Moses and the Exodus

      We will begin by talking a little about last week.  “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)  After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”  - Genesis 15:13-16 NLT  God had promised Abraham over and over that He would give this “promised land” to the descendants of Abraham, but it was not yet time when God  earlier spoken to Abraham.  God had two purposes the punishment of the Egyptians and giving the “promised land” to His people.  God Himself promised in a covenant that He would bring about the freedom of the Israelites.  God alone took the oath of the covenant.  God had promised that it would happen and now the time had come for God to bring His people out of Egypt.   

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      As you study your Bible I think you will notice that God’s people did not see a whole lot of success on this earth.  Jeremiah in his entire ministry, with all of the preaching he did, failed to get one person to heed his preaching.  The other books of the prophets are similar.  The Israelites went into captivity, because they did not heed the word of the Lord that the prophets were bringing from the Lord.  In fact, Jesus only had a few people by His side when He went to the cross, though the success of His sacrifice was and is unbelievably great, if someone were just looking at what He had done on this earth, in the end only a few people were there to support Him.  God does not desire results from us, it is obedience He is after.  If God chooses to do mighty things through you, then God will do mighty things through you.  If you are obedient to God and He has not chosen that huge thing come about then you are in good company.  I am sure Jeremiah felt just as you did, maybe you could relate to the book of Lamentations.  The first thing I want us to see is that it is all about who God is not who we are.    “So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.  Then the Lord said to Moses,  “Go back to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave his country.”  But Lord!” Moses objected. “My own people won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I’m such a clumsy speaker!”  But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders for the Israelites and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.”  This is the second time this has happened.  Remember it is all about who God is, not about who you are.  The first time was right after Moses had seen the burning bush.  Here is the earlier conversation.  “But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”  Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?  Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”” – Exodus 4:10-12 NLT  In essence Moses said, I can’t go to pharaoh, I don’t talk well and I have a stuttering problem.  God says, “Who gave you that stuttering problem?  I gave you the stuttering problem, now go stutter for me and I will tell you what to say.”  So, remember who it is that you serve.  Remember how large God is and that God knew everything about you before He gave you a single command.  He made you that way.  God is in control of the entire situation.  In Exodus 7 God tells what He is going to do.  He gives in great detail all that will happen.  “Tell Aaron everything I command you, and Aaron must command Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave his country.  But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.  Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.” – Exodus 7:2-4  God was in complete and total control of the situation.  “Go tell pharaoh to let my people go, he is going to say no, because I will “make his heart stubborn” and then I will judge Egypt.  God knew exactly how He was going to free His people and bring about judgment upon the Egyptians.  God hadn’t asked Moses to do anything without Him, but also remember God is in total control of every situation.  Even though it does not seem as if it is so, God is in control.  Serving God is all about God and all about who He is, not about who you are.             
     God brought about His judgment on Egypt in the form of 10 plagues and the drowning of an army.  Over and over Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but over and over he refused.  Nine times Pharaoh refused to cooperate and we see the phrase “but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened”.  “Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects. “Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal. That same night they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast. Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal—including the head, legs, and internal organs—must be roasted over a fire. Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.  These are your instructions for eating this meal: Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover. On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord! But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 12:1-13  God was going to kill the firstborn in Egypt, except for those whose doorposts were covered in the blood of the lamb.  God’s anger, God’s justice, God’s wrath was about to be poured out on the Egyptians, but if your house was covered in the blood of the Lamb you would not be touched.  What a striking picture God was painting.  Jesus would one day be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” – John 1:29   “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  This was to show God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” – Romans 3:23-25 Propitiation is satisfying the righteousness of a holy God, thereby making it possible for Him to show mercy righteously.  Righteousness and justice mean the same thing in the Greek language.  As we have spoken of before God poured His justice and wrath out on Jesus, so that we could be set free.   If you trust in Jesus, God will not pour His wrath and justice out on you on judgment day.             

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     God, with this last plague killed all the firstborn in Egypt.  The people of Egypt urgently pushed the Israelites into freedom as the Egyptians gave them whatever they asked for.  Which made the Israelites rich, God did exactly what He had said He would do.  There was one more judgment upon the Egyptians.  God was not finished.  “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon.  Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.'  And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." So the Israelites did this.” – Exodus 14:1-4  NLT  And yet again God did exactly what He said that He would do.  He “hardened pharaoh’s heart and pharaoh followed them with a great army.  You all know the story.  God made a way for the Israelites to walk on dry land through the middle of the Red Sea and God destroyed the Egyptian army while they were trying to pursue the Israelites.

     God had freed His people and brought punishment upon the Egyptians.  He had done all that He had promised to Abraham.  “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)  After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”  - Genesis 15:13-16 NLT


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