Hebrews 11: 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered
because he saw him who is invisible.

Wow, I did not know that people actually wait for this summary... some of
you have chased me for it... that's really good to know.

This week's session started again with a late-Stephen Tong, again completely
exhausted by the time he got to Newton at 7.30 pm. Some kind souls prepared
two mugs of watermelon juice for both Tong and me; he was too exhausted to
take dinner, let alone drink the juice; I was afraid the juice will upset my
stomach... so the other co-workers got the treat... ha ha. But as usual, he
came alive again when he went on stage. He spoke about his exhausting
schedule, and how he has experienced the power of the resurrection all the
time; as if dead in exhaustion, then completely revived on stage.

First thing was the introduction of his long-time translator, Dr Lee Jian
Ann from Malaysia. Dr Lee started translating for Dr Tong since 1972, so
they have worked together for 3 decades. Prior to my involvement, Dr Lee was
the only other person Tong would work with, and he does the weekly
translation for KL in the Romans preaching (they have a much larger crowd
than in Singapore). I missed Hebrews just once due to reservist training,
and they flew Lee down from KL to take my place; while I have taken his
place in KL's Romans expositionary preaching in his absence. Interestingly,
Lee went on to full-time ministry after translating for Tong for a few
years, and as I understand, he made the decision during one of Tong's altar
call, while translating! Tong said that Dr Lee gave up a lucrative job to go
into ministry, and is the only person he knows who completed a ThD in only 6
years from the noted Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr Lee was once the
principal of Malaysia Bible Seminary, and lectures there now.

Lee was 'interviewed' by Tong on stage, and he said that he never regretted
entering into the ministry, nor did he think that he entered into late. He
said that his secular work allowed him to be more matured, and he views that
as part of the training God gave him. He was asked about his opinion about
church direction today and the reformed faith. Lee said that he believed
that there is a crisis in the church today, in that the church had lost her
direction due largely to the charismatic movement. He said that the
charismatic movement is based largely on post-modern philosophy, and the
new-age movement; and has influenced far too many church leaders and brought
about untold damages to the church.

He attributed this phenomena as the result of 4 reasons:
1. The lack of the individual Christian's ability to think independently
2. The lack of the gift of discernment among Christians, i.e. the ability to
tell right from wrong
3. The lack of self-reflection among Christians, i.e. the ability to
self-correct
4. The lack of a sense of urgency about the seriousness of this problem

Tong added a fifth one, which is the lack of knowledge about what to do with
the problem. In reflection, I would like to tell Dr Lee that I propose a
sixth reason, the lack of the demand for the truth. I have always wondered
why the demand for the truth is so very lacking in the church today, in that
no one bothers to ask if a miracle was indeed true, if a prophesy was indeed
true, if that proclamation or 'word of knowledge' was indeed real, and if
not, who is accountable? In a recent TV documentary made by a Canadian TV
station, the ministry of Benny Hinn was followed. They went to follow-up on
the 76 cases of miracle healing done by Hinn during one of his rallies,
verifying authenticity. Not one was found. But no one ever ask if the
preacher should be held accountable for false claims (can view this at
website: http://tv.cbc.ca/witness/faitha/faithsyn.htm) . I submit that if
the church and her leaders are sensitive towards the truth, and are
responsible towards what they say from the pulpit with regard to whether it
is true, or not; then many of the present excesses would not happen.

Tong then went on to verse 27, reviewing the earlier sessions, and I will
not repeat some of the similar points, except those with renewed emphasis.
He emphasized that Moses thought that he had solved his people's problem
when he killed the Egyptian, but realised that even with the foreigner out,
his own people fought among themselves. He said that the Indonesians chased
away the Dutch colonialists, only to oppress their own people more. So don't
ever think that man's method can solve the inherent problem of sin.

Tong revisited the 3 40-year stages of Moses' life, repeating that in the
first 40, Moses thought he was something. In the second 40, Moses thought he
was nothing; and in the last 40, Moses thought he was something only because
of God. He said that if one is talented and boastful, he is but being honest
with his talent, and at least he does have something to boast about. If one
is NOT talented and have nothing, than humility is a given, because there is
nothing to boast about, so that sort of humility is not that admirable
anyway. It is when one is BOTH talented and humble that the humility is
admirable. So in this sense, we ought not to wish that our fellow Christians
are so poor and talent-less that they become humble. If this were the case,
the church has no future. On the contrary, we should wish that they become
very talented and gifted, but that if they are arrogant, God will chastise
them and then use them mightily.

Tong then spoke about verse 27 in a manner that is rather unusual. Most
commentaries would say that this verse referred to Moses' leaving Egypt on
his second journey (the first was when he fled after killing the Egyptian,
the second leading the Israelites in the Exodus), since the verse said he
did not fear the King. Tong however, believed that this was the first
leaving, and not the second (Zondervan Commentaries also implied this). But
the Bible said Moses was afraid (Exodus 2:14). Tong said that the correct
notion should be that Moses already was not afraid in the beginning when he
decided to go into his people, and killed the Egyptian. He has already made
up his mind to defy the King, abandon his luxuries and future the first time
around; so this verse should apply to his first leaving. Zondervan argued
that the word 'he' left does not seem to indicate an Exodus of the people,
and that the next verse spoke about the Passover which was an event before
the Exodus. In summary, the verse referred to Moses leaving Egypt the first
time; which means that he left NOT because he was afraid. On the contrary,
he left because he was NOT afraid of the king, as the verse said.

Tong then returned to his often repeated theme of the importance of family
education, attributing Moses' decisions as a result of his mother's teaching
for that few years during Moses' childhood. He related a funny incident on
the airplane about him witnessing a 2 year old child yanking the hair of his
grandma. The grandma did nothing to stop the child, which made Tong unhappy.
So he stared at the child sternly, and the child stared back. When he really
could not stand it anymore, he smacked the child's hand and told him not to
yank the grandma's hair. Now, the entire family stared back at Tong. Tong
said the grandma's eyes had two mixed feelings, one was 'its none of your
business', the other was 'thank goodness you interfered. Tong then summoned
the child to his side, and he went to him! So Tong told all that one cannot
assume that children do not know anything and will learn by themselves. We
need to guide them with truth and justice every step along the way.

In the first 40 years of Moses' life, he thought he was something, and tried
to do many things in his own ways. He probably thought that he could go on
killing the Egyptians one by one. This is the case for most of us
Christians. But we often ignore the fact that it is God whose wisdom is far
above us. Tong used China as an example. He said that when Mao Tze Tong came
to power, there was about 450,000 Christians in China, but Mao kicked all
the missionaries out in 1953. It would have taken thousands upon thousands
of missionaries to reach China for Christ, so people thought that China is
gone and closed to the gospel. Yet because of the oppression, by 1985, there
are an estimated 50 million Christians in China. So God had used Mao as a
'negative' servant, and this is something no one else can expect.

He cited another example he encountered while preaching in Minneapolis. A
sister came and told Tong that they had a 10,000 people gospel rally in
China before China opened up to the outside world. Tong asked how it was
possible. The sister said that once, more than 10,000 people were gathered
together for a mass harvest. One person said to another, "For God so love
the world, that He gave His only Son...", the message was passed around
until all 10,000 heard John 3:16. She told Tong that this is a true story,
because she was among the 10,000.

Towards the end of his first 40 years, Moses realised that his value was
placed at the wrong place, and he needed to get out of his comfort zone and
be with God's people. So because of his faith, he dared to go against the
king and left the palace, and walked into his people. Here we see the spirit
of Christ at work, since Christ was the best example of someone moving from
glory to humility, without any basic human rights, being born in a place for
the animals. Moses was able to admit his status as a Hebrew, and face and
challenge an unjust legal system that allowed the Egyptians to suppress the
Hebrews.

A true prophet and servant of God would be such a person. He would not be
moved or seduced by luxuries, nor would poverty and suffering move his
stand. We see this to be the case for all of the prophets in the Bible. The
key is the ability to see the law above man's law, the authority above man's
authority, the power above man's power, the throne above man's throne, the
kingdom above man's kingdom. This was the vision Moses had, allowing him to
leave all he had to serve God's people.

Tong cited the case of a French evangelist, who went to Africa to serve
among a certain people. She was unhappily raped during her stay, and
returned to France broken. But then she heard a sermon again about how Jesus
Christ would forgive all the enemies that had crucified Him, so she asked if
God was telling her to return to those who did her harm. She finally did,
and died serving the same group of people who hurt her in the beginning.

In the second 40 years of Moses' life, he must have wondered what God was
doing. It seemed that he had no use, doing nothing but herding the sheep in
and out, daily repeating a boring job. Tong said many a times, that is the
way we seem to feel about our ministry. It is as if the LORD does not want
to use us, with all our great talent and ability. Tong said that this was
because God's timing is not up, and we needed to be further molded.

He cited the example of David and Goliath. By human thinking, David should
have worn some armour as provided by Saul, picked the largest and roughest
stone from the river to kill Goliath. Yet David chose small little pebbles,
that have been smoothened by thousands of years of water flow in the river.
That smooth pebble entered into Goliath's temple and killed him. Tong said
that many a times, we are like rough stones that needed polishing, and God
would use time to polish and mould us. So we ought to wait for the LORD, and
be ready for Him at all times, persevering at all cost the way Moses did.

The Session ended with Tong calling upon all to remain steadfast and
committed, waiting for the LORD and working based on His wisdom alone.

END

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.