Scripture: Exodus 3: 19-20

—Moses was told, but did not pay attention.  Too often we do the same.  Christ said, “ If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15: 19).  We are told that the world will hate us, but we want the world to love us.  So we compromise our stand on faith and adopt worldly ways and means to please men.  In the process, we water down the message of Christianity to a weak and powerless churchianity.  We act just like Moses.

Scripture: Exodus 5: 3

—Observe the personal pronoun “us”.  It is only two letters, but has ten miles of importance.  The text says, “Lest he fall upon us,” not, “you.”  This was not the message.  God was not going to fall upon Israel.  In fact, He was going to stretch out His hand and smite Egypt with all His wonders (Exodus 3: 20).

—Moses did not get what he expected.  So he watered down the message and gave this weak-kneed explanation to this powerful potentate who could care less whether God fell upon his slaves.

—We who know Christ as Savior carry the treasure of the gospel in our earthly bodies.  If we water down the message by adopting the lifestyle, method and means of the world, we will go away defeated in our efforts to win the lost.  They will see only themselves and we will lose the power of the message.

—Moses watered down the message, lost the power of God, and went away defeated.  Pharaoh was not impressed and merely said, “Get back to work, slaves (vs.4).”  He then introduced the second problem.

II.) The Burden Was Increased:

Scripture: Exodus 5: 6-8

—Israel was already serving at hard labor, but Pharoah increased the burden.  They would no longer be supplied with straw for making bricks.  They would have to forage for their own and their quotas would not be diminished.  When they could not meet them, the officers of Israel were beaten.

Scripture: Exodus 5: 14

—They complained to Pharoah but his response was, “Ye are idle.  That’s why you talk of sacrifice.”  This put Israel in a very difficult situation, all because Moses tried to deliver them.  How would you respond to this?

Scripture: Exodus 5: 20-21

 

 

—Moses went from hero to ogre!  The life of faith is not easy.  It may even become more difficult for a time.  But it is the true path to real freedom.

—Now put yourself in Moses shoes.  Nothing seems to be going right.  You have your own plan.  You have not paid attention to God’s plan.  What do you think is going to happen?

Scripture: Exodus 5: 22-23

—Moses was very discouraged and frustrated.  Many Christians are like him.  They have their own plans and do not want to listen to God’s.  As a consequence, nothing goes their way, and they get irritated at God.  They want to blame Him, when the real problem is with them.

—God has given us His Word.  It is everything we need for both life (secular) and godliness (spiritual) (II Peter 1:3).  If we heed the Book, we will find that God’s way is best.  If we do not, we will be very frustrated.  God has a perfect plan for our lives.  He had a perfect plan for Israel, too.

God’s Two-Fold Plan:

I.) Pharaoh to Drive Israel Out:

Scripture: Exodus 6: 1

—This seems totally impossible!  Pharaoh is probably the most powerful ruler on earth at this time.  He has denied knowledge of God and has absolutely no desire to give up his slaves.  Yet God said that he would drive them out.  “With God all things are possible.”

Illustration:  Many years ago the Lord called my wife and I into missions.  At first, we vainly sought support in the acceptable fashion.  After a year of failure, we came back to the verse God gave us at the outset (I Thessalonians 5:24).  From that point on, we decided to merely trust God and do the work He gave us to do without seeking any funds or support.  From our decision in December to April of the following year, we prepared a faith approach to missions which we shared with our home church.  We would not tell anyone of our need or seek anything for ourselves.  We would only minister and serve.  People thought we were crazy.  Two months later we were commissioned and on the field.  God provided wondrously and we were by far the best supported missionaries.  We had God’s support.

—Our philosophy was summarized by J. Hudson Taylor who said that his life and work rested on three positive facts: First, there is a living God.  Second, He has spoken in the Bible.  Third, He means what He says and will do all He has promised.

—Moses did not have success, because he did not live like God is for real.

II.) Israel to Learn about Jehovah God:

Scripture: Exodus 6: 2-7

—In these seven verses the phrase “I am the Lord” is used four times.  In connection with the ten plagues that follow, it appears 5 more times.  Each time the word Lord is in all capital letters indicating this is a translation of the Hebrew Jehovah.  The name is an acronym made up of the first letters of the conjugation of the Hebrew verb “I am”.  The meaning is “The Eternal, or Self-existent One”.

—Verse three says, “By my name Jehovah was I not known.”  The idea here is not a new name but a new understanding of that name summed by two concepts:

1.) The Self-Existent One

—The Egyptians worshipped idols bowing down to the creature rather than the creator (Romans 1: 20-23).  God would show the futility of this false worship by demonstrating that He is the only self-existent one.

2.) The Savior

—In the Bible, Jehovah is the name associated with salvation.  The name Jesus means Jehovah saves.  God would demonstrate that He is the only one capable of saving us.  He would do so through the plagues and the lamb.

Conclusion:

—God shared all of this with Moses and Israel, but Exodus 6: 9 says,  “they hearkened not.”  Their spirits were in so much anguish that they did not hear the message.  Evangelism is frequently like this.  We share the gospel, but the bondage of this world is so cruel that people do not hear.  We need to ask God to give the lost ears to hear, hearts to believe, and feet to obey the good news about Jesus Christ.  Christ died for our sins to set the slaves free.  We who are free need to help free others.

—That is what evangelism is all about.  It is about freed slaves sharing the message to other slaves that Jesus Christ died to set us free from the power of sin and the hold that it has on us.  We can have eternal life and forgiveness if we just repent of our sin and turn to Him.  He will set us free.

 

Next week: The Judgment of Egypt