Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to Living Hope Church. We're glad that you chose to join us this morning. If you are new here, just a special welcome to you at this time. Children ages 3 to 5 are welcome to go to children's church. And that's just a time where that group of kids, along with some adults, because there will be adults with them as well, can go and spend time down the hall and have a lesson aimed at their age group and just a special time for them. So that's just optional for you as parents. Kids ages 3 to 5 and then also both during the Sunday school time or the Bible study time at 9. And during the service, we have a nursery that's available for you if you find that helpful for you. The rest of us can be opening our Bibles to the Book of Exodus, the Book of Exodus. And if you don't have a Bible, but would like one in this center section on the back row, there's a little podium thing there with some Bibles. And if you think, I need a Bible today, I want to have a Bible. And maybe you don't have a Bible for, feel free to get up even now and grab one of those Bibles. And if you don't have one at home, you can keep that Bible as just a gift to you. Exodus, chapter one is where we're gonna start. And we're Gonna look at 18 chapters today. Only 18 chapters. And I say only 18 chapters, because last week, if you were with us, we finished the book of Genesis and we only looked at 39 chapters. So today, something nice and short for us, just 18 chapters.
[00:01:22] If you are new here, haven't been with us for the last few weeks, we are starting a series or continuing a series in the Old Testament. Go back one slide, if you would. And in this series, we're walking through the whole Old Testament, starting in Genesis and ending at the last book of the Old Testament, which is the last book of the Old Testament, which is Malachi. I know you were like, wait a minute, you weren't supposed to ask a question that we had to reply to.
[00:01:49] So the last book of the Old Testament. And maybe you didn't know that, and that's okay. Now you do. The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. And. And that's where we will end at the end of our sermon series at the end of November. And maybe you're reading through the Bible, the Old Testament with us as well. That is something that you'll finish actually at the end of the year with the Book of Malachi. At the end of December. One of the things that we want to make sure that you're able to do, as was mentioned earlier, is to be able to ask questions and to engage a little bit deeper. Because what we're going through here is really just a survey of the Old Testament. So there is lots more details that we're not able to cover on Sunday morning. And if you want to dive in a little bit deeper, one of the places you can do that is in our home groups. We call them Gospel communities. And as was mentioned earlier in the bulletin, you can see a list of when those are and where those are. Reach out, ask about how you can connect with one of the places there. Also, maybe you're regularly a part of the church and you're engaged, but you want to, like, dig in a little bit deeper than. There are some resources that I just want to point in your direction that we're going to continue to post. If you are regularly a part of the church, maybe you're not, but you want to connect a little bit more. We have an app in our church now. Some of you know exactly what apps are, and you have tons of apps on your phone and your watch and all those things. Others, maybe you don't know what an app is. But an app on your phone you can download. And we have a church app that all on the app. And I'll just pull my phone out here, which I don't recommend when you're usually speaking in front of people, but I'm gonna do. And on the app you can do all sorts of things.
[00:03:26] There's groups. All of our groups are on the app. You can give on the app. There's events, there's a directory. One of the things, though, I'm gonna scroll down. One of the things on the app says Old Testament. And if I click on that, it'll take me to a document that has resources for the things that we're covering here. So there's our Old Testament reading plan, there's charts, there's maps, and. And so if you want to dig a little deeper and see what we have there for you on the app in the Old Testament reading tab, you can do that. And we'll update that app, that tab, as we go through our series. So all that kind of said, let me pray. And then we're going to dive into God's word this morning. If you would bow your heads and pray with me.
[00:04:09] Oh, Lord Jesus, we are here this morning as people that want to listen to what you want to say to Us, as we just sung moments ago, we need you.
[00:04:21] We say that we need lots of things during the week, things that are often wants, but we need you. We don't just want you. And so this morning, I pray that you would speak to us in a way that only you can. That you would calm our restless, busy hearts and minds.
[00:04:41] For all those here today maybe walking through hard things in their life, Lord, I pray that you would comfort them with a comfort that only you can. That you would bring us a peace right now as we go through these passages, these chapters again, that only you can. And that you would teach us and you would shape us more into your likeness because of what we see here. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:05:03] All right, so let me give you a little bit of background just for a minute or two before we dive into this, this chapter where we are today, or this book where we are today. We're looking at part one of Exodus, but there is a book before Exodus and it's the first book of the Bible. More Pop quiz time. What's the first book of the Bible?
[00:05:22] Genesis. Alright, so we looked at Genesis in two weeks and we looked at two main focuses with Genesis. The first part was the first 11 chapters of Genesis. That was the creation, the first kind of coming of man and the Noah's flood. The second part that we looked at last week, we focused our message around four main characters. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and one more J word. His name was Joseph and Joseph, the way that concluded we looked at the end of Genesis. If you look in your Bibles, you can flip back if you'd like. Joseph ends up going to Egypt, not by his own choice, but ends up going to Egypt. And he ends up, because of God's power, ends up saving the people not only in Egypt, but also much of the known world because of an incredible famine that was going on. And when that occurred, what happened was Joseph's family who lived far away from him, they said, man, Joseph, you are really powerful. You're the second in command in Egypt. And so Joseph invited his family to this country called Egypt. And that was about 350 or so years before what we read in Exodus chapter one. So that's important to kind of have in your mind, when they came to Egypt, Joseph's family, There was about 70 people. Can you say 70 people? There was about 70 people in that party. And many of them were shepherds, they were people that had flocks. And so what Joseph and Pharaoh really Pharaoh's suggestion, he said, hey Joseph, our people are really sophisticated.
[00:06:56] Your Family? Well, they're like a bunch of shepherds, so less sophisticated. So I think we should put them in. In this place called Goshen. Can you say Goshen? Goshen. And that's in the northern part. We're gonna look at a picture in a little bit, the northern part of Egypt. And in this northern part, it's much more fertile, more grass, all of that. So it's great for the flocks. And so really, this is a win for Joseph's family. Cause they have flocks to feed. And it's also a win for Pharaoh because he gets to keep the shepherd people away from his sophisticated city. All right, are you with me so far? So that was about 350 or so years prior. And. And what happens is, when we look in Exodus, chapter one is the people began to multiply. Can you say multiply? And they multiplied and multiplied and multiplied to the point where we pick up in chapter one, there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million people. Now, how many people started?
[00:07:49] 70 people. 350 years or so later, there's around 2 million people. Now, that's important for us to remember as we get into what we're talking about here. Now, these people were known either Hebrews, as was known even as Abraham and his kids and his people. Later on in this book, we're going to see them also known as the Israelites. Now, Israel, Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel by God. And so you're going to see the name Hebrews and Israelites kind of used interchangeably in this book. So that's where that comes from. Originally, they were called the Hebrews. And then because of them being kids of Jacob, descendants of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, we're going to see them used their name as the Israelites as well. So really important to kind of have that framework. Part one. Let's get into this. Chapters one through 18. Now, we split this book in half. Not really in half, but 1 through 18, part 1 and 19 through 40, which is next week. Come back next week for the rest of this.
[00:08:55] We. What happens in chapters one through 18? There's a snapshot I put on the screen for you.
[00:08:59] The first part of the book is what happens pre Mount Sinai. And the second part of the book, chapters 19 through 40, is what happens when they're at this mount called. What is it?
[00:09:10] Sinai. So first part is pre Mount Sinai. And then the second part is when they're at Mount Sinai. And we're gonna get to that next week. So here's the snapshot. God responds when his people cry out. It's been 350 years. How does he cry out? Because they're under oppression. By raising up a deliverer, preparing him, then calling him to confront evil.
[00:09:29] The evil, the powerful king of Egypt. These chapters that we're looking at recounts a powerful confrontation between God and the unjust king whom the Egyptians call Pharaoh. This section is, as you're going to see, incredibly fast paced. And it leads to divine justice, to rescue, to deliverance. All right, so there's kind of the snapshot. If you have your bulletin with you and a pen, you can write in some of the things that are on the screen, kind of fill in the lines on your outline. The basics. Right, that's where we need to start. What's the basics of this book? Let's look together. The author of the book you can write this in his name is Moses. And we're gonna actually hear about in chapter two, the birth of Moses. So Moses wrote Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy as well.
[00:10:17] The timeline, we talked a little bit about that already.
[00:10:20] This is the time of the Exodus is put usually somewhere around 1446 years before Jesus BC 1400 or so years there. So this is. So if Jesus is here, you look backwards in the timeline, about 1400 years. That's where we are with this thing that we call the Exodus, this time of this writing. And then where are we located in the world? Where in the world are we in Egypt? This is. We're gonna see the Red Sea and the wilderness. So you can write some of these things down as well. And I put a couple of these on the screen, a couple images on the screen that help give us a little bit of perspective. The timeline we started, I know it's kind of small. We started the timeline at the beginning in Genesis. And so that red arrow continue is gonna continue to move as we shift, move through the Old Testament and then go one slide forwards. Where in the world are we?
[00:11:12] This one more, I think forwards to a map.
[00:11:16] There we go. There's Egypt. You can see the northern part of Egypt. What color is that?
[00:11:20] It's pretty green. That was referencing what I talked about earlier. That's the area of Goshen. Further south is where some of the bigger cities were. And then that orange line there where you can see they crossed the Red Sea. They're in the wilderness for a while. And the line kind of follows down to.
[00:11:36] To Mount Sinai. So that's where this is all taking place. The basics we're just looking at pretty quickly. Let's get into the outline and we're going to spend the bulk of our time here. So Exodus chapter one. Open your Bibles, if they're not already there. Exodus chapter one. We're going to look at some characters.
[00:11:51] The first of the characters that we're going to see here, you can write some of these names down, is God.
[00:11:57] God is the first of the characters. He is the primary actor in, in this entire account. And even though we saw this last week, even though Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they were some pretty messy people, weren't they? They made some pretty significant mistakes. What's important, friends, for you and I to realize is this.
[00:12:19] God blessed some pretty messy people, but it doesn't mean that he approved of their sin.
[00:12:26] There's an important difference and maybe you want to write this down somewhere. There's an important difference to consider as we read through particularly the Old Testament. And it's the Old Testament, much of what we're reading, particularly around people that are doing all sorts of stuff that you're like, how is that? Okay, Much of what we're reading is a description of what happened, not a prescription of what we should do. All right, are you with me there? So it's. This is what occurred. It doesn't mean God was like, yes, that's great. God may have even done great things because of what they did. But it doesn't mean God is saying, yes, you should have lied, you should have stolen, you should have deceived you. It's a description of what occurred. It doesn't mean God is giving a thumbs up to the sinful actions. And so even still, we see that God is the one who's fulfilling promises here. So God is the main one, the next one. We see Moses. Moses. Life is broken up into three big chunks.
[00:13:19] He has 40 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness, and 40 years or so leading these people we call the Israelites.
[00:13:28] And then Aaron has. Moses has an older brother. His name is. I just said it, Aaron. Aaron helps him out. Aaron's a good speaker. Moses says, I'm not really good at speaking later on. And so Aaron's going to help him out. He also is the first high priest and then Pharaoh and the Egyptians. I want to just spend a second here.
[00:13:45] It's really important that we know this. Walking into these chapters, Pharaoh and the Egyptians are the most as recorded. That is evil nation post flood. They are some evil people. We're gonna see some examples of that in a little bit. They embody Rebellion against God. They are even in the text that we're gonna look at, ruthless. And they're labeled as making the lives of other people bitter. Not only that, Pharaoh says because he wants to limit the population of the Israelites, his grand idea in limiting the population is killing baby boys. That's his grand idea.
[00:14:26] That gives just a snapshot of how evil he is. And the nation of Egypt carried that out. They were an incredibly powerful nation. All right, let's look. We talked about the Israelites already. Let's dive into the structure. Chapters one through six. You can write this in if you'd like. The Oppression and a Deliverer. Oppression and a Deliverer. Chapters one through six. Let's look in your Bibles. Just kind of flip with me.
[00:14:49] Chapter one, verse nine. We're gonna just read through some verses here that set the stage. Look in your Bibles, starting in verse nine. We already know what's gone on.
[00:14:58] Here's what it says in verse nine. And he said to his people, behold, this is Pharaoh speaking. Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join their enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Python and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they. What's that word there? Do you have multiplied? We talked about that earlier. And the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they what?
[00:15:39] Ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves. And they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the fields.
[00:15:51] In all of their work, they ruthlessly made them as slaves.
[00:15:56] Then, like I said earlier, we look a little bit further than the king says to the Hebrew midwives, hey, here's what you should do. When the babies are born. If it's a boy, you should kill it, and if it's a girl, you shall leave them.
[00:16:09] And the Hebrew women said, no, we're not going to do that.
[00:16:13] That was called civil. That's disobedience, isn't it?
[00:16:16] But they said, that's not right. And that's not just. So we're not going to do that. And so we see the oppression that happened. We continue on in chapter one. You see that it gets worse and worse. And then there's a deliverer that God is going to send. In chapter two. What do you see there the birth of the boy named Moses. Moses. And this is unique. Moses wasn't named by his mom. Did you know that most of the time, the mom. The parents name their children. In this case, we don't know what mom named Moses. Moses was born. And then mom says, special boy. I don't want him to die. She hid him for a while, and then she said, well, I can't hide him any longer. And so what she did is she puts him in a basket, perfectly timed, divinely, one might say, or organized by her, timed to float down the River Nile. And then who finds Moses?
[00:17:09] Pharaoh's daughter opens it up and says, there's a baby. It's a Hebrew. She knows he's supposed to die. Dad said he's supposed to die. But Pharaoh's daughter says, no, we're not gonna have this baby die. It ends up paying mom to take care of her son, which is so special. And then ends up. Moses goes back and lives with Pharaoh's daughter. And for 40 years, he continues to live there. But Pharaoh remembers. Moses remembers something. He remembers where he came from, doesn't he?
[00:17:40] He says, these are my people. I know that I've been raised in the palace with the king, but those are my people out there. And at one point in time, he sees one of his people, one of the Hebrews, being beaten by one of the Egyptians. And he says, I'm gonna stand in the gap for them. And he tries to protect one of his own. And what does he end up doing?
[00:18:00] Killing one of the Egyptians. At this point in time, a capital crime. And thus, people begin to look for Moses because he now needs to What? Die? So Moses, as probably some of us might do, he runs. He runs away to a place called Midian. And this really briefly here we see in these first few chapters, God says this.
[00:18:24] I'm going to use you, but you need some training. Do any of you need training for stuff? Sometimes God needed to train Moses and show him what it looked like to shepherd people. And so he starts with showing Moses what it looks like to shepherd sheep. How many years does he spend shepherding sheep?
[00:18:43] 40 years. So we had 40 years in Egypt. And then God says, I'm gonna train you for 40 years in this work around sheep.
[00:18:53] Then God says, It's time. The 40 years is done. And now it's time. But Moses, he has some arguments against God. God says, hey, Moses, I would like you to go back through this burning bush. He says, I want you to go back to Egypt, and I want you to let my people what go? Right? You all know this line. We'll use it a lot more in a minute. Moses then has lots of excuses for God. But you know this. Maybe you've heard this trade, right?
[00:19:19] God doesn't call the people who feel equipped.
[00:19:23] He calls people. And then he says, I will equip you because I know what's inside of you. I know what you can do. And so Moses then has these excuses. Some of these verses are on the screen there.
[00:19:34] And Moses says in chapter 5, verses 20 and verse 20 and following says, they met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them, and they come out. And this is Moses and Aaron now before Pharaoh. And here's what it says. Lord, look on you. This is verse 21. And judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. This is. Now Moses has gone back to Pharaoh. He says, let my people what go? And Pharaoh says, no. Pharaoh's gonna say a lot of no, by the way. And the people, this is their response. They say, hey, Moses, you came. I thought you were gonna let us go. You went to Moses and asked if we could go. And Moses said, what?
[00:20:16] No. And here's what happens.
[00:20:18] The people actually get really mad at Moses. They say, hey, I thought you were gonna let us go. But now our work got harder. And Pharaoh says, we have to make more bricks. And we have to make them without straw, which, again, very, very challenging. And now there's this important transition.
[00:20:37] Here's the transition. God says this to Moses.
[00:20:40] You thought you were gonna be the person to make the Israelites free. You thought that was gonna be your job. Because Moses, he's all down on himself. Go to the next slide. Moses says this, like, I thought this was gonna be great. I thought I was gonna let the people go. And here's what God says. You weren't gonna do it. I am. And so now it's time for me to step in. I will show you that I am the one strong enough to bring these people out of Egypt. Friends, there's times in our life that you believe God's called you to do something. Have you ever been in that place before? Like, I think God wants me to do that, and then it doesn't work out the first time. Has that ever happened to you? And you think, maybe God doesn't want me to do this.
[00:21:27] Have any of you been there? I know I've been there. That's what Moses is going through. God, you told me I would let the people go, like I would lead them out. But it didn't work out the first time. And so Moses, now he's thinking, I'm done. Maybe I should just quit. And God shows up and says, no, actually I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna do it through power that only I can demonstrate. We start then in the second part of this section. We've seen that there's oppression. Then God raises up a deliverer. But God is gonna be the one who actually delivers his people. And in chapters seven through 12, you could write this in the plagues and the Passover. This is how God's going to do this. Look in your Bibles. You can flip over to chapter seven.
[00:22:09] Moses and Aaron, now they're standing before Pharaoh. And here's what occurs.
[00:22:15] He says again, we're going to see. Many times he goes before Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron. And he says to Pharaoh, let my people what go? And then we have what we see is the plagues. The plagues begin to occur. And this is what God does to show Pharaoh, I am stronger than you. If you wonder why did the plagues happen, it's because God wants to teach Pharaoh that I am stronger than you. There's a few things that we see here. If you look in your Bibles. In chapter seven, eight, and nine, we see that there was water that turns into blood. We see frogs. We see some of your Bibles might say lice or gnats.
[00:22:54] There's flies that occur. Livestock die. There's boils that happen on them. There's hail and there's lightning.
[00:23:01] This is not going well, right? And in each of those occurrences, here's what happens. And follow me here. It's Moses says, hey, Pharaoh, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, what?
[00:23:13] No. And Moses says, if you don't, this is what's going to happen.
[00:23:18] And for the first five of the 10 plagues, and here's what happens. The Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
[00:23:26] Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. And then the plague would happen. Now, this happens over and over and over again. Moses says, let my people go. Pharaoh says, no. Moses says, well, if you don't, this is what's going to happen. Pharaoh's heart either the first five was hardened and the next five, it says this, that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
[00:23:50] We see here that God is going to bring about incredible power. His incredible power displayed here. So the first thing we want to note is this. They were warned about these plagues. Because sometimes when we look at this. You might say, this God seems incredibly cruel. This seems cruel of God to do this. It's important that we know this. They were warned about this. Secondly, each of these plagues that occurred addressed one of the gods of the Egyptians. So in each of the plagues that occurred, one of their gods should have been able to solve that problem, because the Egyptians were full of all sorts of false gods. And they had gods for what happened in the sky, gods for what happened with the plants, gods for what happened with their animals. And so what happens is God says, here's a plague.
[00:24:34] And the Egyptians say to their false gods, God, will you fix this? Our God, will you fix this? And did their false God fix it?
[00:24:41] No. Here's what we see as you read through this account.
[00:24:45] The people of Egypt realized this God in heaven, the God of the Hebrews, is stronger than all of our false gods.
[00:24:53] That's what they realized over and over and over again. Even Pharaoh's advisors, they were like, can you please let them go? We're tired of this. We are tired of this. And Pharaoh kept saying his favorite word, which was, no, I will not let them go. And it brought them to the tenth plague, the worst, if you will, of them all. We know that at the beginning, you see in chapters one and two, that Pharaoh said, I'm going to kill these baby boys, right? What was the 10th plague?
[00:25:22] Killing of the firstborn. And by the way, which seems, by the way, like one of the worst of the plagues. Chapter 11, if you look in your Bibles, in chapter 11, the entire chapter is dedicated to warning Pharaoh and the Egyptians, this is what's going to happen.
[00:25:42] So it's not like God was just kind of sneaking more plagues on them. He's like, oh, I'm not gonna tell anybody about what's gonna happen. He warned them over and over and over again, let my people go. And even still, there was a time in chapter nine, it says this because they were warned. If you want to avoid the plagues, this is how you can avoid them. If you actually believe God, this is what the blessing can be. This was not God being incredibly cruel and just throwing all sorts of random plagues on people.
[00:26:13] God was saying, here's what's coming. Do you want to believe in me or do you not want to believe in me? And all through that time, we see that the Israelites believed God and avoided all of these plagues. These plagues took place for God to show a prideful and evil nation how powerful is now. At first glance, Like I said, this might seem cruel, but we see over and over again, if you read through this, God offers a way out now that's going to be important for us to hold onto as we continue on. Then the passover occurs. And God says this the way that you. This is including the Hebrews, right? The way that you avoid the death of the firstborn is by putting blood on the doorpost.
[00:26:58] And the Hebrews, they did just that.
[00:27:01] Then we see that because of this incredible outcry, I mean, this would have been a heartbreaking night. As the angel of death goes over the nation of Egypt and it says this. There was a cry like none others when the people woke up and they saw people next to them that had died.
[00:27:22] It was terrible. That night when God passed over with the angel of death and there was death to that nation.
[00:27:30] Did God offer a way out?
[00:27:32] Yes, he did. He told them, he warned them, this doesn't have to happen to you.
[00:27:38] And for those who rejected God's warning, they experienced death in their house, including Pharaoh and his son dying. And so what does Pharaoh do? He calls Moses and he says, I'm tired of it. You can finally what, go? You can finally go. And that leads us to the third part in chapters 13 through 18. Deliverance and provision. Deliverance and provision. Write this down. You can write that down there. They then gathered up in the middle of the night. They said, all right, we've been allowed to leave. And how many people is it that left? We talked about this earlier. It wasn't 70 that first came to Egypt. How many people was this now?
[00:28:15] Like 2 million people. It says 600,000 men, plus their wives, plus. Plus their kids that left. So this deliverance happens. And also, you might not know this, there were also Egyptians that left with the Hebrews. Did you know that?
[00:28:33] There were Egyptians that said, I believe in this God now. I've seen the power of this God. And he's way stronger than all of our other little gods that we used to worship. They left with the Hebrews. And then God leads them to the red, to the Red Sea. And this is where we see God's final act of judgment against the Egyptians. God through only a power that God can parts the water and the people walk across on dry land after much fear.
[00:29:03] And God then allows the Egyptian army to run in after them into these pillars of water on both sides, right? Just this wall of water, I should say, on both sides they're running across. The Egyptian army is. And God says this to Moses. He says, all right, put Your hands down. I'm going to close the water over them.
[00:29:21] And we see the death of this entire army, including Pharaoh.
[00:29:26] Were they warned?
[00:29:28] Yes, they were. Yes, they were. God then, through his mighty act of judgment, says, I'm doing away with the strongest nation in the known world at the time.
[00:29:40] And now you might assume that after God has worked all of those plagues to bring about the deliverance of God's people, he's brought about the parting of this sea to lead them across and closed the water in over their enemies, you might assume that these people, the Hebrews, the Israelites, are gonna trust God 100%, right?
[00:29:59] That would be your assumption.
[00:30:01] What do we see? Chapter 16, verse 2, the lower part, on the screen. I'll just read it. It says this. They got across. They sing a song, chapter 15, as Moses and his sister singing a song, praising God. One chapter later, the whole congregation. What? It's on the screen. Grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And here's what they said. Why did you bring us out here? So we can die of hunger?
[00:30:25] And you just imagine Moses first scratching his head, going, what?
[00:30:30] You saw what God did. You have some level of faith in God, don't you? But they grumble against Moses, and then what happens? God, in his incredible mercy, says, I'm gonna give you this special food called manna. And he gives them this special food. It puts a whole new meaning on. Give us this day our daily bread. Because this manna came down, they would wake up in the morning, they would find this manna, this food on the ground, and they could only have it for that day. And if they tried to save the manna for the next day, it went bad.
[00:31:03] Unless, of course, it was Friday. Then they could gather enough for two days so that they wouldn't have to go out and gather food on the Sabbath. God was faithful to meet the needs of his people. And then one chapter later, the people realize, we have food, but we want what?
[00:31:19] Water. We need some water. We need something to drink. So what do we see here?
[00:31:24] They grumbled again against Moses. And they say this. Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock. With what? With thirst.
[00:31:36] Forgetful people much?
[00:31:38] Aren't we the same, though?
[00:31:41] So. So forgetful. And God gives them water by taking Moses to a rock, and he says, strike the rock with your staff. And water came out. God provided food miraculously. He provided water miraculously. And in chapter 17, we see also that God gave them victory in their first battle ever.
[00:32:03] They were victorious and then chapter 18, Moses in laws. He must have a good relationship with his in laws. Any of you have good relationships with your in laws? He has a good relationship with his in law. Dad comes over. His name's Jethro in chapter 18. And Jethro watches Moses leadership, particularly his judgment of the people, his helping decide how to navigate challenges with the people, and gives them some really good leadership advice. That's chapter 18. And then that takes us right up to this giant mountain called Mount what, Mount Sinai. This first part, though, we see deliverance. We see provision of God for his people. Now, the series title is this.
[00:32:42] Exploring the Old Testament, Discovering the Savior.
[00:32:47] On your outline, you can see this, the Savior. We see three main areas in these chapters that we find the Savior. And this is so important that we just hone in, we zoom in, if you will, because this is where Jesus is seen. There's a lot of things going on there. We want to find Jesus in all of this, and we don't have to look very hard.
[00:33:08] The first place you could write this in the Savior is the Passover lamb.
[00:33:12] The Passover Lamb, First Corinthians 5, 7 tells us this as well. We spent a minute already talking about this. God says there is death coming.
[00:33:22] There is death coming, but if you want to avoid death, you have to be under the blood of the lamb. That's how you avoid death. God was not secretive about death. He said, there's punishment coming for this nation, and if you want to avoid it, the only way that you can avoid it is by sitting under the blood of the lamb and you have to sacrifice an animal. Death has to happen so that you can live. Friends, do we see Jesus there?
[00:33:48] Jesus, known as the Lamb of God, who takes away John, said this in John 1:29, takes away the sin of the world. Jesus died in our place.
[00:34:01] The second place that we see Jesus show up again, we don't have to look too much further. Is this in the manna?
[00:34:07] The manna is known as this. It's known as a type of Christ or a foreshadowing of something that Jesus was going to do or a work that he was going to do. You could write that in the manna. John, chapter six. The Gospel of John, chapter six, verse 35, speaks about Jesus. He says, I am the bread. Of what?
[00:34:29] Of life.
[00:34:30] Just as the manna that came down from heaven to provide sustenance for God's people, so too is Jesus for us. He says, come. I've come from heaven, a gift from God, because you are Hungry, you know, the world around us is hungry. Do you know that There's a lot of hunger around us? And Jesus says this. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never. What's that word?
[00:35:01] Thirst. Which leads us to the last, the third one on your outline. You could write this. In the water from the rock, the people grumbled against Moses because they were hungry and God provided manna. Then they grumbled against Moses again. And God said, I will provide water from the.
[00:35:19] From this rock.
[00:35:21] Exodus chapter 17 speaks about this. You go to, I think, the next slide that shows 1 Corinthians 10:4 speaks about Jesus being this rock. I want to draw a parallel here for you. What was Moses told to do in order for water to come out of the rock?
[00:35:37] Strike it.
[00:35:38] Now, interesting parallel here.
[00:35:41] When the rock was struck, living water, water came out of the rock. Jesus not only is the rock of our salvation, but he is also living water, isn't he?
[00:35:52] And we experience Jesus as the one who gives us living water because he was struck. Jesus was struck, if you will, struck to death. And because of his death on the cross, you and I can experience life. Amen. It is because he was struck that we can experience this kind of life. Even Jesus in John chapter four, when he's talking to the woman at the well, he says, come and drink. I have living life.
[00:36:21] John 7 speaks about this. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
[00:36:27] Jesus is the place to find satisfaction and healing for your and my longings and our hurt, for fear that we have.
[00:36:41] For anger, lies, selfishness, cruelty, passivity, hate, jealousy, anxiety, restlessness, loneliness.
[00:36:53] All of these are realities that the human heart feels, that experiences. And this is what Jesus says.
[00:37:01] You have a longing or you have a hurt, or both.
[00:37:06] And I can feel that I can heal, that I can meet you where you are.
[00:37:12] And we see that laid out through these chapters. Jesus saying, I see the need of my people, and I can bring a deliverer. I can see the hunger of my people, and I can bring a deliverer. I can see the thirst of my people, and I can offer satisfaction for your needs.
[00:37:29] We look now at this last section on your outline. You can write some of these in the application. What do we do with all of this? We see chapters one through 18. A lot has occurred, but what do we take away from this? What does this teach us about God, about life and humanity and about me? Maybe there's many things that you're thinking already.
[00:37:50] I want to slow down just a little. Bit we've looked at a lot and hone in on this because we don't want to just read the word of God for information.
[00:37:59] We want to read the word of God so that we experience transformation.
[00:38:03] And oftentimes it's when we look at the application that we can realize that's how God wants to change me.
[00:38:10] So look at this point on the screen. It's on your outline. Maybe you want to write some of these things down. What does this teach me about God? I put a few things on the screen. It teaches us much more. Firstly, though, God has the power to change hearts. If there's people in your life that are experiencing hard hearts, like who in our text today, who had a hard heart?
[00:38:29] Pharaoh. God has the power to change hearts. If there's people in your life who have a hard heart, you can ask God, God, can you please change their hearts?
[00:38:40] Later on in the Old Testament, we're gonna get to some of this. As you're gonna read through it, we see that God has the power to change even the hearts of kings as he does with how he creates like flowing water in a stream. Changing hearts is not hard for God. And so there's people in your life, maybe that aren't followers of Jesus. Pray for their hearts. God has the power to change their hearts. Secondly, you can see there is God has power over all of creation. Not just some things, but all things.
[00:39:10] And friends, if you've been watching the news, any of you been watching the news, you know what's going on in other parts of the country with weather right now, none of that.
[00:39:19] God's not like, I had no idea that was going on.
[00:39:23] And there's some level of this. We can have great peace knowing that God has power over all creation.
[00:39:29] Because the news, when we watch things going on around the world, we can get really anxious, we can get really unsettled. We need to remember this truth, friends. He has power over all creation. That includes humans as well. And lastly, you can see there is this. God does what he says he's going to do.
[00:39:46] God is a God who makes promises and fulfills his promises. There's like at least five or six times that God says in this, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart. But. But don't worry, I will let these people go.
[00:39:59] And did God do what he said he was gonna do over and over again? There's great value for you and I to go through God's word. And when you see a promise that God makes, circle it, underline it, write it in a notebook somewhere. Because God is a God who is faithful. He does what he says he's going to do. Let's look at the next one. What does this teach us about life and or humanity?
[00:40:22] One that's not on the screen is this. You know this and I know this. Remember what happens when the people of Israel, they cross the Red Sea. They've already seen all the plagues. What was in that next chapter? It says the people did what against Moses, grumbled against Moses, and they complained. Here's what we see there. They forgot God's faithfulness.
[00:40:41] What does this teach us about humanity? It's this. And this is not on the screen here. But we are quick to forget the power and the faithfulness of God in our life.
[00:40:50] It's shown probably most easily when someone says, how has God been answering your prayers recently?
[00:40:55] You know how often we have, like, I don't know, like, I have to think about that one. I would encourage you write down prayer requests that you have and then have another list of, here's the answers. Here's the way that God has been meeting or answering the prayer requests that I have had before him. It reminds us forgetful people of God's.
[00:41:15] Secondly, and this one's on the screen is this. What does this teach us about life or humanity? Is this God desires freedom for all his people in bondage Today, everyone has a genesis, if you will, that is a beginning to their story. But not everyone has an exodus that is deliverance from strongholds in their life or bondages that you're experiencing. That is we, you and I, we have a beginning. We have a story, a family, a family of origin and all of that. But stuff happens to us in our life that puts us in places where we're experiencing or believing lies. There's abuse, stuff that happens, there's anger that happens in our life or that we experience from other people. There's many here, you and I today, that have experienced really, really hard things that we might call strongholds in our life that are keeping us from experiencing all that God has for us.
[00:42:08] Not all of us have experienced an exodus from that bondage. And Jesus came so that we can experience this exodus, if you will, post resurrection, people, that is you and I. Jesus has done the work necessary so that we can experience freedom. Are you with me so far?
[00:42:26] And so maybe what you need to do is think back in your own life right now. You're like, maybe it's not even thinking back too far.
[00:42:32] What plan am I believing? Lies? What places am I Submitting to fear in my life. What places in my life am I believing what other people say as opposed to what God says? Those are strongholds in your life. Maybe it's bondage to anxiety or depression or addiction that you're experiencing in your own life right now. You're like, I had a beginning. I didn't used to have this problem, but now I do, and I don't know what to do about it. Jesus says, I've done the work so that you don't have to stay in bondage forever.
[00:42:59] I've done the work. I've done the work.
[00:43:02] Why can't I experience that then?
[00:43:05] I'll encourage you. That's a huge question. Encourage you to walk through that question with somebody, perhaps. One thing I'll submit to you this morning before we look at the me part, and maybe this is already the me part, is this we don't actually believe what he says.
[00:43:21] When he says, come to me and lay your burdens down, we say, God, I'll tell you about them, but I don't wanna lay them down. I still need to hold onto that.
[00:43:29] If I let that go, that's a huge part of me that I don't know who I'm gonna be if I let go of this bondage. I don't know who I'm gonna be if I let go of this addiction. And God's saying, better, that's who you're gonna be. More like me.
[00:43:42] Look at the last one on your outline. Is this. What does this teach me about me? Jesus wants me free. Jesus did the work necessary to offer my freedom. And I must choose through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of me, to live in the freedom that he's provided me.
[00:43:58] If we truly want to experience joy in our life, how many of you want to experience joy every day? How many of you know that it's hard to experience joy every day?
[00:44:07] Right? And here's what Jesus said. I put my spirit inside of you so that you can truly experience freedom from whatever bondage that you are in.
[00:44:17] That's why I went to the cross. And so maybe you're here today and you've never trusted in Jesus. You've never said, all right, I see the blood, and it's on other people's doorposts, but I'm not gonna put it on mine. Maybe today's the day that you say, I need that blood too, to cover me.
[00:44:32] I see myself not under the blood of Jesus Christ today. I see myself as someone who said, it's good for other people, but it's not good for me.
[00:44:41] Jesus was very clear in his ministry, judgment is coming.
[00:44:45] Here's the good news. There's a way out. And we see that exact same message in this passage in Exodus. So if you've never trusted in Jesus, your Lord and Savior, you've never taken the blood of Jesus and said, I need it to apply to me. I want it. He's ready to give it to you. Do that today. Let's pray together.
[00:45:03] Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your incredible love for us that you aren't a God, secretly coming, dumping judgment on a people unaware.
[00:45:13] But you've warned us and you've called us to yourself out of the mercy and grace that you have.
[00:45:20] Lord, I pray for those here today who don't have a relationship with you, Lord, that you would change their hearts in a way that only you can and soften them so that they will see you as wonderful, beautiful, and the only Savior that can bring freedom to their life and satisfy their hunger and the longings that they feel each day for those here today who have trusted in you as their Lord and Savior.
[00:45:49] But bondage is still a reality. Lord, I pray that today would be a day that you show them a little bit more of the freedom that you offer. You would show them lies that maybe are being believed today and give them the courage, give us the courage to submit to your lordship overall and believe that your way is better.
[00:46:09] Even though it may not make sense to us right now or it's hard. Lord, give us the strength to surrender to you.
[00:46:15] Thank you for the Holy Spirit living inside of those here today who have trusted in you as their Lord and Savior. We thank you Lord, that you are going to bring to completion the work that you started.
[00:46:27] Help us to be people that surrender to the work that you want to do in us.
[00:46:31] In Jesus name, amen.
