A Mass Exodus
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[ME] Orientation
[ME] Orientation
Good morning and welcome to Crosslink. If you are new to Crosslink my name is Ken Tilley, and I am the Lead Pastor at Crosslink. We are grateful that you have joined us this morning. We have been in a series for the past several months where we are looking at the 6 Acts of Scripture. We are in : where we have been discussing how God initiated redemption after the fall garden. We started talking about Abraham and how God made a Covenant with Abraham, that his descendents would be as great as the sands of the sea, and the stars in the sky. Then we saw last week how God brought a deliver into this world to rescue them out of bondage. His name was Moses, and He did so through an unlikely mother named Jochebed.
This morning we open up and what we see from the time of the covenant until now about 430 years have elapsed. Not 430 years in slavery, but 430 years of sojourning. [define] The Israelites actually spent about 215 years in actual slavery. In our story today we open up the people of God on the tale end of the 215 years in slavery. They were under deep oppression from the Egyptians. Through a series of events, called Plagues, God gets the attention of the Pharoah and the Egyptians. He orchestrates a MASS EXODUS...
[WE] Identification
[WE] Identification
Some may think well how does a story like a Mass Exodus from slavery relate to us today? Well, I would suggest that we still have a slavery problem in this nation. We have bondage problem. We have an idolatry problem in the US today. You see we can look at this story and think well slavery was their problem. They just needed to be freed from slavery.
[GOD] Illumination
[GOD] Illumination
There are so many details that are left out of this. The idea of the pacing in the narrative is very clear. He is communicating that they went out in haste. This happened all of a sudden. The people didn’t have time to prepare for this. This happened as a supernatural act of deliverance by all might God Himself. There are several elements that we see here that makes this so…
[GOD] Illumination - There are so many details that are left out of this. The idea of the pacing in the narrative is very clear. He is communicating that they went out in haste. This happened all of a sudden. The people didn’t have time to prepare for this. This happened as a supernatural act of deliverance by all might God Himself. There are several elements that we see here that makes this so…
The plunder of the Egyptians. We see this happened in haste and the people weren’t able to prepare well for this. We see this in vs. 35-36. They asked the Egyptians for silver, gold, clothing. They let them have what they asked. Several things we need to understand…
The value of Gold and silver. We walk around with all this jewelry and we don’t think much about it. [Examples]. We don’t really comprehend the value of these things because we can get them so readily. Secondly, Because we have been conditioned to change our understanding of values. It is hard to understand because of dependency on paper money. Wen you look at the history of money. It is only recently that we have this idea of paper money. People used coins, that had entrinsic value.
We don’t comprehend that most people wouldn’t have had wealth like this. If you are a slave where you going to get things like these? If you are slave why are you going to have gold and silver jewelry and you don’t have coins, you don’t have any welath. They were about to go out of Egypt without any buy power. There is also an idea of worship. When we get to the temple we see gold, overlayed. How did they get it? They plundered the Egyptians….So regarding their personal wealth, and the objects in their worship this plundering is significant.
Also, the role of plunder in the ancient near east…Bruce Wells…”the silver and gold items taken were some of the most valuable taken..set in spring…”
Everywhere along the way…through all these plagues…God is reversing the whole idea of power…the Egyptians were looked at as the most powerful people. They worshipped their gods..whoever the most powerful people were were deemed as having the most powerful gods…but now the script has changed. Now, as the Israelites are leaving the roles have been reversed. He is reversing the whole idea of power. All armies marched and conquered because of the power of their gods. Now the gods of the slave people have overturned the assumed power of the gods of the Egyptians.
Now during this very same season…God is demonstrating His authority and power…WHat is the meaning of this?
God doesn’t just deliver us from our enemies, but He defeats them. So that we don’t spend the rest of our lives wondering when we are going to be overtaken again. …Your enemies your footstool. This is sense of this being an eschatological preview…Christ will see all of His enemies under His feet.
As believers as followers of Jesus we need to see that there is an “already not yet” victory in our lives. We have been delivered of our sin..there is no condemnation. Although there is a reality. There is an ongoing reality in that we still wrestle with the sin, by which we have been delivered. For Israel and for us.
It is one thing to get you out of Egypt, but it is another thing to get Egypt out of you!
So we wrestle with the the fact that we have been justified and declared righteous, but yet there are those things that rear their ugly head again and again. SO what is one to think? See this is not just true for us, but for Israel too. One since in which God delivers Israel from Egypt, later he destroys the enemies…they rejoice they sing, they cross the river, and then there’s that calf. God got them out of Egypt, but he still had to work to get Egypt out of them. Is there anything like that in your life? If you are still breathing then yes. Santiication is an ongoing process. This is what we walk in the midst of this already but not yet reality..As a believer I proclaim He has delivered me from the enemy, but defeated him…but yet at the same time God got me out of Egypt, but He is still getting the Egypt out of me. It is an ongoing fight and process.
The beauty is I can rest in this. That even on my worst day of walking with God, I can remind myself that this is a defeated foe! He has already been defeated. Whatever it is you are wrestling with…this is a defeated foe. It is an already and not yet reality. When we remind ourselves that this is a defeated foe, there will come a day when this enemy will be made a footstool. This is why we anxiously await our soon coming king. We cannot expect all the goodness that is to come to be a part of the here in now…Our father who are in heaven…they kingdom come as it is on earth as it is in heaven…
When you pray “FOR THE KINGDOM TO COME as it is as it is in HEAVEN.”
Secondly we see the JOURNEY FROM RAMSES TO SUCCOUTH…
About 600,000 men…seems to be a consensus between 1.5 to 2.5 million people. That’s a lot of people ladies and gentleman. If there are 1.5 to 2.5 million …at the top end that {. ]
Some say if that is true then there is no way that this can be true…You can’t move that many people in a day. I don’t feel he need to do that…WHy would I believe that God did all He did in the plagues, then why can’t I believe that God could move 2.5 million people through a parted sea. He delivered this many people in one night. I believe it with all my heart. What does this mean…
He saved a people. He saved a nation. He never saves a person just for the sake of an individual. He saves a people. We are so focused in our culture on our personal salvation. It is not just about you. Is your individual salvation significant? Yes, salvation is individual but not indvidualistic. God saves you for you to be a part of a people. He doesn’t save you for you to be an isolated part of the body. Why would he give us spiritual gifts if he wanted you to be locked up in a cave somewhere with not contact to the body? Paul is pretty clear in Corinthians that you were saved to be a part of a larger body, but also part of a local church body. [Illustration: Understand that God saved a people…not to go and take up space].
He has called you to part of the body. . You are a people for His posseion. God saves a people. That is what the big number indicates. He saved an entire nation. Don’t miss this…The death of the first born goes back to the first chapter. For 80 years the Egyptians have been oppressing Israel by the death of male children. This big numbers indicates that they could NOT kill the people of God! For 80 yrs we are going to try and wipe you out. It started from one man and his 12 songs who came into this nation.
This is amazing…you don’t proliferate when you are in captivity like this. Yet, by the power and sovereignty of almighty God they left Egypt with a nation.
2. God saved a mixed multitude. God’s plan was to include the Gentiles. It goes back to the Abrahamic Covenant. There were some Egyptians who were rescued. God saved some wheat and tares on that night. Individual salvation: You are saved and you are not. As much as we fight for regenerate church membership, no one can know 100% whether a person is really saved…so even our churches that fight for saved church membership…Don’t get confused that just because you are part of this corporate group that you are truly a part of God’s family.
There were people who were delivered on that night who went to hell. They had experienced the move of God, and yet they didn’t believe. It’s a terrible thing to go to church, and be a member of a church, and yet you don’t know Jesus. It’s a terrible thing to be raised in a Christian family and yet you not truly be united with them in faith. It’s a terrible thing to sing the praises of God on a Sunday morning, because culturally it is what you do, and then and spend eternity separated form God.
While it is very true that everyone needs to examine ourselves as to whether or not we are thinking about our salvation too individualistically it is also true that we need to examine ourselves to see if we are thinking too corporately. As to whether or not we are actually redeemed. Whether we are trusting in Him for salvation. Whether or not we are acknowledging our own sin…whtether we have trusted int he finish work of Jesus. Have you come to Him? Have you believed in Him? Have you held to Him as your only hope? If you haven’t then you must.
3. We see them baking these cakes. [vs. 33,44 & 39]
Explanation: Why talk about this? There are so many details that happened that night. There was more than just bread that was eaten. It reminds of us of the sudden departure. It is a reminder that their salvation came suddenly. It wasn’t something they made happen, but it happened in God’s timing.
The bread was a symbol of their deliverance. The feast of unleavened bread that was a week long. Every year…at the beginning and the end a high holy day. In the midst of it all you eat only Unleavened Bread it is a reminder of your sudden deliverance.
Folks this is also a reminder of our deliverance. There is a reason that Christ identified Himself in a number of occasions as the Bread of Life. When is bread most significant. When people say that Jesus is the Bread of life…one of the things when the Bible is translated to different people groups they will take out “Break of Life” …Jesus is the Rice of life, corn of life…they are trying to convey He is the most significant thing in our lives…I got what they are trying to do. But Bread isn’t used here because of it’s significance in my culture, but in the Jewish Culture.
It’s greatest significance in Jewish Culture is the Passover…it points to Him being the who Christ is.the giver and sustainer of life… …How is that not related to Israel and the wilderness. , .
This is a reference to the Passover. You can’t make that another food. Christ is the bread of the Passover. This is why when we gather for communion…we commemorate that he has made us a people and saved us individually. We partake of the bread. It is for you individually, yes? But corporately, yes! So on the night they are saved…they ate unleavened bread…it is symbolic of their swift delivarance. We eat the unleavened bread to remember our deliverance our salvation…He is not just the symbol but the substance of our salvation. This is why it is signficance.
Finally, they left after 430 years. Go to verse 40…the time was 430 years…at the end the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. So this same night is a night of watching. This time includes more than their slavery in Egypt. They were only in Egypt proper 200-230 years..
Jamison Faucette Brown…Time Abraham entered Canaan…this makes up the time to 430 years. It began with the promise, and includes with the soujourning and ends with the Exodus. This is signficant…it is a picture of salvation not just from Egypt, but all that is NOT THE LAND OF PROMISE>. He makes a promise to Abraham…and that promise is not fulfilled. Until that promise is fulfilled He is a sojourner. He is a pilgrim in a foreigh land until it is fulfilled. Therefore the reckoning by Moses is 430 years. Slavery in Egypt was not the only problem.
You see anything that kept the people of God out of the land of Promise was slavery. All is slavery in Egypt unless and until you enter the land of promise. This is signficant for us. It is not just that you don’t want to live in slavery. It is not that you just don’t want to live under an oppressive regime…The reality is that anything other than the promise land is Egypt for you.
We live in the greatest country on Earth. That is why there are people lining up to get into this country. Even the greatest critics of US they are not trying to give up their passports. They know that there is no place better of this, it is because of the grace of God. The world has never known a freer, more prosperous people. The average American is wealthier than 70% of the rest of the world. There is no place like America. There are people protesting all over the United States and injustice in the United States…we are sinful people, an yet we are the most prosperous and freest people in the world.
So what is the point of all this. It is still Egypt! As great as it is…it is still not home. We are looking for a place that is even greater. We are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God! The people who live in the freest, wealthiest place on earth are still looking for more because this is not our home! The goal is to be in the land of promise! It is to be with GOD!
We must never hold onto America too tightly, or whoever else you come form. Why? Because it is not our home. We are thankful for it, but it is not our home. We thank God for His provision. But it it s not our home…so don’t put your roots down too deep. God is calling the people …
He is not just making a statement about oppression. He is setting His love on a particular people. He is freeing His people so He can show the whole world what righteouness people as He gives them the law. He can show the whole world what true worship is a temple. Shows the whole world as he eventually brings the Messiah through these people. This is not just about getting out from under oppression.
The Big Idea: This is about God calling a people to Himself and proclaiming to the world herein is salvation.
This is why those who are in Christ can hold to this reality, even thought we aren’t Jewish people. This is the foundation of the salvation that is ours in Christ. This gives our salvation meaning and clarity. That is why it is important. That is why it is important.
Understanding this we understand what it means to be united to Christ and to God’s people. If you are here today and you are holding onto the idea of being united to this outward body of people, but have not been united to Christ. Turn from your own self reliance. Turn from your own dependence.
NOTES: "The sojourning of the children and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt." These additions are important, for the period of sojourn in Egypt did not exceed two hundred fifteen years; but if we reckon from the time that Abraham entered Canaan and the promise was made in which the sojourn of his posterity in Egypt was announced, this makes up the time to four hundred thirty years.
"The sojourning of the children and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt." These additions are important, for the period of sojourn in Egypt did not exceed two hundred fifteen years; but if we reckon from the time that Abraham entered Canaan and the promise was made in which the sojourn of his posterity in Egypt was announced, this makes up the time to four hundred thirty years.
[YOU] Application
[YOU] Application
[WE] Inspiration
[WE] Inspiration