is bringing us out with a mighty hand.

God speaks again, “Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will brings you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession, I am the LORD.’” This is an expansion of the old covenant that God almighty made with Abraham, to give the land of Canaan to his children. But here, there is an even closer relationship. God is not just a landlord who evicts the Canaanites and moves the Hebrews in, The LORD promises a continuing relationship with the people who follow Moses out of Egypt. In this moment, in Exodus Chapter 6, God makes  a promise to the Israelites, that God will take them as his people, a special relationship based on the promise and mighty authority of the LORD our God, who calls us by name and by whose name we are known.

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom. Along our journey, we will see God’s wonders. Because God is bringing us out with a mighty hand. We cannot imagine what lies ahead.

Moses passes the huge promise on to the slaves, full of hope for the future, only to be deflated by their response. “Moses told this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.” They have lost their identity. They are surviving sure, but they don’t have a purpose, and cannot imagine a future. That’s called despair, and we’ll likely run into a time or two in our own lives. We will face down hopelessness, even from places of privilege we can lose ourselves. But our despairing groans do not go unheard, even when we cannot believe the good news.

The job of a prophet is to speak on God’s behalf, even when the people don’t have the capacity to believe what they are hearing. And Moses is a prophet.

We have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom. Along our journey, we will see God’s wonders. Because God is bringing us out with a mighty hand. We cannot imagine what lies ahead, but God is bringing us out nonetheless.

The unbelieved prophet receives even an even more unbelievable charge, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his land.’” Moses was a refuge and a fugitive, he has been out herding folks that were not his own in the deserts of Midian. He cannot even convince the slaves of what he is saying, yet God is sending him to the courts of the king of Egypt? “…Moses spoke to the LORD, ‘The Israelites have not listened to me; how then shall Pharaoh listen to me, poor speaker that I am?’ Thus the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them orders regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, charging them to free the Israelites from the land of Egypt.” This part of the story leaves the question unresolved. It gives us a chance to wonder at God’s words, and to build the drama of the showdown between the presumed authority of Pharaoh and the mighty authority of the LORD. The verses that follow this passage are the genealogy of Moses and Aaron, a break from the intensity of the story so far.

So we are left with the question, how then shall Pharaoh listen to Moses, poor speaker that he is?

We have have followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, hoping that we will find freedom. Along our journey we will see God’s wonders. Because God is bringing us out with a mighty hand. We cannot imagine what lies ahead, but God is bringing us out nonetheless, not by human imagination or ability, but by his own mighty authority.

Jump ahead, Jesus “was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, ‘Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?’” It’s another question of authority, and the people still have trouble believing the unimaginable promises of the LORD. Their liberator is in front of them, the one who frees not only the oppressed, but the oppressor as well. And yet we still have a question of authority.

Just as we followed Moses out of the courts of Pharaoh, we are following Christ out of the courts of sin. Just as we will see God’s wonders as he transforms slaves into a holy people, so too we will see the wonders of the crucifixion and the the resurrection. Just as God continues to bring us out with a mighty hand, so too the hands of Christ will remain pierced even as he is brought out of the tomb. We cannot imagine what lies ahead, because we have more practice at despair than we do at hope. But Christ has redeemed us nevertheless, not by human imagination or ability, but by his own mighty authority.


We will see the works of God as he brings the Israelites out of bondage with a mighty hand, and we will know that he is the LORD our God. When we remember those mighty acts together, we will also see the mighty acts of God in freeing all creation from the brokenness of sin. Reliving the gospel story, we will remember to watch in our own lives for the mighty authority of the LORD our God, Father, Son, and Spirit, Amen.

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