How Moses Walked with God

One of the things I love about Scripture is that it’s real. I mean, it’s really real. And I think of all the excuses I have had, like, “I don’t understand the Bible,” “I haven’t had any theological training,” “I have a learning disability.”

I have had people tell me all those things. And then I have said, “Well, would you just hang out with me? Could we just kind of learn how to walk with God together, there’s no pressure, we are going to go slow.”

I want to tell you, God wants to walk with you. And I know down deep you want to walk with Him. And my experience is no one ever sat down with you and said, “This is how to do it.”

And one of my favorite characters in all of the Bible is Moses. I mean, I think about some of the family of origin issues and, in fact, even lean back if you would. Let me give you a little profile of the most unlikely person to be not just greatly used by God, but to really walk with God.

So, it’s during a time, some of you know the story where all the children of Israel’s kids were being killed by Pharoah. They had forgotten what a great deliverer Joseph was and so, he was getting very concerned because they were multiplying like crazy and the Pharaohs thought we’re going to get outnumbered and pretty soon they are going to overthrow us.

And so, he gave strict orders that the babies should be killed and the midwives had a lot of faith and they would say things like, “Well, you know, these Hebrew women, hey Pharoah, we are trying but we just can’t pull it off. I mean, they have these babies so quickly.”

But a great number of the children were killed. And there was one particular family that was Moses’ parents. They sensed something, they looked at this little baby and said, “God has got a plan.” They took a big risk, they put the baby in a little basket near where they knew Pharoah’s daughter and some of the other women would bathe and wash some clothes. Put it in a basket and then his sister kind of hung out in the reeds looking and waiting and watching, you know, what is going to happen.

And the little basket is floating and so Moses gets adopted into a very secular family. By God’s grace Pharoah’s daughter really isn’t interested at this point in nursing the child, so he has some at least early years with his own mother and he gets some formative thinking and psychologists tell us that are really, really crucial to brain development, value development. I mean, those first five years of a child’s life are so, so critically important.

And we don’t know exactly how long Moses was with his natural family, although nursing went on much farther than it is today normally. So, he grows up in a home that is anti-Hebrew, anti-God, filled with idols, the greatest opportunities of education, pleasure, the world is literally all before him. He can have everything that he wants.

And during this time, Moses goes through the normal things that adopted kids go through. You know, “Where do I really fit? Where do I really belong?” He looks at what is happening to the Hebrew brothers and sisters, he looks at the opportunity and the pleasure and I’m sure he felt some guilt about what he was experiencing versus what they were experiencing.

And, you know, at some point in time people that have everything find themselves with a very challenging question, like, “What is life really all about?” You can go anywhere, you can eat anywhere, you can have anything, you can drive any car, you can do whatever you want. I mean, he is the son of Pharoah. Pleasure, money, women. Anything he wants, he has.

And in the midst of this he realizes there’s got to be more to life than this. And so, he has been walking in the spirit of the world and he sees, you know what? This isn’t where life is at, but I’m not sure where it is.

And he visits some of his Hebrew families and he gets a conviction that he needs to help, he needs to deliver them, this is unfair. He’s like a lot of young people right now. There’s got to be justice. I’m going to stand for justice.

And unfortunately, he does God’s will in his time, by his effort, and his way. And he brings about some short-term justice by an unjust act of killing an Egyptian. And the following day, thinking he is helping them, he is rejected by his own people and they say something like, “Hey, Moses, you know, yeah, we are arguing right now but who do you think you are? Who made you judge over us? Are you going to kill us the way you did that Egyptian yesterday?” And Moses comes to this realization that he’s got to flee for his life.

And I tell you this story because I want you to start pondering. Think of all the excuses. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, okay? I’m not down on anyone and God is not down on anyone. But we all make lots of excuses for, “I can’t really walk with God.” You know, I can’t sit still. I could never really learn to pray. The Bible is too complicated.”

Here is someone who is now fleeing for their life, he is an adopted child, he is rejected by his own people, he is by his actions now rejected by his adopted family. He finds himself in a completely new world. And now for the next forty years, he learns a completely different profession being a shepherd. And that is not viewed very highly.

So, his self-esteem is pretty low. I mean: What am I going to do with my life? I was living at the pinnacle of society, I have made some really bad choices. Anybody there? Right? He made some really bad choices. God could never use me. I’m disqualified. It’s all over. And so, he’s about eighty years old and he’s just in the grind.

And as he is in the grind he doesn’t know that just as God had a plan for the parents in which he would be born, where and how he would be in Pharoah’s house, what would happen when he made some very bad, ungodly choices, and how he would find himself in this world of shepherding and being a nomad, if you will and wondering what the future holds.

God was orchestrating and preparing him for what was next. And many of you know the story. He is going about his business, he sees a bush that is on fire, wouldn’t be an unusual scene in his day, spontaneous combustion would happen in that part of the world at times. But the bush wasn’t burning up. And he goes and he has a major encounter with God.

And I want you to get the background because at this point, Moses has a very deep sense that he is unworthy, unable, inadequate. And at this stage of his life, he really brings little to the table. Like maybe some of you, “I’m too old to learn something new. I’m past my prime in terms of God using me. I have a learning disability.”

In fact, we’ll learn shortly after he takes off his shoes, God speaks to him, tells him what He wants him to do. That Moses balks. He goes, “I can’t do it. God, don’t you know? I have a speech impediment.” In chapter 4 of Exodus, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” And, I can’t do what You are asking me to do.

And what I want you to know is that this is all a part of the journey of walking with God. Walking with God isn’t just, oh, I read the Bible and I do listen to His voice and I want to obey and, you know, maybe I go to a Bible study and I’m trying to be a good person.

Walking with God is your whole life. It’s who you are, what you do, what’s your purpose? It’s walking step-by-step with Him as He orchestrates. And He orchestrates where you got born and He orchestrates some of the environments you were in and He orchestrates and works around some of your failures and my failures.

And God says to Moses: Hey, Moses, I’ve got news for you. “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who made his eyes or ears? Is it not I, the Lord?” And then He says to him, “I,” and it’s emphatic, “I, even I, will teach you what you are to say.” In other words: I am going to put in your mouth what you need to say. I’ll teach you. I’m with you. We are going to walk together.

And then he says to Him, “God, don’t you know? I have a speech impediment. I can’t do what You are asking me to do.” And God says to Moses: Tell you what, we are going to recruit your brother. He has always been a good speaker. And I am going to send you two down there together.

And I tell you that part of the story, mostly because I want you to get the background in real life for those of you that maybe have been adopted or those of you that have adopted some kids or those of you who have wrestled with abandonment issues or a learning disability.

Or those of you that, for whatever reason feel like, “I’m just too old.” Or, “I can’t, you know, I wasn’t really good in school or I didn’t take any advanced education. So, all this stuff you’re talking about, Chip, is for someone else.”

I want to remind you God wants to walk with you. Step-by-step. He wants you to know His will. He wants you to enjoy His presence. He wants to guide you and direct you.

You’ll learn to hear His voice. You’ll be one of those people in a few months that will say, “You know, the Lord spoke to me.”

In not some super mystical, out there, crazy-type stuff, but I mean, the Lord spoke very clearly to me by His Spirit in His Word and gave me direction. You’ll find yourself being that person who, “I prayed very specifically for x, y, and z. And as I’m in the Scriptures, as I’m studying, as I’m walking with God, as I have learned to walk with others going the same direction towards God’s destination and not mine, God answered specifically, vividly, unmistakably.”

That’s the normal Christian life. But we have become so distracted, we have become consumers instead of people who step-by-step walk with the living God. We have become, you know, “I look at one verse,” or, “I listen to this podcast,” or, “I read this devotional that takes, you know, ninety seconds or three minutes and say, ‘Okay! You know, I got a little spiritual juice and I’ll go out there and try and be a nice person.’”

But our real focus, our real life is about our agenda and doing our thing.

If that’s where you’re at, all is not lost. I mean, that’s where Moses was at. The reason I wanted you to get the story, not just the little Bible version, but, like, the real story is it’s never too late, you’re never too old, God wants to walk with you. In fact, He wants to use you.

And so, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. When you engage and walk with God, notice first, Moses is listening to God. They are having conversations now. Moses recognized God is holy. He takes off his shoes and he, I mean, he is reverent.

And then Moses begins to move in the right direction and as he moves in the right direction, he gets something that is very common. His wife, for understandable reasons, is really not on board and this whole idea of circumcising a son and he begins to cave in and is fearful to do what God has clearly shown him to do. And we have this unusual passage where it says the Lord is purposing to kill him. In other words, yes, God is loving, God is kind, God has a plan, but willful, rebellious disobedience has some very heavy, heavy consequences. And in the nick of time, he gets that resolved, obeys God, he’s obeying now. He doesn’t feel like obeying and he’s obeying when people really close to him don’t want him to obey. Does some of this sound familiar?

Do you realize God wants to walk with us, but so many of us, boy, when that important person in our life doesn’t agree with what God showed us to do, all of a sudden we often back away. And then again, we experience, Well, Lord, where is this peace? Where is this power? Where is this…?

And the Lord is saying: I want you, I need you to keep walking with Me. When you stop walking with Me, when you do your own thing, you get what you can produce. When you walk with Me, you’re going to get what I want to produce in you and through you. And I like that He is so patient with Moses. He gives him a real jolt and lets him know: This is really serious.

And then he begins to really walk with God and this is real. Instead of, oh, the Hebrews are going: Oh! Great! Glad you’re back! Fantastic! He confronts Pharoah and things get worse before they get better. By the way, I want you to know that it often will get more difficult before it gets better, because you’re not in some neutral territory.

When you begin to walk with God, you’re walking in the light, you’re walking in love, you’re walking in holiness, you’re walking in righteousness, you’re walking in integrity. That is counterculture. That is counter, even the Church at times, which is so unfortunate. That is counter the values of family members sometimes.

So, all I’m saying is it can be lonely, it can be difficult, but He who began a good work in you and began a good work in me, He is going to fulfill it. And when we do that, the fact of the matter is it might be hard early, but you will begin to impact all those other people. But just early on, you’ll have to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord and saying, there will be times, “God, I just can’t do this. But I won’t give up. I won’t give in. Please help me.” And it’s in those kind of moments that you will experience Him in a very, very powerful way.

You know the story. He delivers them, there’s the Red Sea, he then goes on the mountain. Talk about spending personal time with God, right? Forty days, brings down the Ten Commandments. While he is gone they are now, the word is revelry. They are worshipping a calf and involved in sexual immorality. They have, in a very short time, forgotten all that God has done. Moses gets really ticked off, very angry, breaks the Ten Commandments, deals with the issue, ends up going back up on the mountain, God speaks to him again, gets things realigned.

And the Word of God now is given: the law or the covenant. The first covenant here with God and His people. And you know what it’s all about? It’s not about rules, although there are six hundred and, I think, fourteen commandments. It was God making a people for Himself that He could be with them.

But because He’s holy and He is showing up in this tabernacle, in this mountain first and then this tabernacle, this cloud by day and fire by night, He wants to lead them, He wants to guide them. All of those commands and all those early times were to create a system and a way where a holy God could be with His people.

And we are in the new covenant, but those principles of why God gives us commands are the same. It’s to protect us. They’re not limitations to what is fun and good and great. They are guardrails to keep us on this path.

“The Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory and no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” It’s such a different view. I think of the Ten Commandments as God’s boundaries for abundant living.

But if you’re like me, a lot of my life they have been very hard and very difficult because basically they were against the kind of things that the world was telling me, the flesh was telling me, and the enemy was telling me: Chip, satisfaction, joy, outcomes that you really want are down that path. And God is saying: No, it’s down this path. Walk with Me.

And what I love about Moses’ life that may be the most profound, you find it in an interesting place. In Psalm 103, verse 7 it said, “God made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.”

Moses saw all the power, the Red Sea, the manna, the quail, the water out of the rock. He saw magnificent experiences with God as did all the people. But how many of those people continue to walk with God? Very few continued to trust Him.

If you want to walk with God, here’s the takeaway for today: You need to ask God for a passion, not just to get good things from Him, but to actually know what He’s like. What are His ways?

Moses said, “God, show me Your glory.” In other words: I want to know all of who You are. And if You don’t show me Your glory, if You don’t walk with me, if You don’t go with us, then just kill me. I don’t want to go there without You. Do you get the intensity and the passion? And it says the Lord put Him in the cleft of the rock and passed by.

And it’s so interesting, the very first thing about the Lord, He revealed of Himself, is that He is good. He’s a good God. He’s abounding in lovingkindness. He’s merciful and compassionate. God is slow to anger. And, yet, it goes on to say, and yet He provides judgement and consequences for people in active rebellion against Him.

And it was that passion, he wanted to know God’s ways. And God would say of this man who most people would say, “He’s too old, he started too late, he’s a murderer, he doesn’t qualify,” he had some sort of speech disability, so he can’t be a great, charismatic leader. He’s got all these things working against him but in his heart he has this passion and this desire.

And God says Moses is the most humble man on the earth. Moses had an accurate, sober self-assessment. Moses got a late start, but Moses learned to walk with God on God’s terms.

And here’s what I want you to know: Moses reminds us that God can take the most difficult childhoods, the biggest rejections, our biggest mistakes, some of our biggest failures and if we are open, if we are willing, He wants to put His arm around us and say, “This is the way. Walk in it.”

Could I encourage you? Let’s walk with God together. Let’s get in the Scriptures, not to say we read so many chapters or I heard this podcast or I read this book. All of that has its place, all of that is wonderful. I am so glad for the resources that are created. All of those things are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

However, none of those take the place of you personally opening your Bible, learning to study it for yourself, hearing God’s voice, reading a passage, and knowing this is what it says, this is what it means, this is what it means to me, this is what God the Maker of all things is saying to me personally, and then obeying those and seeing and experiencing His presence and His power, and not only working in you but then working through you.

This is the normal Christian life, to walk in love, to walk in the light, and to experience the very best of God and to be used in the greatest way possible to fulfill His purposes for your life and for mine.