This week I’ve been reading and meditating in the Book of Exodus, and I wanted to share with you some thoughts from the first several chapters. As you know, the Exodus begins by introducing us to Moses. God providentially worked to save Moses’s life, even though the Pharaoh had put out an edict that all the male children born to the Hebrews were to be killed. It is ironic to me that it is Pharaoh’s daughter who ends up saving Moses, and it is Moses’s own mother who gets to care for him in his infancy.
As we continue reading, we learn of Moses’s righteous anger towards an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew brother. While Moses may or may not have been justified in killing the Egyptian, in God’s providence, his actions caused Moses to flee Egypt. It is there that Moses meets God in the burning (yet unconsumed) bush. This encounter with God leads to a drastic turn of events as God enlists Moses to be His spokesman to call Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. As you know, it is through a series of plagues that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart and then ultimately causes Pharaoh to relent and let the Israelites go.
While I’ve left out most of the details, I want to identify some truths from the first twelve chapters of Exodus.
1. God is at work providentially to accomplish His will. We see this in Moses’s early life and in his escape to the wilderness where he ultimately meets with God. God orchestrates events in our lives whereby we freely make decisions that accord to His purposes and will.
2. God hears the cries of His people. When God meets with Moses, He declares that He has heard the cries of His people, seen their suffering, and has come to deliver them from slavery in Egypt (Exod 3:7-8).
3. God is faithful to His promises. God had covenanted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and promised to lead them to the land that was flowing with milk and honey. Four hundred years had passed since the Israelites made their home in the land of Goshen (recall that Jacob moved his family there during the famine in the land). While four hundred years is a long time, God tells Moses that He has come to deliver the people from slavery in Egypt and to bring them to the promised land (Exod 3:8). We should also note that God’s timing is perfect. For hundreds of years, the Israelites lived in the land of Egypt, growing in number and might. And then the time came, God would deliver His firstborn Son (Israel) out of Egypt. See also Exodus 6:6-9.
3. God is sovereign, even over the hearts of man. Repeatedly, God declared that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart as He displayed His power and majesty. While God was at work, Pharaoh was fully responsible for his hardening of his heart.
4. God equips us for the tasks to which He calls us. Recall Moses’s hesitation to serve as God was calling Him. He gave a number of excuses as to why he wasn’t the right man for the job. God, however, kept reminding Moses that He would be with him. Ultimately, God tells Moses to enlist his brother Aaron as a helper in the endeavor. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God continues to equip those He calls to carry out the priorities He has called them to.
5. God will at times allow evil when it accords with His purposes. At first when God brought the plagues, the Egyptian magicians were able to replicate the plagues by their secret arts. In God’s wisdom, He allowed (maybe even enabled) such replication to further harden Pharaoh’s heart.
6. Satanic/demonic power is real, but God has no rivals. While we don’t fully understand what is meant by the Egyptian magician’s secret arts, we know enough to understand that these were pagans who worship a multitude of false gods. That the One True and Living God has no rivals is illustrated for us in the fact that when Moses commanded Aaron to cast down his staff and it became a ser-pent and ultimately, Aaron’s staff swallowed up the Egyptian magician’s staffs (Exod 7:8-12).
7. God desires that His power and authority be known in all the land. God declares that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart and that, “the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel form among them” (Exod 7:5).
8. God is able to protect His own, even in the midst of trials. As the plagues continue and become more severe, God protects the land of Goshen and spares His people from the chaos that surrounds them. His protection may be from physical harm, or it may be from mental anguish by offering peace that paces all understanding.
9. Rebellion against God will be punished. In part, this is what the plagues are about. Ultimately, the final plague points to judgment on sin and this leads us to the final thought.
10. Sin must be atoned for. Why the blood of a lamb on the door posts? Why did the Israelites have to comply with this if the plagues were judgments vs. Egypt? I think the answer is found in the fact that the Israelites, just like the Egyptians, were sinners in need of redemption. The blood of the unblemished lamb applied to their homes allowed for the death angel to pass over their homes, sparing the firstborn. The blood of the lamb points us to Jesus – the lamb of God who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).
Pastor Nate