Redemption - Moses (Part I)

By Odon Bulamba (11 April 2003)

We’ve talked about redemption, which means to redeem. When we redeem something it means that the thing is free forever, nobody can say that the thing has a debt or should be condemned. So when there is redemption there is something which reflects a picture of birth; when a child is born he can never go back to his mother’s womb and once someone is redeemed this person has no room in the world that they were in before.

The redemption cannot be fulfilled without going through someone. Before redemption there must be a bridge between the person and the redeemer and this is why Jesus came and is the bridge between God and us. Because He accepted to pay the price we call Him redeemer.

In the old days, when the people of God walked through the mud of Egypt God thought that it was now time to redeem His people. God couldn’t leave heaven to come to the earth to redeem them because His time was not there to be on the earth yet. This is why God preferred to go through Moses. He sent Moses to see Pharaoh so that Pharaoh could set His people free. If you look at this in depth Moses wasn’t talking but God was talking through Moses, Moses was just a tool and God used him. People would see Moses as a human being but God would see Himself in Moses’ life and when He said to Moses say this, Moses would just open his mouth and talk, it wasn’t Moses’ will that was fulfilled but it was God’s will that was fulfilled, it was the will of God. Moses didn’t say, “Pharaoh I think that you can do that” instead Moses would say, “you must do that”, that was a command which came from God.

I’m sure you already know Moses’ story and I think that most of you have read it. The father of Moses was called Amram which means “friend of God” and his mother’s name was Jochebed which means the “glory of God”. Moses had a sister called Miriam which means “rebellion” and a brother named Aaron which means “the illuminator” or “the one who enlightens others”. Moses means “one who comes from water”.

So, if we look at that carefully we see that Amram means God’s friend and if you are “God’s friend” you must marry “God’s glory” and that will produce something very good in your life. The very first thing that will be shown in your life will be “rebellion” against sin, if you are God’s friend you’ll be an enemy of sin. Who can tell me what a rebel is? It is a person who opposes the government to change the political system in his country, he fights for his country.

Our country is the kingdom of God, we are called to fight for this kingdom. God gave us everything, He gave Adam the power to reign on earth, but later on the devil took this power away. And us as Christians, Jesus gave us a great authority, this authority is over the power of darkness and over everything. Satan continues to fight the souls of man, he keeps murdering Christians, he keeps on stealing the souls that are called to go to Jesus.

As for us, we are Christians, but we are called to see the injustice that is on the earth, if someone sees injustice he will decide to become a rebel, if someone sees something not right it’s the time for him to become a rebel. And for us, when we see something in our life that is not right, do we make decisions to be in rebellion against our bad thoughts? I can easily see parents who are always correcting their children but they are not able to do the same thing for themselves. They can do something wrong but justify it by saying “I’m old, that’s understandable”, but they will never accept that their own children make the same mistakes, so we must be careful. If we are God’s friend and if we have married God’s glory we must rebel against all devilish power.

The second child born was Aaron. Aaron was called to be a light for others. The second thing in a Christian’s life is to be a light in the world. In your actions you must be a light, in your prayer life and everything you do you must be a light. You are not called to be a light for a cigarette, you can see a light from a cigarette but it will not help you to even pick something up from the ground. For instance, if I drop a $2 coin and give a torch to Zoe and I use the light from a cigarette, I believe Zoe will find the coin before me even though my eyes are bigger than hers. Even if the cigarette is only a few centimetres away from the coin, I will never find it using the light of a cigarette.

Many Christians live like the light of a cigarette, from far away people see them but when it’s about enlightening a situation they can’t do it; “don’t touch me, don’t touch my life, leave it, even if I don’t care about this, it doesn’t matter I’ll get away with it” but for God everything matters, don’t forget that, on the day of judgement our actions will be with us. The Bible doesn’t say that our little actions or big actions will be there; all of them will be there.

The third child who was born was Moses, which means saved from water. Once you are a Christian your salvation must have a foundation, this foundation must be the Word of God, this foundation will never be your culture, it will never be your race or your political party, the Bible tells us that this foundation must be the Word of God which represents water.

Moses was born, he was saved from water. God wanted to use Moses so his mother kept him safe for a time and then Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and suddenly Miriam was there and she was asked to find someone to look after the child. Don’t you think that the princess couldn’t find someone in Egypt to look after Moses? But because the Word of God must be fulfilled, the presence of Miriam had to be there, “rebellion” had to be there and this rebellion went to look for someone who could look after this child. Rebellion went and found “the glory of God” and the glory of God went to be with Moses, and when Jochebed arrived she did not say “I am Moses’ mother”, she kept quiet, she observed everything that was happening in Moses’ life. This is the same for God, He also observes us; when we are in a difficult situation the very first thing is that God is informed that there is something not right in this man’s life, so God intervenes, He doesn’t intervene by talking but He comes and looks after us.

In Pharaoh’s house there were other children that were not adopted and these children who were Pharaoh’s descendants always had to be right before the child who was adopted. Also, remember that this wasn’t a Christian family, they believed in other gods, but Moses’ mother kept quiet, if Ramses smacked Moses his mother never asked Ramses “why do you smack my child? ”

About twenty years ago a man prophesied, he said that the very thing that will destroy Christians in this world will be their children, their parents will love their children more than God, they will be there to defend even what their children do wrong, they will never accept their children’s mistakes. This will give Satan a jack (the tool you use when you have a flat tyre on your car). He will lift up the church and people will think that the church is growing but it is actually shaking because you just have to pull the jack out and the car will fall. This man of God said, “you parents must be careful, don’t live like Sarah, because she loved Isaac and hated Ishmael”. But Ishmael was also a descendent of Abraham, he also had rights because he was a descendent of Abraham. God didn’t say to Sarah I must bless you and your descendents will be blessed, but God said to Abraham I will bless you, and your descendents will be blessed. Sarah said that because Abraham will be blessed I also will be blessed and this started hatred and jealousy.

We must know that our children we have do not belong to us. Michael, Nathanael is not your son, he is God’s son and God said it. He will say, “this is my servant, this is my son, and you are only the keeper”. Steve will be told the same thing, “Amber is my servant, I have the right to do whatever I want with my life, so what have you done with my servant?” Steve will say on that day, “I didn’t know”. But if on that day Steve will say, “Oh God I’ve done this and that” it will be great joy, you’ll get a crown. Today many people need children, many people are barren, they even buy children with money, they do everything they can to get a child, but we have received children as a free gift from God and we treat them as being for the devil. We let them grow in hatred, we let them grow in confusion, in pride and other things. God is against that.

So Jochebed looked after Moses for a long time. Moses grew up knowing the Egyptian religion and he also knew what God he should have and how to respect Him. As for us as Christians, we help others to give birth, we must participate and help them. For instance, if you have brought someone to Jesus you must fight so that this person will grow in the Lord, we must do it the way that Joshua did it; the gospel must start in my house, as for my household we will serve the Lord, it’s not about going to other families first, start in your own family first. If Lebon has a problem with me I must first fix the problem with the Word of God, if Michael sees Lebon in a mistake, as a Christian Michael will look after this child and correct him, if Ange sees Nathanael doing something that is not good she will tell him no, don’t do that. Unfortunately, us Christians today when the child comes home he will say “mum you know that the people I were with did this to me, I’m not happy with them”, from there you will be against those people.

When we were in our country there was a mother from our family (my brother Oscar can testify). If she arrived home and found her younger sister (or whoever) smacking her child she would also smack her child too and after smacking her child, then she would ask what happened? Because she knew that if Colleen did this, she is not crazy, and if Odon did this, it’s not for nothing, it’s because there is something. I can tell you this really helped because the children never ran to their mother for help. Something happened, a few years later and the father died and the mother was in a problem and left to go to Canada. The children stayed behind, these children had to live with other family members, so imagine if their upbringing wasn’t good how could they live with other families? If they had lived knowing that every time I can go and talk to Mum or Dad, how could they now live in other families? But because they lived in the light, all the children in this family are married and have a very good life before God and before man.

So us as Christians we must remember Moses. Moses was chosen by God to be His servant later. Moses’ Mum had to look after Moses completely according to God’s will, not her own will; she knew that God would use this child. For you Michael, what tells you that God will never use Nathanael, what tells you Steve that God will never use Chloe? So we are called to look after these children according to God’s will so that God will use them one day. If Jochebed made a mistake what could have happened in Moses’ life, if Moses couldn’t understand the Hebrew language how could he have been able to intervene, if he hadn’t learnt something about the living God how could he be called Moses today? So we must be very careful with our children’s upbringing.