Exodus

The book of Exodus.

6. God Promises Deliverance

Christians will sometimes use the phrase “in the world but not of it” to encapsulate how we inhabit a world that is sinful but we don’t want to be sinful ourselves. Christians disagree about what our attitude should be towards this world. Should we be trying to escape it and focusing on the next world? Or should we stay focused on what’s right in front of us? Should we be politically active or should we keep to ourselves?

The answers aren’t always clear and require wisdom. But what is totally clear is that we must flee from sin and seek the freedom of Christ.

When Joseph was in charge of Egypt, the descendants of Abraham had it good. The family multiplied. But their multiplication over generations represented a threat to the status quo. Eventually, the pharaohs decided to enslave them in order to keep them in check.

Sometimes the people of God are on better terms with the unbelieving civilization around them; at other times, persecution becomes more intense.

But if there is one thing that the book of Exodus should remind us, it is that God does not allow his people to remain in slavery. He keeps his promises, and his promises mean freedom. He sent Moses as his servant to lead the people out and to remind them who their God was.

Exodus 6:2: “God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’”

God remembered his covenant. He always does. And he has made promises to you, too, in the covenant of Christ’s blood. So if there are times when you are suffering, you need to call out to God and he will remember you.

When Pharaoh refused to give up the Israelites, God visited judgment upon the whole nation. It might seem cruel that God would punish a whole people just because their ruler had a hard heart. But that’s the way the world has always worked — we always have authorities who represent us, whose goodness helps us and whose badness hurts us. Just like Adam’s curse sent the rest of his descendants accelerating deeper and deeper into sin, a bad ruler’s sin harms the whole nation. That is why it is so crucial that we trust in Christ as the king of kings — so that ultimately we can live under his freedom rather than the slavery of sin.

For the final judgment of the Egyptians, God took the lives of the firstborn of Egypt. But he told the Israelites to protect their own children with a very peculiar ritual: each family would sacrifice a spotless lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, and death would pass over them.

There’s nothing magical about killing an animal. But this sacrifice was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ. Jesus Christ is the spotless lamb — he was sacrificed for us, and because of his blood we have hope that we will rise again from the dead.

After they ate of the lamb, the Israelites had to flee the Egyptian kingdom suffering under judgment and plagues. But before they went, they took treasure with them:

17. Water from the Rock and the Battle with Amalek

Even though God did so many miraculous things to make them free and wealthy, it didn’t go well for most of the people that were rescued from slavery. Why? Well, even though they were freed from slavery to Pharaoh, they were still in slavery to sin. Many of them practiced idolatry and sexual immorality.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:

1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Fleeing from the Egyptians the Israelites miraculously passed through the Red Sea. God closed the sea on their pursuers and destroyed the army of their enemies. The Apostle Paul called this passage through the waters a ‘baptism.’ The exodus was like their salvation. In the wilderness, they ate bread from heaven and water out of a rock. That was like their communion. All of this was to foreshadow Christ, who is the bread of life and the water of life. (John 6:35; 4:14)

However, even though they received all of these great things, they were still in the end overthrown by sin.

We need to take this to heart for ourselves. God can do wondrous things in our lives — he can give us freedom, wealth, food and drink, but despite it all we can still desire evil. We could be baptized, and we could be taking communion our whole life, but we still may not be pleasing to God — are we putting Christ to the test with our sin? You must repent.

1 Corinthians 10:6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

So many of those liberated ended up being just as evil as the Egyptians who had enslaved them, and were judged accordingly. Don’t be destroyed the way they were.

We know what grumbling is and that we shouldn’t do it. But what does it mean to be an idolater? Are any of us worshiping statues of demons? Are many of us that tempted to fall down and worship images? Well — those who are addicted to pornography are definitely adoring “images” that they shouldn’t be. Those who are obsessed with attaining a certain lifestyle are also worshiping a kind of “image.” It’s all the same kind of sin — giving your heart to lust after the resemblance of something you don’t have, rather than enjoying the God who offers himself freely to you.

Christians today have the opportunity to fall into pride. We can assume that we’re better people than the sinners who surround us just because we know more about the Bible.

12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Everybody gets tempted, and everybody’s a sinner. In terms of behavior, what sets a Christian apart from a worldly person is that they repent, they flee idolatry, and they worship the true God. Fleeing the sexual immorality, covetousness, and grumbling that characterizes the world, we’re invited to eat and drink of what Christ provides, and enjoy eternal freedom from the kingdom of darkness. That is our exodus. We are on our way out from death and sin.

Our situation might not seem as bad as being a slave in Egypt. We might have nicer food, nicer clothes, and an infinitely more comfortable life than that. But if we’re a slave to sin, then we can’t experience true freedom.

Expanded Thoughts

The speaker or another mentor might want to share a personal anecdote about being freed from sin, perhaps as part of a testimony.

Key Take Aways

Even when things looked darkest, God protected and liberated his people.

What happened to the Israelites foreshadowed what Christ does for us.

Just because God will fulfill his promises to protect his people doesn’t mean you won’t have to face consequences for your sin some day.

Discussion Questions

How does the story of the Exodus mirror the Christian life?

(God calls us out of slavery to sin; we are called to leave the kingdom of the world and to seek the promised land in Christ )

Do you see any ways that our society mirrors Egypt? If we were under pharaoh today, would he think that Christians were a threat? Why or why not?

Figuratively speaking, what are ways that we can “plunder the Egyptians” — that is, take the best that the unbelieving world has to offer and use it to serve God?