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DELIVERANCE
Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer
Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN
February 6-7, 2016
No. 4:
Scripture:
The Story of Scripture
Exodus 1-7, 10-17
We are making our way through The Story of Scripture.
In the first three weeks we covered the book of Genesis. Now we are in Exodus
where we meet the greatest character of the Old Testament. His name is Moses.
Here are four fascinating facts to give you a feel for this extraordinary individual.
Fact 1. Michelangelo’s amazing sculpture of Moses depicts Moses
with horns on his head. This is because of a mistranslation of the
Hebrew text. This shows us the importance of good Bible translation.
Fact 2. Moses lived for 120 years and his life can be divided into three parts of 40
years each.
The first 40 years are from his birth until he ran away to Midian.
As Pharaoh’s son Moses learned how to become a somebody.
The second 40 years was from Midian to the Exodus.
In desert places Moses learned how to become a nobody.
The third 40 years was from the Exodus to his own exodus.
As leader of God’s people he learned that God is for everybody.
Fact 3. Moses gave us the first five books of the
Old Testament called the “Pentateuch” and God gave
him the Ten Commandments.
This made Moses the first man to use a tablet.
No wonder Moses was David Livingstone’s favorite biblical hero.
Fact 4. Moses is an Old Testament type of Christ.
The parallels in their lives are extraordinary.
Both Moses and Jesus were saved from death as infants.
Both fasted for 40 days.
Both had power to control the sea.
Both fed a multitude.
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Both
Both
Both
Both
Both
Both
had a shining face.
endured criticism.
were discredited at home.
were mighty intercessors.
had 70 helpers.
reappeared after their death.
But the most important fact about Moses for us is that he was a man who knew
God. He was called “the friend of God.” He is the only person in the Old Testament
who had the privilege of face-to-face communion with God. So Moses can tell us a
lot about the God who created us and who calls us to himself.
Moses’ life is marked by four great encounters.
First, as a baby MOSES MEETS PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER.
Last week we saw Joseph as Secretary of Agriculture welcoming his father, Jacob,
and his brothers to Egypt, giving them food and land. Now 400 years have passed
and the new Pharaoh doesn’t remember Joseph.
The group of Israelites has grown from 70 to maybe a million and Pharaoh is really
worried about these immigrants. Like some governments around the world today,
he wants to get rid of them. So Pharaoh enslaves the Israelites and orders that all
their boy babies should be killed.
It is during this time of persecution that Moses is born. His mother could not bear
to throw him in the Nile. So she hid him for three months “But when she could
hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar
and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along
the bank of the Nile.” (Exodus 2:3)
Moses’ sister, Miriam, is posted nearby to keep an eye on things.
One morning Pharaoh’s daughter goes down to the Nile to bathe and she hears a
baby crying. She investigates and finds little Moses. Moses’ life could have ended
right here if Pharaoh’s daughter obeyed her father’s command. She could have
picked the baby up and thrown him into the Nile. But at that critical moment
Miriam steps up and asks Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the
Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” (Exodus 2:7)
It is a brilliant example of quick thinking inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Miriam is encouraged to do so and comes back with
Moses’ own mother who is given these extraordinary
instructions by Pharaoh’s daughter, “Take this baby
and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.”
(Exodus 2:9)
The Exposition of Moses
by Nicolas Poussin
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So Jochebed was the first woman paid to raise her own child.
Jochebed raises Moses until he is weaned. Moses is then taken to Pharaoh’s palace.
In this action God reveals his deliverance.
The Lord takes care of Moses just as God takes care of us. Pharaoh had wanted to
destroy every Hebrew boy but instead Moses is adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and
she raises him as her own son.
The doctrine of adoption is an important one in scripture.
Paul writes “God sent his son…that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
(Galatians 4:4-5)
When we put our trust in Jesus, he adopts us into his family. He nurtures and
protects us. This is why Christians love the practice of adoption.
It goes all the way back to Moses who without adoption would have died.
Growing up in Pharaoh’s house Moses received a
magnificent education.
He learned to read and write using the Egyptian
system of hieroglyphics which we know from the
tombs and temples of Egypt.
He may also have known something
about the cuneiform wedge-shaped
writing of Babylonia for this was
commonly used for international
correspondence.
This was excellent training for when he came to write the opening five books of the
Bible.
Moses lives an immensely privileged life in Pharaoh’s
palace until one day he sees an Egyptian beating a
fellow Jew. He is filled with anger and “Looking this
way and that and seeing no one, Moses killed
the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."
(Exodus 2:12)
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Pharaoh hears about this and tries to kill Moses who runs far away to the land of
Midian.
The New Testament book of Hebrews provides this
profound spiritual insight of what is happening here
when it explains "By faith Moses, when he had
grown up, refused to be known as the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated
along with the people of God rather than to
enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded
disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater
value than the treasures of Egypt.
(Hebrews 11:24-26)
According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, Moses could have become Pharaoh
so when he chose to throw in his lot with the people of God he was renouncing all
claim to the throne of Egypt.
The second great encounter in Moses’ life is when MOSES MEETS GOD.
Moses spent the next 40 years of his life as a shepherd looking after the flock of
his father-in-law Jethro. It may seem like a wasted interlude, but in the desert of
Midian Moses had opportunity to learn the roads and the sources of water supply
and all the other details he would need when the time came to lead the people of
God through this wilderness on a 40 year march. You should never go into the
desert without some knowledge of the terrain. Moses knew the area. He had spent
40 years there. God is using this wilderness experience to prepare him.
Then one day while Moses is looking after his sheep, he sees something
extraordinary. A bush is on fire but it doesn’t burn up. There is not much
excitement in the wilderness so Moses thought, “I will go over and see this
strange sight.” (Exodus 3:3)
At the bush God calls him by name and tells him, "Take off your
sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
(Exodus 3:5)
Moses Before the
Burning Bush
by Domenico Fetti
God now gives Moses his commission to go and lead the Hebrews out of their
slavery in Egypt. Moses sees a practical problem with this proposal. Why should
anybody take any notice of him? He has been away from Egypt for 40 years.
Who is going to listen to him or follow him?
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So now God reveals his name and says to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.
This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
(Exodus 3:14)
“I am who I am” is the name Yahweh, or Jehovah as we sometimes say it in
English.
This is the name that God wanted to be known by and worshiped in Israel.
It is a name that expressed his character as a dependable and faithful God.
It was the name that Jesus used to describe himself when he told the Jewish
leaders, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)
When we know the name of God we have spiritual authority. As Christians we
know the name of Jesus. There is enormous power in that name. For those who
call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus tells his disciples “I will do
whatever you ask in my name.” (John 14:13)
Moses’ third encounter is his most terrifying yet for now MOSES MEETS
PHARAOH.
It took a lot of courage to go back to Egypt where there had been a price on his
head. It takes enormous bravery to go to the most powerful man in the world and
say, “Let my people go.” (Exodus 5:1)
Pharaoh understandably asks, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and
let Israel go?" (Exodus 5:2) Pharaoh doesn’t want to lose his workforce of
slaves. Had Pharaoh agreed to Moses’ request to let his people go there would
have been no plagues and no loss of life. The right thing was to release the slaves
and allow them to go to the land that God had promised them. Pharaoh shows us
the high cost of disobedience when he refuses to let God’s people go.
So God reveals his power.
We now see a power encounter between God and Pharaoh. God sends the famous
ten plagues on Egypt. These plagues were designed to shake the faith of the
Egyptian people because each plague was attacking one of their Egyptian deities.
In those days there were no atheists. Everybody believed in God.
The question was who is the most powerful God? That is being answered in these
10 plagues. You can see the contest from this chart.
PLAGUE
Nile turned to blood
Frogs
Gnats
Flies
Death of livestock
Boils
Hail
Locusts
Darkness
Death of firstborn
EGYPTIAN GODS
Isis – goddess of the Nile
Hagt – goddess with a frog head
Set – god of the desert
Uatchit – god represented by a fly
Hathur – goddess represented by a cow
Seksekhmet – goddess of disease
Set – god of storms
Osiris – god of crops and fertility
Re – sun god
Min – god of reproduction
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The plagues started with the waters of the Nile being turned to blood. It sounds a
lot like what has happened in Flint, Michigan. The Nile was the life source of Egypt.
It provided water for agriculture and drinking.
One by one those false Egyptian gods are defeated. Think of this. The God who
saved the Hebrews in the Exodus is still worshiped today. But the gods of the
Pharaohs are nothing more than artifacts in museums.
These plagues were devastating to the Egyptians but still Pharaoh would not free
the Hebrews and we are told why. “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and
he was not willing to let them go.” (Exodus 10:27)
God does this because he wants to get to the end of the list which is the death of
the firstborn. Every family has a firstborn so this would impact every home in the
land.
When God called Moses to confront Pharaoh he referred to Israel as his “firstborn
son.” (Exodus 4:22) Now Pharaoh would lose his firstborn son for threatening
the life of God’s firstborn son.
If we are tempted to feel sorry for Pharaoh let’s remember that he had given orders
that every Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile and drowned. This meant
thousands of little boys were killed. Pharaoh was an immensely evil individual who
thought he was in control of people’s lives. Pharaoh had to learn that there was a
greater king. This shows us that God hates injustice and he hears the cry of the
oppressed.
The fourth great encounter in Moses’ life is when MOSES MEETS HIS PEOPLE.
He becomes the great leader of Israel.
Now God reveals his plan. It is the Passover which Jews practice to this day.
In preparation for the tenth plague and to provide for their deliverance Moses
instructs his people to take an unblemished lamb. They are to slaughter it and paint
its blood all over the doorframes of their home. Having done that they were to
have a ceremonial meal of roast lamb along with bitter herbs and bread made
without yeast.
God even gives Moses directions for how they were to dress for
Passover. “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak
tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your
staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover."
(Exodus 12:11)
The Feast of the Passover
by Dieric Bouts
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Well the Israelites did what the Lord commanded.
“At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the
prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock
as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during
the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house
without someone dead." (Exodus 12:29-30)
The Angel of Death destroyed the Egyptians but
God delivered the Israelites.
He passed over all the homes where he saw the
blood. And the people of God never forgot that
night.
Death of the Firstborn in Egypt
by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
As a result they were able to leave Egypt and start their journey for the land God
had promised Abraham. They exchanged slavery for freedom. After they crossed
the Red Sea they never saw the Egyptians again.
We see why Moses has always been a hero to oppressed people and why the story
of the Exodus has encouraged those in slavery. It was very much part of the
preaching in Black churches during the Civil Rights Movement and it speaks to
people today in places like North Korea and Syria where there is much oppression
and little freedom.
We are all in slavery to sin. The destroyer, death, is coming.
We need the blood of the Lamb, just as the Israelites did. Where will we get it?
John the Baptist tells us, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world!” (John 1:29)
Paul declares, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
(1 Corinthians 5:7)
The deliverance from sin is free, but you must ask for it. If you have never asked
God to apply the blood of Jesus to your life, do it today.