The People Whom God Rescued (Exodus—Numbers)

As we concluded our congregational time of singing praise to the Lord, we read responsively Psalm 136:1-16, 23-26, which illustrates that behind all of history we can see God at work, “for his steadfast love endures forever”!

As we have been journeying through this Lenten season, towards our celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection we have been skimming over some of the stories of salvation as recorded in the Bible. We started by considering The Problem... People (Genesis 3) where we learned how humanity fell into sin and its lasting effects on us and our world. Yet we also saw the Lord’s steadfast love at work on our behalf. In the second week we focused on  The Plan Revealed (Genesis 4, 11-12) Since we lost something in the fall we have sought to either take things into our own hands to replace it or self-medicate our pain so that we forget it is missing. We want the greatness that we once had when we walked in a relationship with God and often try to grasp it but without walking with God. It is the difference that we see between the people of Babel (Gen. 11) and Abram/Abraham (Gen. 12) and relates to the questions, “Who is it who makes our name great?” and “Who is it who determines our identity?” This week we will consider the People whom God rescued.

1. A Promised People

God’s plan as revealed to Abram involved a promise to give him many descendants even nations—a line of promised people—through whom God’s blessing would come to all people. This line of covenant people would only sojourn in the promised land until some 450 years later (when the iniquity of the Amorites was full) when they would possess it. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. The rest of Genesis follows the line of promise through Isaac, Jacob/Israel, and Joseph whose position in Egypt brings blessing to the whole region.

2. A Persecuted People (Ex. 1)

The people of Israel ended up living well in Egypt until “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Ex. 1:8). At which time they were enslaved and forced to bake bricks for what amounts to the Egyptian copy of Babel’s pride. As a result of Egyptian national insecurities, severe policies of Hebrew population control were enforced through infanticide.

3. A Prepared [and Presumptuous] Deliverer (Ex. 2)

Amid this time of suffering God’s people “groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning…” (Ex. 2:23-24). God called Moses to go to lead the Israelites out of Egypt in chapter 3 using the attention-getting device of a burning bush that was not consumed. But before this point of calling, Moses had made a good choice and a bad choice that we should consider.

Moses' Good Choice (Hebrews 11:24-26)

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.  He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."

He courageously chose to deny himself, identify with the oppressed people of God, and look forward to the reward that comes from God instead of enjoying the privilege of his position in Egypt.  We must do the same today.

Moses’ Bad Choice—He Took Things into His Own Hands (2:11-15)

"One day, when Moses had grown up,

                          he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and

                          he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

                          He looked this way and that, and seeing no one,

                          he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 

                When he went out the next day,

                                                     behold, two Hebrews were struggling together.

                   And he said to the man in the wrong,

                                        “Why do you strike your companion?”

He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”  

               Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 

When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

                 But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. 

Moses showed his sympathy for his fellow Israelites.  The use of the term "one of his own people" indicates that he had already decided to be identified with the Hebrews.  He saw their suffering and was moved.  He saw what God saw—a people needing a deliverer.  However, he attempted to act as a deliverer before God called him to do so.

Moses’ apparent deduction that God had raised him up to deliver Israel by human means (Acts 7:25) was presumptuous and was rejected by the Israelites themselves (Acts 7:27). Moses’ fury failed to deliver and quickly gave way to fear as he fled from Pharaoh to the land of Midian on the Arabian Peninsula.

Perhaps we commit the same sin as Moses when we start thinking that we can serve God while doing something that requires us to "glance this way and that" before doing it (Rom. 14:23)! Moses’ early failure came from trying to do the work of God in a worldly way. The saying attributed to Dwight L. Moody says,

“Moses spent forty years thinking he was somebody;

then he spent forty years on the backside of the desert realizing he was nobody; finally,

        he spent the last forty years of his life learning what God can do with a nobody!”

God’s Compassionate Choice to Send Moses (Ex. 3-4)

God used a burning bush that was not consumed to catch Moses’ attention. It was the first of many supernatural manifestations and miracles tied to the exodus event.

Disclaimer: The narrative of the Exodus is filled with miraculous signs and judgments. Some people have a hard time believing that such things could have ever happened. Others see the narrative as a record of unusual, but naturally occurring phenomena, whose power to convince come with the timing and scope of their arrival and their sudden cessation upon Moses’ prayer. When animators were working on the movie Prince of Egypt (1998), the producer gave them the freedom to work and design the visuals as if they were true. They found such parameters creatively liberating. The world we live in is filled with wonder and the supernatural fingerprints of the Creator if we look for them as if they exist (of which I am convinced). In these narratives, we learn that the Creator is also their Redeemer.

4. A Powerful Deliverance (Exodus 4 - 14)

Pharaoh made things harder on the people of Israel (Ch. 5), while God made what he was going to do for them clearer (Ch. 6), though the people didn’t listen. They simply couldn’t believe it. Let’s take a few moments and read Exodus 6:1-13 where God spoke to Israel about their coming deliverance.  

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what

    I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and

                                          with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

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

            the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 

    I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, 

    I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and

    I have remembered my covenant. 

   Say therefore to the people of Israel, 

   ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and

    I will deliver you from slavery to them, and 

    I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 

    I will take you to be my people, and 

    I will be your God, and you shall know that 

    I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 

    I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

    I will give it to you for a possession. 

    I am the Lord.’” 

   Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

    So, the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Here are a few observations about the people in this passage:

• They didn’t listen (shä·mah'—pronounced like the sound a goat makes) but God didn’t quit on them. He understood their condition and proceeded with his plan of deliverance.
• They were traumatized people. The words translated as “broken spirit” (v.9) refer to intense anguish accompanied by shortness of breath. Expositor’s Bible Commentary says, “Despite the grandeur of what ‘I am the LORD’ meant for Israel in the current situation, the people did not listen ‘for shortness of breath’ (miqqoser ruah). The NIV weakly translates ‘their discouragement’ (6:9), but it was the inward pressure caused by deep anguish that prevented proper breathing—like children sobbing and gasping for their breath.” Let me say that the people’s inability to hear and believe is more understandable when we see that as traumatized people they were in the midst of a full-blown panic attack.
• They were exhausted people. I think it is helpful for us to see the Israelites not only as traumatized but as worn down and exhausted by the seemingly endless labor—their “cruel bondage.” Picture their faces as having the far-away stare of a death camp laborer.

Despite the people’s failure to listen, God set his promise in motion anyway!

• Ten Judgments: Using ten plagues he brought judgment on Egypt for their violation of the Abrahamic covenant and delivered his people Israel (Ex. 7-12; Psalm 105:26-38; 78:44-51). While I am neither addressing the scope nor the meaning of the plagues (or judgments) in this post, it should be noted that each one shamed and discredited specific Egyptian gods as well as their education and technology. While we might rightly point out the impotence of the Egyptian gods, we should be fair and ask about the gods of our own culture. How effective are our gods of sport, entertainment, drugs, sex, and their derivatives, etc. at delivering us from the bondage of sin?  While they may distract us from the problem, they are not able to deliver us. The Lord, on the other hand, kept his promises and delivered his people.
• The Passover—the blood of the lamb stopped the destroyer in his tracks. It points forward through history to the One who would be the perfect “once-for-all” sacrifice for our sins—Jesus Christ.
• The Exodus proper—God led them through the wilderness and through the sea.
  
  He delivered them by destroying the Egyptian army that was pursuing them (Ex. 14-15). Once across the sea, the Lord made immediate provisions for them in the wilderness (Ex. 16-17). They met with YHWH at the Mountain (Ex. 19-40), receiving the Ten Commandments and other laws for the good of the nation. They received instructions for building the Tabernacle and its furniture, etc.
• The miracles of provision along the way: direction, shade, water, food, and even their clothes and sandals didn’t wear out. The nation was organized and the right worship of God was proscribed (e.g., priesthood, sacrifices) yet something went wrong…the people continuously complained and grumbled. Ultimately, out of the huge multitude, only two actually entered the Promised Land. So…

Why didn't the people who came out of Egypt enter the promised land? Numbers 13-14 tells the story. God heard the cry of his people and rescued them in many miraculous ways, but though they were delivered from Egyptian slavery they failed to enter into the full blessing of the Promised Land. Why? They simply didn’t trust God to be with them and to keep his promise. Numbers 13-14 tell the sad story…

The Men and the Mission (13:1-20)

As they approached the land they sent out 12 men (v.1-16), one from each tribe, “each one a chief among them” (v.2) but today we only remember the names of two of them. These men were tasked with a specific mission, to go and get what I call a “whether report” (v.17-20)

“Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, and

see what the land is, and

whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak,

whether they are few or many, and

whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and

whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and

whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.”

Their Reporting: Good News, Bad News, Fake News, and Tragic Views (25-33)

They fulfilled their mission with the exception of the charge to “be of good courage” (v.20). Ten of the spies were using their metaphorical binoculars the wrong way. They saw a big enemy instead of a big God. Two spies, Joshua, and Caleb believed that despite the strong enemy the Lord was able to bring victory. The other ten men said that the Israelites were not able to succeed and went on to exaggerate the facts in order to persuade the people. Joshua and Caleb stood up against the majority report in bold faith and urged the people not to rebel against God.

“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” (14:7-9)

The People’s Rebellion (Ch. 14)

Despite being warned and having seen a tremendous number of miracles from the Lord on their behalf, they refused to believe he would give them the promised victory. They wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb but were prevented by the glory cloud of the Lord. Their sin was like that in the garden of Eden (in reverse)—this time the fruitful land was there for the taking and they chose not to do so. They doubted God’s word, dishonored his love, disobeyed his command, despised his servants, and denied his judgment.

They were disobedient and thus were judged by their own words. “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (14:3) The Lord said that not one of those who rebelled would enter the land but would die in the desert. However, their children would enter (v.31). Even then, the people weren’t sorry for their sin, just for the consequences (like Cain).

The pervasiveness of their rebellion was profound. They wouldn’t go in with God. God said, OK, you are not going in…ever! But your kids will. Then they decided to go in without God though they were told in advance the attack would fail (it did). Then they spent the next 38 years wandering in the wilderness until that generation died. Finally, after that generation died, the Book of Deuteronomy is the giving of the Law to the next generation in preparation for their entrance into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua.

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, Paul writes of this incident as an example for the church in Corinth,

For I do not want you to be unaware,

         brothers, that our fathers

                         were all under the cloud,

                           and all passed through the sea,  

                           and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 

                           and all ate the same spiritual food, 

                           and all drank the same spiritual drink.

                         For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them,

                                                                and the Rock was Christ.

  Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased,

                          for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

   Now these things took place as examples for us,

that we might not desire evil as they did. 

                 Do not be idolaters 

                      as some of them were; as it is written, 

            “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

       We must not indulge in sexual immorality 

                      as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 

       We must not put Christ to the test, 

                      as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 

               nor grumble, 

                      as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

   Now these things happened to them as an example,

       but they were written down for our instruction, 

                                            on whom the end of the ages has come.

5. A Promise Remains (Heb. 3-4)

Hebrews spends nearly two chapters making it clear that while Israel did not enter God’s rest, the promise of rest—a Sabbath life—still remains. It was not found in a geographical place (Canaan) or in a certain political leader (David) but was anticipated in the coming Messiah. Jesus was that Messiah. So how can we keep from falling to the Destroyer? How can we fully enter God’s rest?

“Today

If you will hear his voice

Do not harden your heart” (Heb. 3:15)

Today, not tomorrow or some other imaginary day of belief. He is speaking to us the question is whether we will hear his voice, whether we will choose to listen. When he speaks, don’t harden your heart, and die in the desert.

How do we not fall to the Destroyer? Walk with the One who is Life! The reason that the Israelites died in the wilderness was that they did not share the faith of those who obeyed (Heb. 4:2). The good news has now come to us. Jesus has set us free from the bondage of sin and death and we are to follow him, walk with him, and trust in him. We can see miracles right and left—Israel did—but unless we unite what we observe with faith we will never experience the blessing of rest that God intends.