God has made lots of promises throughout Exodus. Suddenly, they all come true so quickly it will knock your socks off! Join Dave as he explores Exodus chapter 12.
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Transcript
G'day, Dave. Here. Welcome to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Have you ever told the truth and no one believed you?
Speaker:They thought you were lying or making it up, or you're just plain wrong.
Speaker:It's so frustrating.
Speaker:No matter how much you plead and beg and say,
Speaker:I'll do all the washing up for 20 years if it turns out I'm lying, they just don't believe
Speaker:you.
Speaker:I bet you really wanted to be believed,
Speaker:though.
Speaker:You wanted people to know that you're not
Speaker:lying, that what you're saying is true.
Speaker:Earlier in Exodus, God made some amazing
Speaker:promises about what he was going to do, how he was going to punish the Egyptians and save the
Speaker:Israelites.
Speaker:But no one believed him.
Speaker:Not Pharaoh, not the Israelites, not even Moses.
Speaker:In today's episode, though, everyone's gonna see that God's been telling the truth.
Speaker:His promises are going to be fulfilled not once, not twice, not even three times, but
Speaker:eight times.
Speaker:Every time you hear this noise, you'll know
Speaker:that God's kept a promise.
Speaker:By the end, everyone, Pharaoh, the Egyptians,
Speaker:the Israelites, Moses, even us, will all know that what God says he does, he always tells
Speaker:the truth.
Speaker:He can always be trusted.
Speaker:He's always faithful.
Speaker:Get ready for our next episode of stories of a
Speaker:faithful God for kids.
Speaker:At the end of our last episode, the sun was
Speaker:going down.
Speaker:On the 14th day of the month of Aviv.
Speaker:Moses had told the Israelites what God had wanted them to do.
Speaker:In the past, they may not have believed God, but because they have seen God's power and
Speaker:faithfulness in the plagues, they know him better now.
Speaker:They know he can be trusted.
Speaker:And so each israelite household has taken a
Speaker:lamb.
Speaker:They slaughter it as the sun's going down and
Speaker:paint some blood around the door.
Speaker:God said that if they do that, they'll be safe
Speaker:from what's coming.
Speaker:They go inside and close the door, cook the
Speaker:lamb and eat it, just like God said to.
Speaker:And they wait, not daring to go outside.
Speaker:At midnight, God comes to punish the Egyptians.
Speaker:It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, old or young, powerful or weak.
Speaker:All the Egyptians have sinned.
Speaker:And so we're told in chapter twelve, verse 29,
Speaker:at midnight, the lord killed all the firstborn sons.
Speaker:In the land of Egypt.
Speaker:The firstborn of the king who sat on the
Speaker:throne died.
Speaker:Even the firstborn of the prisoner in jail
Speaker:died.
Speaker:Also, all the firstborn farm animals died.
Speaker:The king, his officers, and all the Egyptians got up during the night.
Speaker:Someone had died in every house.
Speaker:So there was loud crying everywhere in Egypt.
Speaker:Before the nine plagues, before the staff turning into a snake.
Speaker:Before Moses had spoken to Pharaoh or the Israelites, God had said this would happen.
Speaker:He'd said if Pharaoh didn't let the Israelites go, then the firstborn son of Pharaoh would
Speaker:die.
Speaker:It's scary to ignore the one true God.
Speaker:On this night, there's no one asleep in Egypt.
Speaker:The entire country is awake.
Speaker:Because every house has someone who's died in it.
Speaker:And Pharaoh, he knows he's lost.
Speaker:He knows he can't keep arguing with God.
Speaker:So he calls in Moses and Aaron and gives them everything they've been asking for.
Speaker:He says to them in verse 31, get up and leave my people.
Speaker:You and your people may do as you've asked.
Speaker:Go and worship the Lord.
Speaker:Take all of your sheep and cattle as you have asked.
Speaker:Go and also bless me.
Speaker:When Moses and Aaron had first brought God's
Speaker:word to Pharaoh, when they had said, God says to let his people go.
Speaker:Pharaoh had said, who is this God that I should listen to him?
Speaker:I don't know him.
Speaker:And I won't let the Israelites go.
Speaker:Well, now, after ten plagues, he knows God much better.
Speaker:He knows that God is all powerful.
Speaker:Much more powerful than the gods of Egypt.
Speaker:He knows that it's really silly to try and fight this God.
Speaker:Which is exactly what God said would happen.
Speaker:He said he'd do these amazing things in Egypt
Speaker:so that people would know him.
Speaker:Its not just pharaoh, though.
Speaker:All the Egyptians now know the power of the God of Israel.
Speaker:Verse 33 says the Egyptians also asked the Israelites to hurry and leave.
Speaker:They said, if you dont leave, we will all die.
Speaker:These are the people whod beaten and whipped
Speaker:the Israelites as their slaves.
Speaker:Theyre the people whod thrown the Israelites
Speaker:sons in the river.
Speaker:They're the people who thought that the God of
Speaker:Israel must be pretty useless.
Speaker:Well, now they know differently.
Speaker:Just like God said they would.
Speaker:They're so desperate for the Israelites to
Speaker:leave.
Speaker:They're saying, go.
Speaker:Go now.
Speaker:Don't wait.
Speaker:And so the Israelites have to quickly grab everything they can carry and get out.
Speaker:Obviously, they're going to have to take food.
Speaker:And they've been making bread.
Speaker:But this is all happening so quickly.
Speaker:They don't even have time to put yeast in
Speaker:their bread to make it rise.
Speaker:Verse 39 says the Israelites used their dough
Speaker:they had brought out of Egypt.
Speaker:They baked loaves of bread without yeast.
Speaker:The dough had no yeast in it because they had been rushed out of Egypt.
Speaker:So they had no time to get food ready for their trip.
Speaker:Remember in the last episode, God told the Israelites how to celebrate this event every
Speaker:year.
Speaker:They'd do it by eating bread without yeast
Speaker:every day for seven days.
Speaker:It was how they'd remember that God had saved
Speaker:them so quickly and so suddenly.
Speaker:God had told them to do that before it had
Speaker:even happened.
Speaker:Now it has happened, just like God said it
Speaker:would.
Speaker:That's four promises God's kept really
Speaker:quickly.
Speaker:There's more to come.
Speaker:God had told the Israelites to ask their neighbours for silver and gold and clothes.
Speaker:Normally in those days, when a big army beat another army, they'd go into their camp or
Speaker:city and steal all their valuable things.
Speaker:It's called plundering.
Speaker:The Israelites haven't won a battle.
Speaker:God has.
Speaker:But God said that they'd be able to plunder the Egyptians afterwards.
Speaker:Verse 35 says the people of Israel did what Moses told them to do.
Speaker:They asked their egyptian neighbours for things made of silver and gold and for
Speaker:clothing.
Speaker:The Lord caused the Egyptians to think well of
Speaker:the Israelites.
Speaker:So the Israelites took rich gifts from the
Speaker:Egyptians.
Speaker:This is a huge victory.
Speaker:Egypt was the biggest, strongest country around.
Speaker:People don't plunder them, they plunder other countries.
Speaker:But no one's bigger and stronger than God.
Speaker:He's won the victory, he's won the battle, and
Speaker:his people get to share in all the good things he's won for them, just like he said would
Speaker:happen.
Speaker:So the Israelites all get together and they
Speaker:march out of Egypt like a victorious, plundering army.
Speaker:They march out as a huge army.
Speaker:Verse 37 says that there were about 600,000
Speaker:men walking.
Speaker:This does not include the women and children.
Speaker:600,000, not including women and children.
Speaker:That means there are probably more than 2
Speaker:million of them.
Speaker:When the israelite family had first gone into
Speaker:Egypt, do you know how many of them there were?
Speaker:70. Not 700,000, not even 7070.
Speaker:But God had promised the Israelites that the
Speaker:family would grow enormous, like the number of stars in the sky.
Speaker:And in spite of everything the Egyptians had thrown at them, making them slaves, treating
Speaker:them really badly, trying to kill their babies, that hadn't stopped God.
Speaker:God's made them grow enormous, just like he said he would.
Speaker:God had also said there'd be a blessing to the whole world.
Speaker:In Egypt, there were lots of people watching what the God of Israel was doing, watching his
Speaker:power, watching the way he looks after his people.
Speaker:And they think, I want to be with that God and those people.
Speaker:And so verse 38 says many other people who were not Israelites went with them.
Speaker:These people leave behind their old homes.
Speaker:They leave behind the power and wealth of
Speaker:Egypt because they think it's worth being around God and his people.
Speaker:They get to share in the blessings of being God's people, just like God said.
Speaker:I've got one more for you.
Speaker:Hundreds of years before this, God had
Speaker:promised to Abraham, the very first Israelite, that his family would be given the land of
Speaker:Canaan.
Speaker:But he also told him that something had to
Speaker:happen first.
Speaker:In Genesis, chapter 15, verse 13, God told
Speaker:Abraham, he said, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a
Speaker:land they don't own.
Speaker:The people there will make them slaves, and
Speaker:they will do cruel things to them for 400 years.
Speaker:But I will punish the nation where they are slaves.
Speaker:Then your descendants will leave that land, taking great wealth with them.
Speaker:Does that sound familiar? The 400 years is not an exact number.
Speaker:Just like when you tell people your age, you might tell people that you're nine, but what
Speaker:you really mean is that you're nine years, four months, 16 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes and
Speaker:7 seconds, 8 seconds, 9 seconds, ten.
Speaker:Anyway, you get the idea.
Speaker:Well, all the other things that God says there have happened.
Speaker:And now we read this about Israel leaving Egypt.
Speaker:Back in Exodus, chapter twelve, verse 40, we're told the people of Israel had lived in
Speaker:Egypt for 430 years.
Speaker:On the day the 430 years ended, the Lord's
Speaker:divisions of people left Egypt.
Speaker:It all happened just like God said it would.
Speaker:There's nothing that he said would happen that didn't happen.
Speaker:He didn't lie.
Speaker:He didn't get anything wrong.
Speaker:Because of his power and his faithfulness.
Speaker:God kept his promises.
Speaker:Do you know, God never changes.
Speaker:He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker:Three and a half thousand years ago, God kept his promises to the Israelites because he
Speaker:always keeps his promises.
Speaker:He was a promise keeper back then, he's a
Speaker:promise keeper now, which means you can always trust him.
Speaker:Throughout the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, God makes lots of promises.
Speaker:Promises to bring fairness to the world, promises to save people, promises to send his
Speaker:Holy Spirit to live with his people, promises to give life forever and forgive people's
Speaker:sins.
Speaker:In the New Testament, in two corinthians
Speaker:chapter one, verse 20, we're told the yes to all of God's promises is in Christ.
Speaker:All of his promises, his promises to save and forgive, his promises to look after his
Speaker:people, his promises to send his Holy Spirit, they're all fulfilled in Jesus.
Speaker:If I read to you the story of Jesus in the New Testament, with my sound effect, that shows
Speaker:when God's kept a promise, it would sound something like this.
Speaker:When God says he loves you, he's kept that promise by sending Jesus to save you.
Speaker:When God says he's with you, he's kept that promise.
Speaker:Jesus asked him to send his holy spirit to live in you.
Speaker:When God says you don't need to be afraid of death, you know it's true because he raised
Speaker:Jesus to life, and you know he'll do the same for everyone who trusts Jesus.
Speaker:Whatever God's promised, whatever he said, you know it's true.
Speaker:He's kept it all through Jesus.
Speaker:Back in Egypt, Pharaoh and his officials are
Speaker:starting to scratch their heads and think, why on earth did we ever let the Israelites go?
Speaker:They're forgetting everything God's done and how they have no chance against him.
Speaker:And so they're going to strap on their armor, get out their chariots and ride off for one
Speaker:last battle with God.
Speaker:But that's a story for next time.
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