As
Christians, when we look at the cross, we know that Jesus dies on the cross for
us and that we are saved through His sacrifice. We look back at the cross and
call Jesus as our Savior.
In
Old Testament, the Jews also called God as Savior.
Psalm 18:46
- The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my
Savior!
On
what basis, were the people in the Old Testament calling God as their Savior?
Today, we are going to look at the
greatest event, a mega event. God delivered His people from Egypt. Even today,
people look back at this event.
If
we look at Exodus chapter 2, we see that the Israelites went to Egypt during
the time of famine. The plan was that a family would go to Egypt and eventually
they would multiply into a great nation.
Moses
was born during the time of slavery.
In
Old Testament, the time period is much longer. Can you imagine the number of
years from verse 1 to 11?
Exo 2:1 -
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she
became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
Exo 2:11 - One
day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were
and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew,
one of his own people.
The duration between these 2 verses was 40
years. Do you know how? Let’s look at Acts chapter 7.
Acts 7:23 -
“When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the
Israelites
In
the same chapter i.e., Exodus 2, let’s look at verses 24 and
Exo 2:24 - He saw one of
them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him
by killing the Egyptian.
After
killing the Egyptian, Moses fled to Midian.
Exo 2:29 -
When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner
and had two sons.
Moses
who left Egypt returns to Egypt after another 40+ years.
Exo 7:7 -
Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to
Pharaoh.
From
all these verses, we can say that the Israelites were under slavery for a very
long time.
Exo 2:23-25
- 23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The
Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for
help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their
groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and
with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was
concerned about them.
As
the Israelites suffered under slavery for a very long time, they cried out to
God and God heard them. He remembered the promise He made to Abraham. He has a
deep concern for His people.
From
Exo 3:1 to Exo 3:14, we see that while Moses was tending to his father in law’s
sheep, he met with God. There God tells Moses that He heard the cries of His
people and that He is going to deliver His people from slavery. Not just that
but God also says that He is going to send Moses to deliver His people. After
Moses wrestles with God for a while, finally, He agrees to go to Egypt to
deliver the Israelites.
1.
God hears the groaning of
His people
We must understand that God has His own time for everything.
Our role is to continue to be faithful in seeking Him and trusting in Him
In verses 7 and 8, we see that God had a plan for His people.
Exo 3:7-8 - 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the
misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of
their slave drivers and I am concerned about their
suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of
the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious
land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
In verses 19 to 22, we see that God knew that the King of
Egypt will not let His people go unless a mighty hand compels him to do so. But
when the time comes for the Israelites to leave Egypt, God is not going to let
them leave empty-handed. They are going to be wealthy.
Exo 3:19 – 22 - 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not
let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and
strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them.
After that, he will let you go. 21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this
people so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbour and any
woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for
clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will
plunder the Egyptians.”
In the verses Exo 4:1 to Exo 4:7, we see that God gives Moses
signs so that the Israelites could believe him.
God tells Moses to throw the staff on the ground and then it
turns into a snake. When Moses took hold of the snake it turned into a staff.
God tells Moses to put his hand inside his cloak. When he
does, his hand gets leprosy. Again when he put his hand inside the cloak, the
leprosy goes away.
God also tells Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness.
Exo 4:27 -
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet
Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.
In Exo 5:1 to Exo 5:8, we see that Moses and Aaron meet
Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go. But Pharaoh says no to them and
also passes an order that the Israelites will not be provided straw in order to
make the bricks and expects them to meet the same target every day.
In present days, we see that most of the companies and
offices make employees work more and more to meet unrealistic targets.
In Exo 7:10 to Exo 7:12, we see that Moses and Aaron approach
Pharaoh in order to ask him to let God’s people go. When he doesn’t agree,
Aaron throws the staff on the ground which turns into a snake. Pharaoh’s
magicians do the same too and their staffs turn into snakes. But Aaron’s staff
swallows all the other snakes.
Pharaoh still doesn’t agree to let God’s people go.
2.
God sends 10 plagues
·
God’s name to be glorified
·
God delivers His people
·
God judges the gods of Egypt
God sends 3 cycles of plagues –
-
The first cycle affects both Egyptians and Israelites
-
The second cycle affects only the Egyptians
-
The third is the Final plague
The first
plague – The Plague of blood
All the water in entire Egypt
turns into blood.
Exo 7:20-21 - 20 Moses and Aaron
did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the
presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and
all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died,
and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water.
Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
Through this plague, God destroyed
the economy and source of livelihood of Egypt. 7 days passed away and when
Moses asked Pharaoh once again to let God’s people go, he said no.
The Second
Plague – The Plague of Frogs
Did you ever think “Why frogs?”
This is because the Egyptians
worshipped frog goddess called Hekkath.
Exo 8:6 - 6 So Aaron stretched
out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered
the land.
Pharaoh asks Moses to take this
plague away and Moses pleads with God. God agrees and all the frogs get killed.
But Pharaoh once again disagrees to let God’s people go.
The Third
Plague – The Plague of Gnats
The Fourth
Plague – The Plague of Flies
The Fifth
Plague – The Plague on Livestock
The Sixth
Plague – The Plague of Boils
The Seventh
Plague – The Plague of Hail
The Eighth
Plague – The Plague of Locusts
The Ninth
Plague – The Plague of Darkness
In all the 9 plagues, Pharaoh agreed
to free God’s people but immediately change his mind and decide not to let them
go.
The Final
Plague – The Plague on the Firstborn
Exo 11:4-8 - 4 So Moses said,
“This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go
throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from
the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of
the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the
cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout
Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But
among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you
will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and
Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down
before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After
that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.
The Lord said to Moses that He’d kill
every firstborn in Egypt.
In Exo 12:3-32, we see that God
commands His people, each family to sacrifice a lamb, and put the blood of that
lamb on their doorposts. The blood on the posts will be a sign and God would
pass over those houses without killing the firstborn.
3.
God keeps His promise
Exo 12:31-32 - 31 During the night Pharaoh summoned
Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go,
worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your
flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
Finally, Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron to leave the country
along with everything they had.
Exo 12:35-36 -: 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and
asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for
clothing. 36 The Lord had
made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave
them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
Lessons we have learnt:-
-
Israelites were slaves.
All mankind
was born as slaves to sin.
-
The lamb that was slain so that death could pass
Jesus sacrificed His life
so that we could live
Does
the blood of Jesus cover you?
If
yes, you will not be judged. If no, you will be judged.
Have
you received Jesus as your personal savior? If yes, you are saved. If not, this is the time to put your faith in
Jesus.
Besides
being saved, it is also an important walk of faith and obedience so that we can
inherit the promises of God.
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