I hate Sunday School.  That.s the reason I hardly ever attend.  Oh, it.s not that I don.t have the time or that I think continuing education in the Word of God isn.t important, it is.

It.s just that after 30 years I.m getting tired of the same old stories, the same old lessons, and the same old opinions.  Doesn.t anyone talk to God anymore?  Or more specifically, does God talk to any of us any more?

            I haven.t heard any revelation in Sunday School since I learned that David killed a giant with a rock.  I don.t say this to be bitter, I just wonder why everyone who teaches Sunday School seems to think that what the lesson book says is the be-all and end-all to the discussion.

            I find that Sunday schools usually fall into two types. 

                        1.  The mini sermon brought by a preacher wanna be. 

                        Or

                        2.  The .read from the book verbatim. class.

            Very rarely is there any dialogue in the class.  Most of the time people don.t even bother to study the lesson so I guess I can.t be too surprised that they have no revelation in the subject.  But no matter, if you are one of those people who do read the lesson during the week and if you feel you have something to share, something that you feel God has shown you, you can pretty much forget it.  When you mention what you have learned you are usually quickly hushed and the conversation is deftly turned back to what .Doctor Reverend So and So. says in the lesson plan.  (Of course this is only done in the second type of class. Your input isn.t expected or appreciated at all in the first)

            So...seeing as how I tried a new church over the last couple of weeks (and once again fell victim to scenario #2) I will share with YOU what God has shown me.

            The Sunday School lesson was entitled  .God Chooses a Deliverer..  It was about Moses and how God came to him on Mt Sinai in the burning bush and picked him to deliverer of Israel out of Egypt.

            Before I begin let me explain, when I study...I study.  I read the scriptures, the lesson, commentaries, and histories.  I look at customs of the day, and I try to fit all this into how I know God does things.  (I find that he does not change)

            Then I ask God to make sense of it all.  (I pray)

            It seems to work for me.  I find, on the rare occasion when I find a willing ear, that the thing God reveals to me are accepted.

            Imagine my surprise when I learned that the lesson was incorrect, God DIDN.T choose Moses on that mountain, but rather years ago while he was still a prince in Pharaoh.s court 

            Let.s refresh our memories about what happened on Mt. Sinai. 

I won.t print it here but I expect you to read Exodus 3 thru 4:19, I.ll wait...

            Now that you.ve read it... (WHAT!! You didn.t read it??  This isn.t a Sunday school assignment, get your Bible and do it now, it.s important)...

            OK, are you ready now?  Now read Acts 7, (I.ll make it easy for you, here it is)

Act 7:22  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

Act 7:23  And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

Act 7:24  And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

Act 7:25  For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

Act 7:26  And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

Act 7:27  But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

Act 7:28  Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

Act 7:29  Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

Act 7:30  And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

            The first thing that I noticed when I read this was vs 22 where it says Moses was .mighty is words and in deeds....  This begs the question .what deeds.?

            To find the answer to this I had to go to the writings of Josephus. Flavius (A Jewish priest, a Pharisee,  who was adopted by the Roman Emperor Flavius and later wrote the history of the Jewish people).  In the second book of his anthology, chapter 10,  Josephus tells of how Moses as a General in Pharaoh.s army was sent to fight the Ethiopians.  When he conquered them he returned to Pharaoh a much heralded and famous man.

            Next I looked at vs 25.  This caused some more questions to pop into my mind.

                        1. When did God choose Moses as his deliverer?  Was it while he was still a prince in Pharaoh.s palace or 40 years later on a mountain?

                        2. Why did Moses flee Egypt?

            Answer 1. Obviously God choose Moses long before he met him on Sinai. (See Acts 7:25 again)  So why did God wait 40 years?  We will address that later.

            Answer 2. For years we were told that Moses fled Egypt because he killed an Egyptian.  Why would a Egyptian General, a war hero, as well as prince in the house of Pharaoh, worry about killing an Egyptian taskmaster?  He could have simply said the man was insubordinate and it would have been the end of it.

            Once again if we look at Josephus and compare what he says to what we see in the word of God we can get the answer.

            Josephus 2.11.1

            Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses, entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing their designs against him, as suspecting that he would take occasion, from his good success to raise a sedition, and bring innovations into Egypt; and told the king he ought to be slain.  The king had also some intentions of himself to the same purpose, and this as well out of envy at his glorious expedition at the head of his army, as out of fear of being brought low by him; and being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was ready to undertake to kill Moses.

            Here.s what I see.  Moses was preaching sedition (Ac 7:25) among the Israelis and killed the Egyptian.  The next day he saw the Israelis fighting among themselves and said something like... .Why are you fighting with each other?  The enemy is the Egyptians..  To which the people of Israel answered .Who made YOU our leader and Judge?. (See Acts 7:27 and Exodus 2:14) Moses knew who, he just couldn.t prove it.

            Now for the second part of Answer number 1.  (I told you we would get back to it)                  Moses.s thought God.s plan was to have him lead a military uprising against the

Egyptians but it wasn.t.  (Take a look again at Acts 7: 25 .... how that God by his hand would deliver them.....)

             Moses was right, he was chosen of God to lead his people but not today and not by HIS hand.  When it was time to set his people free God wanted no question by whose power it was accomplished.

            (Parenthetically, I find it amazing that the Jewish people thought the same thing when Jesus entered Jerusalem the day of the Passover.)

            Moses knew that God wouldn.t send someone without equipping them for the task.  I suppose he saw his training as a warrior as God.s way of doing it.  He was wrong, at least partially.  Let.s not downplay the part that Moses.s training had in the Exodus.  He was a LEADER.  He knew how to get things done and how to get men to do it.  It was this talent that God gave him and under the teachings of the Egyptians was fully achieved.   This would serve the Israeli people in the wilderness, not the ability to wage war.

            Later we see, at the burning bush, how God intended to equip him.  With nothing but a promise and a stick God sent Moses to do the impossible.  He didn.t send him with an army because he didn.t want the military education of Egypt or the bravery of willing followers to get the credit for what he was going to do.

            But Moses had learned an Earthly lesson too.  When God told him to go, he asked ( to paraphrase) .Why would anyone believe me?  They didn.t last time..

            It was a valid question so God gave him a number of signs that would convince the Israeli Elders that he was sent by God, this time.

            Still Moses balked.  In Ex 4:10 he tried to use the excuse that he couldn.t speak well, that was a lie...what does it say of Moses in Acts 7:22?

            ....and (Moses) was mighty in words and in deeds. .

            Doesn.t sound to me like he had a problem speaking .back in the day..  I think he was just scared.  He had tried to convince his people that he was their deliverer 40 years ago and they rejected him, now he was afraid that he wouldn.t be able to convince them today.  He still didn.t get it.  He didn.t understand that this time God would be on his side.  And think about it, truth be told, once he showed the signs to the elders of Israel and got their backing he went to Pharaoh and did most of the talking.  I don.t recall Aaron saying anything.

            So what have I learned from this? 

            1.  While you might know in your heart that God has a calling on your life you can.t just run off in your own time.  You have to wait on him.

            2. Don.t let the rejection of peers, or authorities stop you.  If God is on your side you can.t loose.                                                                                                         

            3. When God finally tells you .it.s time. don.t let your emotions dissuade you, and don.t make excuses.  You can be replaced.

            4. Never forget that God will not send you anywhere until, and unless he has equipped you for the job.

            We are continually admonished to .have faith in God. but perhaps we should also tell people to .have patience with God..