Exiting Egypt Chapter 7 P1

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Purposes Behind the Plagues”

Exodus 6:28 – 7:13

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 7 P1

After encouraging Moses and the people, God now reinforces Moses’ call. Literally he gives Moses a second call, because Moses again is trying to get out of doing what God had called for him to do.

Read Ex. 6:28-7:7

Now before we’re too hard on Moses, look at the awesome task set before him, to confront the most powerful person on planet earth and the most powerful army to boot, and he is doing so now crushed, broken, and desperate. Pharaoh had severely reacted against God’s message with a vengeance oppressing God’s people beyond measure.

And to top it off, the people accused Moses concerning their present hardships. This had crushed Moses, and so he feared returning to Pharaoh and arousing his wrath even more against the people.

And so God had to renew His call.

God will do the same with us. Recently a young man trying to get himself ready to go out on a mission trip said, “My Faith in the morality of people took a huge hit today, I tried to do something good for someone and got stabbed in the back for it, for no good reason.” He was at a turning point. Does he continue on, or let that experience sour him. This is where we can claim the promise of God’s word that says,

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:18 NKJV)

Know that if you have been called by God, if you are moving forward in His purpose for your life and for God’s kingdom, then no matter what may come your way from others that it will all work together for the good of the Kingdom of God, which translates what is good for you.

Notice something else, God lists both Moses and Aaron’s age. Moses is 80 years old and Aaron is 83 when they were called to serve God and declare His message. What a wonderful lesson; that we are never too old to serve God. In Isaiah, the Lord said it this way,

I will be your God throughout your lifetime? until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you (Isa. 46:4 NLT)

And so, what we see is that God is giving to Moses a second call, a second reminder of what God had called for Him to do, and in this he tells Moses that He was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart, and the reason would be so that he could multiply His signs and wonders and deliver His people out of Egypt through great judgments.

Maybe to say this another way, based upon our study of God’s name last week, God’s purpose was that Israel would know that God is the Lord, the Great Redeemer and Savior.

The day of judgment upon Egypt and the day of redemption for Israel are drawing near. And God does this through a series of ten plagues.

And so, as we prepare next week to begin looking at these plagues, what we should do at this juncture is to look at God’s purposes behind the plagues.

1. To Give Egypt Another Opportunity to Repent

All the plagues were severe, and as some have pointed out, this severity increased with each seceding one. But what we need to understand is that if God in His mercy had not stopped them, then each could have devastated the land and the people.

And so, God brought the plagues to reveal to the people that He wasn’t kidding, and to give them an opportunity to repent and turn to Him, which it seemed some did, as they left with Israel. They were known as the mixed multitudes.

And while these plagues seem harsh, and they are, it is God’s kindness that leads him to stop each one, hoping that some will repent, because it is God’s desire that everyone come to saving repentance. Look at how both Paul and Peter say,

Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (Rom. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9b NIV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P7

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P7

6. I will bring you

I will bring you into the land, which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 6:8)

This has been God’s central promise to Abraham. And the wording is significant. God said He swore. Imagine what this would have looked like and sounded like. “I God, to hereby promise on Myself give to your descendants this land, and I raise My right hand to you in pledge.” Actually, God said, “I swear by myself” (Gen. 22:16).

The writer of Hebrews said it like this, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself” (Heb. 6:13 NKJV).

7. I will give you

I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord (Ex. 6:8)

God will not only bring them to the Promise Land, He will give it to them. At this time the Canaanites inhabited the land, but they were only keeping it warm for the Israelites. You might say that God kept them there as caretakers so that the land wouldn’t be desolate and barren, but fruitful.

In much the same way, God has given to us the promise of heaven as our heritage, as our future home, and has promised it to all who believe. Jesus said,

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (Jn. 14: 1-3 NIV)

And so, Moses tells the people, and their response was close to the response of the paratrooper who had just opened up his emergency chute only to find that it didn’t deploy. Now they are saying, “Oh great, I bet the truck isn’t there as well.”

The last time Moses told them this, they were given an impossible task, which, in the words of the foremen, “put a sword in Pharaoh’s hand.”

Read Ex. 6:9-13

The people rejected God’s offer through Moses. They probably didn’t even believe that it was God who was speaking through Moses. And the reason was because of the anguish of their spirit and the cruelty of their bondage.

So often, the circumstances of our burdens cause us not to listen. Our pain drowns out God’s word.

And so Moses let God know that His plan to deliver the people isn’t going to work, first because the people aren’t listening to him, and second because he isn’t a good speaker. And so once again Moses is trying to get out of His calling, but God commands that they “Go.”

It is the same command that Jesus gives to us. He said, “Go and make disciples.” People might not listen to us, they might reject us, they might ridicule us, and so we try, like Moses, to get out of our calling, but God commands us like He did Moses to “Go.”

Just for the record, verses 14-25 are quite an odd genealogy. It records only the first three sons and tribes of Israel, not all twelve. The reason is so we know the heritage of Moses and Aaron, especially that they are from the priestly tribe of Levi.

And so, God prepares to save His people, and to do so He reveals Himself, who He is, and then He makes seven promises, and by He is saying, “Be still and know that I am God, and you will then see the salvation of the Lord.”

That is what He did for Israel, and that is exactly what He will do for

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P6

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P6

3. I will redeem you

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments (Ex. 6:6)

Their redemption was to come through nothing else but God. God is our redeemer. And God redeems us through the shedding of blood. The Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

For Israel, this was done through the blood of the Passover lamb. As God saw the blood upon the doorpost and lintels of the house, He passed over that house sparing the life of the first-born. It was this last plague that finally released the Jews from their slavery.

For us today, our redemption comes through the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, whom John the Baptist described as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And that is exactly what Jesus did as He died upon the cross on Passover, taking upon Himself our sins, as He took our place and died our death, as the Bible declares, “the wages of sin is death,” although He was without sin. He was sinless.

And so, when we come into that saving relationship with Jesus, accepting Him as our Savior, it is then His blood that is placed upon the doorpost and lintels of our hearts, and when God sees that blood, He too passes over our sins and redeems us from our slavery to sin.

“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross” (Col. 2:13-14 NLT)

4. I will take you

I will take you as My people (Ex. 6:7)

What a beautiful promise. It is a promise of intimacy. Literally, God adopts them, as He adopts all of us, where we are not only His people, but we are His children, which then leads to the next promise that we are His children, because He is our God, and as such, our Father.

5. I will be your God

I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Ex. 6:7)

Let me wrap these two promises up with what the Apostle Paul says,

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (Rom. 8:15-17 NIV)

Now, what I find really neat about these promises that God gives is that they were not limited to their deliverance from Egypt, but that they spoke to God’s promises about their future. God’s promises affect not only our present, but our future as well. These promises are then found in the last two “I wills.”

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P5

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P5

Read Ex. 6:6-8

God begins His encouragement of the people as He did with Moses, He declares just who He is, and that seems to be the way the Lord works. First He tells His name, which tells us who He is, and then declares His promises based upon His name, which declares His character. And these promises that He gives to the people speak to the exact meaning of His name, Jehovah, or Yahweh.

Now, He declares these promises through seven “I wills.”

1. I will bring you out

I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Ex. 6:6)

What the Lord is saying is that He and He alone will deliver the people, not Pharaoh, not Moses, and certainly not the people. God himself will come and deliver, and as we will see, He does so through a series of ten plagues, that Egypt describes as nothing less than the finger of God.

Further, He says that He will bring us out from under the burdens, and for us, that means the burdens of life. Burdens are those things that trouble us, which include our worries, concerns, and our problems. And God’s promise is that He will bring us out from under the weight of these burdens.

Peter tells us that we are to cast all of our care, which speaks to the same things as burdens, upon the Lord. Now, the word cast means to throw them and suggests a once and for all throwing. And Jesus tells us that we are to do this by coming to Him, “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28 NIV).

And so, God’s first promise is to bring us out from under all the burdens of life.

2. I will rescue you

I will rescue you from their bondage (Ex. 6:6)

Other versions say, “I will deliver you.” What a great word this is, it means that God will free and save us from the bondages of life. Now, bondages are different than burdens. Bondages are those things that control us, which in the case of Israel were the Egyptians. But there are other bondages than people. There are bondages people have to possessions, substances (like drugs and alcohol), sins, and attitudes.

How is such a rescue accomplished today, through Jesus. Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36).

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P6

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P6

3. I will redeem you

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments (Ex. 6:6)

Their redemption was to come through nothing else but God. God is our redeemer. And God redeems us through the shedding of blood. The Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

For Israel, this was done through the blood of the Passover lamb. As God saw the blood upon the doorpost and lintels of the house, He passed over that house sparing the life of the first-born. It was this last plague that finally released the Jews from their slavery.

For us today, our redemption comes through the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, whom John the Baptist described as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And that is exactly what Jesus did as He died upon the cross on Passover, taking upon Himself our sins, as He took our place and died our death, as the Bible declares, “the wages of sin is death,” although He was without sin. He was sinless.

And so, when we come into that saving relationship with Jesus, accepting Him as our Savior, it is then His blood that is placed upon the doorpost and lintels of our hearts, and when God sees that blood, He too passes over our sins and redeems us from our slavery to sin.

“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross” (Col. 2:13-14 NLT)

4. I will take you

I will take you as My people (Ex. 6:7)

What a beautiful promise. It is a promise of intimacy. Literally, God adopts them, as He adopts all of us, where we are not only His people, but we are His children, which then leads to the next promise that we are His children, because He is our God, and as such, our Father.

5. I will be your God

I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Ex. 6:7)

Let me wrap these two promises up with what the Apostle Paul says,

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (Rom. 8:15-17 NIV)

Now, what I find really neat about these promises that God gives is that they were not limited to their deliverance from Egypt, but that they spoke to God’s promises about their future. God’ promises affect not only our present, but our future as well. These promises are then found in the last two “I wills.”

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P4

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P4

4. God Shares His Compassion

And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant (Ex. 6:5 NKJV)

God cares for His people, which means that God cares for all of us who are believers in Jesus Christ. No matter how crushed, broken, and desperate we may become, God is concerned. He has great compassion for us, and will help meet our needs. He will redeem and deliver us from all our troubles and enslavements to this world.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand (Isa. 41:10 NKJV)

And so it is in God’s strength that He will help us and hold us up, therefore, we do not need to fear at all what man may do, because in Christ we can do all things.

Now comes God’s Encouragement for His People

A young man was learning to be a paratrooper. Before his first jump he was given these instructions: “Jump when you are told. Count to ten and pull the ripcord. In the unlikely event your parachute doesn’t open, pull the emergency ripcord. When you get down, a truck will be there to take you back of base.”

The young man memorized these instructions and climbed aboard the plane. The plane climbed to ten thousand feet and the paratroopers began to jump. When the young man was told to jump, he jumped, counted ten and pulled the ripcord. Nothing happened. So he pulled the emergency ripcord. Still nothing happened. “Oh great,” he said, “And I supposed the truck won’t be there when I get down either!”

That is where the nation of Israel now finds itself. God heard their cry and sent Moses. They got all excited and praised God. But things didn’t happen like they thought. In fact, things got worse. They were now at the point of breaking. What more could happen to them? And so they turn on Moses and Moses turns to the Lord. And now, the Lord, after encouraging Moses, now encourages the people.

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P2

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P2

2. God Assures His Deliverance

And God spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them (Ex. 6:2-3 NKJV)

The basic meaning for the name Lord, or the name Jehovah or Yahweh is that of Savior, Redeemer, and Deliver. This is a very special revelation at just the right time.

The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had all experienced God as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but not as Jehovah. Yes, they had known God as Jehovah, known that He was the great Redeemer and Deliverer, but they had never witnessed the deliverance of God’s people. They had known of the great promises, but they had never experienced the fulfillment of these promises.

The name Jehovah or Yahweh is used some 162 times in Genesis. People addressed God as Jehovah at least 34 of these times. Even Abraham addressed God as Jehovah Jireh when he was to offer up his son, Isaac, and God came through with a ram instead. And as we saw a couple of weeks back how at the very beginning of human history how the descendants of Seth called upon the name of Jehovah.

But now, Moses and Israel were to see first hand the very meaning of God’s name, Jehovah, Yahweh, being fulfilled. They were to see the Lord redeem and deliver His people in the great Exodus from Egypt.

So important was this name to Moses and Israel that the Lord used in four times in given this great encouragement to Moses.

As I look at this, sometimes I think, as we all think, that we’re in the driver’s seat. We think that we are in control of the situation, or think that we ought to be.

But God says here, by giving to us this great name, that He’s the one that is in control. He says, “I am the Lord, I am in control. I’m the one who’s guiding all these things to the conclusion I have already promised.”

But many times we try to take this position away from

God, and so, like Moses, we too need to be reminded again of just who does the delivering, and He does that by reminding us of just who He is, the Lord, the Great Deliverer, the Great Redeemer, The Great Savior.

Exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P3

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6 P3

3. God Reviews His Covenant

I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers (Ex. 6:4 NKJV)

God had promised that He would give Abraham the land promised, the land of Canaan. Note that the land was only promised at that time. The promise was for the future, that is why it is called “The Promised Land.”

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." (Gen. 12:7a NKJV)

This was the great hope of the people, and like Abraham they had to believe and to possess it by faith, even though they were slaves in Egypt.

Sometimes because of time delays in God’s promises to us we feel that God has forgotten His promises. We become like the scoffers Peter talked about that will come in the last days saying, “Where is the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:4). But, what Peter tells us is paramount to our faith. He said, “God is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness, but is faithful” (2 Pet. 3:9)

Now, what also must be taken into account is that a promise is only as good as the person who is making it. When people make promises, try not to put too much stock into them, because they in truth really have no control in the end. But when God makes a promise, that’s a promise we can take to the bank. “God is not a man that He should lie,” said Moses, “nor a son of man that He should repent” (Num. 23:19).

exiting Egypt Chapter 6 P1

Exiting Egypt

“God’s Great Encouragement”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 6

Moses was desperate. The people had just rejected his leadership; as Pharaoh began a new round of persecution of the Israel, more sever than ever before. The increased oppression was due to Pharaoh’s reaction of Moses demand that Pharaoh set the people free to serve and worship God.

Consequently, the people blamed Moses and wanted him out of their lives. They wanted nothing more to do with him. In their minds, Moses had brought nothing but trouble to them, with the potential severity even greater than what the Holocaust had produced, for they mentioned that Moses had put a sword in Pharaoh’s hand to slaughter them.

In essence, what these foremen did when they met with Moses and Aaron was fire them. They did a Donald Trump, “Your Fired.”

Matthew Henry said, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity of helping and saving.” He goes on to give this synopsis. “Now that the affaire has come to a crisis, and things are as bad as they can be, Pharaoh is at the height of his pride, and Israel is at the depth of her misery, now is God’s time to appear.”

And so we see a crushed, broken and desperate Moses before us. And so Moses did what everyone of us should do when faced with crushing problems. Moses got alone with God and poured out his soul to Him. We saw all of this last week.

Now, we come to God’s answer to Moses. In chapter 6 we see how God helped Moses and met his need, and the need of the people, which includes all of us.

First, God Personal Encouragement to Moses

Read Ex. 6:1-5

This is God’s personal encouragement to all of us as we are faced with these sorts of dilemmas or problems. What God did was share with Moses His name, and the encouragement that this name gives. This encouragement comes in four stages.

1. God Promises Protection

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land (Ex. 6:1 NKJV)

God promised to raise His mighty had against Pharaoh and force him to free the people. God had already made this promise to Moses at the burning bush, but as with all of us, Moses needed a refresher course. He needed to be reassured of God’s promise once again.

This is God’s same promise to all of us. That He will deliver us from all our enemies, whether seen or unseen, physical or spiritual. The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to be under attack, and shared with Timothy how no one stood with him, bur how all had forsaken him. But it was the Lord who stood with him when no one else would, and delivered him out of the mouth of the lion, which not only references Daniel’s experience in the lion’s den, but also the spiritual attacks that come from Satan who roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:17-18a NKJV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 5 P4

Exiting Egypt

“When Everyone Criticizes You”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 5 P4

Read Exodus 5

First, God Demands Loyalty and Devotion

What we see is the officers or foreman over the work crews coming into see Pharaoh. They had been given an impossible task; to make bricks from inferior material and to make as many as before Pharaoh’s edict. They came to Pharaoh for help. And what this does is sets up a grand tension: Whom will Israel serve? God’s call for us is to serve is not always easy, but what He does demand is loyalty and devotion.

What is interesting is that earlier Israel cries out to God for help. Now, the same language is used in these Jewish officials cry to Pharaoh for help. And least you think I’m reading too much into this, the Jews use the same verbiage as they cry out to God to be saved from Pharaoh at the Red Sea.

You see, the Lord wants for His people to cry out to Him. Originally the Jews cried out to the Lord for deliverance. But when hard times came, they cried out to Pharaoh, not to God. Then after learning their lesson from the multitude of plagues God brought against Egypt, when confronted with a hard or tight situation, they cried out to the Lord, and didn’t try to make peace with Pharaoh.

The difference wasn’t the cry, but the recipient of that cry. When they cried out to the Lord, the Lord heard and delivered. When they cried out to Pharaoh, he turned a deaf ear and made their burden more difficult. What this teaches us is that God wants our devotion, loyalty, and trust, and He will deliver.

Notice something else. In verses 15 and 16 it reveals that the Jewish officials repeatedly called themselves the servants of Pharaoh. Now, there is certain protocol in referring to self in a subservient way when approaching a king. But what this does is adds to the grand tension.

Israel it would seem is a little conflicted about whom they are to serve.

Jesus said that no one could serve two masters. And so what these officials are emphasizing is that their loyalty is to Pharaoh and not God.

Further notice how they referenced that Pharaoh’s edict was unfair. But what was that to Pharaoh. That’s exactly what he wanted. And so Pharaoh doesn’t hear their cry and does not deliver them. Instead he scorns, demeans and accuses them of laziness.

You see, that is the way it is with false gods. They are unforgiving taskmasters. They may have a certain appeal at first, but they will always exact a heavy toll in the future, and that is what the children of Israel are learning.

Now, the language of “serving” is used several times. Earlier, God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that He was to let Israel go so that the people could serve God (Ex. 4:22-23). Now Pharaoh is saying to Israel “serve me.” God wants Israel to be free to serve, Pharaoh want Israel to be slaves and serve.

So you might say that there is a lordship battle going on in Exodus. Who will be Israel’s Lord; Pharaoh or God? God is calling on His people to serve Him, and this demands loyalty and devotion.

And when you look at Israel’s history, this is what you will continue to see as Israel repeatedly looks to other nations for help against their enemies instead of looking to the Lord God. And so, here at the beginning of Israel becoming a nation, God was calling the people to serve Him and Him alone.

Is this something that we struggle with? When we find ourselves in trouble, do we run to others to get us out of it, or do we run to the Lord? Is it only when we’re at the end of our rope do we turn to God because everything else we’ve tried hasn’t worked?

God demands our loyalty and devotion, which means that we are to serve Him, and when times are tough, we are to run to God and not others to get us out of our predicament. And from our story what we see is that God is a whole lot better than anyone else could ever be, but not only that, everyone else will mostly fail, or cause us more grief in the end.

So, whose servants are we? To whom to we belong? We say we’re servants of God, but we’re more comfortable, if truth be known, in serving sin. And so, God wants Israel to be free to worship and serve Him and Him only.

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God (1 Pet. 2:16 NIV)

Exiting Egypt Chapter 5 P3

Exiting Egypt

“When Everyone Criticizes You”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 5 P3

Read Exodus 5

Let me try to answer. There is only one way to be free from this world, and that is to be miserable in it. In order to be delivered from sin we have to want to be delivered from it. No one wants to be delivered from what he or she perceives to be a comfortable place. It is only when it becomes uncomfortable that we will want to leave it.

Before Jesus healed the sick man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus asked him, “Do you wish to get well” (Jn. 5:6). It’s a good question. In order to want to be well, we have to be aware that we’re sick and miserable in our present condition.

This is exactly why the Lord brings trials and tribulations our direction. He wants to deliver us from our service to sin and Satan, but to do so He needs to make that service miserable so that we will want the Lord and His provision over that of the world.

Again, going back to Wiesel’s book, “Night,” he describes a time when the concentration camp he’s in was being bombed. Although the bombs could have meant their deaths, the prisoners were filled with hope. Wiesel writes,

“We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were no longer afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death. Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence”

The bombs represented not death but life. So it is with the bombs in our lives. They’re the birth pangs of a new life.

And this is what the Lord is doing by making our lives uncomfortable. Those who we seek to blame, the Pharaohs of this life, are nothing more than gifts from God. They are whom the Lord sends to make us miserable in this world so that we will welcome His deliverance

Now let’s take a look at Pharaoh’s excuse of Moses’ interference. Pharaoh accused Moses’ of disturbing the peace and interfering with the people’s work, and demanded that they get back to work.

How this translates to our own day. We cannot read the Bible or talk to others about God, otherwise we’re disturbing the peace and interfering with our co-workers’ work. In fact, they say that we’re not tolerant, but in the same breath they will allow others to spout their nonsense about their false gods.

And so Pharaoh hindered the people’s ability to hear the message by making their work harder than ever. Pharaoh instructed the taskmasters not to provide the straw any longer to make the bricks, so the people were to comb the countryside for whatever material they could find; stubble, weeds, even roots.

Now, what is interesting is that the city of Pithom, which was one of the cities mentioned in Exodus as one of Pharaoh’s store cities that Israel built there as slaves (Ex. 1:11). Archeologists have uncovered the city and found in the lower part of the wall these bricks with straw mixed in. But as they went higher the bricks were made of all kinds of stubble, roots, and other material mixed in, which fits our story perfectly.

Exiting Egypt Chapter 5 P2

Exiting Egypt

“When Everyone Criticizes You”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter 5 P2

Read Exodus 5

Why didn’t Pharaoh take Moses’ request seriously? Why did he enslave God’s people and mistreat them. Whey didn’t he believe in the one truly and living God? Why didn’t he rule Egypt with liberty, freedom and justice for all?

In a word, Pharaoh was ignorant of God, and as such he didn’t fear Him. Look at his declaration, he not only didn’t know God, but he would not let Israel go and serve God.

In the exact same way the world doesn’t know God either, because it is no different today than it was in Moses’ day. Therefore, the world will persecute believers. Jesus warns us of these very consequences.

A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me (Jn. 15:20-21 NKJV)

Pharaoh and all those today who do not fear God is because their hearts are hardened to the reality of God. This is what the Apostle Paul found.

(Unbelievers) having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart (Eph. 4:18 NKJV)

And so, the judgment of God will fall upon all who persecute and enslave God’s people. Look at the end of them as we look at the end of time

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thess. 1:6-8 NIV)

And so, as we have seen, the Lord isn’t on Pharaoh’s radar, but belief in the Lord is of great concern to him. Pharaoh may not believe that the Lord is saying these things, but if the people believe it then that belief poses a threat.

In order to believe in anything, one first has to hear it. The Apostle Paul says this is the case concerning our faith. He said that faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).

So this belief by the people because of what Moses is saying is a threat. And so there are two courses of action that Pharaoh as with all despots take, and that is either hinder the speaker or hinder the listener. And here, Pharaoh chooses the later, that is, to hinder the listener, and he does so by making their labor more difficult. Look again at Pharaoh’s words,

Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words (Ex. 5:9 NKJV)

Pharaoh’s strategy is ingenious. Make Moses’ words of deliverance look foolish and his words nothing more than nonsense and empty promises.

This is exactly what Satan wants us to believe by throwing at us all these trials and tribulations. We look at all this wonderful and hopeful truth in God’s word, and then we look and experience all this crushing pain of life and it makes God’s word look like it is nothing more than hurtful fiction, a lie, a collection of “false words” as Pharaoh puts it.

Satan uses affliction for the purposes of distraction. He wants to distract us from “regarding,” from paying attention to the word of God, which is full of hope, by making life so miserable that the word of hope seems like nonsense. Through affliction, Satan is telling us

“Don’t listen, don’t read, don’t believe nor trust it. Discard it, forget it, it’s nothing more than a lie. God doesn’t exist, and if He does, He’s not good, nor does he love you. Just look at the world around you and what you are going through. If God does love and care for you, this wouldn’t be happening.”

Ellie Wiesel in his book called “Night,” which recounts his personal experience with the Holocaust, tells of a neighbor in a concentration camp who examined the painful evidence and decided that God was not to be believed. The man said,

“Don’t let yourself be fooled with illusions. Hitler has made it very clear that he will annihilate al the Jews before the clock strikes 12, before they can hear the last stoke…I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.”

Pain often makes it more difficult to believe the truth. As the saying goes, “Pain speaks louder than words” and as it applies to the word of God, it would seem that for too many, pain is louder and more persuasive.

What do we do, then, as we listen to our pain? We get angry, which has been what humanity has been doing from the beginning, and in our anger we blame others, especially God.

“Why would God do such a thing? Why would He set of a chain reaction that He knows, and even predicts, will result in great affliction? If He wants to deliver the people, why not simply deliver them? What purpose does all these afflictions serve? Why does the Lord do things that make life so painful?”

Exiting Egypt Chapter 5 P1

Exiting Egypt

“When Everyone Criticizes You”

By Dennis Lee: Chapter

Exodus 5

As Moses was rejected by Pharaoh and then by his own people, he was learning what it meant to stand alone with God.

Not only did Pharaoh refuse his request, but in essence he essentially called Moses a liar. And then Israelites went around Moses by taking their case directly to Pharaoh. It was one thing to be rejected by Pharaoh, an unbeliever, but it was quite another thing to be rejected by his own people.

Moses experienced a bitter and painful lesson in learning to trust God alone. Every vestige of hope in others was ripped away, and he had no other choice than to stand alone with God.

The entire plan of delivering Israel seemed to have backfired. Once again his own people were bitter toward him and accused him of being directly responsible for their troubles, even though Moses had been willing to give his life for them. So those words spoken by his own people must have cut deeply.

Our hearts should go out to Moses because his troubles are only beginning. He had been prepared for Pharaoh’s rejection, because God had warned him. But no warning had been given concerning the rejection and accusations leveled at him by his own people.

How discouraging it is when we’re criticized by those we are trying to help, which leads us to the following observation, that it is easier to take criticism from unbelievers than it is to get it from believers.

This is exactly what Jesus felt as well, as again we wee a similarity between Jesus and Moses.

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (Jn. 1:11 NKJV)