San Francisco: God Loves You, But… (Part 4)

 

Why does God often send an outsider to an area to help deliver the oppressed people?

God said to Abraham, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13)

Three hundred and fifty years into the prophetic timing of Genesis 15:13, a baby boy was born to a Levite couple living in Egypt. The couple already had a three year old son (Aaron) and an older daughter (Miriam), but this child was unique. He was the chosen one, the one who would be the deliverer of the Hebrews out of the iron furnace – Egypt.

How did God prepare His chosen deliverer?

Because of the harsh edicts of Pharaoh, who wanted to kill all male Hebrew babies, the baby boy was put into a water tight basket and set adrift in reeds along the Nile River. The baby boy’s sister, Miriam, stood nearby, watching on.

Pharaoh’s daughter then walked by the reeds, checked out the basket and fell in love with the Hebrew baby. Miriam showed up and asked if Pharaoh’s daughter needed a nurse for the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed and paid the baby’s Levite mother to nurse her own baby. Interestingly enough, it was Pharaoh’s daughter who named the child Moses, not his Hebrew parents.

Can you imagine the conversation that  must have happened when Pharaoh’s daughter brought Moses into the palace? Her father wanted to kill Hebrew male babies and his daughter had one in her possession. There had to be a few arguments over Moses, but in the end, Pharaoh’s daughter raised Moses as an Egyptian. He was taught by the best teachers, learned the ways of Egypt, and became a powerful minister of state.

Three hundred and ninety years into the prophetic timing of Genesis 15:12, Moses felt like visiting the Hebrew slaves. He intervened in a fight between a slave and an Egyptian, and then killed the Egyptian.

And Moses supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. (Acts 7:25)

Because of killing the Egyptian and the misunderstanding of the Hebrews, Moses fled to the desert where he tended sheep for forty years and worked for his father-in-law.

Not quite four hundred and thirty years into the prophetic timing of Genesis 15:12, Moses had his burning bush experience with the Angel of the Lord. God revealed His name, I Am, told Moses to return to Egypt, and gave him specific signs for the Hebrews. Moses argued about his inability to speak and God eventually agreed to allow his brother, Aaron, to do some speaking for Moses.

The Lord also gave Moses a future event:

“…Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. (Exodus 4:14)

While Moses was heading back to Egypt, God spoke to Aaron:

“…Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. (Exodus 4:27)

Both Moses and Aaron were prophets. And as these two scriptures reveal, both men heard the voice of the Lord. So, why did the Hebrews even need a prophet like Moses to deliver them? After all, Aaron was a prophet and, as a part of the prophet’s calling, he was also a deliverer.

First, let’s look at Aaron who was born and raised as a slave in Egypt. His normal mental state had to be based on fear. Fear of reprisals. Fear of death. Fear of starvation. Fear for his loved ones. Fear. Fear. Fear. It had to govern every part of his life, even part of his prophet’s calling.

For instance, what did Aaron do when Moses delayed coming down from the mountain and the people asked for a new god to lead them? He caved in to the people’s fears and carved a golden calf. This Egyptian god-like idol must have represented authority and power to Aaron, which he thought had empowered his slave masters. But no matter what his actual reason was, it was based on fear and not faith in the I Am.

Moses did not have Aaron’s fear problems. He was raised by the Egyptians who were the slave masters. He understood the Egyptian gods and knew they were powerless and dumb. Then, after Moses’ eyes were opened to his calling and had killed the Egyptian man, he probably felt fear for the first time. So, he fled to Egypt.

For forty years, Moses spent his time in a nomadic existence, far from a life of daily fear. It was during this period, he learned the ways of the Lord and came to have an intimate knowledge of God and His goodness.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption, as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 

But also, for those forty years, Moses was not under the religious principality, which governed Egypt and which used the spirit of slavery to rule over the Hebrews. Like David, Moses would have had to fight some bears and lions along the way, but he did not have to face and be shaped by a Goliath everyday like Aaron and the other Hebrews did.

When he was finally ready and prepared to face his Goliath, the religious principality over Egypt, God sent him as a deliverer to the Hebrews.

Yet remember this: it took a long time to prepare Moses for his calling of deliverer.

San Francisco can expect numerous outsiders who have no reputations, short resumes, and long preparation times in deserts to show up as deliverers for the city. Their arrival is not a reflection on the San Francisco saints who have suffered under the spirit of depravity for years, but rather it is God’s plan for the city.

(Continued in Part 5…if you are interested, the full series, which was written in 2011, may be seen here.)