There were such grand hopes, but at the first sign of trouble the Israelites stop trusting God. Listen in to discover his kindness and patience in showing them, and us, that he’s still faithful, and he will do what he promised. This episode explores Exodus 5:1-7:13.
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Transcript
G'day.
Speaker:Welcome to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:I'm Dave Whittingham, your host.
Speaker:I hope you enjoyed the bonus episode where I
Speaker:had a q and a with my friend and pastor Andy.
Speaker:I'd love your feedback.
Speaker:Was it helpful? Do you want more of them?
Speaker:Should I just stick to the stories? Let me know.
Speaker:Go to the contact page of faithfulgod.net and send in your feedback.
Speaker:Also, if you have any questions, send them in and we'd love to answer them.
Speaker:To get us ready for today's story, let me read this Bible verse from Hebrews, chapter eleven,
Speaker:verses one and two.
Speaker:It's a call to keep going at trusting God even
Speaker:when things are tough.
Speaker:It points us to Jesus, who did exactly that.
Speaker:It says, let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on
Speaker:Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before him.
Speaker:He endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
Speaker:God.
Speaker:The cross was awful for Jesus.
Speaker:It was horrible.
Speaker:As he moved towards it, he didn't have any
Speaker:illusions about it.
Speaker:He wasn't telling himself, oh, it probably
Speaker:won't be as bad as I think.
Speaker:No, he knew it would be bad.
Speaker:What kept him going, though, what helped him endure it was the joy set before him.
Speaker:He knew that God would raise him to life.
Speaker:He knew that God would vindicate him.
Speaker:He knew that his father would give him all authority in heaven and on earth.
Speaker:And he knew that his suffering would save a huge multitude into his kingdom for all
Speaker:eternity.
Speaker:So he endured the pain.
Speaker:So many people don't endure the pain.
Speaker:They think that following Jesus means that
Speaker:life should be easy.
Speaker:And when it isn't, they give up.
Speaker:In today's passage, people start out as really excited about God.
Speaker:They're excited about the joy that he sets before them of freedom and rescue and a land
Speaker:of their very own.
Speaker:But at the first sign of trouble, they give
Speaker:up.
Speaker:They take their eyes off the future joy and
Speaker:focus on the present trouble.
Speaker:Let's see how God responds to that in our next
Speaker:episode of stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:At the end of the last episode, Moses and
Speaker:Aaron arrived in Egypt.
Speaker:They brought good news to the suffering people
Speaker:of Israel.
Speaker:They said, your God, Yahweh, the God of your
Speaker:ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he has seen you.
Speaker:He's heard you.
Speaker:He's concerned for you, and he's come to
Speaker:rescue you.
Speaker:They showed the israelite elders the
Speaker:miraculous signs Yahweh had given them, proving that they hadn't just made it up,
Speaker:proving that soon God would rescue them and take them to the land he'd promised to give
Speaker:them, a good land flowing with milk and honey.
Speaker:It was good news.
Speaker:And we see their response at the end of Exodus, chapter four.
Speaker:It says, the people believed.
Speaker:And when they heard that the Lord had paid
Speaker:attention to them and that he had seen their misery, they knelt low and worship.
Speaker:You can feel it, cant you? The joy, the relief, the thankfulness and
Speaker:desire to honour their God because they believe his promise.
Speaker:As we begin chapter five, you can feel the excitement and anticipation as Moses and
Speaker:Aaron, the ambassadors of the living God, go to speak to Pharaoh.
Speaker:This is it, the moment we've been waiting for.
Speaker:And so in verse one, they say to Pharaoh, this
Speaker:is what the Lord that is Yahweh.
Speaker:This is what yhwh, the God of Israel, says,
Speaker:let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.
Speaker:It's such a bold, confident command, isn't it? Can you imagine a roman slave walking up to
Speaker:the roman emperor and saying, hey, our God says to let us go.
Speaker:Of course not.
Speaker:But this isnt any God were talking about.
Speaker:This is yhwh, the God of Israel, the faithful promise keeper, the God who formed the heavens
Speaker:and the earth.
Speaker:Except theres a problem.
Speaker:Pharaohs never heard of Yahweh.
Speaker:Hes got no idea who this God is.
Speaker:He knows lots of other gods.
Speaker:There are more than 1500 named egyptian gods.
Speaker:He knows Osiris and Isis and Horus and Seth.
Speaker:He knows Ptah and Rhae and Hathor and Anubis,
Speaker:Thoth, Ammon, Bastet, nemti, Anaket, Paquet, Soptu, khepri, Wadjet.
Speaker:The list goes on and on and on.
Speaker:Pharaoh himself is considered a God.
Speaker:He knows lots of gods, but he doesnt know Yahweh.
Speaker:And so he responds in verse two, who is Yahweh that I should obey him by letting Israel go?
Speaker:I dont know Yahweh.
Speaker:And besides, I will not let Israel go.
Speaker:You see the problem? If Pharaoh did know Yahweh, if he truly
Speaker:understood who's giving him this command, he'd send the Israelites on their way.
Speaker:He'd beg them to leave and give them gold and silver and jewels and ask them to pray to
Speaker:Yahweh for him.
Speaker:But he doesn't know Yahweh yet.
Speaker:Moses and Aaron try again, but all of a sudden they seem to have lost all their confidence.
Speaker:In a matter of moments, they go from bold command to begging and pleading.
Speaker:In verse three, they say the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
Speaker:Please let us go on a three day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the
Speaker:Lord our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.
Speaker:It's a remarkable loss of confidence.
Speaker:God hasn't said anything about striking the
Speaker:Israelites.
Speaker:It's the Egyptians he's going to attack if
Speaker:Pharaoh says no. It seems like Moses and Aaron have panicked at the first sign of trouble.
Speaker:And Pharaoh, filled with confidence as the ruler of a mighty empire, confident in the
Speaker:power of his gods, swats them away like irritating flies.
Speaker:In fact, he gets really angry that these guys have come in, stopping his slaves from doing
Speaker:their work, filling their heads with hope and dreams of freedom.
Speaker:He says in verse four, Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their
Speaker:work? Get to your labor.
Speaker:The real question for pharaoh is how to undo what Moses and Aaron have done.
Speaker:How is he going to stop his slaves from thinking about freedom?
Speaker:Even better, how can he turn them against Moses and Aaron?
Speaker:His solution highlights his cruelty.
Speaker:It shows he's not some innocent who's been
Speaker:caught up in this whole thing.
Speaker:He's the ruthless leader of a brutal people.
Speaker:Earlier, in Exodus, we were told how the IsraElites were tasked with making bricks to
Speaker:build cities.
Speaker:One of the key ingredients in their bricks,
Speaker:along with mud, is straw to help bind it together.
Speaker:Up until now, the straw has been provided to the Hebrews so they can get on with their
Speaker:brickmaking.
Speaker:Now pharaoh changes the deal from verse six.
Speaker:We read this that day.
Speaker:Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people,
Speaker:as well as their foremen.
Speaker:Don't continue to supply the people with straw
Speaker:for making bricks as before.
Speaker:They must go and gather straw for themselves,
Speaker:but require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before.
Speaker:Do not reduce it, for they are slackers.
Speaker:That is why they are crying out, let us go and
Speaker:sacrifice to our God.
Speaker:Impose heavier work on the men.
Speaker:Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.
Speaker:Imagine the way the Israelites hearts must have sunk as they hear the news.
Speaker:No more straw.
Speaker:You've got to go out and get it yourselves.
Speaker:Oh, and by the way, you've still got to produce exactly the same number of bricks in a
Speaker:day.
Speaker:They don't really have any choice in the
Speaker:matter.
Speaker:And so they spread out through the fields
Speaker:collecting straw.
Speaker:But of course, every hour they spend doing
Speaker:that, they're not making bricks, which means they stop reaching their daily quota.
Speaker:And so we're told in verse 14.
Speaker:Then the israelite foremen whom Pharaoh's
Speaker:slave drivers had set over the people were beaten and asked, why haven't you finished
Speaker:making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today as you did before?
Speaker:There's a sadistic quality to it, isn't there? It's obvious why they aren't making their
Speaker:quota.
Speaker:It's certainly not their fault.
Speaker:And yet the beatings keep coming.
Speaker:They decide to appeal to pharaoh.
Speaker:In verse 15, they cry out to pharaoh, why are you treating your servants this way?
Speaker:No straw has been given to your servants.
Speaker:And yet they say to us, make bricks.
Speaker:Look, your servants are being beaten, but it's your own people who are at fault.
Speaker:But he said, you are slackers.
Speaker:Slackers.
Speaker:That is why you are saying, let us go sacrifice to the Lord.
Speaker:Now get to work.
Speaker:No straw will be given to you, but you must
Speaker:produce the same quantity of bricks.
Speaker:There are two things that hit the Israelites
Speaker:hard here.
Speaker:First, when Pharaoh says, you cant reduce your
Speaker:quota of bricks, they know they're in trouble, like someone who's appealed through every
Speaker:level of court in the land.
Speaker:And finally, there's nowhere else to go.
Speaker:They're being forced to do an impossible job and they're going to be beaten when they fail.
Speaker:They also hear it loud and clear.
Speaker:When Pharaoh says, this is why you are saying,
Speaker:let us go sacrifice to the Lord, to Yahweh.
Speaker:It makes it really obvious why hes doing all
Speaker:of this to them.
Speaker:At that point, they could encourage each other
Speaker:and say, dont panic, gods about to rescue us.
Speaker:We just have to be patient.
Speaker:They could get really angry with pharaoh and the Egyptians for their evil behavior.
Speaker:They dont do any of that, though.
Speaker:Instead, all their anger gets directed at
Speaker:Moses and Aaron.
Speaker:They blame them for all these problems.
Speaker:And what's particularly weird is that they think God should be angry at Moses and Aaron
Speaker:as well.
Speaker:Let me read it to you from verse 20.
Speaker:When they left Pharaoh, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them.
Speaker:May the Lord Yahweh take note of you and judge, they said to them, because you have
Speaker:made us reek to Pharaoh and his officials putting a sword in their hand to kill us.
Speaker:You can feel their anger and frustration and bitterness across three and a half thousand
Speaker:years.
Speaker:But I find their words so strange.
Speaker:A few days ago, they were celebrating the message that Moses and Aaron had brought them.
Speaker:They were celebrating what God was going to do for them.
Speaker:Now they're not blaming God for what's happened, but they are blaming his prophets.
Speaker:And although that can sound better, actually, it's no different.
Speaker:The prophets just brought the message from God.
Speaker:They're his ambassadors for the Israelites.
Speaker:Their belief, their faith has vanished in a
Speaker:matter of moments.
Speaker:They're not the only ones.
Speaker:Moses faith has vanished just as quickly.
Speaker:Just like the israelite foremen were indignant
Speaker:with Moses and Aaron.
Speaker:Now Moses is indignant with God.
Speaker:He's really angry with God, blaming him for the israelite suffering, accusing him of
Speaker:unfaithfulness and not keeping his word.
Speaker:This is what we're told in verse 22.
Speaker:It says, so Moses went back to Yahweh and asked, lord, why have you caused trouble for
Speaker:this people? And why did you ever send me?
Speaker:Ever since I went into Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has caused trouble for this
Speaker:people, and you haven't rescued your people at all.
Speaker:Even though he's talking about Pharaoh.
Speaker:He's not blaming Pharaoh.
Speaker:He's blaming God.
Speaker:It's such a natural sin response.
Speaker:Adam did it in the garden.
Speaker:Moses does it here.
Speaker:Even today.
Speaker:You'll hear people do it.
Speaker:Maybe you've done it.
Speaker:Why has God done this to me?
Speaker:He hasn't looked after me.
Speaker:He hasn't helped me.
Speaker:It's an accusation that God hasn't been faithful.
Speaker:Did you hear how Moses finished? Pharaoh's done all these things.
Speaker:But you, God, haven't rescued your people at all.
Speaker:You said you'd do it, and you haven't.
Speaker:You failed.
Speaker:You've been unfaithful.
Speaker:Except did God actually say that it would
Speaker:happen in a moment? That they'd ask Pharaoh to let them go, and
Speaker:he'd just say yes? No, quite the opposite.
Speaker:God said that they would be freed after God's shown his power and done his miracles, which
Speaker:hasn't happened yet.
Speaker:In fact, it isn't God who's been unfaithful.
Speaker:It's Moses and the Israelites.
Speaker:They still don't know their own God.
Speaker:They don't understand his faithfulness and power, which you can kind of get, because God
Speaker:hasn't done the powerful things he'd said he'd do yet.
Speaker:But they haven't really given him a chance.
Speaker:They haven't been patient and watched.
Speaker:And so the Lord Yahweh, remember Yahweh means he is.
Speaker:You've got to watch him and listen to him to see who he is and what he's like.
Speaker:And so Yahweh says to Moses in chapter six, verse one, now you will see what I will do to
Speaker:pharaoh.
Speaker:Because of a strong hand.
Speaker:He will let them go.
Speaker:And because of a strong hand, he will drive
Speaker:them from his land.
Speaker:The strong hand is Yahweh's hand.
Speaker:It's his power and might that'll force pharaoh to his knees.
Speaker:And they're going to see it.
Speaker:At the moment, all they can see is Pharaoh's
Speaker:power and pharaoh's strength.
Speaker:They don't know their God.
Speaker:But soon they'll see and they'll know and they'll understand who Yahweh is.
Speaker:The loving, powerful promise keeper, the king who will bring judgment on Egypt and salvation
Speaker:to his people.
Speaker:And so he repeats his promise to Moses and
Speaker:reminds him of who he is.
Speaker:From verse two, he says, I am the Lord Yahweh.
Speaker:I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but I was not known to them by my
Speaker:name, Yahweh.
Speaker:I also established my covenant with them to
Speaker:give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as aliens.
Speaker:Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to
Speaker:work as slaves.
Speaker:And I have remembered my covenant.
Speaker:Therefore, tell the Israelites, I am Yahweh and I will bring you out from the forced labor
Speaker:of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them.
Speaker:I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
Speaker:I will take you as my people and I will be your God.
Speaker:You will know that I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out from the forced labour of the
Speaker:Egyptians.
Speaker:I will bring you to the land that I swore to
Speaker:give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession.
Speaker:I am Yahweh.
Speaker:Did you hear how often God uses his name
Speaker:there? Five times.
Speaker:I am Yahweh.
Speaker:I am Yahweh.
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:Over and over again, God's name is
Speaker:fundamentally tied to his character, to his faithfulness.
Speaker:I am Yahweh, who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:I am Yahweh, who made my covenant with them, my promise to give them the land of Canaan.
Speaker:I am the God who has heard the groaning of his people and who remembers his covenant.
Speaker:I am Yahweh, who will rescue and redeem my people.
Speaker:You may not know me now, but soon you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, who brought
Speaker:you out from the forced labour of the Egyptians to the land I promised Abraham,
Speaker:Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:And then he signs off with a final I am
Speaker:Yahweh.
Speaker:Names matter.
Speaker:God stakes his name, his character and reputation, on his faithfulness to his
Speaker:promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Speaker:And when you see him do these things, keep
Speaker:these promises, you will know him even better than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did.
Speaker:Abraham believed just on the basis of God's promise.
Speaker:The Israelites are actually going to see the promise fulfilled.
Speaker:But the people don't know God yet.
Speaker:They're not like Abraham.
Speaker:They don't have faith in his faithfulness yet.
Speaker:And so we hear in verse nine, Moses told this
Speaker:to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard
Speaker:labour.
Speaker:Instead of leading them in faith, Moses
Speaker:follows their lead in being unfaithful.
Speaker:When God tells him to go back to Pharaoh,
Speaker:Moses returns to the same old tired excuses he used at Mount Sinai.
Speaker:In verse ten, we're told.
Speaker:Then the Lord spoke to Moses.
Speaker:Go and tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go from this land.
Speaker:But Moses said in the Lord's presence, if the Israelites will not listen to me, then how
Speaker:will Pharaoh listen to me since I am such a poor speaker?
Speaker:He's lost faith in God, and so he's gone back to thinking that it's all about him.
Speaker:And he knows he can't convince Pharaoh.
Speaker:And so we have a faithless prophet, a
Speaker:faithless people, a stubborn pharaoh.
Speaker:None of them truly know God yet.
Speaker:Let's do a bit of a temperature check of where we're at in the story.
Speaker:We're sitting at a really low point.
Speaker:Pharaohs said he wont let the people go, which
Speaker:God warned us to expect.
Speaker:Pharaohs also started an evil campaign of
Speaker:abuse, making a job impossible for the Israelites and then having them whipped when
Speaker:they dont complete it.
Speaker:Hes doing that so that theyll reject Moses and
Speaker:Aaron and give up on these ideas of going free.
Speaker:And it seems to be working.
Speaker:The Israelites, who were so thankful that God
Speaker:had heard their cries and had come to help them, have now faithlessly turned on Yahweh
Speaker:and his prophets.
Speaker:It only took a few days.
Speaker:Even worse, Moses has turned against God, accusing him of unfaithfulness and returning
Speaker:to his excuses for why he can't speak to Pharaoh.
Speaker:All this does make God look faithless, like he's failed, like he hasn't kept his promises.
Speaker:But Yahweh has not lost control.
Speaker:Even when his people are faithless, he remains
Speaker:faithful.
Speaker:You see that in God's response to Moses loss
Speaker:of courage, when Moses says, I can't speak to Pharaoh, God doesn't go back.
Speaker:Over all the arguments from Mount Sinai.
Speaker:We're simply reminded that God's actually
Speaker:already dealt with that by providing Aaron, its a nice reminder that back at Sinai God
Speaker:actually dealt with all the problems.
Speaker:He told Moses his name, he revealed his
Speaker:character.
Speaker:He gave Moses miracles to perform to prove to
Speaker:the people that he really had come.
Speaker:None of those have gone away.
Speaker:Yahweh has already given enough to the Israelites to help them believe and be
Speaker:patient.
Speaker:And hes given Moses everything and everyone he
Speaker:needs.
Speaker:And so God faithfully continues with his
Speaker:plans.
Speaker:We are told in verse 13.
Speaker:Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them commands concerning both the Israelites
Speaker:and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt.
Speaker:Then we get a long section which to most westerners is really jarring.
Speaker:It can feel like a break in the story, a section that kind of kills the vibe and the
Speaker:tension.
Speaker:It's a genealogy, a list of names and
Speaker:generations.
Speaker:I don't think I've ever watched an action
Speaker:movie where they stop halfway through and give you a genealogy of the main characters.
Speaker:Imagine watching Top Gun gooses just died, maverick struggling to fly again.
Speaker:And then suddenly someone comes on and says, now 400 years before this, there was a man
Speaker:named George Burlinson and he had five sons, Mark, Peter, George Junior, Samuel and Fred.
Speaker:And then you're told the names of all the sons of those five sons and eventually you trickled
Speaker:down and you managed to follow the family tree all the way down to Maverick.
Speaker:Apologies if you haven't seen Top Gun, but I think you get the idea.
Speaker:It just doesn't happen.
Speaker:It's not the way that our culture tells
Speaker:stories.
Speaker:So should we do what I suspect most of us
Speaker:whove spent enough time reading the bible of done and skip it.
Speaker:It wouldnt be hard.
Speaker:In fact, if you look at the sentences on
Speaker:either side of it, you could easily get the scissors and cut it out and the flow of the
Speaker:story would continue.
Speaker:Its like the first time I saw Titanic.
Speaker:I was running late.
Speaker:I accidentally walked into the wrong theatre.
Speaker:I thought I'd missed the first five minutes.
Speaker:Except in that theatre it had already been
Speaker:going for an hour.
Speaker:I didn't even notice the boat still sank.
Speaker:What's the big deal? That's what the movie was about, right?
Speaker:Well, we can debate the value of the first hour of Titanic another time, but the Bible's
Speaker:different.
Speaker:We can't just write this passage off as some
Speaker:cultural section not really meant for us and just skip over it.
Speaker:Because even though it was written in a specific culture and a time and a place, it
Speaker:was inspired by God.
Speaker:Hes the ultimate author hes put the genealogy
Speaker:here for a really important reason and it has to do with the keeping of promises.
Speaker:Its no accident that at this moment in the story where gods faithfulness seems at its
Speaker:most questionable that we get a genealogy that proves his faithfulness.
Speaker:As the genealogy starts, it sounds like it's going to tell us almost the whole israelite
Speaker:family tree.
Speaker:Not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:But remember, Jacob had twelve sons and the families of those twelve sons became the
Speaker:twelve tribes of Israel.
Speaker:And so verse 14 tells us the sons of Reuben,
Speaker:the firstborn of Israel.
Speaker:Verse 15 tells us the sons of Simeon, the next
Speaker:oldest.
Speaker:Verse 16, the sons of Levi.
Speaker:Remember, God had promised Abraham that his family would be like the number of stars in
Speaker:the sky.
Speaker:Abraham only had one legitimate son, Isaac.
Speaker:Isaac had two sons, but the promise only passed to one of them, Jacob.
Speaker:But after that, the family went supernova.
Speaker:We saw it in chapter one of Exodus that even
Speaker:when the Egyptians tried to stop them, their numbers exploded.
Speaker:So we dont just have to wonder, will Yahweh be faithful or is he faithful?
Speaker:Hes already been faithful.
Speaker:The genealogy is a factual account of the way
Speaker:hes faithfully grown the israelite family.
Speaker:Hes also been faithful in preserving the
Speaker:israelite family.
Speaker:Remember, Moses was born at a time when the
Speaker:Egyptians were throwing israelite sons into the nile.
Speaker:We dont know how long that went on for, but it was a clear attempt at genocide.
Speaker:But it failed.
Speaker:Im not saying that no babies were killed, but
Speaker:in this genealogy, just among Moses generation of male cousins, theres Aaron and Moses and
Speaker:Korah and Nepheg and Zikri and Mishael and el Zaphan and Sithri.
Speaker:Gods faithfully preserved the Israelites.
Speaker:God's also faithfully saved his people from
Speaker:Egypt.
Speaker:Now this is a real time twisting kind of idea.
Speaker:Obviously in the story so far, the Israelites are still slaves in Egypt.
Speaker:But we all know they're going to get out, right?
Speaker:Sorry for the spoiler if you didn't know, but if you're an isolite reading this 3000 years
Speaker:ago, you're not sitting in Canaan wondering, ooh, I wonder if God will be able to save them
Speaker:because you're reading it.
Speaker:In Canaan, even the name exodus means
Speaker:departure or leaving or going out.
Speaker:The genealogy makes that point by not stopping
Speaker:at Moses and Aaron's generation.
Speaker:It focuses a bit more on Aaron's family
Speaker:because it's him and his family who've become priests in Israel after the Exodus.
Speaker:So we hear about his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Speaker:And then we go one more generation to Eleazes son, Phinehas.
Speaker:And Phinehas is a wonderful place to stop because hes a man whos so zealous for God.
Speaker:He loves God, and he loves helping the Israelites follow God.
Speaker:In fact, there are at least two major occasions where Phineas will save Israel by
Speaker:stopping either the sin they are doing or the sin they are about to do.
Speaker:And he does it both on the way to Canaan and when theyre actually in the land.
Speaker:Phinehas is a name that pulls our minds forward to when yahwehs already saved his
Speaker:people, given them his good laws, and taken them to the promised land.
Speaker:At this moment in the story of Exodus, which is really the lowest point of the story, at
Speaker:least while theyre in Egypt at the time when the faithfulness of God is most in doubt, this
Speaker:genealogy reminds us that actually there is no question about God's faithfulness.
Speaker:And from here, everything just starts getting better and better and better.
Speaker:It's going to be victory after victory after victory.
Speaker:And you see that with how the story picks up in the same place it ended.
Speaker:But this time we are given a happier ending.
Speaker:Ill read from verse 28.
Speaker:On the day the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, he said to him, I am Yahweh.
Speaker:Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt everything I am telling you.
Speaker:But Moses replied in Yahwehs presence, since I am such a poor speaker, how will Pharaoh
Speaker:listen to me? See, its a repeat of what we were just told.
Speaker:And then chapter seven, verse one, says, the Lord Yahweh answered Moses, see, I have made
Speaker:you like God to Pharaoh.
Speaker:And Aaron, your brother will be your prophet.
Speaker:You must say whatever I command you.
Speaker:Then Aaron your brother, must declare it to
Speaker:Pharaoh so that he will let the Israelites go from his land.
Speaker:But I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
Speaker:Pharaoh will not listen to you, but I will put my hand into Egypt and bring the military
Speaker:divisions of my people, the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt.
Speaker:By great acts of judgment, the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I stretch out my
Speaker:hand against Egypt and bring out the Israelites from among them.
Speaker:A couple of things to quickly note there.
Speaker:Did you hear how God's going to bring out the
Speaker:military divisions of his people? The isrAelites?
Speaker:The israelites are an armY.
Speaker:They're God's army.
Speaker:Their divisions are the different family clans that were mentioned in the genealogy.
Speaker:They'll march out of Egypt as a victorious army.
Speaker:And yet, as we saw in the last episode, they'll be victorious without having to do any
Speaker:fighting.
Speaker:It is the power of the faithful God Yahweh
Speaker:that will bring the victory.
Speaker:Secondly, did you hear what the result of all
Speaker:this will be for the Egyptians? It will be judgment and knowledge.
Speaker:God will harden pharaohs heart precisely so that he can give egypt what they deserve for
Speaker:their evil hell.
Speaker:Pour out his judgment.
Speaker:And then they will know Yahweh.
Speaker:They will know this God.
Speaker:Remember why Pharaoh said he wouldnt let the Israelites go?
Speaker:Who is this Yahweh? I dont know him.
Speaker:Soon they will know him.
Speaker:So gods commanded Moses and Aaron to go back
Speaker:to Pharaoh.
Speaker:Before the genealogy, we heard Moses return to
Speaker:his excuse making.
Speaker:But listen to this different response.
Speaker:Now, verse six says, so Moses and Aaron did this.
Speaker:They did just as the lord commanded them.
Speaker:Yahweh's faithfully stuck to his plan, and now
Speaker:he's drawn Moses and Aaron back to faithful obedience, which sets the stage for one of
Speaker:those really famous parts of Exodus.
Speaker:When they make movies of this story, they
Speaker:always leave out the genealogy, but they always leave this bit in.
Speaker:Beyond the fame and hype, though, we need to understand what this next event is.
Speaker:It's the opening battle in a war, not between countries or political systems.
Speaker:No, this war is bigger than that.
Speaker:This is a war between gods, between Yahweh,
Speaker:the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the gods of Egypt, between the God who looks weak,
Speaker:whose people are in slavery, and the gods who rule a mighty empire, whose nations make other
Speaker:people their slaves.
Speaker:It's the war that the whole book's been
Speaker:leading up to.
Speaker:And it starts like this.
Speaker:In verse eight, Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, when pharaoh tells you perform a
Speaker:miracle, tell Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before pharaoh.
Speaker:It will become a serpent.
Speaker:So Moses and Aaron went into pharaoh and did
Speaker:just as Yahweh had commanded.
Speaker:Aaron threw down his staff before pharaoh and
Speaker:his officials, and it became a serpent.
Speaker:So far, so good.
Speaker:We have seen this powerful miracle before back at Mount Sinai, and that's kind of where we
Speaker:expect the battle to end.
Speaker:But then something shocking happens, something
Speaker:completely unexpected.
Speaker:Verse eleven says, but then pharaoh called the
Speaker:wise men and sorcerers, the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by
Speaker:their occult practices.
Speaker:Each one threw down his staff and it became a
Speaker:serpent.
Speaker:You can imagine the smugness on the face of
Speaker:pharaoh as one by one, each magician throws down his staff.
Speaker:Bang.
Speaker:There's a snake.
Speaker:Bang another snake.
Speaker:Bang another snake.
Speaker:As if to say, is that all you've got? One snake, like you're one pitiful God.
Speaker:Well look at all my snakes.
Speaker:Look at the power of all my gods.
Speaker:Its worth pausing and asking what on earths happening here?
Speaker:And its worth challenging some of our cultural ideas, at least from a western perspective.
Speaker:If youre from somewhere else, you might be thinking whats the problem in the west?
Speaker:Though there are some problems that we often have for people who arent believers in Jesus.
Speaker:They dont trust the Bible.
Speaker:The tendency is to not believe in any miracles
Speaker:at all.
Speaker:When the Bible says that God or Jesus did
Speaker:miracles, it's either a completely made up story or it's the account of a trickster
Speaker:playing on the hopes of a gullible crowd.
Speaker:Because I'm convinced of the historical
Speaker:accuracy of the Bible, I think they're wrong and I do say convinced.
Speaker:I'm not just blindly saying this.
Speaker:There are so many reasons why I'm super
Speaker:confident that we have accurate historical retelling of events.
Speaker:Western christians, followers of Jesus would agree with that, but then we generally don't
Speaker:want to think of spiritual things beyond that.
Speaker:So when we read that all these magicians turn
Speaker:their staffs into snakes, we want to say it's a trick.
Speaker:And it might be maybe they all had snakes hidden up their sleeves.
Speaker:But I don't want to be flippant though.
Speaker:There are very clever people who can do
Speaker:seemingly miraculous things by sleight of hand and other tricks.
Speaker:And today we call them magicians.
Speaker:And that could be what's going on.
Speaker:That's not what wise men and sorcerers and magicians were in Moses day, though they were
Speaker:people who were said to talk to the dead and the gods.
Speaker:They dealt with the spiritual unseen world to gain power and tell the future.
Speaker:And if you look up Deuteronomy 30 216 17 later, thats Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses
Speaker:1617, it actually refers to false gods as demons, real spiritual creatures pretending to
Speaker:be God.
Speaker:If you look at the gospels, occasionally those
Speaker:demons have power.
Speaker:They make a man cut himself and give him power
Speaker:to break chains and drive a herd of 2000 pigs into the sea.
Speaker:Whether that's what's happening here, there are evil demonic forces in the world opposed
Speaker:to God trying to take God's place.
Speaker:And even without knowing it, people do serve
Speaker:and worship these creatures.
Speaker:So should that make us afraid?
Speaker:Should we be terrified of these demons, these false gods and their power?
Speaker:Well, this passage answers that for us by saying absolutely not.
Speaker:Because in an almost casual throwaway line, we hear this in verse twelve, but Aaron's staff
Speaker:swallowed their staffs.
Speaker:When we looked at Jonah a few episodes ago, we
Speaker:talked about how when the Bible says something swallowed, it means it's defeated, destroyed,
Speaker:conquered.
Speaker:So right from the beginning, from the first
Speaker:battle in this great war between the gods of Egypt and Yahweh, the God of Israel, the end
Speaker:is a foregone conclusion.
Speaker:Already before the war has really even begun.
Speaker:A victory for Yahweh is certain.
Speaker:You can imagine the wise men and magicians
Speaker:embarrassingly walking away without their staffs.
Speaker:They're symbols of authority and power.
Speaker:And in the coming episode, when we get into
Speaker:the first nine plagues that God will send on Egypt, keep watching out for these guys.
Speaker:They're going to continue as symbols of God's amazing power over the gods of Egypt.
Speaker:It's easy for us to forget that the outcome of this world is a foregone conclusion.
Speaker:It's easy for us to take our eyes off the joy that God has in store for us, the new land
Speaker:Christ will take us to if we trust him.
Speaker:A land even better than Canaan.
Speaker:A land with no more pain or suffering or tears or death.
Speaker:One of the hardest things about podcasting is I don't know you.
Speaker:I don't know your pain.
Speaker:Some of you may have had relatively simple,
Speaker:stress free lives.
Speaker:Others may feel like every day is a battle for
Speaker:survival.
Speaker:Some may have sickness worries.
Speaker:Some may have financial worries.
Speaker:Some may be facing suffering just for
Speaker:following Jesus.
Speaker:I don't want to downplay any of that.
Speaker:Just like I don't want to downplay the suffering of the israelite slaves even more.
Speaker:I don't want to downplay the suffering of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
Speaker:Pain is real.
Speaker:Suffering is real.
Speaker:Grief is real.
Speaker:God knows that because he's lived it in the
Speaker:flesh, in Jesus.
Speaker:He knows our pain and more, but he also knows
Speaker:how to get through it.
Speaker:Throughout his life, Jesus had no doubts at
Speaker:all about the power and faithfulness of God his father.
Speaker:That power and faithfulness meant that the ending was a foregone conclusion.
Speaker:It was going to be a victorious ending, a joyful ending.
Speaker:And he fixed his eyes on that joy, which gave him strength to carry on.
Speaker:The Israelites loved the ending that God promised, but they didnt trust or understand
Speaker:the power and faithfulness of God.
Speaker:So as soon as trouble came, they gave up.
Speaker:In this passage, God isn't just revealing himself to them, he's revealing himself to us.
Speaker:He's showing us his power.
Speaker:He's showing us his faithfulness.
Speaker:He's showing us that he's got what it takes to take us to a joyful end.
Speaker:How much more has he shown? That through Jesus God the son in the flesh.
Speaker:Where he went, demons shrieked and fled in fear and terror.
Speaker:Where he went, the sick were healed, the hungry were fed, the dead were raised to life.
Speaker:When he died, that wasnt the end.
Speaker:He was raised and now sits on his throne at
Speaker:gods right hand.
Speaker:The Bible is super clear that being a follower
Speaker:of Jesus doesnt take away the suffering.
Speaker:Yet, in fact, sometimes it'll get worse.
Speaker:Jesus had to go to the cross.
Speaker:The apostle Peter was jailed, threatened,
Speaker:crucified.
Speaker:The apostle Paul was flogged, shipwrecked,
Speaker:stoned, hated and maligned in churches that he'd started.
Speaker:And finally he was killed.
Speaker:In acts, Stephen stood up for the truth, and
Speaker:for that he was stoned to death.
Speaker:There are liars in this world that tell you if
Speaker:you follow Jesus, your business will go better, you'll be healthier, and you'll have
Speaker:more money.
Speaker:There can be a tiny grain of truth in that for
Speaker:various reasons, but the thrust of the Bible, the expectation, is that we should expect
Speaker:suffering.
Speaker:But we should also remember that the ending is
Speaker:a foregone conclusion.
Speaker:We shouldn't lose faith like Moses and the
Speaker:Israelites did.
Speaker:God hasn't stopped being powerful.
Speaker:He hasn't stopped being faithful.
Speaker:We should do what we're told in Hebrews that I
Speaker:read out at the start.
Speaker:Here it is again.
Speaker:Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the
Speaker:pioneer and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before him.
Speaker:He endured the cross, despising its shape, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
Speaker:God.
Speaker:Back in Egypt, even though God's already
Speaker:demonstrated his victory, he's already shown his unbeatable power.
Speaker:Pharaoh isn't budging.
Speaker:I heard about a horrible meeting in Japan.
Speaker:Not long before they attacked Pearl harbor.
Speaker:In world War two, tensions had been building.
Speaker:Japan either had to back down or up the ante, and all the top leaders had a meeting to
Speaker:decide should they go to war against America or not.
Speaker:And the most devastating thing about that meeting is they all knew they couldn't win.
Speaker:I mean, they hoped that America wouldn't have the stomach for war.
Speaker:They hoped America would just quit.
Speaker:But if they didn't, if they brought to bear
Speaker:all the power locked up in their industry and natural resources and population size, then
Speaker:Japan would be squashed.
Speaker:They all knew it.
Speaker:But they were too stubborn to admit it and so they chose war and were crushed.
Speaker:Thats kind of what happens here before the war really gets going.
Speaker:Yahweh has proven his power, but then we are told in verse 13, however, Pharaoh's heart was
Speaker:hard and he did not listen to them as Yahweh had said.
Speaker:How is that going to play out for Pharaoh and his gods and his people?
Speaker:Well, that's a story for next time.
Speaker:Don't forget to like and subscribe and please
Speaker:share it to anyone who you think would benefit.
Speaker:Don't forget also that we have our kids episode over on stories of a faithful God for
Speaker:kids.
Speaker:I'll see you next time.
Speaker:Thanks for listening.
Speaker:I want to thank everyone who's made this show
Speaker:possible with their generous support.
Speaker:If you want to keep hearing more of these
Speaker:stories and if you want other people to hear about this great God, please consider
Speaker:supporting me financially if you're able.
Speaker:If you go to the support page of
Speaker:FaithfulGod.net, you can either give a one off donation or become a regular supporter.
Speaker:I want to keep this show free for anyone who cant afford it.
Speaker:So if you can, please help out.
Speaker:Theres a link to the support page in the show
Speaker:notes.
Speaker:Also on the website you can sign up for news
Speaker:and prayer points and you can find links to follow the show on Facebook, Instagram and X.
Speaker:Bye for now.
