The God who makes himself known

Scott McInnes

Exodus: Discovering Who God is • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

0 ratings

· 11 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Introduction to Reading

This morning we are beginning a new preaching series, much of which will be spent in the book of Exodus. We’re not going to cover the whole book and we’re not going to be doing things in order, so you might find it helpful to read through Exodus in your own time and make sure that you are familiar with the story.

What we are going to be doing is exploring the question “Who is the Lord?” It is a question that Pharaoh asks early on in the story and it is a question that the book of Exodus seeks to answer.

Our reading this morning is God’s initial response to that question of Pharaoh. Moses has gone to Pharaoh, he’s asked him to let the people of Israel go and Pharaoh responds by saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go

As punishment he then increases the workload of the Israelites, worsening their plight. And that is where we pick up our reading today, .

Introduction

In the Old Testament the story of the exodus is the great defining demonstration of God’s power, love, faithfulness and liberating intervention on behalf of his people. It was the way in which God revealed his character to his people. It was through the exodus, and through retelling the story of the exodus for generations, that the people of Israel came to know the living God. In fact, we’ll see in just a moment that the main purpose of the exodus was that Israel would know God.

The verses we’re looking at this morning are a key part of the story. Moses has returned to Egypt and has come before Pharaoh demanding that he release the Hebrew slaves. We can read of their oppression in chapter 1 where we’re told that they were enslaved, oppressed and worked ruthlessly by the Egyptians. Their lives were made bitter with harsh labour. Not only that but we have this horrifying order from Pharaoh to throw every Hebrew boy that is born into the Nile. All of this is driven by his neurotic suspicion and the result is exploitative servitude and genocide.

that is posed fairly early on in the book. At the beginning of chapter 5 Moses goes to Pharaoh for the first time and asks him to let the Israelites go. And in response Pharaoh asks, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

In chapter 2 we have the account of Moses’ birth, of how he was raised in Pharaoh’s palace and his flight to Midian. At the end of chapter 2 we read that Pharaoh dies, that the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry was heard by God who remembered his covenant.

Moses is then called by God at the burning bush to return to Egypt, to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out from under the oppression of the Egyptians. After a bit of back and forth Moses comes before Pharaoh at the beginning of chapter 5 and demands that he grant freedom to the Hebrew slaves. Unfortunately, instead of being released, the Egyptians ramp up their oppression. As the oppression becomes more severe, the leaders complain to Moses and Moses in turn complains to God. That was where our reading began.

God wants us to know him

In response God offers this great speech from in which he reiterates four times the words ‘I am the Lord’ or ‘I am Yahweh’ - God’s name. What he says here is profoundly tied up with his identity. And this morning I want us to see firstly, that God wants us to know him and secondly, how God makes himself known.

And this morning I want us to see firstly, that God wants us to know him and secondly, how God wants us to know him.

That God wants us to know him

So let’s look first of all at the this idea that God wants us to know him. In these verses what we see is that God is a God who wants to be known and who makes himself known. The words he gives Moses to say to the Israelites in verses 6-8 are a concise but comprehensive summary of his redemptive intentions for them. They are essentially God’s mission statement in relation to the whole story of the exodus.

In verses 2-5 God is clarifying his identity and then in verses 6-8 he gives a concise but comprehensive summary of his redemptive intentions. is God’s mission statement in relation to the whole story of the exodus.

He promises to do three things for Israel:

He will liberate them from the Egyptian yoke

He will enter into a mutual covenant relationship with them

He will bring them into the land promised to their forefathers

The only thing Israel will do in the whole scenario is that they will come to know Yahweh as God through these events. Through the exodus they will come to a new understanding of who God is. They will experience different aspects of his character, his love, his grace, his power, his justice, his mercy, his provision, his faithfulness and his glory.

The anticipated outcome of the exodus then, was that Israel would come to know Yahweh as God and learn some fundamental truths about his character.

These verses then, teach us not only that God can be known, but that God wills to be known. He wants us to experience and understand his character. That is God’s mission and in the New Testament we discover that that is what Jesus does. In Paul describes Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God’ and in Jesus himself says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Later on in John’s gospel, in Jesus is praying to his Father and he prays: I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’

In Paul is speaking to the people of Athens and he begins by telling them that he has seen many idols in

Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

“Who is the Lord?” is the question we’ll be thinking about as we look

As we’ve heard, Moses, by God’s hand, survives and is raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and his own mother, in Pharaoh’s palace. Then when he is grown he ends up killing an Egyptian and fleeing for his life. He runs to Midian, where he gets married and becomes a shepherd. Then he has this call from God from the burning bush, and we’ll look at that in more depth next week, and God sends him back to Egypt in order to set free the people of Israel.

At this point in the story of the Bible the nation of Israel has been enslaved by the Egyptians and is being oppressed under the kingship, the rule of Pharaoh. In chapters 1 & 2 we see that this oppression is of genocidal proportions as Pharaoh orders the death of every Hebrew baby boy that is born.

We then have the account of Moses birth, his flight to Midian and his call at the burning bush, which we’ll be thinking about next week. Moses then returns to Egypt and asks Pharaoh to free the Egyptians. And in response

The outcome of the Exodus

God wants us to know him.

How God makes himself known

So God wants us to know him and to that end he makes himself known but how does he do this? What we see in these verses is that there are two closely related themes that give an answer to this question. The first is the theme of redemption. In verse 6 we read: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.”

These verses reveal that the way Israel will come to know God is through his mighty acts of redemption. This is one of the first times the word ‘redeem’ is used in the Bible and it is a rich word full of meaning. In English it suggests a financial transaction but the Hebrew word includes much wider social dimensions. A redeemer was a kinsman, a family member, with responsibility for avenging a murdered relative, for buying back family land, or even family members who had fallen into slavery, and even providing an heir for a deceased relative. A redeemer then, was a close relative who acted as avenger, protector and provider on behalf of his family, even if that involved personal loss.

I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

God has already described himself as Israel’s father () and now he tells them that he is their kinsman-redeemer. He will act as their avenger, protecter and provider - even if that involves personal loss.

Essentially Israel will know God as their Father through his work of redemption among them. And as we go through the story we will see God avenge, protect and provide for Israel.

But God doesn’t just redeem from slavery. He redeems Israel so that they will be his people. This is the second theme that shows us how God makes himself known, and that is his covenant. God makes himself known through his work of redemption and he makes himself known through his covenant.

Now straight away I think we balk at the idea of this. It’s such an archaic word. But we don’t really have a good alternative. We can see in verses 4 & 5 that God says ‘I established my covenant with Abraham and now that I hear the groaning of the Israelites under slavery, I have remembered my covenant.’

Now, this doesn’t mean that God had forgotten the covenant, that it had somehow slipped his mind. In God promises that he will ‘remember our sins no more’. Which doesn’t mean that God will suddenly suffer from amnesia, it means that God will not act upon out sins. Here God is saying that he is about to act upon his covenant.

So verses 4 & 5 tell us that God has remembered his covenant - he is about to act upon it. But verse 7 also picks up the language of the covenant. “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God”. Now this is language of love and intimacy, isn’t it?

If we hear someone who we don’t know speak of “my Suzie” or “our Johnny” then you know that they are speaking about someone they are close to, a child or a spouse. So a covenant is intimate, it’s personal, it’s about relationship. But there’s also a legal dynamic. We’re told God established his covenant (v.4) and in verse 8 we see God swore an oath in order to do this.

A covenant is a relationship, but it’s a relationship more loving and intimate than a merely legal relationship, yet more binding and enduring and accountable than a merely personal relationship. The covenant is a stunning blend of law and love. It’s stunning because it’s a personal relationship made more loving and intimate because it’s legal, through voluntary, mutual, binding promises and vows to be loving and to be faithful, no matter what the circumstances. That’s a covenant.

Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

The most obvious example of covenant in our society today is the covenant of marriage and we see this blend of love and law in marriage vows:

The most obvious example of covenant in our society today is the covenant of marriage.

In the presence of God and before these witnesses,

So we have legal language. But then we have: I, A . . . , give myself to you, B . . . , to be your husband, and take you now to be my wife.

You hear the personal pronouns, the language of love and intimacy. And then we have: I promise to love you, to be faithful and loyal to you, for as long as we live.

This is a combination of the two, the promise is legal but what is promised is love and faithfulness.

And so we have this I promise to love you, to be faithful and loyal to you, for as long as we live.

The people of Israel will know God through their experience of the covenant. And so do we. To really understand this we need to understand where God takes his oath. The place in scripture he makes his wedding vows if you like.

It’s in . God has made his promise to Abraham but Abraham asks him, “How can I be sure? How can I know?” So God says, “Well, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to kill some animals, and then to cut the animals into pieces, and arrange the pieces in two rows with an aisle, so you can walk through them.”

Now that doesn’t make much sense to us, but to Abraham it made perfect sense. This was a covenant ceremony and what people did was they acted out the covenant. In particular they acted out what would happen to them if they broke the covenant, namely that they would be killed, they would be torn apart. Now often both parties would walk through the pieces, if it was for example, two kings forming an alliance then both would walk through the pieces. But if the covenant was between a king and one of his subjects, then only the subject would walk through the pieces.

So God says, “Well, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to kill some animals, and then to cut the animals into pieces, and arrange the pieces in two rows with an aisle, so you can walk through them.”

So Abraham did what he was told, fully expecting that he would walk through the pieces to make his covenant with God. But that’s not what happened. Darkness came down, thick terrible darkness, and then God tells Abraham of the slavery in Egypt and ultimately of the exodus and then we’re told that “a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.”

a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

A pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire. We’ll see later on in exodus that these represent the presence of God. And so what happens here is that God passes between the pieces. And that’s how Abraham can know that God will keep his promise. Because in acting out the covenant God is saying, “If I don’t keep my promise, then let me be torn in two.”

But here’s what is truly remarkable and amazing. Abraham never passes between the pieces. God passes through twice. A pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire. He takes the oath for Abraham. He doesn’t just say, “May I be torn in two if I don’t keep my side of the promise” He also says, “May I be torn in two if you don’t keep your side! I’ll suffer the consequences of the covenant if I’m unfaithful and if you’re unfaithful!”

It is through this oath, through the outworking of the covenant in the Exodus that the people of Israel will come to know that Yahweh is God.

Conclusion

But what about for us? A few moments ago I quoted from Jesus where Jesus prayed to his Father saying: I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

How would Jesus do this? How would he make the Father known so that we could know God’s love and God’s presence with us. Just a few hours after he said that prayer, Jesus went to the cross and darkness came down once again and God was torn in two.

As we gather around the Lord’s table this morning, we share together in what Jesus described as the signs of the new covenant. A body that was broken and blood that was shed. All that we might know the love and presence of God.

So what is the new covenant? Jeremiah tells us in the passage I mentioned a moment ago, :

God made himself known to Israel through his redemptive work and through his covenant promises. And he makes himself known to us in the same way. Through a covenant, through the promise of redemption and through the redemptive work of Jesus.

The prophet Jeremiah put it like this:

‘This is the [new] covenant that I will make with my people... ...I will be their God, and they will be my people. ...they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest... ...I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

As we come to his table, this is how God makes himself known. Amen.

The God who keeps his promises

Let’s pray:

The God who redeems his people

God our Father we thank you for your word to us. We thank you that you are not a God who is cold and distant but that you are God of love and intimacy. A God who makes himself known to us. Lord, as we come now to your table, may you make yourself known to us in he bread and wine. May you make yourself known to us, as we remember the price that was paid for our redemption, the death of your Son upon a cross.

Lord we pray that these truths would help us not only to know you, but also to live according to your will. May your love for us, fill us with love for you, for one another and for our neighbours. Help us to be your people, and remind us always that you are our God. Amen.

Related Media

Related Sermons