Category: Exodus

Read Exodus 17

The Angel of the LORD is in the midst of His saving work as promised in 3:12.  He has brought His people out of slavery, and now He is bringing them to the mountain to worship God.  In the meantime He leads them "by stages" (17:1, ESV) through a desert wasteland where all they have to sustain them is the Angel Himself.  He - the LORD Jesus - is the Rock who accompanies them and provides them with both their natural and spiritual sustenance (1 Cor 10:3-4,9).   The Israelites are being taught a lesson summed up well in the experience of one African Bishop:

"I never knew Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had."

That's the lesson for the Israelites in the desert.  There is no natural sustenance for the people of God as they wait their mountain-top experience.  All they have is Jesus.  But they are being taught time and again - all they need is Jesus.  (For more on this theme see The Church in the Wilderness.)

In chapter 16 we saw grace for the grumbling.  The people complain at their spiritual leaders (16:2) and wish themselves back in slavery.  This is bad enough but Christ reveals that this is really grumbling against Himself (16:8) (pause for thought when you're next tempted to roast your Christian leaders!).  Their sin is much worse than they imagine - but His grace is much greater too.  He would feed this mutinous rabble with the food of angels.  And on Calvary He would reveal the full depths of this grace - He would be torn apart as Bread for the world to feed wicked and desperate grumblers like us.

Chapter 17 shows this cycle of grace for the grumbling repeated.

The people "quarrel" with Moses (v2) - but it's clearly a test of the LORD (cf Ps 95:8-9).  We know what should happen to those who quarrel:

1 Samuel 2:10 Those who quarrel with the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His Anointed.

Christ, who does not quarrel (Matt 12:19), will be the anointed Judge of all those who quarrel.

So when the LORD commands Moses to take up the staff from which the plagues of Egypt have flowed (v5), we know what should happen next.  He should strike down those horrible ingrates in judgement as a little sign of what the true Anointed King would do.

Except that's not how it works out.  Instead the LORD Jesus stands on a Rock in front of all the elders.  Remember that "The Rock" is a favourite name for Him (e.g. Gen 49:24; Deut 32:4ff).  So He’s associating Himself very strongly with this physical rock.  And then He says to Moses, Don’t strike them, strike the rock.

Water comes out and their thirst is slaked.  It’s incredible grace towards the grumbling.  Not simply are they spared, they are positively blessed in response to such wicked quarrelling!  And wonderfully, Numbers 20:13 describes this event as one in which the LORD "showed Himself holy."  The holiness of the LORD is not simply that which zaps sinners, but it shines forth when the Rock is struck and the grumblers are graced.

Centuries later, the One who stood on that rock - the Spiritual Rock who accompanied the people - came to a quarrelsome, grumbling, evil rabble.  But again, it was not the rabble that was struck.  He was struck by the rod of divine judgement and the life-giving waters of the Spirit flowed.  That same grace is extended to we grumblers today.  Our thirst is slaked because when our Rock was struck, Living Waters flowed from within Him (John 7:38; 19:34).

From v8, the Israelites learn that their LORD doesn't only provide our necessities - He fights our battles.  We read of the attack of the Amalekites and we are introduced to Joshua for the first time.  His name simply is Jesus.  Here is the one who would bring them into the promised rest.  Moses can only bring the people so far - the one called Jesus must bring them home.  And here this young man will overcome the enemy while Moses holds his hands out on the mountaintop.

So the LORD provides food and drink and guidance and victory for a people who doubt and question and quarrel with Him at every turn.  They groan when oppressed and then grumble when freed.  They will be brought kicking and screaming to the promised rest only by the steadfast love and kindness of the LORD.  They can count on no-one and nothing else for their identity, security, strength and salvation.  The LORD alone is their banner (v15).

A sermon on Exodus 16-17 (audio of second half)

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Rich continues from yesterday's post.

Read Exodus 15:1-21

We now find ourselves encamped on the Eastern shore of the Red Sea looking back on the great salvation worked by the Father’s Saving Angel.  His glories shining as brightly here as they would by the waters of Galilee.

Moses has just seen the two biggest, most dramatic and loudest multi-media presentations of the gospel the Hebrews would ever see.  He saw them.  More, he even experienced the Lord’s salvation.  His clothes still smell of roasted lamb, his hair and beard have the salt spray of the Red Sea matting it together.  The cloud of smoke which concealed the Angel of the Lord is billowing just a few metres away.

No wonder he broke out singing the first ever Christian hymn recorded!

Before we delve into the joy of this hymn, we need to consider the terror of it.  This is the reality of the gospel.  There is no salvation without judgement.  Hell will be suffered.  Either by Christ or by you.  For those who reject the Lord’s salvation, like the Egyptians, there is death but for all those who are in Christ Jesus, those who shelter under the blood of the lamb, those who pass through the cloud and the water there is life.

Considering the many warnings Pharaoh had, the mistreatment of the Hebrews and contempt towards the Word of Yahweh, we can (I think) feel that this is just. The Egyptians had ample opportunity to join Israel (as some of them did – Ex 12:38) but they hardened their hearts to the clear gospel presentations they received and so the inevitable consequence for them is to be thrown into the chaos and darkness of the deep.

I am not going to pretend that I find rejoicing in this aspect of our gospel particularly easy – I have to look again at what The Lord Christ has achieved for me for that joy to overwhelm my sadness at the hard hearted rejection of the free gift of salvation.

Moses’ hymn reflects on the events of that night in explicitly salvific language. Moses knew his salvation yes in terms of the great events which he lists and amplifies in verse, but also in terms of his relationship to his Saving Lord. He doesn’t just focus on the events and signs and forget who did them and how real he is – there is no depersonalised view of God here.

Verse 2 – he is my strength and my song and my salvation.  He is my God.  He knows his name verse 3.  Salvation from verse 12 is described in terms of a loving relationship.  Love which leads, which guides and keeps with God’s own strength.  It is pastoral language.

Just think about what this “unfailing love” meant to Moses, in his experience.  In the face of such a strong captivity, such an awful cost to salvation, such a dangerously narrow path. It is so rich a term!  He hadn’t forgotten his people.

Now think what it meant to Moses that God’s people are lead, what Moses knows and saw about His strength and His guidance and leading of His people.  It certainly wasn’t a case of throwing them a map and legging it!  It wasn’t even that he pulled some strings from on high to work salvation from a distance.  He was there.  He was with them.  He stoops down to save.  By his own Right Hand the Father works salvation for them.

This gives him great confidence going forward too.  If His great and unfailing love has moved Him to come in person and lead us thus far, then He will surely bring me my inheritance.  Moses looks beyond the Red Sea to his future hope.  Verse 17 – he is looking forward to being grafted into Zion – not just a bit of land in the Middle East, but the Lord’s actual sanctuary – the one He built and verse 18 his eternal reign.

His rejoicing is relationally focused and that relationship has this eschatological edge to it. He knows the Lord and he wants to know Him eternally. He depends on his guidance, strength and leading to establish him in his future kingdom for all eternity.

Such trust and dependence is built on the affirmation “be still and see the salvation of the Lord, see him fighting for you”.

If you are in Christ today, the Lord is with you – to guide, to provide, to lead you. His Spirit’s great work and goal is to bring you to the Father’s rest, to keep you in his fold, to keep your eyes focused on the gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.

Rest in Christ, be still. Enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit as He works to bring you home.

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Rich Owen is a minister at City Evangelical Church in Leeds and has some cracking sermons here.

Read Exodus 13:17 – 14:31

Everyone else at the hotel had hired 4x4s to take them to see the lions, but we figured that would show a lack of faith in our clapped out minibus – how hard can it be?  Well, we saw the lions, but we didn’t half get battered about as our driver hurtled round the *bumpy* Ugandan wilderness in his beloved Isuzu.

There is a sense in which we can view the Christian life like holding on white knuckle style, until we get to heaven.  You are saved and now you strive and get battered about trying to live in the light of the promised future – bluntly, between salvation and consummation, we are abandoned to joyless religion.

Our lives are indeed a journey through the wilderness, and Canaan’s rest is still far away.  But we are not left without a guide, a friend who lights our path to the oasis, one who cares and comforts his people and with whom we can fellowship.

This pillar of cloud and fire of verses 21 and 22 acted like a tour guides umbrella leading the people from place to place.  The umbrella shows the tourists where the guide is. Stay with the blue brolly, and you know you are with the guide and heading in the right direction.  Likewise, as Ch 14:19 states it was the Angel of the Lord who was leading the people – he was in the cloud and fire. Walk with the cloud and you know you are walking in the immediate presence of God the Son.  A gospel sign with the gospel word.  Pretty cool huh?

Ch 13:17-21 shows how God wasn’t unsympathetic to the Israelites concerns.  He knew how easy it would have been for them to want to go back and so he leads them via a desert path.  It’s not the easiest route but it is the best one – the one that keeps them in his fold.  The Angel of the Lord was Israel’s shepherd-guide, leading them in person along the way which is best.  He doesn’t chuck a map at them and then leg it!

This is great news for the Hebrews – I love the fact that verse 8 of Ch 14 has them marching out boldly!  Their Saving Lord, the Divine Angel ahead of them in the cloud, they pursued Him with boldness, walking 10 feet tall with their God.

Pharaoh’s pursuit however was equally as bold (Ch 14:1-9).  He sent the best forces after them to cut them down.  They headed the Israelites off and hemmed them in by the sea.

The Israelites thought that they had been abandoned in the wilderness to die by Pharaohs sword.  They turned their eyes from the saving Lord who was with them and instead looked at what was coming and believed that they would have to fight.  Do you see the problem?

They stopped resting upon their communion with the Angel of the Lord.  They un-hid themselves from the Rock and were found standing only on desert sand.  Take your eyes off the Lord Jesus and you end up looking at self and at the world and the inevitable conclusion is fighting, striving … religion.

So what happens next? What should we do when we doubt the presence and fellowship we have with the Father, through Christ and by the Holy Spirit -  His care, his provision? Lets see what happens here first:

A)    Moses delivers a rip snorting call to battle… “you people of the Living God who face adversity, who waver, who have fear, who long for better times, who take their eyes away from the goal – dig in, hold on tight, white knuckle style to the bitter end…”

Or…

B)    They are simply reminded of the glorious gospel of free grace which had saved them.  All they need in the face of the wilderness, the enemy and the longing, is to have their eyes turned back to the Lord, their Immanuel.  "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today… The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Ch 14:13-14)

Look at the one who fights for you.  Look to the Son of the Most High who brought you out of tyranny, who dwells with you.  Stand upon the Rock and be still for he stands before you to face the great enemy.  He will defeat death this day.  He will loose you from your chains and by the breath of his Mighty Spirit he will provide a path to the rest and perfection of his eternal Kingdom.

In other words, WE don’t DO anything except receive again the gospel. Moses and the Israelites were told to stand a watch – they are given another gospel sign.

And so verse 21 (cf 15:8,10) by His Spirit, the Lord drove back the sea which stood in front of them while Himself guarding them against the Egyptians behind them.  The invitation to cross was clear. They came into and received the Lord’s salvation.  Interestingly, the Lord draws the great enemy into his chosen way to save his people.  It is here that he throws the accuser down.  Salvation for his people and victory over evil occur at the same place.

What a gospel we have!

Be still – your efforts won’t save you.  Rest in the Christ who has gathered you into himself, has gone through the waters for you, lived for you, who has taken you through death defeating the enemy, brought you into new life and taken you to the Father’s side.  Be still and see the salvation of the Lord.

The Israelites saw the salvation of the Angel of the Lord and placed their trust in Him (14:31).

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Luke Ijaz continues from his last post on the Passover.

Read Exodus 12:31-51

All the gods of Egypt have been judged (12:12) – including Pharaoh, at the cost of his firstborn (12:29).  If Jesus were providing the commentary, he may well say:  “No-one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.  Then he can rob his house” (Mark 3:27).  Jesus had now robbed Egypt of one of its most valuable possessions.  The health of Egypt’s economy was tied to this slave labour force!  Now the Israelites are to be led away and Pharaoh – and every other authority in Egypt – is powerless to stop them.

“During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go…”  Pharaoh is resigned to the reality of the moment as he tells the Israelites to “go”.  His lapse will not last long (14:5).  But for this moment Pharaoh and all Egypt will be pleased to see the backs of the Israelites.  They have become “the smell of death” (2 Corinthians 2:24-25).

But the LORD had promised to make the Egyptians “favourably disposed towards this people” so that they would not leave Egypt empty-handed (3:21).  The articles of silver and gold and clothing that were now handed over: each of these would be vital in the construction of the tabernacle.  Without these articles there would be no tabernacle!  How then could they worship the LORD?

We are told that the Israelites “plundered” the Egyptians.  It was not theft because those who were “favourably disposed” gave these materials willingly.  The treasures and possessions that we like to consider our own – these things are only ever given to us in trust by the LORD God.  He reserves the right to recall them at his leisure, and when we fail to steward them well.  In Egypt this silver and gold and clothing was being put to no godly use.  But for the Israelites, these very same items were to be made available in service and worship to their God (35:4-9, 29).  Though some, sadly, would be squandered in funding idolatry (32:2-4).

To “plunder” is a strong word.  But here are we not glimpsing something bigger still?  These provisions that the Israelites carried with them out of Egypt – even as they headed into the wilderness – speak to us of a down payment of yet greater riches and provisions to come, when they reached their inheritance.  Are not all those in Christ one day to inherit (even plunder) the whole earth?

We notice something interesting about this mass of people who (literally) choose to follow Jesus out of Egypt.  They are not monochrome!  There is an ethnic diversity represented in this very first group of people called to follow the LORD.  And judging by the huge numbers of Israelites (12:37), to speak of “many other people” (12:38) joining them would suggest a large minority.  Egyptians almost certainly; maybe others – we are not told.  This corrects that common misconception that Israel was defined along merely ethnic lines: as though Israel were in some way ethnically bound, even ethnically restrictive.  But you did not have to be a native Israelite to be counted in.

True, this is a long way from the post-Pentecost explosion in which all cultural boundaries came down and the gospel was propelled out to every culture.  But at this time – when cultural boundaries were first being put in place – these never formed a barrier to the inclusion of people not biologically related to Abraham.  Anyone could turn to the LORD and take upon themselves Israel’s cultural distinctives – and so join a people that were modelling something totally counter to every other culture.

It was the experience of the Passover that united this collection of people on the road from Rameses to Succoth.  Whatever allegiance to Egypt they may have felt – whether enforced through slavery, or given through birth – the allegiance of this people was now to the LORD God.   The Passover had worked that change in their lives.  The Passover would continue to define who they were as a people.  The whole community were to celebrate it (12:47) – annually.  They were never to lose sight of where they came from – and who got them there.

The Firstborn – the only begotten Son of God – would one day be cut off from his Father and die as a bloody sacrifice, in our place.  On that basis we can be counted among the LORD’s people.  Every male born in Israel was given a very real (prophetic?) reminder of that ‘cutting off’: circumcision.  What about those (men) who wanted in?  Then they would have to undergo the same (12:44, 48-49).  You probably would not choose to join Israel on a whim, without really thinking this through.  Circumcision would deflect the half-hearted!  But for those who had glimpsed something of that greater Passover, what was this little cut in comparison?  It would be a welcome reminder to you that another has paid in blood so that you need never be cut off and never will be cut off.

“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God” (6:9).

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