Week 5 - Day 3
THE STORY
Rescue (Old Testament)
GOD THE RESCUER
God kept His promise to Abraham. He and Sarah had a son. And over three generations, their family continued to grow. This family is called the Israelites (or just Israel), the Hebrews or the Jews. Due to a massive famine, they had to move to Egypt to survive and over time they became slaves to the Egyptians. God had actually told Abram about this time of slavery. But God had also promised Abram that He would rescue his family from their oppression (see Genesis 15:13-16). We turn to this rescue now.
Moses was born a Jew, but ended up growing up in the home of the Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh is the King of the Egyptians. So Moses grew up in Egyptian high society with the best education and great social privileges and economic advantages. However, Moses decided to come to the rescue of his enslaved people, the Israelites. This attempt failed, however, and he found himself exiled in the wilderness far from Egypt.
Exodus 3:1-10 (NLT)
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
“Do not come any closer,” the LORD warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Then the LORD told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
Why did God instruct Moses to take off his sandals?
What had God seen and heard? What was God aware of?
What was God’s mission for Moses?
10 PLAGUES
Moses went back to Egypt and entered Pharaoh’s court saying, “Let my people go.” But Pharaoh did just the opposite. He made the Israelites work harder and their slavery even worse. So God used 10 plagues or disasters to loosen Pharaoh and the Egyptians’ grip on His people.
The plagues were …
The Nile River turning to blood
Frogs
Gnats
Flies
The death of livestock
Boils
Hail destroying the crops
Locust destroying the remainder of the crops
Darkness
The death of the firstborn male
THE PASSOVER
Because of their identity as God’s people, the Israelites were protected from the plagues that God sent on the Egyptians. The last plague of the death of the firstborn male, however, was different. With this plague, Israel’s protection was dependent on an act of faithful obedience to a sacrificial ceremony. They would have to personally participate in their salvation through faith.
Exodus 12:21-27 (NLT)
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and said to them, “Go, pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning. For the LORD will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.
“Remember, these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever. When you enter the land the LORD has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony. Then your children will ask, ‘What does this ceremony mean?’ And you will reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. And though he struck the Egyptians, he spared our families.’” When Moses had finished speaking, all the people bowed down to the ground and worshiped.
What would the people of Israel have to do so that the angel of death would pass over their home?
Exodus 12:28-42 (NLT)
So the people of Israel did just as the LORD had commanded through Moses and Aaron. And that night at midnight, the LORD struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died.
Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Get out!” he ordered. “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you! Go and worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.” All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”
The Israelites took their bread dough before yeast was added. They wrapped their kneading boards in their cloaks and carried them on their shoulders. And the people of Israel did as Moses had instructed; they asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The LORD caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!
That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men, plus all the women and children. A rabble of non-Israelites went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock. For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food.
The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the LORD’s forces left the land. On this night the LORD kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation.
How did God keep His promise to Abraham?
GOD’S JUDGMENT
You would think that God was attacking Pharaoh and the Egyptians for their unjust treatment of His people. But that’s only part of it. In the last plague of the death of the firstborn, we read …
Exodus 12:12 (NLT)
On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD!
Who is God ultimately judging when He strikes down the firstborn sons?
Remember there is more to reality than what meets the eye. Remember the serpent that approached Eve wasn’t just a snake, but the appearance of Satan to tempt her. The same is happening here. Egypt and Pharaoh are controlled by spiritual beings and demonic powers called gods. It is on these gods that God is executing judgment. And when you know that Pharaoh himself was considered the incarnation of the Egyptian Sun god, then the death of Pharaoh’s own son was the death of the next incarnation of the Sun God. The plagues, then, were a power encounter between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. As their Rescuer (Warrior-King), God fights for the freedom of His people from the clutches of Satan and the human agents he is employing on the earth.
In fact, after God had destroyed Pharaoh and his chariot forces in the Red Sea, Moses’ sister Miriam put to song the true meaning of the Exodus—God’s great Rescue of His people from the Egyptians.
Exodus 15:3, 11-13 & 18 (NLT)
The LORD is a warrior;
Yahweh is his name!“Who is like you among the gods, O LORD—
glorious in holiness,
awesome in splendor,
performing great wonders?
You raised your right hand,
and the earth swallowed our enemies.The LORD will reign forever and ever!
What do we learn about God from the Exodus?
God is our Rescuer because God is our King! And the king and the gods of the Egyptians couldn’t stop Him.
PREVIEW
We are beginning to see that our Rescue is based on a substitution. During the last plague, the death of the lamb stood in for the death of the firstborn of the Israelites. Their rescue wasn’t automatic. They had to receive it by faith through obedience to God’s Word.
This Passover Lamb points to our Rescue in Jesus Christ. Just before Jesus was crucified, He celebrated the annual Passover meal with His disciples. During this meal, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Just as the Passover meal reminded the Israelites of the Passover lamb, so too, the Lord’s Supper reminds us of our Passover Lamb. Jesus died as our sacrificial substitute on the cross. Because of Jesus’ death God’s judgment passes over us and we are Rescued by His blood.
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT)
For [God the Father] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …