Exodus 17:8-16

1. Fightings Without
Israel has been delivered from the terrors of Egypt and has begun to self-destruct in the wilderness. It is often the case that when the heat is off in one direction, trouble looms in another. But they really have no time for grumbling and accusing Moses and testing the Lord - other battles await them and, in this scene, assault them. The Amalekties take the place of Pharaoh and come out to attack Israel at Rephidim.

Although it is early days for Israel, a pattern is being set here. The problem is not just Egypt; it is that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). The battles that Israel face are spiritual in nature; they arise from Satan's opposition to the Lord and his plans to reconcile all things to himself and to heal his fractured creation.

Here is the Christian's life and the life of the church - a life of battle; serious, costly and intense. Israel needs to awake to that reality; they are to engage in a true holy war, a war that will ultimately not be fought with worldly weapons but with the weapons of righteousness and prayer and the word of God.

We must be alert to the reality of our own situation - every day is another day of battle, of warfare. We must do all that we can to avoid internal divisions that inflict wounds within the body and take our place on the true field of battle.

2. Deliverance through human effort and God's help
When Israel was rescued from Egypt and brought through the Red Sea, they stood still and saw the salvation of the LORD. Now, they need to put to use the armour and weapons they left Egypt with. They need to join the Lord in fighting the battles of faith, the battle for the salvation of the cosmos.

And so Moses tells Joshua to take men and to fight the Amalekites on the plain; for his part, he will go and stand on the hill with "the staff of God" raised.

That action on Moses' part has been the subject of quite a lot of debate over the years. Is it a symbol of prayer? Or is Moses symbolising the Lord as he stands over the battle? Certainly, raised arms are often used in the OT as a posture that signifies prayer. And there can be little doubt but that the whole battle is bathed in prayer and is fought in dependence upon the Lord.

But the clearest aspect of this scene is the sheer effort expended by Moses in keeping his arms aloft and the connection between his raised arms and the progress of the battle. The Lord chooses to involve his people in his battles and that involvement takes courage and effort.

If it is right to see Moses' raised arms as signifying prayer, our own experience would no doubt bear out how tough that can be. How demanding it can be to wrestle in prayer! But this is our calling; we are enlisted as the Lord's servants and must engage in the battle with all our heart, with all our energies, for his glory.

3. Supporting leadership
But however we understand the raising of Moses' arms and the holding aloft of the staff, it is clear that he needs help to do so and Aaron and Hur step forward to give that help. In a sense, this is almost a preview of what transpires in the next chapter where Moses takes Jethro's advice and delegates some of the work to others.

I want to say two things in the light of what we see here.

i) Seeing Moses as a type of Christ - The NT is not shy to make connections between Jesus and Moses, seeing Moses as a shadow and Jesus as the reality. Moses here is seen to be a man of flesh, one who needs the support of others if Israel is to win the day.

In some ways, that picture is replicated in the life of Jesus - he grew tired and needed to sleep; he was hungry and thirsty; and, in the garden of Gethsemane, he asked 3 of his disciples to stay with him in his hour of need and he benefited from the ministry of angels at that time too. Jesus was a real man in all those ways and we should not be afraid to say so.

But, having said that, the NT emphasis is that Jesus won the battle alone; he is the great leader and champion of his people. He is all we need to know victory over sin and death. Moses was faithful as a servant in God's household; Jesus was faithful as a son set over that household (Heb. 3:5,6). Whilst we remember the lives of men like Moses and learn from them, it is Jesus we honour, it is Jesus we worship, it is Jesus we lean all our hopes on. And he will not fail us.

ii) Moses as a leader in need of support - The second thing I want to say about Moses and the help of Aaron and Hur is that it demonstrates to us the very real need of leaders in the church to be supported. All leaders are weak and fragile; however blessed a man's ministry might be, he remains fallen and fragile. Ben is a man called and equipped by God; that is clear and that is crucial. But he will need your support. How can you best give that to him?

• pray for him, but also pray with him - make the prayer meeting a time when he knows that the church is at one in the great gospel battle.
• support by showing that you are seriously engaging with the word he ministers week by week. Talk to him about it; ask him to help you to apply it. Tell him how God's Word has helped you, how it has been relevant in your daily walk. He won't be looking for compliments at the door; it's real engagement with God's Word that truly encourages those whose responsibility is to minister that word.
• encourage him by bearing with one another in love;
• encourage him by being active witnesses to the grace of God in whatever way the Lord opens for you.

In all those ways and so many more you can show your support for Ben - and in showing that support, you demonstrate that your heart is for God and his glory.

4. The LORD is our banner
So the battle is fought and arms are raised to the Lord and the battle is won - the Lord delivers his people. And, just as much as a time of failure such as occurred at Massah and Meribah, a victory of this nature demands to be memorialised. Notice two things:

i) The Lord tells Moses to record this event on a scroll and to make sure that Joshua hears it "because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (v.14). That isn't a vindictive gesture but rather the Lord's determination to rid this world of all that oppose his plans to rescue and to restore.

ii) An altar is constructed by Moses and called "The LORD is my Banner". The people of Israel are under his banner and therefore under his care.

The church belongs to the Lord and is his responsibility. He will give the victory and has done so in Jesus. That is to be the source of all our confidence and hope as we do battle in his name. We go out into the daily battles with the Lord as our banner – the God who enlists us into his army to do battle for righteousness, to hold out the word of life, the demonstrate the value and the power of redeeming love.

God grant us grace ever to do so. Amen.

Exodus 17:1-7

Israel are well and truly in the wilderness and have been for some time now. The problem for them is that the wilderness “is no longer simply a place but a state of mind” (Fretheim). They are caught in- between promise and fulfilment and that poses significant challenges to their faith.

We, too, are like Israel, in the in-between – having been saved and yet being saved; called out from the world into the Lord’s kingdom but not yet in the fullness of all that will mean. And when you’re in the wilderness, it is often difficult to sort out what is perception and what is reality. In this passage, we see Israel still struggling with that.

1. Being Led
Israel, for all their faults, do at least display here some semblance of obedience, in that they respond to the Lord’s leading – they set out “as the LORD commanded”. The road of discipleship is a case of ‘one step after another’ and the hymn-writer was right that ‘each victory will help you some other to win’.

But you’ve got to keep putting one foot in front of the other, which is what Israel fails to do here. They are led to Rephidim but there is water there and, instead of seeking God in faith, they once more complain. But this is even worse than before; the term used here is very strong – they quarrel with Moses and again accuse him of having led them out simply for them to die in the desert.

The mistake Israel makes here is to assume that being led by the Lord means a life without difficulty; as one writer has helpfully said, “God’s leading does not always move directly toward oases” (Fretheim). To encounter difficulty and hardship is not proof that we have been mistaken is terms of the Lord’s leading – we must not think that we have taken a wrong turn if we encounter challenging situations.

In fact, it is part of God’s purposes to lead his people into this difficult situation, just as we see the Spirit leading Jesus after his baptism into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. That may have seemed a strange choice on the Lord’s part but he knows what he’s doing.

The end in view in all the leading of God is fullness of life and joy in his presence but there are many turns to be taken along the path that leads there and some of those turns will be into darker times in which the Lord’s purpose is to cause his light to be seen more brightly, for his grace to be seen as all-sufficient, for us to be built-up in our most holy faith.

But Israel has yet to see that. They test the Lord in their unbelief, making their continued belief in him to rest upon a demonstration of his power and provision. What they’re doing is trying to turn faith into sight – and, sadly, we can find ourselves unwittingly doing the same.

The Lord leads; it may even be into times of difficulty but his purpose is not to crush but to conform us; he wants us to know the riches of his love in the wastelands of this world, the delights of his grace in the darkness of a world in sin. We can trust him; he’s proved that he’s worthy of that trust in the cross of Calvary.

2. Being Gracious
When the people quarrel with him, Moses asks why they’re testing the Lord and then goes in person to the Lord for help, asking what he should do with the people. Whether we’re in leadership in some capacity or whether we’re not, Moses’ example is a good one to learn from – take it to the Lord in prayer.

The Lord doesn’t directly answer that question but instead tells Moses to take his staff and to take the elders with him and to go to the rock at Horeb where the Lord will stand before him. And at Horeb, with the elders as witnesses and with the Lord before him, Moses is to strike the rock and water will flow from it. The same staff that struck the Nile and brought about judgement is to strike the rock and bring relief and blessing.

So that is what Moses does and that is what we see – the Lord acting in mercy and grace, bringing the blessings of creation into the wilderness. Here is a beautiful demonstration again of why he has brought Israel out of Egypt – his plans are to heal creation and make fruitful that which is barren.

In the light of the fact that the people are now quarrelling with Moses (and hence the Lord), it’s all the more remarkable to see God’s patience with them here. This is the third time they have reacted badly and once more the Lord bears with his people and meets their need.

And he does so in person – Moses may strike the rock but the Lord is right there before him. When Paul reflects on this incident in the NT he tells us that the rock was Christ, the Messiah – the people are given physical drink but, more than that, they are drinking from the spiritual rock that is Christ (1 Cor. 10:1ff).

Just as the manna points forward to Jesus, so this water also reflects that perspective. Yet it is more than that; the people drink of Christ himself – God is present with them and feeds them with himself and satisfies their thirst in ways that are deeper than the physical.

That is the measure of the grace and the provision of God for his people. He gives not just gifts but himself – that is at the heart of his mission. That is to be our goal and aim too – to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

3. Being named
The Lord is gracious to his people but that doesn’t mean he is indifferent to their sin in quarrelling with him and testing him in their unbelief. And so this place is memorialised as Massah and Meribah, ‘testing and quarreling’.

In time, this incident came to stand as one of the chief evidences of the hardness of the people’s hearts – they had been recipients of great mercies, blessed so signally by the Lord and yet they failed him so badly. And so the failure was marked down and used as an object lesson for generations to come, just as we have seen Paul using it in 1 Cor. 10:1-4.

Maybe there are places in our histories that also deserve just such a name – times and places where we have quarrelled, where we have made our hearts hard and distrusted the Lord. If we know that there are such places in our own history, does that mean we can no longer walk with the Lord?

Such places are named not in order to shame but to teach, to humble and to encourage fresh faith and obedience. Israel would always remember Massah and Meribah and would be exhorted to listen and to learn from this incident.

As we look at our own stuttering discipleship in the light of Israel’s failure, we need to take to heart their example and humble our hearts. We also need to do what they singularly failed to do: look to the Rock in faith and trust.

The message they heard and that they witnessed in the great exodus events was not combined with faith; if we’re Christians this morning, we have come to faith in Jesus and we share in the true exodus in him, but we must make sure that our faith is an ongoing reality, that our trust is living and real.

And take heart from Paul’s words in 1 Cor 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

May God work in us what is pleasing in his sight. Amen.

Exodus 16:1-36

A desert is a hostile environment. Even for those used to living there, life in the wilderness poses severe challenges. And that is a picture the Bible often uses to describe the Christian life.

Here, we see Israel is a physical desert but it is also more than that. For them, it is a place of spiritual challenge. And in the scene before us, a food crisis turns into a faith crisis.

1. Community challenge
We have already seen the people face an issue similar to this one but there is a key difference in how this chapter opens and then continues: four times we read about the “whole community” (vv.1,2,9,10).

They have been brought out of Egypt by the Lord to be a real community, to be the first-fruits of a whole new society, a people belonging to the Lord. And in that community they are to help and support each other, they are to encourage and strengthen one another as they journey on with the Lord.

But it is just at this point that they singularly fail. Instead of urging each other to remain faithful to the Lord they complain and grumble as a whole community.

It’s all too easy for us to be guilty of something similar, of failing to stand for faith in the face of difficulties. The days we live in are full of challenges that demand a robust faith from the church as the church. We all have a part to play in that; it is vital that strengthen each other to face those challenges. The last thing the world needs is a church that falls like a house of cards under the first breeze of trouble.

Are you looking to be an encouragement to others? Do you pray that others’ faith will not fail them? Our calling is to be faithful as a whole community.

And it is at that point that Israel failed here so badly. They judged their lives (and their God) by their appetites; all that mattered was getting food and the lack of it signified to them a lack of care.

We are very physical creatures and have been made that way by the Lord but we must not allow our appetites to govern our thinking about the Lord and his purposes for us. He does not intend to harm us; his reason for calling us to be his own is not in order to keep us chained in misery. The lesson they had to learn (and learned painfully slowly) was that people do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from God’s mouth.

And because they judge their God by their bellies they end up making a preposterous charge against Moses and Aaron (v.3b) and presumably think the same about the Lord too. It’s almost laughable but we might see something of ourselves in their words if we look closely enough. Have there been times when you have thought that the Lord had it in for you, that he didn’t want you to prosper, that for some reason (usually because you weren’t holy enough) he needed to treat you harshly?

We need to tell ourselves to grow up. The Lord is not like how we portray him in our thinking. Such attitudes and fears on our part are deeply immature and tragically insecure. How can we ever think he is variable and his love for us unstable once we have truly seen the cross?

2. Testing and teaching
As before, the Lord’s amazing response to such immature thinking and behaviour is to be patient with his people and to graciously provide them with food – with manna and quail.

The reason the Lord does so is stated in two ways. Having given his people manna, the Lord is going to test them, to see if they will follow his instructions (v.4). But alongside the testing of the people – and, perhaps, in this context more prominent – he is going to teach them. They will “know” that the LORD brought them out of Egypt (v.6) and they will “know” that the LORD is their God (v.12).

There is more that we can and will say about that teaching in terms of its details but we need first to grasp what is being said here because it is utterly vital to genuine and healthy Christian living. We are called to know the Lord and he will do all that is necessary to bring us every more deeply into that knowledge.
Here we get to the heart of why he called Israel out of Egypt – that they might know him, that they might be restored into relationship with the Creator and, in that relationship, that they might then be a witness, a light, to the nations.

We need to know that it is the LORD who has rescued us and that the LORD is our God. We need to know that he is not a tame God but the self-existent, eternal and all-glorious God. There is no rival to him and we need to know that afresh and ever more deeply.

And we need to know that this God of glory has pledged himself to be our God, to be our Lord, to take complete ownership of us and responsibility for us. We need to know that more deeply and more truly. Grasping those points will greatly enhance our walk with him, encourage our faith and make us a blessing to others.

3. Further lessons
But this incident allows us to go further into the nitty-gritty of knowing the Lord and responding to his ways with us (it was, after all, a test for them). I want to say a number of things quite briefly on this point.

ii) Having enough – In a way that is not explained, they all collected just enough for themselves. None had too much; none had too little. Quite how it happened, we aren’t told – it just did. But when Paul refers to it in the NT, he uses it to encourage those who have much to share with those who have little (2 Cor. 8:13ff). That’s how a growing maturity shows itself.

ii) Having enough daily – The LORD provides for his people daily and so they are to trust him every day. This, of course, is the lesson Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s prayer – “Give us today our daily bread”. We are to rely on the Lord not periodically but perpetually; it is not maturity to think we can somehow go beyond that.

Some of the people test that out and get a shock – the manna has gone off. The Lord has tested them and they have failed the test. They want to do things their way; they want to go the road and God’s promises plus their own efforts. It doesn’t work for them and it won’t for us either.

iii) Having enough daily within God’s rhythm of work and rest – The Lord tells the people to collect extra on the 6th day and they’ll have enough not to need to collect any on

Whatever your take on the whole Sabbath issue, whether it continues into the NT unchanged or is modified (and I think it’s the latter), this scene at the very least shows us that as people created in God’s image we need to live within the pattern he sets for work and rest.

This incident comes before the giving of the law on Sinai; it is clearly linked to it but it is also linked backwards to creation and the Lord resting on the 7th day – which is just what he does here. They aren’t to try to collect manna on the Sabbath because there won’t be any – the Lord is resting from that activity.

The rhythms of work and rest are important for us as the Lord’s people. He has made us that way. We do well to learn that lesson.

iv) Passing on the lessons – All this is taught in the specific situation of Israel is the desert needing to be fed and the Lord responding in grace through manna and quail. When the situation changed (entering the promised land), that provision stopped (v.35).

But while the situation is specific, the lessons learned are suitable for every generation to reflect on. And so a sample of the manna is kept as a kind-of exhibit for future generations to learn from.

Some say that we have to learn from our mistakes; no doubt we do. But alongside that, we can and should also learn from the mistakes and the experiences of others. The manna in the jar would allow future generations to be taught important lessons about knowing and trusting the Lord – they would need to make those lessons their own but they ought to help them not to make the same mistakes.

The NT says the same to us as we read the OT. God grant us grace to do so. Amen.

Exodus 15:22-27

When you have been so signally blessed in the most amazing deliverance, as Israel had been, what would you expect to come next? Surely it ought to be the final completion of the Lord’s promised redemption coming true?

Well, for Israel, no. They are led by God (by the hand of Moses) into the wilderness and in that wilderness they are led for 3 days without water. They are led into suffering and pain; they are led into a time of testing.

Having crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, this was probably very far from what Israel expected. But the wilderness would be a place of profound, and often shocking, discoveries for Israel.

1. Response
When they reach water after three days only to discover that it is bitter, the people “grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’” Their deep disappointment is quite understandable but is their grumbling excusable?

This is the first of 3 scenes in which the people react badly to their challenging circumstances. We’ll look more fully at their responses as we work through these scenes but, from the off, they don’t present a model of faith and contentment in the Lord.

Having had such sultry weather for these past weeks, we can no doubt empathise with their thirst – they’ve been in this desert for 3 days without water; how hard that must have been. And if they could manage their own thirst, their children would have been crying out incessantly.

But if we can empathise to a degree with their predicament – and their sense of frustration that the water they come to with such great expectation turns out to be bitter must have been a very hard blow to take – we must also try to factor into the picture the recent amazing deliverance that they have experienced. The Lord is not calling them to follow him in blind faith but on the back of the most stunning show of loyalty and loving determination to take them as his people.
And that’s exactly where the rubber hits the road for us too. We have no Red Sea to look back to but something far greater – the events we have just recalled at this table. Here is love, vast as the ocean, loving-kindness as the flood…

But even with Jesus and his cross so often before us, we grumble and we mistrust the Lord who bought us.

When a baby sees its parent leave the room, it thinks they’ve gone forever and howls in protest and dismay. But that’s babies; they can’t help it. They don’t know any better. They’ll learn. As for us, our howls of protest are out of place; we really need to grow up in our faith. The Lord is worthy of our trust and he is honoured by it.

2. God’s answer(s)
i) Wood into the water Moses’ response is to cry out to the Lord (a good model for the people) and the Lord shows him a piece of wood. There is no record of the Lord telling Moses what to do with it; he simply takes it and throws it into the water and the water is sweetened.

Some see here a natural remedy – apparently there are trees that can be used in that way and are found near bitter waters (much in the way that doc leaves grow near stinging nettles). Others would want to suggest that this is just so clearly a miracle and that we should not shy from saying so.

I don’t think we have to worry too much over those points; often that sort of question leads us away from the main focus of the text. And the main focus here is that it is the Lord who is at work and is at work in grace among his people.

They have begun to grumble and will do a lot more grumbling before their years in the wilderness are over but here is the Lord graciously meeting their need and doing so without rebuking them for their lack of faith and their self-centredness.

Israel has entered adolescence and the Lord knows their frame and is being patient and gracious with them.

ii) Teaching and training But this scene and those that follow are not simply about the Lord putting-up with his grumpy people; this is about teaching and training his people. This is a test, after all, and the Lord makes “a decree and a law for them” and exhorts them to “listen carefully…and do what is right”; then they will know the Lord not as judge but as healer (v.26).

In fact, the emphasis on teaching is hinted at in v.25 where the Lord “shows” Moses the wood; the term used there is later used to mean ‘teach’ and is linked to the term ‘torah’ (instruction; law).

This scene looks forward, both implicitly and explicitly, to Sinai and the giving of the law. The people that the Lord has redeemed are going to need to be directed and trained by the law; without such direction they will forever go astray.

This puts the emphasis on this wilderness period on the training of the people. We know from the NT that we, too, as the Lord’s people need training and undergo such training and teaching at the Lord’s hand. But where does the law fit into our training?

The NT makes plain to us that the law was given to Israel to govern the time of her infancy (see Paul’s argument in Galatians 4). But it never could bring fullness and maturity, being weakened by sin, and is now declared to be obsolete. So what form does our training take?

In Galatians, Paul goes on from that passage about the law as a trainer to speak of the coming of the Spirit and emphasises that we are to be governed and led by him, not by the law and not by our flesh. The Spirit teaches and trains us so that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us through our living by the Spirit. Law-keeping is not the way to Christian maturity; walking by the Spirit is.

But where does that leave the 10 commandments? That’s a complex issue and we’ll return to it next time but, for now, we should notice that the law given at Sinai are an expression of the fundamental requirement that we should love God and that we should love our neighbours as ourselves.

In all sorts of situations, and by all sorts of means, God by his Spirit is training us, leading us into the maturity of genuine love. Our wisdom is to trust him and to work with him in that grand project of restoration into the likeness of his Son.

3. A foretaste of fullness
This initial wilderness scene ends with a gracious encouragement from the Lord to his people: they come to Elim where they discover 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees. The encouragement goes beyond the simple provision of more water and a pleasant place to camp; there is something deeply-symbolic about this scene.

The 12 springs of water symbolise the provision of water for the 12 tribes and the 70 palm trees can be seen as symbolising a place of rest for all the family of Jacob who went down into Egypt (Gen. 46:27).

The God who has redeemed his people from Egypt and who has led them into a time of hardship in the wilderness will in his time lead them into the fullness of blessing that he has promised. Elim is a foretaste for them of that fullness and was no doubt a great boost for their flagging spirits.

Times of difficulty should not make us doubt the reality of God’s promises nor his ability to deliver on what he has promised. But, such is his gracious way with us, he not only makes promises but gives foretastes of blessing along the way. We have been given in his Spirit the down-payment of all that will one day be ours in glory.

Exodus 15:1-21

Last week, we saw how the Lord opened a way through the waters for his people, rescuing them from their enemies. The story takes a bit of a breather in ch.15 as we have recorded for us the song that the people sang in response to what the Lord had just done for them. And that is how it ought to be – deliverance should lead to doxology and salvation to song. We were created to hymn the praise of God and that is where this chapter takes us.

1. Songs in scripture…
I want to begin by reading some comments made on the back of a study of what is often called The Song of the Sea.

Singing has universal appeal. The Creator made us that way. We sing for different reasons. Sometimes we are happy, other times miserable. Sometimes we know why we sing, other times it just comes out. We sing to remember good times and to take our minds off bad times. Singing changes our moods as well as simply reflecting them. What we sing can have a tremendous influence in how we subsequently think or behave. Song can enter portals of our being that prose and logic cannot. The capacity to sing and to react to song is part of the human experience, so much so that without it, we would truly be less than human.”

[The songs of scripture] give us a glimpse of who God is and, therefore, what our proper stance toward him should be.

We do not sing in worship to reflect our moods any more than our sermons and Sunday school lessons should reflect our pet theories on the gospel. Rather, quite bluntly, we sing in an effort to take us away from what we think and draw us toward what we ought to think, feel, experience. We sing to create a mood more than to reflect one.

This is why the content of what we sing is so vital. Our songs are, like the songs of the Bible, reminders of who God is and what he has done. This is not to say that only one type of song fits this description; for example, the ‘classic’ hymns of the church. To argue as I have done is not to close off discussion on the subject because the issue is now settled. Rather, the discussion can truly be opened when we have all agreed at the outset that, like the biblical examples, who we sing to and what we sing about is a matter worthy of constant reflection and spiritual energy. (Peter Enns, Exodus, NIVAC)

The points being made there are extremely important and very helpfully put. The writer is not being small-minded but is genuinely concerned for the health of the church and the glory of God.

We need to take on board the sheer variety of songs that are found in the Bible – no one song will contain all the aspects noted. And so in a service, a wide variety of songs might be sung, in various forms.

But the point that the songs we sing don’t simply express our moods but help to shape them is of great significance. It’s what we see at Col. 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

The songs we sing teach and train us, they create and animate. Which means it is vital that we assess our songs in the light of the songs of scripture – and those songs, even where they focus on the status of the singer or the feelings of the congregation, do so in the context of speaking about the Lord – who he is, what he has done.

And that, of course, is just what we need. We need our songs not simply to express how we feel but to challenge and to shape our thinking so that our feelings are re-ordered and our emotions purified.

2. Focus of this song: the LORD is a warrior
Now, when we come to look at this song in all its detail, it is quite clear that its focus is resolutely set on the Lord and in particular on the Lord as a warrior (v.3).

Here is a theme that runs right throughout scripture, in both old and new testaments: God is a warrior and fights for his people and against his enemies. And as he does that, he gains a victory that is cosmic in its scope and that has implications for the whole creation.

i) He fights for his people The LORD takes absolute responsibility for his people and acts to rescue them. And, so, Moses and the people sing of him, “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (v.2)

ii) He judges their enemies The Lord who fights for his people judges those who oppose him. And that judgement here means the death of the whole army in the waters of the Red Sea.

Now, scenes of judgement we expect to find in the Bible; God is not partial to sin, he stands against it, deliberately and resolutely. But having said that, it almost seems that there is delight in this song at the expense of the Egyptians. How can that be so?

I think it is only when we see sin and evil up close and get a sense of just how desperately wicked they are that we can understand the delight in their destruction. Pharaoh and his men had taken their stand against the Lord and so had taken their stand for sin and chaos, for evil and death. Their actions (whether consciously so or not) were set on robbing creation of its liberation from bondage and its people’s from the black night of sin. That cannot be allowed. And so the Lord acts.

iii) He gains a cosmic victory This is no local victory that the Lord wins. He is in it for the sake of the whole cosmos and so the song speaks in cosmic terms. Again we see nature working hand-in-hand with the Creator and doing his bidding. We also see a reference to the watery chaos of Gen 1:2, a deliberate link back to that beginning of creation to proclaim the cosmic dimension of what has just happened.

Israel may be a small nation and, in the grand scheme of things in the ANE world, quite insignificant. But the Lord was acting for them and against their enemies for the sake of the whole world. And as he does so, he reveals himself to be the supreme ruler of all – “Who among the gods is like you?”

In all these ways, the Lord is also with us as his people – acting to redeem us from our great foes – sin, evil and death. And he is acting in us for the sake of the whole creation. He is surely worthy of the highest and purest praise we can bring.

3. Prophetic victory
One of the questions raised about this song is when it was written. It seems to flow straight from the crossing of the sea yet the final section (from v.13) speaks of a victory over peoples yet to be encountered (the NIV’s future tense is not justified). So was the song written a long time after the event and conveniently slotted-in here?

I think what we have here is indeed a prophetic passage (as suggested by the NIV) but the form of that prophecy is indeed the past tense and for a very good reason.

Our hope as the Lord’s people is secure because of Jesus and what he has done. Similarly here, the future success of the people is certain because of what this song is all about (the LORD!) and so future victories can be spoken of as already in the past.

Our final destiny is so secure that the Bible can speak of us as already saved, even as it speaks of us being saved. There is no doubt that every Christian will arrive safely in glory because the LORD is a warrior, because Jesus died and rose again, because his love is stronger than death.

In his unfailing love, he has and does lead us as his people and leads us to “his holy dwelling” (v.13). That term is used elsewhere in the OT for the temple but even that is only an anticipation of the full reality, the Lord dwelling with his people for ever. Our place in his family and at his table is forever secured because the Lord is our strength and song and has become our salvation (v.2). It is assured because, in his death, Jesus “shattered the enemy” (v.6) and they “sank like lead in the mighty waters” (v.10). It is guaranteed because “the LORD reigns for ever and ever” (v.18).

We must sing this song and others like it. We must fill our hearts and our minds with the truth about God, about Jesus, about his Spirit, about ourselves and the world, about the present and the future. We read the truth and we must sing the truth.

In Zeph. 3:17 we’re told that the Lord “will rejoice over you with singing”; we need to ask him to catch us up into that song through his Word and by his Spirit, for his glory and our strengthening.

Exodus 13:17 - 14:31

The Lord has taken his people out of Egypt in the most dramatic fashion. Ten plagues have afflicted the Egyptians and their gods have been judged. But having led them out, the Lord now takes his people on a detour; he doesn’t lead them in the way they might have expected. We’ll see why as we unfold this next section.

1. Providence: God guides his people
One of the hallmarks of this section in Exodus is the way that the Lord in his providence leads his people. Twice we are told here that he guided them (vv.17,21) and the whole movement of the story makes the same point: The God who has called his people out of Egypt will guide them; he goes before them, he directs them, he sets the agenda and calls the shots.

When we think of guidance, we often reduce it to a merely personal level and in terms of whether we ought to do this or go there and so on. That isn’t how it is seen here or in the rest of scripture. That isn’t saying that we cannot know the Lord’s help in those areas but that we must place that within the far larger context of the Lord leading his people into salvation and guiding his people for the sake of his gospel purposes.

That’s where the almost incidental detail about taking up Joseph’s bones fits in here. Egypt was not the people’s resting-place; the Lord had made great promises which went back to Abraham and forward into all the nations. It is because he has made those promises and is committed to fulfilling them that the Lord leads his people in his providence.

That leading-for-the-sake-of-the-gospel is something every church ought to seek to be sensitive to. Decisions are to be taken in the light of the Lord’s overall purposes and with the readiness to see him overrule because of those same purposes.

It’s good in our thinking to always be governed by God’s glory in the gospel of his Son. That’s how his providence works.


And that providence is unfailingly kind and aware of the weakness of his people; he knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. The Lord chooses the route the people are to take not because it is the quickest or easiest (his guidance is not a heavenly TomTom) but because he is mindful of their fragile hearts – they could get discouraged so easily (13:17; as indeed they do in 14:11f).

The example of the people as they grumble here (and it won’t be the last time they do so) is clearly not one to emulate but rather to learn from. But isn’t it good to know that the Lord does not ride roughshod over the particular characteristics and sensitivities of his people. That isn’t saying he won’t challenge us to grow and to overcome some of those aspects of our personalities but it is saying that he is a gentle and kind Ruler of his people, that he takes note of how we are.

2. Presence: God is with his people
God guides his people; but he doesn’t guide them from a distance. The second great theme in this passage is the presence of God with his people. He goes before them in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. He goes behind them in the same way to protect them from the Egyptians (14:19). He is also seen as being among them and as fighting for them against their enemies from close quarters (14:24).

This is not an incidental point but one that is central in the whole purpose of God in redeeming his people out of Egypt. His presence will not simply be with them in times of trouble to rescue them, like a superhero who appears for a time and then goes back to his own normal life. The Lord redeems his people and fights for them in order that he might make his dwelling among them.

This is the great highpoint at the end of the book of Revelation – not the new heavens and new earth (great though that will be) but the final reality that “now the dwelling of God is among the people and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

That is the final reality in all its fullness but, just as Israel here knew the nearness of God, so too we have a first-instalment of all that will be ours finally in the gift of the Holy Spirit now.

He is present with his people, mediating the very life of God to us, personally and corporately. Just as the cloud symbolising God’s presence went before the people here in Exodus and filled the temple in the OT, so the reality is now experienced as God’s Spirit fills us as his people.

You cannot read the NT without being conscious of that fact and we ought also to be aware of it in our life together – not in a touchy-feely kind of way but in the reality of a new life that is expressed in genuine love and in all the fruit of the Spirit.

Our responsibility is to cultivate that life within us, not grieving the Spirit but keeping in step with him, conscious of the holy presence of God in our life together.

3. Power: God delivers his people
God’s providence and presence are clear in this scene but of course the great reality that we encounter here is the power of God in delivering his people and his glory made visible in that rescue.

The crossing of the red sea is one of the most memorable stories in the whole Bible and was often looked back upon in the OT as an instance of God’s powerful care for his people and his determination to save. Recalling it gave shape to their present and hope for their future.

We have not been delivered from an Egyptian army but from a far more deadly enemy; our rescue was not through water but by the way of the cross. That greatest of all saving events gives shape and meaning to our lives and bequeaths us a hope that will never disappoint us. Just as the deliverance from Egypt which culminated in walking through the Red Sea on dry ground would be the foundation on which they would build their lives as God’s people, so our being joined to Jesus and his victory over sin and death does the same for us.

God has called us out of our old existence of slavery to sin into a new life in glad submission to him as our Lord. Our task now is to live in the light of that and to work through the implications of belonging to such a gracious Lord.

But we ought to spend a few moments reflecting on the way this event is used by Paul is 1 Cor 10 where he reminds the church in Corinth that although many people were baptised into Moses in the waters of the Red Sea, God was not pleased with most of them and they were subject to judgement. Why was he not pleased with them? Because it is impossible to please God without faith and although these people were externally joined to the people of God, there was a distinct lack in their personal commitment to the Lord.

Being joined to a church is not the issue; being joined to the Lord in faith is. It would be fatal to make a mistake on that point. You need to make sure that what was said of many of these people who crossed the Red Sea could never be said of you.

The crossing of the Red Sea is an act of salvation for the people of Israel but the same event gives rise to the judgement of God upon Pharaoh and his cavalry. The nation that had sought to drown the newborn males of Israel has its strongest and best fighting men consumed by the waters. Again the Lord uses creation to make his point: sin will be judged; the Lord alone is God – he is the supreme Lord over all the watery chaos; there is no other.

The death and resurrection of Jesus also have this two-sided dimension to them – that which means salvation for all who put their faith in him also means judgement for those who refuse to honour him as Lord with their trust.

And in all this, the Lord displays his glory, as he did by the waters of the Red Sea; the glory of his holiness and the glory of his grace. Let’s give him the praise he is due and the service he is worthy of.

Exodus 11:1 - 13:16

1. The Final Judgement
The first nine plagues have spoken powerfully to Pharaoh and his people of the Lord’s decided intent to release his people from Egypt. His purposes for the whole creation will not be held back nor thwarted by the sinful oppression of Pharaoh and his gods.

Pharaoh has been given opportunity to repent, to let the people go. He has refused to take that opportunity. And so, now, the final judgement is going to be unleashed on Egypt; the Lord will kill their first-born, both of people and animals.

There is going to be no turning back; the warnings are ended and judgement is going to be executed on the gods of Egypt (12:12). This tenth plague is the culmination of all the others and the final judgement upon Egypt. It has come upon them because of Pharaoh and his intransigence and arrogance; notice how the Lord has made the people and even the officials sympathetic towards his people, but Pharaoh remains hard and so his people will suffer.

There comes a time when the last warning is heard, when people are called to judgement. The Bible makes that so plain to us in so many ways. Our response to that may not affect others in the way that Pharaoh’s did here but how we respond to the clear warnings of God will impact on us. Have you heard the call to turn to Jesus? Have you responded to that call?

The time is not unlimited; final judgement is a powerful reality that cannot be escaped. You need to listen to God’s voice and turn to Jesus if you have not done so. The warning of God is clear and unambiguous.

2. Delivered & Consecrated Through Blood
There were no distinctions between the people of Egypt – every family was affected and afflicted. But the Lord did make a distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians (see 11:7).

i) That distinction arose from God’s own choice and in order to further his purposes of grace for the whole world. The distinction did not in any sense arise because of the worthiness of the people of Israel – after all, if they were somehow worthy their firstborn would not have been under threat. The Lord is showing here that his choice of them is not based on merit but on grace; they are equally as worthy of judgement as the Egyptians.

No, the distinction, the separation, is on his terms and for his larger purposes in the world. And we can say the same for ourselves – chosen not for good in us (as M’Cheyne expressed it) but in order to bring eternal glory to the Lord.

ii) The distinction leads to the deliverance of the people of Israel by the mighty hand of God. Their rescue, including the way they are treated by the Egyptian people, is entirely due to the power of God. He is the great redeemer of his people, the one who rescues and saves. All the glory is ever due to him!

iii) This rescue of the Israelites gives them a whole new start – they will be constituted as a people belonging to God from this point; it will be a turning-point in their existence. This month is to be the first month in their year (12:2); old things have passed, all things are becoming new for them.

And so it is for every person rescued from sin by the Lord. A new life; a new sense of belonging; a new start.

iv) The way in which the Lord chooses to save here teaches a very powerful lesson. Very detailed instructions are given to Israel in ch.12 about the Passover meal they are to eat and the way in which their distinctness is to made visible: by applying the blood of the sacrifice to the lintels of their doors. When the Lord saw the blood he would pass over their homes and not kill their firstborn sons.

Rescue from sin is accomplished by the Lord alone and through the shedding of blood, through a sacrifice taking the place of those worthy of death.

As we know, the rich symbolism of this first Passover comes to ultimate fruition in Jesus, the Son of God, whose blood was shed for the remission of our sins. He is our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) and has been sacrificed for us.

In the most dramatic way, the Lord is showing Israel how their ultimate rescue will be accomplished: by his power, his wisdom, his grace; and by the death of his own Son – Jesus, the firstborn of God.

Let’s go on to ask, ‘What becomes of those who are thus spared?’ In 13:1f the Lord tells Israel that they must consecrate to him all the firstborn, whether of man or animal. They belong to him because he rescued them. Now, all belong to God by virtue of him being the creator but this rescue has put the people in a different relationship to him: their creator has become their redeemer. They are a chosen people, blessed in the covenant love of God.

And that is to be seen and demonstrated in the consecration of the first-born. Those redeemed by the Lord belong to him in a special sense, in a distinct redemption-sense – his own special people, saved because the Lord loved them and because he chose to catch them up into his purposes for his creation.

And that places obligations on them. Those obligations are not spelled-out here but they extend not only to the first-born in Egypt but to all whom the Lord redeems and rescues.

We belong to him and that belonging has the most radical implications for our lives in this world: we have absolute security and we have the most demanding and exhilarating calling – to serve the Lord and to make him known in his world. All that we are and has belongs to him; we owe him our very lives, our every breath, our hope of eternal life.

We are called to live securely in his love and lovingly in his service.

3. Sacred Ritual & Who Takes Part
Reading this section of Exodus, you cannot but be impressed at the amount of detail that is given not just for the first Passover but for the subsequent celebrations of the Passover.

Seeing that, we ought to ask, ‘Why such emphasis on the ritual? Why such stress on the details of the feast?’ Clearly there are all sorts of reasons why that might be the case but the emphasis here seems to be laid on the need to remember and to use the occasion to teach future generations what the Lord has done.

This mighty redemption is to stand as the paradigm for the Lord’s dealing with his people until it is fulfilled in the exodus of Jesus by the way of the cross. The people will need to recall often how the Lord rescued them and all that the event meant to them. They would be strengthened and encouraged in doing so; they would, in a sense, re-enact the Passover by carefully following the details the Lord is giving here and have a tangible sense of their connection to that great event.

And the occasion would also be used as a means of teaching the children of future generations what the Lord had done for his people in this great rescue – see 12:26. And it would be their solemn duty to teach its meaning to their children, encouraging them to remain true to the Lord, encouraging them to exercise true faith in him.

Now, in both those respects, it is surely significant that restrictions are laid down as to who is to be allowed to eat the Passover meal – no foreigner is to eat of it; it is for those who observably belong to the Lord (which, for a male, meant circumcision). It is a meal for the community who know the Lord’s rescue and only those observably part of that community are to share in it.

No foreigner is to eat of it but clearly the children of the people of Israel are to eat of it. I realise that there isn’t a straight-line equation between the Passover and the Lord’s Supper but it strikes me that those restrictions are something that is reflected in the NT with regard to the Lord’s Supper which was celebrated as a meal in which the whole church shared – young and old alike.

But whatever our take on that might be, let’s close by emphasising the great joy of all who know their rescue has been accomplished by Jesus our Passover and also, sadly, the great tragedy for all who refuse to listen to God’s warnings and who face final judgement.

Exodus 7:14 – 10:29 Nine Plagues

Having briefly introduced the plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt, we’re going to consider them more fully this week. It’s possible to take them one by one or in groups of three (they seem structured that way) but it strikes me that perhaps the best way to handle them and to benefit from them is to look at them together, with the exception of the final plague which we’ll consider separately – its account is more lengthy and heralds the final release of Israel from Egypt.

1. God, the Sovereign Lord
The plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt are the clearest statement of his absolute sovereignty and his utter resolve that he will indeed act to deal with sin and redeem his fallen creation. Those points are made in a host of ways in these great acts of judgement.

i) Creation moving in tandem with the Creator in his acts of judgement upon Egypt. We saw last week how the plagues were acts of uncreation, of giving to Pharaoh the fruit of his rebellion against the Lord. We ought to note in line with that the absolute control the Lord has over the creation and that the creation which is longing for its own release from bondage is, so to speak, his partner in moving that great project along.

This is perhaps underlined by the fact that, whilst the magicians of Egypt can replicate some of the plagues (the first two) they are powerless to go any further than that. The Lord is supreme.

ii) Judgement upon the gods of Egypt. In line with that, we should note that it isn’t just the magicians who are defeated but the gods of Egypt too. Many of these plagues deliberately involve aspects of creation over which Egypt’s gods were said to have power or aspects of creation that Egypt considered to be gods. But those gods are idols, worthless things with no true power. The LORD, he is God and he is God alone!

iii) That supreme control is further underscored by the continued emphasis upon the extent of the plagues – everything is affected (with some important exceptions that we’ll come to later). The whole of Egypt is condemned and judged; nothing is beyond the scope of the Lord.

iv) The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh’s contribution to this dramatic reversal for his nation is truly culpable. He moves between sheer obstinacy and moments of pleading for mercy yet he never truly repents, he never takes to heart the clear message he is being given by the Lord.

And yet, while he is culpable and responsible, the text makes great play upon the fact that his heart is in the hands of the Lord (cf. Prov. 21:1). What happens, happens because the Lord purposes it to happen; he is acting in salvation and judgement with sovereign control over all that is taking place – such is his commitment to his own character and to the healing and rescue of his creation.

Now, how should all this impact us? Perhaps the most direct impact it is to have is to move us with a sense of the grandeur of God, of his majestic strength, his mighty wisdom, his inscrutable ways. In short, to lead us to worship and revere the God who is far greater than we give him credit for being, to bow before him in awe and adoration.

Here is not a God you can box up and say you have comprehended; this God, who moves in such power and for purposes of salvation, is far beyond us. We are so tiny in comparison with him. It is good to be humbled by a fresh vision of who he is and what he does.

This sequence of events should also inspire a sense of confidence within our hearts – here is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting to rescue, acting in fulfilment of his promises. Such passages evoke not simply awe in us but awaken trust and stimulate faith. He is worthy of our trust; we can venture for him – as William Carey so helpfully put it, “expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

2. God, the Particular Lord
One of the peculiar and puzzling aspects of the plagues is that fact that some of them are also experienced by the people of Israel whilst others are not (they experience the suffering caused by the first 3 plagues – blood, frogs and gnats – and also the locusts).

Given what we have seen of the absolute sovereignty of the Lord, the question has to be asked, ‘Why he does not spare his people from all the effects of every plague?’ If he could spare them some, then why not spare them all? If it isn’t a case of ‘could not’, why would he not do so?

The only answer that seems reasonable is that the Lord chose to allow his people to experience something of what the Egyptians were suffering as a result of Pharaoh’s sin in refusing to let them go. And such experiences would no doubt speak powerfully to them of the true nature of sin and its bitter harvest, as well as humbling their hearts (they were not all that different to the Egyptians).

Can we not also say the same about our experiences of the sufferings of this life? If the Lord can spare us all sickness and disaster, why does he not? In his own time, he certainly will do so – there will be no sorrow in the new heavens and earth – but in these interim times, suffering is indeed a reminder to us of the broken state of this world.

It keeps us humble; it keeps us trusting; it keeps us looking forward to the return of Jesus. And it fosters within us a sense of compassion toward those who are still far from the Lord.

3. Plagues: A call to repent
Clearly, the ten plagues that the Lord sent upon Egypt to make Pharaoh release his people (and so to further his saving purposes for the world) were a unique event. All through the OT, the people of Israel looked back to the time when the Lord acted in such power on their behalf and took great encouragement from that.

And yet, we can also see in the scriptures deliberate allusions to the plagues that show them as setting a pattern for the Lord’s dealings with the world. In particular, I think we can see this happening in the book of Revelation.

There, the apostle John sees visions of great cataclysms coming upon the world following the ascension of Jesus to his place of authority at the right hand of God.

Those events recall the plagues in Egypt but with an important qualifier in terms of the earlier events: they do not afflict the whole earth; a great stress is laid on the fact that only a third of the earth is to be afflicted. That limitation is ultimately removed when the great final acts of judgement are unveiled.

What does this linkage with the plagues of Egypt say to us? It clearly shows the continuity of the purposes of God, that what took place in Egypt was one phase of the great work of rescue that is ultimately seen as fulfilled in the book of Revelation.

But what I want to particularly mention in terms of the use of plague imagery in Revelation is the emphasis on the opportunity to repent that the plagues present – an opportunity squandered by Pharaoh, to the tragic loss of his people; and an opportunity that is also allowed to slip away by those described in John’s vision (see Rev. 9:20ff).

We live in a world of suffering and decay, a world in which the Lord speaks powerfully through his word and also through his actions in history. I want to ask you this morning: have you heard that voice, calling you to repent? Have you taken the opportunity his grace is giving you to turn back to him, now, before the ultimate tragedy befalls you?

Look around and see what is happening. See the distress and the decay; take note of the hardness and hostility which arouses God’s anger; and humble your heart to receive salvation from Jesus, the Lamb of God who died to take away sin.

Exodus 7:8-13

Whatever you think of boxing as a sport, the build-up to big fights are very much a part of the action, what with press conferences, weigh-ins and so on. But for all that, when the bell goes and it’s seconds out, that’s when the real action begins.

It’s much the same here in Exodus. There has been a lot of sparring going on up to this point – Moses has been prepared by the Lord; he and Aaron have had a run-in with Pharaoh but from 7:8 it’s “seconds out, round one”.

1. Clash of the gods
When Moses and Aaron enter Pharaoh’s presence, we are seeing the clash not of two earthly civilisations but the Lord of heaven and earth addressing all the forces of sin and chaos through his servants. Pharaoh stands as the representative of the kingdom of darkness and even his garments and the whole architecture and art of his palace show whose side he is on.

But that is not simply the case in words and signs; one of the most startling aspects of this scene is the ability of the Egyptian wise men and sorcerers to replicate what has just happened to Aaron’s staff. That is something we will also see with the first two plagues of turning the water to blood and causing the land to teem with frogs.

Here is a real power; an ugly and destructive power, the power of evil, the settled opposition of evil to the will and ways of God.

When Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, it is not the coming together of diplomats but it is the clash of kingdoms, it is the engaging of the battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. This is the bedrock truth of life in this world – we are engaged in a spiritual battle between the one true God, revealed in Jesus, and all that stands opposed to him and to life itself.

Scripture beings that before us in all its clarity not to scare us but to ensure we know what we’re facing, what we’re engaging in.

Much of the reality of it may well be hidden from our view – we see flesh and blood, we don’t see the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms and we should not go looking to try to see it.

But when we see flesh and blood opposing the Lord and his gospel in all the variety of ways that can occur, we need to remember that we are not ultimately wrestling against flesh and blood but against those unseen forces.

2. Counterfeit power is real but can’t last
The power that the Egyptians possess is real and we need to accept that. But there is a real difference between Aaron and Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh: Aaron’s staff becomes a snake not through any use of ‘secret arts’ on their part but simply as they obey the Lord.

You see, there is power and there is counterfeit power; there is power and there is usurped power. Pharaoh and his men stand as symbols and representatives of all that is evil; as such, their power, although real, is counterfeit and usurped.

And the good news of this scene is that all such power, however real, is destined to be overthrown. It cannot last. Although by their secret arts these men can make a staff into a snake, their snake is immediately swallowed up by the snake that was Aaron’s staff.

The doom of the Egyptians, the doom of Satan, is writ large here, is graphically seen in the swallowing of the snakes. In fact, that term is going to be used once more in this book, in 15:12, where it is reported that the earth has swallowed the Egyptian army and the Lord’s victory is complete.

There is an important lesson for us in this scene. The power of sin is real; evil is not to be treated as though it was a minor irritation. But at the same time, it is not to be given too much attention; it is not to be given too much credence. It is doomed; it is passing. Jesus has gained the victory through his cross and resurrection. There is hope for the world, there is release from bondage through the Son of God!

That should give us great heart for our lives as Christians in a world that is hostile to the Lord. We face a powerful foe, the enemy of our souls, but Jesus is stronger, much stronger, and his victory is a complete one.

It should also give us great heart in our evangelism – the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers but he is not the absolute ruler he’d like to be; Jesus is Lord and his gospel message is strong and powerful to save.

3. The Plagues: Creation & Uncreation; Reaping & Sowing
Now, this little section is a kind-of prologue to the plagues – the snake-swallowing is a sign to Pharaoh but the plagues that follow will go beyond signs; they will be the enactment of the Lord’s judgement on Egypt.

We won’t deal with the plagues in detail today (do I hear cheers?) but I do just want to highlight one of the issues that is going on throughout all the plagues.

Pharaoh has been oppressing the people of Israel, acting in ways that are contrary to God’s purposes in creation and opposing the Lord’s purpose to redeem Israel in order to redeem the world. As we have seen, he stands as an anti-God character in this whole story and as such is anti-creation. How will the Lord deal with him?

The plagues that the Lord sends upon Egypt show the Lord’s control over creation but they do so by bringing upon Egypt the terrors of ‘uncreation’ and chaos, of creation gone awry, of decay and death.

There is nothing accidental or random about the Lord’s choice of these plagues. This is showing Pharaoh and Egypt not only that it is the Lord who controls all creation but that the bitter fruit of rebellion against the Lord, the bitter harvest of sin and evil is that it will reap what it sows. It is bent on twisting and distorting what the Lord has made and what the Lord is doing and so it will reap the whirlwind of uncreation and chaos.

This is a principle that runs all the way through scripture – people reap what they sow. Those who do not want to know the Lord will be forever excluded from his presence; those who act against the Lord and his creation will suffer the consequences eternally. Their choice will be seen for what it is.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Even now, Pharaoh could take note of what has just happened and change his mind, humble his heart and let the Lord’s people go. But he does not and he will not. Whilst there are issues there over the Lord working out his own saving purposes for creation through the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, it nevertheless remains true that Pharaoh stands responsible before God for his choices. And they are deadly.

The same is true when the gospel is heard today.

Exodus 5:22 – 7:7

Moses has come in for some flak from the elders of the Hebrews (vv.20,21). They want the Lord to judge him for bringing them into such a difficult situation. It seems that they were expecting a quick and complicit response from Pharaoh, some thing that we saw Moses and Aaron also seemed to have been expecting.

What is Moses to do? In v.22 we’re told that he “returned to the LORD”. Quite what that means is not clear – did he go back out to the desert? Did he have a special place of prayer in Egypt? Perhaps more than anything what we’re seeing here is a perceived distance between Moses and the Lord (perceived by Moses). Isn’t it true that when things don’t go as we hoped they might that we perceive there to be some distance between the Lord and us?

Whether that phrase is meant to imply that kind of perception, it is certainly present in Moses’ words: he asks if this is what the Lord has intended, to bring trouble on his people. The way the Lord deals with Moses’ objections has much to teach us.


1. The LORD will act
The LORD neither chastises Moses nor defends himself; he simply affirms once more who he is and what he will do. He is Yahweh, the God who makes and keeps covenant, the God who will ever be true to his own character – the God who will be what he will be.

He tells Moses that, although he appeared to Abraham and others as El Shaddai (God Almighty) he wasn’t known to them as Yahweh. Reading Genesis seems to conflict with that, since Abraham and others used that name for him. Yet what is being said here is not about the absolute use of the name but the experience of what that name means. The patriarchs knew his name and something of his character but it will fall to this generation to experience him as the God who saves his people.

And so, both in 6:2-8 and 7:1-7, he stresses his own sovereignty and undertakes to deal with Pharaoh and redeem his people. Moses has perhaps underestimated the reality of the battle they will face but no matter: the Lord is going to act.

His words to Moses here are very much in line with what Joshua is told when he meets the commander of the Lord’s army – he has come to do battle on behalf of his people.

In all our struggles, in all the reality of the spiritual battle that we’re engaged in, we must hold onto this point. The battle is deeper than we have ever imagined; on our own, we could not stand; we would be overthrown in a moment. But the Lord has come, in person, in his Son, to defeat all the powers of darkness.

And, so, Moses is sent back out with a message of strength for the people and a message of doom for Pharaoh. It is with the essence of such words that we also go out into the world of our day – knowing that all power and authority has been given to Jesus and that he is with us always, even to the end of the age.

2. Names & Names
But if the point the LORD is making there is crystal clear, the point of the next section is not. Why all these names? Why here? Why now?

I guess it’s easy to be impatient with scripture at this point – and with preachers who insists on reading passages like this! We live in an age of readily-accessible information that we demand is presented clearly and succinctly. How do you get this sort of stuff into a power point and hold people’s attention? Make it an appendix to the main stuff, yes, but don’t make it part of the main stuff.

Maybe part of the lesson of such passages is a greater attentiveness to scripture and greater patience with it. If a passage doesn’t ‘speak to’ your heart straight away, don’t just rush on but accept that the Lord is still speaking through it and is calling you to humbly sit before the text and quietly seek his help to grasp what is being said.

So how do we do that here? In the first place, notice the way this is structured: vv.10-12 are almost identical to vv.28-30. And in terms of the genealogy itself, the focus is put on the line of Levi and on Aaron in particular, missing out some generations in order to have him at the centre-point with Phinehas at the end. So why this order and why this care to present the details in that fashion?

By taking us back to the sons of Jacob (Israel), this list impresses on us again that what is taking place here is in direct fulfilment of the promises the Lord made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people of Israel have a heritage of grace and have been called to serve the purposes of God for his world.

The focus on the line of Levi, and particularly on Aaron, underscores the legitimate priesthood of both Aaron and Moses. This focus on Aaron – not just in the list but in the way the list is framed by Moses’ questions about his speaking to Moses, a job which Aaron will help him with – shows that his role was not one he took for himself but one to which the Lord called him.

Why might that need to be underscored? One of the things we need to remember is that Exodus was first read not by the generation being described in these chapters but those who grew up in the wilderness. And those who grew up in the wilderness would have been familiar with the occasion that Aaron opposed Moses and his willingness later in Exodus to cast an idol for the people.

By laying such stress now on Aaron’s credentials as a priest and the Lord’s choice of him, any undermining of his reputation later on is circumvented. God’s servants are not perfect but that does not stop them from being legitimate servants. It also serves to draw our attention to the one truly righteous servant of God, Jesus.

3. As God to Pharaoh (7:1-7)
When God calls Moses to go back to Pharaoh, he says something very potent to him: “I have made you like God to Pharaoh”; in fact, it’s even more powerful than that – it simple reads “I have made you God to Pharaoh”.

We’ve met this kind of talk before – this is how the Lord described the relationship of Moses to Aaron; Moses would tell him what to speak and Aaron would say it. But although the language is similar, the idea is being taken further. Pharaoh is not a willing participant in the great drama unfolding. Yet Moses will be God to him.

This tells us something vital, not simply about Moses but the nature of all truly Christian living in this world.

As we come to Jesus and are indwelt by his Spirit, something wonderful occurs – we begin to be remade in the image of our gracious Saviour: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18)

And in that state of being new and being made new, we are ‘God’ to the world – a letter to be read by all people that communicates the reality of his saving and judging love – the aroma of life to some and of death to others. The Lord makes his appeal through us, calling people to be reconciled to him (2 Cor 5:20). As his people, we are (in Christ) the light of the world (Mt. 5:14), holding out the word of life to all people (Phil. 2:16).

Your life is not trivial; your witness is not to be measured simply in terms of the words you speak that tell of Jesus. Rather, the potency of our witness is drawn from the fact that we are being changed into his likeness – often, perhaps, in ways that are not visible to us and yet which others see and feel the impact of.

But such transformation only occurs where we behold the Lord’s glory. And that glory is seen, as Paul so clearly reminds those to whom he is writing, in the crucified Messiah. The Corinthians were being taken in by the health & wealth crowd of their day; they saw suffering as a denial of the reality of God. And so Paul had to put them right on that: the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ – a face that was marred beyond human recognition.

We don’t need to pretend before the world that all is right with us, that becoming a Christian means no more problems and no more suffering. That is simply not true. And the reason we don’t need to pretend that is because God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, that he is glorified through our weaknesses as his Spirit of grace and glory rests upon us.

We have an amazing calling; we have an awesome God. Let’s seek to serve him well, in the power of his Spirit, for the glory of Jesus.

Sermon on Exodus 5:1-21

Everything has gone well for Moses so far on his return to Egypt, with the Lord’s commission in his heart. He has been met by Aaron and the elders and favourably received. The plans for their release from the oppression of Egypt seem ready to unfold neatly before them. But life is never straightforward, as we’ll see, and it is often true in spiritual terms that things get worse before they get better.

1. Boldness & Confrontation (vv.1-5)
Moses and Aaron go boldly in to see Pharaoh (but without the elders – see 3:18). In the light of Moses’ encounter with the Lord and the people’s warm and worshipful response, they no doubt feel confident that the Lord’s word will come to pass and quickly. Moses is displaying the spirit not of timidity but of love, power and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).

It is entirely right that we should be confident in the Lord, that we have assurance his word will be fulfilled and his will be done. We need have no diffidence in standing on God’s Word and acting in the light of it. Moses who began so very timidly in Midian now walks boldly into Pharaoh’s presence, strengthened in the Lord.

And, in boldness, Moses demands the release of the people, using a term that leaves Pharaoh in no doubt that they will no longer be under his rule.

But his boldness is not met by an immediate humbling of Pharaoh and the release of the people. The response is, rather, one of stark unbelief and rebellion: “Who is Yahweh?” Here is the uncovering of the essential issue in the whole storyline of the Bible – sin is the de-godding of God, the refusal to honour him. This is why the whole creation is groaning under the curse, this is why humanity knows decay and death.

And this is what we see all around us – the steadfast and persistent refusal to give God his due, to honour him with lives of grateful praise and adoration.

Moses and Aaron seem rather taken aback by Pharaoh’s response and try again in v.3, adding their own thoughts to the Lord’s clear command (the threat to strike them with plagues). They are clearly rattled by what has happened.

How should we respond to such outright rejection of the Lord and of his message? Clearly we will feel a sense of outrage that the God of glory should be so slighted, the kind of distressed anger that Paul felt when he walked around Athens and saw their idols. But how should we deal with the mixture of anger and sadness?

I think we need to be careful that we understand the situation for what it is and see where the answer lies. We should not be surprised by the sinful rejection of God that we see so clearly, nor should we think that the appropriate response is to organise social resistance (which is a tempting option in a society that was once nominally Christian).

What is the solution? Let me read you some wise words from a helpful commentator: “our reaction should be one of godliness and patience, knowing that the message belongs to the Lord and he will set things aright. We must rise above the fray, the plans and schemes of humanity, with a godly confidence that comes only from knowing God and being known by him. (Exodus, NIVAC p.167f)

Godliness and patience: just the answer that Peter gives in his first letter to an oppressed church. Let’s ask God to help us to display such attributes ourselves in difficult days.

2. Outright rejection leads to oppressive retaliation (vv.6-16)
Pharaoh is quite definite in his response. He takes his stand against the Lord and his people; he opposes the one true God, setting himself up as an anti-God figure, leading the fight for the forces of sin and evil.

In that role he immediately orders that the people be oppressed further (v.6ff). And notice that his word finds an immediate response – what he says is done and done quickly. He has real power; sin has real power.

The Lord has called Moses to lead the people out of Egypt; he has promised his presence with his people. But that reality of his presence does not remove the reality of suffering. The people who have been oppressed are further oppressed and harried by the Egyptians.

A real struggle is developing here over the release of the people from Egypt; they suffer very much at the hands of the Egyptians and that raises a troubling and important question: why does the Lord allow this? Why wasn’t Pharaoh humbled straight away? Why can’t the people be spared some of this additional burden of pain?

Those sorts of questions are never easy to answer but I think we can say at least this: sin is a real power; evil as a reality has a certain strength. We should never forget that. Satan has real power and with that power he has blinded the minds of unbelievers. He does all he can to thwart the Lord’s plans to rescue his creation from the dominion of sin and death.

This reality is something Paul was aware of in his ministry, too. In 1 Thes. 2:18 he says he had been wanting to visit the church “but Satan stopped us”.

Now, some might ask if Paul doesn’t know that the Lord is sovereign? And of course he does. But he is also working with the reality of sin and evil and it does us no good to deny that sin is a real power, that Satan has genuine power.

Yes, the Lord is sovereign and all opposition to his purposes will be overcome; that is not in doubt. But what we are seeing in this passage is that the overthrow of sin and evil will take real effort on the part of the Lord. Not because he is weak or only just sovereign but because of the real power that exists in sin.

Our perspective as we engage the world must also be a fully and truly biblical one – the all-sufficiency of the Lord and his power and the real power of sin. Holding those points together will stop us from taking wrong turns and coming to wrong conclusions. It will also prepare us to endure the sufferings of this life in the sure hope of eternal life that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

3. The Blame Culture (vv.17-21)
One of the upshots of this kind of oppression is that it often splits apart the community it is directed against. And the germs of that are seen here in v.20 – when the Israelite foremen leave Pharaoh they meet Moses and Aaron and turn on them.

When we experience something of the difficulties of living and witnessing in a hostile world, we can all-too-easily find ourselves drawn inwards into conflict within the church and a blame culture begins to establish itself. ‘People aren’t being converted because the pastor is a poor preacher’; ‘people aren’t being saved’, says the pastor, ‘because people don’t invite their friends to the services and don’t live attractive lives before them’.

The church under pressure from the world splits into factions – and each faction blames the other for the problems: ‘if you were more with-it we’d have lots of people – young people! – coming along’. ‘Yeah, and if you were more faithful to God’s Word we’d be in a better state’. And so it goes.

How can we guard against that? How can we ensure infighting does not take place? By grasping what we have already seen here: that sin is a powerful foe, that the tactic of the enemy is to divide and rule, that we serve a God of power and might whose word will not fail.

Sermon on Exodus 4:24-26

There are a number of passages in the Bible that perplex us and stretch our faith. We might think of them as problem passages that cast doubt upon the scriptures, but that isn’t really the case. In fact, if the Bible was merely a human document it is more likely that such passages would have been dropped from sight long ago.

But that still leaves the passages in all their strangeness. And among them is the one we’re looking at tonight. Just what are we to make of this? In v.19 Moses is told that those wanting to kill him are dead and then, in an ironic twist, it seems that the Lord is out to get him in these verses.

This almost seems like the stuff of nightmares; what’s going on?

1. The need to obey
It seems from what happens here that the Lord’s anger is directed at Moses because he has failed to circumcise his son. But is that such a big deal? Why not just gently remind him of the fact? Surely it’s got to be about more than that?

That might not seem like a big deal to us but we need to remember the significance of the rite in biblical terms: it was a sign and seal of the covenant that God had made with Abraham for the sake of the world. It was a sign that marked-out the Jews as the Lord’s people.

And, so, for Moses to fail to administer that sign was not about outward religion; it was something that went to the heart of what the Lord was doing. It was to be the sign that showed Moses and his family were dedicated to the Lord, that they belonged to him and were under his lordship.

As we read in Genesis 17, those who failed to submit to this rite were to be cut off from their people, not considered as part of the family of God. It wasn’t just about a badge that they wore but what that badge meant. To fail to circumcise was to be openly defiant of the Lord and to oppose what he was doing in the world.

In that light, it becomes a little easier to see why the Lord should act against Moses in this way here. He is to be the leader of the people that the Lord will work through to rescue the world from sin. If he is not interested in obeying the Lord, he cannot expect not to forfeit everything.

But what about us? Where does this hit home for us? The NT makes it clear that what really matters is having hearts that are circumcised, by which it means that we are made new and committed to the Lord. The only way that can happen, the only way for our past to be atoned for and for our hearts to be made new is through faith in Jesus.

In a very real sense, faith takes the place in the NT of circumcision in the OT, as that which marks out the people of God. And, as Paul wrote in Col 2, when we come to faith in Jesus our flesh is cut away, we are owned as belonging to God through being joined to Jesus in his death and resurrection.

And all who refuse to be joined to Jesus are warned in the clearest terms by God through his word that there is no other way, that although there is a way that seems right to a man it ends in death. There is only one way to life, only one saviour of all people and the only way to receive from him is through faith in him.

But the faith that receives God’s mercy is not mere intellectual assent; it is a trusting faith, a faith that demonstrates it is genuine through deeds of love. We are to be saved by faith, not works – yet the faith that saves is a faith that works.

Do you have that faith? Are you trusting in Jesus? Is that trust at work in deeds of love? If you are far from Jesus then this passage and many others warn you of your danger and you need to take that very seriously indeed.

2. Space to repent
But while it is sobering to see how serious the Lord is about our turning decisively to him in genuine faith and obeying his words, it is helpful to notice that, where the Lord deems it necessary to act in discipline, he gives room for the situation to be put right, he gives space for repentance.

We aren’t told how Zipporah knew things were amiss and that they were in danger but what is clear is that the Lord was allowing them space to act, to put the matter right; he was “about to kill him” (v.24). As someone has said, “The divine move is thus a threat, not an attempt to kill that God fails to pull off”.

It was a threat that provided an opportunity that Zipporah took with two hands (and one knife).

Her action speaks powerfully to us: if things are wrong, they need to be put right. And they can be put right; the Lord gives room for repentance and for setting things right. He is patient and is not willing that any should perish.

So whether you’re not yet a Christian or if you’ve been one for many long years, know that God is merciful and kind, even when he moves to act in severe discipline. He gives space for putting things right. When he sent Jesus into the world it wasn’t to condemn but to save and so Jesus’ ministry began with the call to repent.

What is vital is that we don’t show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience which lead us towards repentance. He wants us to sort things out; he wants us to come out of the shadows and into the light of his loving grace. The fact that Moses comes out of this alive should not be interpreted as the Lord not being serious about the need for obedient faith but rather that he is serious in giving every opportunity to repent.

Zipporah used that space wisely; will you do the same? Whatever the situation, whatever the shame, however long you may have turned from his mercy, even tonight you can come back to him, and come back for good.

3. Jesus: The Obedient Servant
The Lord is utterly sovereign, as we have seen, yet he has purposed to work through people and demands obedience from his servants. Moses is seen here to be a man whose obedience is flawed – in fact, it’s his Midianite wife, Zipporah, who displays more spiritual nouse (and, again, a woman keeps things moving forward).

Moses is going to be a great servant of God but he is a deeply-flawed man, lacking not only at times in faith but also in obedience to the commands of God. Here is a man who stands in need of large swathes of mercy.

God’s work does not depend on one person alone. He is quite prepared to remove Moses from the equation. What would have happened had Zipporah not acted so wisely and so quickly? We don’t know but we can say that the sovereign Lord would not have been hindered from achieving the rescue of his creation.

He is not dependent on one person and yet obedience is going to be essential to the progress of the Lord’s work of salvation. But as we see here, the best of men are men at best. Moses is a great hero of the faith but he is almost taken-out by God because of his lack of obedience. If obedience is going to be essential in the rescue of the human race, where will it come from?

The writer of Hebrews tells us that, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself so Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses. And the same writer stresses in many places the obedience of Jesus’ life and his sacrificial death in our place.

Zipporah interceded for Moses with blood and, in a very vivid way, points us forward to Jesus who stands in the gap for us, who was slain for us and by whose blood we can be saved.

That’s where all our hope lies: in Jesus, the Son of God, who was obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Is he your hope tonight?

Sermon on Exodus 4:18-31

Life in the in-between

Moses has had the most significant encounter with the Lord at the burning bush. He has been commissioned to go back to Egypt in order to lead the people of Israel out from there. His initial response was to raise all sorts of questions and to protest his unsuitability for the job. His final reply is to ask God to send someone else, at which the Lord’s anger burns against him and he tells him he will allow Aaron to help him.

We might imagine that the next significant moment is going to be when Moses gets to Egypt but that is far from being the case. This section is an in-between stage in the story but it is full of meaning and relevance. I think the point is clear, that the times in life that we might see as ‘in-between’ and therefore lacking in some way may very well turn out to be times of great significance for us.

We might view the next few months as being ‘in-between’ times for ourselves as a church; in some ways they clearly are. But it would be foolish and wrong to conclude that the Lord had suspended his purposes; we need to be alert to all that says to us and ready to act upon it.

1. Moses going back (vv.18-20)
The first thing that might strike you about Moses here is that, having incurred the anger of God by his pleading for the Lord to send someone else, when he speaks to Jethro he doesn’t mention anything of what the Lord has said but simply says he wants to go and see if his people are still alive.

That seems quite odd because if they weren’t alive, why would the Lord be sending him back to them? Does he distrust what the Lord has said? Is he wary of what Jethro might say? Is it another example of Moses’ insecurity and lack of confidence?

The fact is, we aren’t told – the text simply raises the question without answering it. What we can say is that Moses doesn’t come across as someone supremely sure of himself and his commission. There is something rather fragile about him here.

But the Lord hasn’t given up on him. He had told him to go back, that those who wanted to kill him were dead. And in response to that, Moses has rather uncertainly spoken to Jethro and then goes and saddles up the donkeys and sets off with his family.

And despite the sense of fragility that there is about Moses, the last sentence in v.20 is very telling: “And he took the staff of God in his hand.” That staff was a reminder of his commission and a symbol of the Lord’s power. He may seem unsure but he’s going; he may not be thinking completely straight and have all sorts of questions and concerns but he is going and he is going with the staff in his hands.

I think that says a lot about Moses and is a real example to us. Low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and previous failures are no reasons not to follow where the Lord leads. What matters most is not our innate wisdom and abilities but his wisdom and power.

We don’t have a staff to carry but we do have a message of a cross that speaks of the wisdom and power of God, even as it seems to be just so much weakness and foolishness to the world. It is with confidence in God and in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can and must go forward.

2. God at work! (vv.21-23)
Moses is on the way back to Egypt. When he gets there, he is to perform the various signs not just before his own people but before Pharaoh – that is where the action is going to be. Moses was worried about how his own people would receive him but the Lord is moving things onto a different plane.

But the terms in which he does that might be quite unsettling to some. He doesn’t say that Pharaoh will oppose Moses but that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart with the upshot that Pharaoh will not let the people go.

What this ushers us into is the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. When we come to the chapters where Pharaoh opposes Moses, we’ll see that he hardens his heart and that is followed by the Lord hardening it also. But the emphasis here is on the Lord taking the initiative to harden Pharaoh’s heart.
How are we to understand this? Does it make the Lord the author of evil? Does it remove Pharaoh’s responsibility and guilt?

I want to read a passage from a commentary on Exodus that reflects on this issue. I’m going to read a fairly lengthy section because I think it deals with the issue in a very wise way…..

(1) We must remember that election, or sovereignty, is never an abstract notion. Common arguments against election that I have heard include, 'I guess God predestined what kind of tie I would put on today,' or, 'Are you trying to tell me that God predestined that crack in the sidewalk and that I would trip over that crack!?' As the old joke goes: What did the Calvinist say after he fell down the stairs? 'I'm glad that's over with!' Of course, most of these objections are not meant to be taken wholly seriously, but the basic thrust remains: How does God's sovereignty actually, practically, play out in the details of our lives?

This is a question that the Bible does not address. The Bible is not concerned to reveal fully the mysteries of God's dealings with his creation. The notion of God's sovereignty in the Bible is always connected specifically to one issue: the deliverance of God's people. Although this raises a host of other concerns (e.g., are we saved by God's choice without any input on our own?), understanding the salvation context of sovereignty at least puts us on the proper starting point for discussing the issue and how it might affect our lives. Burdening our hearts and minds with abstract implications of sovereignty, something the Bible itself does not entertain, will unnecessarily detract us from the focus the Bible gives to the issue.

(2) However uncomfortable we all feel from time to time with election and its implications, we must remember that the biblical writers do not seem to share that feeling of discomfort. Though the issue is mysterious, it is not presented as a burden in the Bible. This is not to say that it is easily accepted. Paul's protracted argument in Romans 9 may indicate that not only his readers but perhaps Paul himself felt the need to engage the issue more closely. For Paul, the end result of any such internal struggle with sovereignty results in praise (11:33-36). For Job, it ends in humility (Job 42:1-6). Sovereignty is a blessing rather than a hindrance. I am not saying that understanding how sovereignty works is a blessing, but that it is a blessing regardless of how little we understand.

The Lord holds us in his arms. He is the truly loving Father who cares for us, his children in Christ. Can we really hope for anything better than this? What recourse do we have? Partial sovereignty? It is good to be under the Lord's care. What such an understanding of sovereignty engenders in us is actually a sense of freedom, the knowledge that we are God's children and that we are somehow under his sovereign gaze - no matter what. Sovereignty means that in our everyday lives, we can go forth and act boldly without fear that our constant missteps or imperfections will catch the Lord by surprise and tear us away from him.

(3) However much we try to make sense of sovereignty and incorporate it into our theological systems (as I have just tried to do!), we must remember that it is ultimately a great and humbling mystery. To understand how it works is to peer into the heart of God. I remember so little of my college years, which is no one's fault but my own, but one conversation stands out in my mind. An older classmate and I were discussing the issue of sovereignty and free will and I said, "At the very least we have to accept the basic notion that either one or the other is true. Both cannot be right." My wiser friend responded, "Why?" I blurted out a comment or two about God needing to be logically consistent, or something like that, but that response seemed as shallow then as it does now. We should not forget the tension that Exodus and other portions of Scripture set up. We should not assume that God conforms to our ways of thinking.

Is this not a recurring theme in the Bible that God's ways are not our ways? Perhaps part of the value of the tension between predestination and free will is not found in solving the problem, as if it is a riddle God put in Scripture to occupy our intellectual energy, but in our standing back in awe of a God who is so much greater than we can understand. The hope is that we would go forth with this knowledge (or better, lack of knowledge) and live humble lives, trusting in the Lord all the more because of the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge.
(Peter Enns, Exodus, NIVAC, p.148f)

There is a lot of helpful comment there but the one thing I want to pick up and deal with is the point that is made about the context in which God’s sovereignty is spoken about. The context here is quite clear: we are dealing with God’s action to redeem Israel. And he will act to redeem Israel in order that his saving blessing might be known in all the world.

The Lord loves Israel but he also loves Egypt. In fact, his love is for the whole of his creation. His choice of Israel is for the sake of the whole world and, thus, his action in Egypt and with Pharaoh is not to be seen as hatred of Egypt but rather is to be set within that larger context of God’s love.

In terms of Pharaoh himself, again the text here is helpful. There is a clear conflict being played out between the Lord and all that stands opposed to him, symbolised here in the person of Pharaoh. The Lord will act to redeem his firstborn and in the process will slay the firstborn of Egypt. We are dealing here not with abstract theology and philosophical questions but the concrete action of the one true God to rescue his creation from sin. Pharaoh stands opposed to that as, in a sense, the spokesman for the kingdom of darkness, and he will be dealt with in power and might.

Whilst we may not be able to sort all the issues out (and Peter Enns is right to counsel us not to think that we need to) what we must get straight here is that the Lord is God and he is in absolute control. Sin will not win; Satan will not prevail; Pharaoh will not foil God’s plans.

There is great comfort for us in knowing that because we live in a world in which the same warfare is being fought. Our confidence is to be the same as that of Moses: the Lord of hosts.

3. God at work (vv.27-31)
The focus thus far has been very much on Moses and his work as the leader of his people but, as we know, the Lord agreed that Aaron could be his mouthpiece and in vv.27,28 he enters the situation and that is quickly followed by a meeting (vv.29-31) with the leaders of the people of Israel.

Maybe there are times when situations loom that we fear very much, that we are anxious about and that we imagine will be extremely complex and perhaps lead to very difficult problems. That’s how Moses had seen his return to Egypt and his meeting with the people. He thought they wouldn’t believe him, that they would reject him for a second time and so on.

When we are afraid and concerned, we might feel that we have history on our side – we’ve been here before and it was difficult, things were tricky. No doubt Moses also felt that way. But look what happens: Aaron tells them what the Lord has said to Moses, the signs are performed and the people believe. Not only so but they bow down in worship, knowing that the Lord has seen them and heard their cries. No fuss, no arguments, no strife.

God is at work. He is taking forward his plans and, while that does not mean there will be no dark days for Moses (there will be), it does mean that what Moses feared would not necessarily come to pass and that what the Lord promised could be believed.

William Cowper speaks of the clouds we dread being full of mercy and breaking in blessing upon our heads. That’s just what Moses discovered when he followed where the Lord was leading. And that is what we can also expect as we seek to walk closely with the Lord in obedience to his call to serve him in this our day.

May he grant us grace to believe and to do, for his name’s sake.