Exodus 1-17:7
Exodus 6:6-8; Exodus 14:13-14
This morning we get to continue going through this amazing series called The Story which is all about God’s story and our stories intersecting. The whole story points to the cross where Jesus gave His life for us so that we can be saved. In thirty-one weeks we will have gone through the Bible and we will witness the amazing story of redemption that God orchestrated so that we could be connected to the ultimate source of life. So far we have been through the story of Creation and the Fall where we discovered our need for a Savior, we talked about the story of Abraham and Sara and how God built a nation so that He could reveal His glory through them, and then last week we talked about Joseph and his incredible story of forgiveness.
This week we are going to continue on with the story of Moses and Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and if you have had the chance to read through chapter 4 you will have discovered that this chapter took us all the way from Exodus 1 all the way to Exodus 17:7.
Have you ever been rescued from something?
I am going to let you in on an embarrassing moment in my life. It was a time when I felt like I needed to be rescued. I was a kid when it happened, but I was older than I would like to admit…so we will pretend I was pretty young. When I was a kid I was on my way home from church one day in the little town of Three Hills, I saw this movement out of the corner of my eye and something was coming at me fast. It seemed angry and it was running and barking, and to be honest I never actually really looked at the dog, so I didn’t know if it was a big dog or a little dog, all I knew was that I was in trouble and I needed to book it. I need to run as fast as I could. Adrenaline and fear took over and I ran. I ran fast. I ran for two blocks and as I was running I was running out of steam, but I could still hear the dog behind me gaining ground, but soon I couldn’t run any longer so I stopped and looked behind me. And what I saw was this monstrous, scary, little Bijon puppy that was about this big, and wasn’t actually chasing me to attack me, but it just wanted to play. I didn’t need to be delivered from anything…except a lot of embarrassment because as soon as I realized this fact I became really aware of all of the people around me. It was one of those moments that you really, really hope that no one saw what just happened…like those times when you trip over your own shoes. But a lot of people saw me. And they found the humor in the whole situation that I had missed. But in this situation as soon as logic returned to me and I could see the whole picture of what was happening I realized that I was fine all along. I had nothing to be afraid of. It wasn’t this big scary dog, but it was a friendly dog that just wanted to play. But when fear took over my life, my perception of the whole situation was morphed and I saw something that didn’t actually exist, and I convinced myself that I was in serious trouble. I was convinced a killer dog was after me, when in reality if I would have just taken a step back and looked at the dog I would have reacted a whole lot different.
That is what it is like in life. There are so many situations that we feel like we need to be delivered from, where our emotions and fear take over, when in reality if we are able to take a step back, and give it to God, and trust in Him, we will allow Him to be the one to deliver us. He will be the one to rescue us. In this instance I might not have needed a rescuer, but in the moment I sure thought I did. I needed a perspective change. I needed to change my perspective from my own little world to something much bigger. I just needed to look beyond myself. And that is what we need to do in our lives. We need a perspective change. When we take our eyes off of the lower story or our earthly perspective, and look in to the upper story or God’s perspective, we will actually see that God has a bigger plan that what we could ever imagine, and we will see that He is the one that is actually in control. He is a God of deliverance, and has a plan for us. We can trust Him. Throughout history He has saved His people over and over again and that is what we are going to be talking about today.
So if you have your Bible will you open up to Exodus 6:6-8, and we will read this passage together.
This is what we will be focusing on today. We are going to be going through the story of Moses and Israel’s Exodus, and it is my hope that you will see the Lord’s upper story in the lives of the Israelites, and God’s upper story in your own life. So let’s start right from the beginning of Exodus.
This story starts out with a growing nation and Pharaoh’s developing fear that the nation of Israel was going to take all of his power. So Pharaoh gives the order to the Egyptians to kill every Hebrew boy that was going to be born and he places the nation of Israel in slavery. Now when we read this from a lower story or earthly perspective this seems like a completely hopeless situation, it appears as though God has lost control. But as we read through the story, it is evident that God is working all things out for His purpose and for His glory. God saved Moses as a baby, and from the very beginning we see how God was preparing Moses for something great. Moses didn’t realize it, but from an upper story or God’s perspective, God was preparing Moses. Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter; he was taken care of by his birth mother in his early years; he was raised as an Egyptian, and in Acts 7:22 we read that Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Moses grew up as Egyptian royalty raised as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But something didn’t seem right to Moses. He didn’t feel like he belonged. Something changed—we don’t know what…the Scriptures don’t reveal this to us—but he knew that the Israelites were his people. And Moses decided that he was going to take justice into his own hands for his people one day and ended up killing an Egyptian man in anger. And from that point Moses’ life began to deconstruct. He fled from Egypt and ended up in a place called Midian…and this is where God begins to execute his upper story plan to deliver his people from their slavery in Egypt.
The Lord is a God of deliverance, and He wanted to deliver the people of Israel from their slavery. The Lord had seen the bondage of the nation of Israel. He had heard their cries, and he was going to begin the process of delivering them from their lives of slavery. And I don’t want to ruin the story for you, so this is a spoiler alert…but the Lord had something much bigger in store for the people of Israel. He had a plan beyond what they could imagine. He was going one day to lead them into the land that was promised to them so they would be able to live in freedom, and one day He wanted to rescue and deliver the whole world from their sin and redeem the world so that we could live in relationship with the God of the universe. And before I continue I just want to clarify one thing. The promised land in our context isn’t a job, or more money or a nicer house. The promised land is Jesus. He is our destination. He is the one we need to be striving towards…not material possessions. But I am getting way ahead of myself.
For the next few chapters in Exodus we get to witness God’s amazing story of deliverance. The Lord journeys with His people in order to deliver them from the slavery that they had been in for so long.
As I read through the book of Exodus there were some amazing themes that stuck out to me that spoke directly to the character of God, and that show us that God is a God of deliverance.
The first thing that really caught my attention was that the Lord actually hears His people.
The Lord hears the cries of His people (Ex 2:23-25; 3:7-12)
Exodus 2:23-25 says, “God heard [the Israelites] groaning and he remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”
And that is when we meet up with Moses tending the flocks in the field. Off in the distance Moses sees a bush that is burning but that wasn’t burning up, and he thought that it was a pretty strange sight, so Moses makes His way over to the bush, and that is where he meets God.
And it is in this moment where God begins to unravel his plan to Moses. He tells Moses that He had heard the cry of His people, and he wants to rescue them from their bondage. Moses doesn’t really want any part of this and begins coming up with every excuse he can think of so he doesn’t have to go back to the place he fled. Back to the place where he had murdered a man. It was in Egypt that he killed an Egyptian man. I don’t know about you, but I am pretty sure I wouldn’t want to go back to that place and face the sure punishment that would be coming his way as soon as he stepped into the presence of Pharaoh. We would all have these places in our lives that we are scared to return to because of what we have done or what has been done to us. What is that place in your life? What place are you so afraid of revisiting that you are resisting God’s call? For Moses that place was Egypt, and God had the audacity to call him back to that place. But we are looking at this from a lower story perspective rather than an upper story perspective. God had bigger plans than what Moses could see in that moment.
But, the Lord continually reassures Him that He will be the one working and that He will always be with Moses. Eventually after a whole lot of convincing Moses goes and faces some of his greatest fears.
The cries of the people moved God’s heart in to action, and sets off the plan of deliverance for God’s people. The Lord hears and listens to His people when they cry out to Him. God isn’t just up in heaven doing His thing, but He actually cares enough about us that He listens to us. He is moved when His people are in distress and are calling out to Him, and He desires to reach down into our lives and journey with us, and lead us out of the darkest places of our lives so that we can be united with Him. When we are suffering the Lord is right there with us. He isn’t in some far off place, but He is right beside us experiencing what we are experiencing, and He is actually fighting for us, which leads me to my second point.
The Lord Fights for His people (Ex 14:13-14)
As we continue to read the story of Moses, it becomes very evident that God fights for His people. Time after time after time the Lord fights for the nation of Israel.
When Moses and Aaron arrive in front of Pharaoh and tell him their purpose for visiting Pharaoh essentially laughs in their faces, and their visit seems to do nothing except for infuriate him. But God continues to work in the background, working out everything for His purposes. And because of Pharaoh’s disobedience and hardened heart, the Lord brought plagues against the Egyptian people that got progressively worse.
After the final and most devastating plague Pharaoh’s heart finally softens enough to let the Israelites go.
This is when the mass exodus begins. It is estimated that between 1-3 million people begin their migrated from Egypt, and as they journey the Lord continually fights for His people. He leads them with a pillar of smoke during the day and a pillar of fire by night. And when Pharaoh changes his mind, and begins to pursue the Israelites the Lord protects them and in Exodus 14:13-14 Moses tells the Israelites that God will fight for them…they don’t need to do anything, they don’t need to be the ones fighting, but that God will be the one fighting for them. The Lord would be the one to act on their behalf.
And when all seems hopeless as the Israelites approach a seemingly impossible situation with a massive body of water directly before them, the Lord splits the Red Sea so they could walk right through on dry ground. When they come out on the other side the Lord provides them with Manna and Quail, and provides them water when are in need of it. And throughout the entire journey we see that God is fighting for His people so that they could be delivered from their slavery that had bound them for so long.
Have you ever fought for anything? Has anyone ever fought for you?
When I think of this question, I am reminded of a book that I read a couple of years ago that depicts the story of a guy named David Wilkerson. Many of you might have heard this story before, the book is called The Cross and the Switchblade and it is an amazing story of how one guy responded to the call on his life to fight for some of the most dangerous teens in New York. David Wilkerson was a man that fought for people. God used him in significant ways because he was obedient. He was a small town pastor that was called to New York City. He wasn’t just called to the city of New York but to a specific group of people. He was called to some of the most dangerous areas of the city to the gangs of New York. David went in to the city and ended up in these areas, with some of the most dangerous people, and he began sharing the love of Jesus Christ with them. He loved them, and spent time with them. He fought for them because Jesus was fighting for them. He would go to court with them, he looked like a fool at times, and he introduced them to Jesus. There is one specific story in the book that stood out to me. David wanted a place where gang members could escape the gangs, so along with the people he was working with, he started looking for a house. Now, getting the house that they wanted with the budget that they had was literally impossible. They didn’t have the funds. But they felt like the Lord was calling them to a specific house. So they took a step in faith, and the Lord made a way. There were times when they were going to lose the house because they didn’t have the money for the next house payment, and at the very last moment, as they were crying out to God, someone would come in with an envelope with just the right amount of money in it. And it was in this house that many of the gang members were rescued from their lives of violence, addiction, and sure death if they were to remain on the streets. David Wilkerson fought for these kids. He saw something in them that nobody else saw. He went to places where no one else was willing to go and fought for these guys. And as he followed the call of God on his life the Lord moved in significant ways. The Lord was the one that was fight for these guys. The Lord worked through David Wilkerson to rescue these guys from their lives of bondage. The Lord fought for David, he fought for these gang members, he fought for the Israelites and he is fighting for us. He is acting on our behalf.
He wants us to live lives of freedom, and He is willing to go further than we could ever imagine so we can experience this reality. God is in the business of deliverance. He demonstrated this to the Israelites over and over again by fighting for them so that they could be free. But even after everything that God had done for them they still wanted to go back to Egypt. They still wanted to go back to their place of slavery.
Their bondage held them back from deliverance (Exodus 14:10; Exodus 16:1-3)
After everything that God had done for the Israelites, they were still held in bondage. God had fought for them and was leading them, and they still doubted His faithfulness. They still didn’t believe that God was powerful enough to save them and they were quick to forget the immediate past when fear set in. When the going got tough, the Israelites forgot what God had done for them, and they wanted to go back.
In chapter 14 right before God split the Red Sea for them, the people saw a mass army of Egyptians coming their way—they realized Pharaoh had changed his mind—and they cried out to Moses. They said to Moses “what have you done to us?” did you bring us out of Egypt because there were no graves for us to die in Egypt? They told Moses that they would have rather stayed in Egypt serving the Egyptians as their slaves than face the challenges ahead that would ultimately lead to their freedom.
Freedom isn’t something that just comes easily. It is something that God is fighting for, and it is something that we have to fight for. We need to face the challenges in our lives with our eyes and hearts set on Jesus and rely on Him. Our perspective needs to be focused on God and not ourselves or the things that are binding us.
The Israelites had no perspective. They quickly forgot what God had done. Even after the Lord led them through the Red Sea there is a moment in chapter 16 where they people claimed they wish they had died in Egypt, and where they wished to be back there because they at least had food to eat there.
The Israelites were living in fear. They didn’t trust the Lord after everything that He had done. The Lord wanted to deliver them from slavery, but they were choosing to stay in that place of slavery even after freedom was being directly offered to them. Their perspective was on their challenges not on how God could overcome their challenges. Their perspective was on the immediate present and not on the amazing plans God had for their future, and on the amazing things God had already delivered them from. Their perspective was on the lower story, not the upper story.
The Israelites didn’t know where they were going (and that can be scary)…but God wanted to deliver them and they didn’t know the amazing plans God had in store for them. God wanted to deliver them He wanted to lead them out of captivity in to the promised land, but they wanted to remain in bondage.
And this is the reality that so many of us choose to live in. Despite the things that God has done in our lives despite the things He has planned for us, we still choose to remain in captivity. We choose to remain living lives of fear, we live lives full of addiction, we live lives where we choose to look at ourselves in the opposite way that God views us. We choose to believe lies that aren’t true. Some of us choose to believe that the past is better then the future because we at least know what happened in the past when God actually wants to lead us into an amazing future that will probably look a whole lot different than we could ever imagine.
Some of us face physical obstacles that seem to hold us in bondage like various illnesses, or situations that we are in. But God wants to deliver us from these things. He wants to rescue us from our places of slavery so that we can live lives of true freedom founded in Him.
What is holding us in captivity? What is holding us in bondage as a church family? What are things that we need to lay aside so that we can walk in freedom as a church?
What is holding you in captivity? What are the things that are in your life that are keeping you tied to your past? What are the things in your life that you need to let go of in order to experience deliverance?
God has amazing plans for the future if we choose to live a life of freedom from these chains. This doesn’t mean that it will be easy. But it will be full. It will be rich. We will have purpose and meaning found in Jesus Christ when we choose to live life in the freedom that Christ has for us. In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Christ died on the cross so that we could be free.
So, what do you need to be delivered from? What is keeping you in bondage to sin or to your circumstances?
The unknown is completely terrifying, but when God is for us, who can be against us? If we want to be delivered from the sin in our life, we need to take a step forward in faith and allow God to work in our lives. If we continue to look to the past, that is where we are going to live. We need to come into the light, and it is in the light that the Lord will be able to work. God is greater than our chains. He is greater than the things that we are enslaved to.
We need to choose to live in the reality that God is still fighting for us. That no matter what we are going through, no matter what we are struggling with, no matter what we are in bondage to, the Lord is still fighting for you. He is fighting so that you may experience deliverance from the thing or things that are keeping you in slavery. He is fighting for us so that we will no longer be living in slavery, but so that our chains will be broken, and we will be able to live in the freedom that is found only in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the answer to deliverance.
Jesus is the one that has come into the world, walk this earth as a man in order to rescue us. Jesus is still in the business of deliverance. Jesus entered this world, and he faced the temptations of this world; He lived a sinless life; He suffered immensely and gave His life for us on the cross. He ultimately paid the price for our lives with the blood that He shed for us. He was the unblemished lamb that the Passover pointed to in the book of Exodus. He came take on the sins of the world and overcome death by rising from the dead 3 days later. Jesus conquered death so that we could be in relationship with Him and so that we could be free from the law, and so that we could be free from sin and so that we can live in perfect unity with Him.
We are no longer slaves to sin. We are no longer slaves to our past. We are no longer slaves to our circumstances all because of what Jesus has done for us. We are a delivered people when we are living lives that are connected to Jesus, and all we need to do is to walk into this amazing reality of freedom and deliverance. It doesn’t matter how many times you have messed up. It doesn’t matter where you have been or what you have been through, God wants to deliver you from anything that binds you. God wants to set you free from the chains in your life. He is fighting for your deliverance. He is fighting for your freedom. He is journeying with you right now, right beside you. He wants to split the sea so you can walk through it. He wants to lead you and guide you through the desert and into the freedom that is found in Him alone just like He did for Moses and the Israelites. He has done this in the past and He continues to do it today. God is still in the business of deliverance, and He wants you to experience this reality.
But this is something that we can’t do this alone. God doesn’t want us to do this alone. We need people around us. And if you are going through something that is keeping you in bondage you need to tell someone. You need people journeying with you. At Northgate we have an amazing community, and some different options for you to jump in to this community. We have a prayer chain, where so many people are willing to pray for you, we have small groups, we have the Tuesday prayer nights, and we have lots of different serving opportunities that will provide amazing community. The Israelites were a community of people. We are a community of people. God wants us to do life together in community. Part of authentic community is being vulnerable with each other and praying with each other. We all have stuff in our lives that we need to be delivered from. We all need to be set free from certain sins, patterns, and circumstances in our lives. And part of the process of deliverance is sharing this with someone. I am not asking you to do this right now. I am not asking you to lean over and share it with your neighbor at this very moment, but I do encourage you to find somebody that you can trust that you will share it with. And when you begin this process, when you bring it into the light, you will begin to experience deliverance. It may be a long process, but as a community we will journey together, and most importantly the Lord will be with you always through every up and down just like He was with the Israelites.
The Lord hears our cries. He is fighting for us. His desire is for us to be set free from the chains that bind us.
Let’s pray.