Moses & Exodus

I want to read again from Hebrews 11, by faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. And by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated, along with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded this grace for the sake of Christ as a greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. This is quite a commentary on Exodus 1 to 18. In reading Exodus 1 to 18, we might not quite put that interpretation on it. In fact, many, many critical scholars certainly do not. He was not an ordinary child, they were not afraid of the king's edict, refused to be known, he chose to be mistreated, he was looking ahead. And notice, he regarded this grace for Christ of greater value, interesting. Some like a New Testament man, doesn't he? But that's the way the New Testament people were told to see Moses, as we see him in the Old Testament context, but we'll look at some of the specifics, not all of them, by any means, but some of them, as we look at Moses and the revelation in Exodus 1 to 18, let us pray. God our Father, give us the eye of faith, the mind that understands the heart that is illumined and encouraged. If we read your scriptures in the way you have called, used and given insight to one of your servants, who stand so big and tall in the Old Testament revelation. God bless us here together, be with those that aren't with us, sustain them, thank you for the help that you give us, continue to use us in your service, and whatever avenue we are involved in, and traveling in these times, in Jesus' name, Amen. After my introductory comments, I want to move right on into what I have called the five tie-ins. Now that little phrase or compound term tie-in may confuse you, but I didn't want to put too much on the board or in the outline. What I'm referring to is in a way a two-pronged problem. The first prong is that many people, critical scholars, deny that there is a real material connection between Exodus and Genesis, speaking generally, using just the term to cover the whole 18th century critical school, the 19th century. Now Housianism claimed that Moses came after the prophets and that Genesis came after Moses as far as the writing of the book was concerned. Now if that is indeed the order in which the material was written, then you have to read the prophets first because they were the men with insight and they pretty much laid the ground work for people to read in Carnage or in a way think up the whole early history of Israel in the Exodus and where did these people come from and then they took a few little oral traditions and they wold the beautiful patriarchal stories to that and then the pastly people were able to put Genesis 1, 2, 11 in front of that. So that critical school really turned the Old Testament completely around and now a man like Ichrode, Walter Ichrode, who's often considered a neo-conservative or a new liberal or neo-Orthodox man, after about 40 pages of introduction as to how to do biblical theology and he does that in his two volume work and by the way there's a lot of good stuff in that work. Once he starts exaggerating he's not bad, in fact I've learned a lot from Ichrode, but you know where he feels the revelation really begins that is Israel's thinking about themselves it starts with Exodus and Genesis 1 through 50 again was put in front later on, but if we want to start to think about covenant, chapter 4 I think it is, page 44, you start studying Old Testament theology with Exodus. There is basically no tie-in, materially, theologically, other than what editors thought with Genesis. So that's the one prong, the critical denial of a real living connection. Now to be positive now the other prong, I want to point out that to understand Exodus you've got to understand Genesis because Genesis is not just a prologue and Genesis gives us the creation of setting as we have seen, the repeat of it through Noah and then how God covenanted with his people, electing Abraham, promising him the seed and carrying right through. And so I want to point particularly to five material theological connections ties. If you want to understand Exodus the first number of chapters, you must go to Genesis. There is the phrase, the God of the fathers, in Exodus chapter 3 when God speaks to Moses. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of your father, Moses. It's the same God. And then in chapter 3 verse 13, Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me. Will they believe me? Then in verse 15, God also said to Moses, say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And chapter 4 verse 5, this said the Lord, is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, chapter 6 verse 3, the God of the fathers. And that phrase just carries right on through. It's nothing new from that point of view. It's the same God. And God is telling Moses to speak to the children of those fathers who had a God, Yahweh, Elohim, Jehovah, God. The second tie-in is in reference to the seed. I read in chapter 1 verse 6, now Joseph and all his brothers and all their generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous. Now this verse not only tells us that the creation mandate was being fulfilled. The social mandate, be fruitful, multiply, but that the promise concerning a numerous seed that God had given to Abraham, when Abraham was wondering if ever he'd have a child. And God said to him, Genesis 15, as numerous as the sand of the sea, and later on as numerous as the stars in the sky. And now we read here that that promise concerning the seed was fulfilled within the womb of Egypt. God had brought Jacob with his 70 offspring into Egypt and there, within the protection of a mighty nation, one of the mightiest nations on earth in that day. God used Egypt, here again we see how God is sovereign, and now he's the Lord of creation, the Lord of the nations, brings them there, and there he guides and directs his people to fulfill the promise that he had given concerning the numerous seed. And they, I repeat, were fruitful, multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, and then it adds so that the land of Egypt was filled with them. There were Israelites everywhere, very fruitful. And I like you to note that there is what I call the word indeed reference, again that's not a direct verse reference, but I have spoken to you before that when God spoke God did. And it's that pattern that follows right through in Exodus. God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew, and God spoke, and God did. Every event that we will read about here in Exodus 1 to 18 is preceded by a word. The word precedes the event, and it's not as critics say, and I don't want to be too apologetic and too much of a fighting man here this morning, but it burns me up, it burns me up when I read these critics, the way they make the Bible say the very opposite of what it says. They say that the God's deed came first, and then they reflected on it, and they got the thinking, and then they said, hey, look at this, and then they went to work and put the word in front of the deed. That's the way the Bible writers did it, so the Bible writers a bunch of deceivers. That's basically what it comes down to, facing with that, and they say, well, they wanted to give their scripture's authority, but it's still deception, isn't it? Dr. E.J. Young used to stress that point so strongly. The critical writers are basically deceivers. They don't want you to read the text as it is. They don't want you to understand God's dealings as he's dealt with it. God spoke, God did. He always introduced his deeds with his word. He didn't expect the people to just be dealt with and then let them think about and say, oh, maybe it's this, or maybe it's that, finally they concluded it was this. That's the critical approach to interpreting the scriptures. Then you have quite a different biblical theology, and you do, if you believe indeed, that God spoke first and then did. God spoke to Moses and Moses obeyed. God instructed Moses and Moses did it. Follow right on through, and just keep this in mind, as we go now, when Israel did something that God had not said, that's when they ran into trouble. The word came, but you realize how that word that always preceded the deed calls for obedience, and expectation, and assurance. It again, it depends on what your idea is of God. Can you really trust in God to be a faithful God? Is He truly Father in this respect that when He speaks, you can say, so it will be? What assurance would you have in prayer? What assurance would you have after prayerfully thinking, making decisions that you'd say, God will be with me? Maybe? Maybe we live that way too often, and those of you who have been blessed with Fatherhood already, let me say to you as a father of eight and a grandfather of twenty-six, my words are really carefully listened to, and when I didn't remember what I had said, there were quite often eight voices to remind me in a hurry, but Dad, you said, and you didn't do. You want to inspire faithfulness? Do what you say. It surely helps, though, to say first, because one way to get around it is not to say what you're going to do, and they just do it. Hey, what are you doing, Dad? God spoke. God did. By the way, this applies to mothers too. Now and God remembered His covenant. I have on the board here, from Exodus to a couple of terms, you'll notice that there is, what concept it is, imperfect, and God heard from Shama to here, and God remembered. And then in the next verse, and God saw, and God knew, the NIV translates this yadda to know as, and He was concerned. Now that is a dynamic translation, and if I had had my way working with the NIV committees that were concerned would not have gotten in there, but then again, a lonely voice at times doesn't always get its way. Now the context of these verbs is that the king of Egypt in those many days had died, and the slavery became an intensive difficult experience. And the burdens increased, and we know what the story is, well, and then Israel groaned because of their slavery, and their groaning went up from their slavery. God's people were called the font to be the blessing in the nations, well, I guess they didn't realize, to what extent they were a blessing to the Egyptians, by the way they had to do their building there, but anyway the presence of God was brought to Egypt. But as they groaned, God was listening, and as God was listening to the groaning, God was remembering. Now Zakaar, the verb, can mean, oh, I didn't remember, I forgot. Thanks for helping me remember. Did the groaning indicate that God had forgotten? No, Zakaar can also be. In this situation, God who had kept His covenant in vogue and active, His promises were being carried out because Israel was multiplying, and He was protecting them, and He was making them into a great nation. And God continued to uphold His covenant, and when He heard their groaning, He said, and now the people are ready for me to proceed, didn't it God forgot? But now He has got to carry out more fully promises that He had made. And God didn't only hear, God is a seeing God, this covenant God saw. He knew that it was a valid groaning, He knew the misery of these people, He knew the hardships they were enduring, and He knew Yadda carries many different connotations. But because this is in the same construction, it's of, in the sense, a parallel construction, so you don't read too much more into this than what you have read in, than what you understand by this. God saw, and He said to Himself, I know what to do with these people. I have given My Word, they have My promises, I will fulfill them, and the promises was, I will be a God to you. God remembered and He knew what He had said, and God had said, and I will be with you, that Emmanuel principle that keeps coming through all the time, God with us, God with you. I will bless you, in the word Barak, as we wish, as I saw before, not only means to prosper you, but to bring you life in its fullness as I have it, I will save you. And then I will make of you a great nation. These promises, from Genesis 3, 14 and 15, victory for the seed, the promises to Abraham, to Noah and to Abraham, these were the things that God remembered, that God knew it was time to carry out, God was proving Himself faithful. The next tie-in that I want to refer to is the seed line. When I emphasize, though, we are ready to refer to the seed in point two, I want to refer to the seed line here again as to point out that this is central, not the land, or some of the other things that you may think of as being very, very important. In God said, look, I've got to get these people circumcised, very likely they weren't being circumcised in Egypt and very likely, and we know they weren't circumcised in the desert. But before they could occupy the land, Joshua 5, they had to be circumcised. Note the seed, the people that had increased, God was concerned with people, the people whom He later uncalls the army, my people, from the same work as their preposition in with companionship, the gatheredness, the seed where He is, He's concerned with people, His people whom He had been preparing to bring forth as His servant as a nation. Now we have these five specific material factors that inseparably relate Exodus into Genesis Genesis more than a prologue. Genesis is the first chapter. Exodus is the second. Now what's God's method for remembering His covenant, for knowing that He had made promises, hearing and seeing His people in bondage, what's God's method, He calls a man, election again, the principle of election, the one to serve on behalf of the many, He calls a man from the tribe of Levi and Jacob had said, Judah, from you will come the royal one, Israel was not yet ready for a king, Israel was to become a priestly nation and the Levites were to be chosen for that service. And so a man is chosen from the tribe of Levi. Now the life circumstances are well known. Every Sunday school story would tell you that Moses' birth was not unusual at all. He was a healthy babe. His father, mother, were properly married. He had a brother, Aaron, had a sister, Miriam, and the edict came through and Moses was to be destroyed. That's the unusual part. But the birth is such as not at all unusual. The home situation is in an unusual situation. And that is what makes Moses' preservation so miraculous. He is miraculously preserved by caring parents and God providently brings the princess to the bathing hole and thus Moses is introduced to the palace. Very unusual, that miraculous preservation and then that unusual preparation in the palace and in the desert. Quite a combination. 40 years in a palace. Learning all about the culture, the language, military procedures undoubtedly as a royal man. He had to know all about military procedures, name it and then into the desert. Now God used Moses' foolishness to when he rose up to kill a man. Moses wanted to be a deliver in his own right and his own way. God used it to bring him to a desert because that's where he was going to spend 40 more years leading the people. Amazing how God's providence always comes through and Moses was prepared. I wonder if he chased it a bit sometimes. Thinking, if I'm going to become something, what am I doing here? Following sheep through the desert. I can't remember saying I was going to be a minister when I was a boy six years old and when I was 15 my father was knocked down. My son of the art congregation was working in a lumber yard and ran over my father and my father's trying to get out of the way and he slipped. The guy lost control of a truckload of lumber but six, seven times the lumber on it. My father slipped trying to get away and then his foot was sideways like this and then seven times the lumber over his foot and just smashed his foot right in his shoe. They had cut his shoe off. Dad couldn't walk for a couple years but when he was 94 years old it was amazing. He walked like he had never had a smashed foot but God used that smashed foot to take me out of school when I was 15. We were on a farm. Dad couldn't afford to have a full-time hired man. I was big and strong and he said to me son if you want to go and study for the ministry we'll have to just sell the cows and get rid of the farm and we'll see how God will take care of us but if you postpone your education for a few years then I think we can make it. Then you have to become the leading farmer and I had good big hands you know and that's what I did. I think it back to school until I was 27. The army came in between but I'll never forget how impatient I would get sometimes sitting there. Mocking those cows before the milk machines came in. Picking those tomatoes, pitching those watermelons out there in the bean field, dry edible beans, cutten beans, threshing beans. I'm being a minister. Hey and then when I got in the army I found out how God was indeed well in control that experience of having to control a hundred workers during the tomato, almond and no one harvest. I had to do that as a sixteen, seven-year-old dad sitting in the house telling me what to do but I had to go out there and do it. What a preparation. Oh impatient sometimes because I tend to be an impatient type. I want to get in there and start doing things. God said slow it up George you boy, slow it up. I've got things for you to do. And I used to sit in that valley in San Joaquin Valley, Ripon, California, 80 miles southeast to San Francisco and I looked to the foothills to the east and there was Mount Diabolo and it looked like a mountain of the devil indeed, keeping me from expanding. And I looked to the right to the east and there I saw this year Nevada mountains looming high. The only thing it was nice about it was the year Nevada and Calvary. There's big tree parks were there. Yosemite. Was it snow? Well I ever get out of this valley. Yeah I did. Got to this South Pacific. Got to Japan. Spent some time in Korea just a few days and after that it was in Canada from my internship, pastoral, God is in charge. I just wanted to give you that testimony. As some of you may be a little bit older I was 34 before I became a minister. I was almost 50 before I got my PhD. God uses us in unusual circumstances. Don't forget it. And don't get impatient when you got to sit here and struggle through us. God gave revelation. He had means to buy and in the context of Moses. He gave revelation to Moses by means of the theophany. God himself appeared in the burning bush. Boss deals with this. These various ways of revelation. I just want to quickly remind you as to what to look for. He spoke directly to Moses. Not only in the ophany, but directly to Moses. And he spoke through Moses. Moses mouth and by means of Moses hand raised their hand. Moses strike. And God revealed himself of the sovereign Lord. For thus the plagues came. God revealed himself by pillar of fire the cloud that gave shade. You read about that in Numbers chapter 10 that was the Lord who went before them. And he made himself known by the pillar and by the cloud. The angel of the Lord comes through. Yes in the in the theophany but in other ways also. And then in chapter 3, verse 4, we have the name. The I am that I am the yeah. Well yeah, yeah. I am who I will be. I am the faithful one. I am Yahweh. I am the covenant keeping God. The faithful one, that's my name. If Elohim was more or less his essential reference, Yahweh becomes his basic revelation. He who is God is Yahweh. He will always be what he said he is and he'll never be anything but what he is. He keeps covenant. He keeps promises. He remains sovereign. And so in the name, especially 3, 14 and 6, 3, Abram never got to know God to the in the same Yahweh way that Moses, that's what Genesis, Exodus 6 verse 3 says. Oh yes Abram sought God, sought God faithful. But then he really see God bringing in a numerous seed. Abram died having Isaac. Did Abram see God bring those people into a land? No. Did Abram see the people being a power for good amongst the nations? No. But Israel did. Moses did. And in that way, experientially, realistically, in a living way,

the people in Moses day got to know the name Yahweh, what it meant in reality, in daily life. Then we also have reference to the face of God, the presence of God. God makes himself known through his presence. And when in Exodus 32 to 34, they're particularly, we read of that. But also already in chapter 19, when the children of Israel did want to come into the very presence of God because he was so awesome. Now, when we move on to the third point, Moses must be seen as the mediator of the Old Testament covenant. Abram was, but Moses more fully, more completely than anyone else is the mediator of the Old Testament. Or the prophets became mediators. David became a mediator. Aaron the priest was mediator carrying out their functions through their various appointed offices. But par excellence. Moses is the mediator of the Holy Spirit, the standing between God and his people, the between God and the nations, standing between God and the whole of creation. Moses stands high and tall. And because that is true, I can understand why people who don't want to accept the supernaturalism of the Bible, like Martin Note in his big book on the history of Israel says, if you look carefully and see as sharply as you can, you may see a dim outline in the midst of history. And that dim outline could be called Moses. But he's been so overshadowed if he ever did live, but most likely he is a creation of people who needed a hero way back. Hey, Moses stands big and tall. God's agent. There in the beginning of Israel's existence as a nation, he was a mediator for Israel. He stood between God and the army. Hear that word. Comes again. You don't read it very often in the book of Genesis, my people. Ami. Because God had set his eye, his heart, his whole mind on Israel to be the descendants of Abraham, to be his medium amongst the nations. He had a special relationship with them, that bond, that covenant bond. And so Moses becomes the covenant mediator between God and the people. If God did anything and we read that in Numbers 11, if I have something to say, I will say it through Moses. Aaron, Miriam, back off, a divinely appointed mediator to serve Israel. But to serve Israel, he had to stand before Pharaoh too. Then the promise had been to Abraham that his seed would stand before kings. Hey, Moses found out what it was like to stand before Pharaoh. And to tell Pharaoh, God says, let Ami, my people, go, let them go worship, let them go. There's the king. There's the sovereign. And there's that runaway fugitive, turned shepherd, standing now in front of the king, let those people go. God didn't speak directly to Pharaoh. He didn't come to Pharaoh in a dream, didn't come to the division, spoke directly. Moses' mouth became God's mouth. Oh, wait a minute. Aaron became Moses' mouth initially, right? Because Moses said, I can't talk. But that was only in the first ages. Moses was given a helper when he said, but I got problem speaking. I can take care of that's this God. You've got an older brother. And the older brother had a serve as a speaker, translate, whatever it was for the younger, but the point is there in front of Pharaoh, Pharaoh lying, Pharaoh's heart hardening, fascia, that verb that we have there can be used in the passive or a reflexive way as well as in an objective way. You know, it says in some passages that God hardened Pharaoh as Moses dealt with him. And then it says that Moses, that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Interesting. At one time it says God's doing it. And then it says that Pharaoh does it again. It shows that interaction even between a sovereign God and a recalcitrant king. God didn't force him to be hard. God had him in a situation in which he could respond. And he responded by hardening. But this was again of the Lord. For we read in Exodus, I mean in Romans 9, then God hardened Pharaoh, that the glory of God might be enhanced. God was at work. But he never said to Pharaoh outright, but don't do it. Don't do it. Pharaoh was confronted with honest, direct, well-maned commands. Let my people go. Then after the 10th plague, or in connection with the 10th plague, Moses had to serve as the mediator of the Passover. The angel of the Lord came through, but again it was Moses that stood between God and the people. And it was Moses who had to give all the instructions concerning the Passover. But Moses could not himself become the mediatorial lamb. You know, sometimes it says that it was a little goat or a little sheep, whatever it was taken. How Moses could in that sense become the mediatorial sacrifice. But he mediated in this respect that he gave clear cut commands and told these people exactly how to do it. And he became, and many people speak of him as the man who instituted the Passover. And humanly speaking, he did. But not on his own. He stood between God and the people. And then when you think of the Exodus experiences, the saving of the firstborn, Moses wasn't the firstborn, but that doesn't make any difference. Aaron was firstborn. But the idea of the firstborn being God's. Without Moses' mediation, that would not have been made known. God spoke to Moses, God spoke through Moses. And by Moses, the firstborn was set aside. Moses was instrumental in that. And we know too that the firstborn is very close related to the only born, only begotten. The concepts are quite closely related there. I wish we could spend a more time on that. But moving on, Moses was the means for Israel to gain great wealth because he had stood up to Pharaoh because he was mediating for Israel. And the midst of those Exodus experiences, the Israelites received just bounties from the Egyptians. And Moses stands high and tall in the midst of all that. Then we think of the miraculous events. I'm thinking now particularly of the of the Red Sea opening up the provision of food, food, the quail, the water. Again, Moses becomes the miracle worker. It's when Moses raises his hand as with the plagues. So now with the opening of the Red Sea, that Moses raised his hand. When Moses dropped his hand, the waters came together. God, the age of the Lord, whoever you want to say, was in the very presence of in and through Moses, he was working. Moses, the mediator, it's for that reason, that reason that Moses is the mediator, that he is also called the Old Testament Redeemer. If you come across that the phrase in Voss, I like that phrase. Moses really became a Redeemer. Voss in his book, page 124 to 129 talks about the realism of the redemptive events. Everything that took place actually took place. Supernatural acts, remember the principle supernatural, listen to you talked about, that was already obvious in the in the life and the experiences of the patriarchs. So now in the life of Moses, even more so, not only are they supernatural, they're also very objective. These are events that actually happened. Moses, the mediator, standing there, God working through him, caused these things to happen. Redemption to Israel came because Moses was there, because Moses obeyed, because Moses carried out every act that God told him to, the raising of the hand, the speaking, the leading, bringing sweet water, praying, that redemption was real, and that redemption was not just a physical redemption. It was a social redemption, it was a cultural redemption, and it was a spiritual redemption. Egypt was a place of much idolatry and wickedness. The Pharaoh was the God, and the oppression that Pharaoh exerted was an oppression that was devilish. So it was a redemption from every aspect, from any spirit that you could look at it. Objective, integral, whole, Moses redeemed, and Moses did this redeeming by carrying out the three bold authors. He spoke, he was a prophet, and in the early 18, a prophet like unto me, there it comes through. Moses was the priest. He offered not only sacrifices, but the way he interceded, Exodus 32 we see it, but also Moses was the priest in that he actually brought the people before God, as he spoke and brought God to the people, so the prophetic and the priestly office functions really mesh. In what sense is Moses king? Look, he was a royal figure when he stood there in front of Pharaoh, or he was not a king, no, but he was rego in his conduct. He was rego in his speech. He was rego in his activities, and later on at Mount Sinai, he becomes the spokesman for the law. He becomes the law giver. He becomes the one who administers and becomes the chief administrator, what the king is supposed to do. He's the one who directs their protection. He's the one who's at the very center of their getting their food and their drink. The office of the great shepherd, the royal shepherd, it's there. Moses, the threefold office bearer, is the Old Testament Redeemer, but he did nothing in his own because he was better servant of the greater Moses to come. And I close again by saying, if you teach and preach, working with Exodus 1 to 18, remember that it's Christ, who's at the heart of it all there, the second person of the Trinity, who is the Malachiabe, the angel of the Lord, it is God, the second person, the spoken word that causes so much to happen. Christ is front and central, but he's pre-incarnate, but he almost becomes incarnate and Moses.