SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the City Covenant Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: We are a warm, welcoming church located in downtown Spokane, dedicated to practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_01: Please join us as we dive into the Word of God together.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I should say that.
SPEAKER_00: If we haven't met, I'd love to meet you.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I want you to know is this.
SPEAKER_00: We're starting at 10.
SPEAKER_00: And I know for a lot of you guys you're rolling at 10.15.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to let you know we're shifting back to start really right at 10, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And um, which I appreciate those of you who get here at 10.15, but just want to let you guys know it's just starting right at 10, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So so some of you guys like hanging out with your friends beforehand, which means you're gonna want to get here, you know, more like 9:40, 945, so you can hang out with these people beforehand because church actually starts at 10.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that that's that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm gonna see if I can make this work.
SPEAKER_00: Um, sorry about this, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, so here's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we are gonna look, we're in the ninth week.
SPEAKER_00: Is that coming through okay, everyone?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, great, great.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for setting that up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the ninth week of this 10-week series.
SPEAKER_00: It's Exodus 1 through 12.
SPEAKER_00: I've liked, I just so you know, pastorally, like as and as a Bible reader and just somebody who like has walked with the Lord for a while, I'm just really personally, really enjoying studying through this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's been really encouraging for me personally, so I hope it's been encouraging for you too.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're gonna read for a second.
SPEAKER_00: We're reading all of Exodus 11, which is actually pretty short.
SPEAKER_00: So it's on page 56 of your pew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you brought a Bible from home, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring a Bible from home, there's a Bible right in front of you in the pew, and you can turn to page 56.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're gonna read this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read it together, and then we'll pray, and then we're gonna dig into the text.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's gonna be a couple things that we're gonna do, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look, I want you to see things in this.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple questions that people have that over this series that people have asked me and um that I want us to deal with a little bit today.
SPEAKER_00: Just you know, we're gonna look at this question of like Pharaoh's heart being hardened.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna just dive into that just a little bit of asking, hey, hold on, did God harden Pharaoh's heart?
SPEAKER_00: Did Pharaoh harden his own heart?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that because that comes up in this text once again.
SPEAKER_00: We're also gonna talk about another question, which is um how God relates to suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Um, is God the type of God who actually is okay with suffering?
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is uh an apologetic question that almost every one of you has either asked or been asked.
SPEAKER_00: Um so we're gonna look at those two things because both of those come up in this text, and then ultimately we're gonna look at the way that um God, in God's movement, he he calls a people toward himself out of his own grace and mercy, um, so for a specific purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at those three things.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so let's go ahead and read this text, um, and we're gonna pray and we'll get into it.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord had said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's this little parenthetical thought, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses said, This is what the Lord says, about midnight, I will go throughout Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: 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 handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
SPEAKER_00: There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
SPEAKER_00: But amongst the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
SPEAKER_00: All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, Go, you and all the people who follow you.
SPEAKER_00: After that I will leave.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord had said to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, guys, did this thing slip down?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I just realized, boy, this thing feels like it's gonna get further and further.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was a part of me who literally, as I'm reading this, was like, is it getting quieter?
SPEAKER_00: But it sounds different to me than it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: So, okay, great, great, great.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, sorry, I'm taking some new ADD medication, but it's not working.
SPEAKER_00: Um let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for all of your kindness to us, your grace, your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Your goodness to us is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, every morning your mercies are new for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us know you better.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see the face of Jesus in this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to know all of your all of your goodness, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And and help us um not only to grow intellectually, Lord, but in our hearts, create in our our hearts uh even a larger space for you, God.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: What we're gonna do is we're gonna go a little bit backwards.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna ask this first question about Pharaoh's hard heart, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Pharaoh's hard heart.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's what you see, that little bit from verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then we're gonna look um at this the beginning of this like kind of Passover preview.
SPEAKER_00: Um the you're right, it's it we're not seeing the Passover happen yet, that's next week.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but in many ways, this is this two-week um sermon um for today and next week.
SPEAKER_00: And then then what we'll also do is then we're gonna look at this one word I want you to notice, this one little phrase in verse 7, um, when it says, But not a god, not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll finish up on that, and I will tell you, um just wait, because I think this is gonna be really, really helpful to a lot of us, and you're gonna see um you're gonna see this narrative arc reach its completion in this word distinction.
SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds like a lot, these are big promises, but you're gonna want to stick around um for point three, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um if you are thinking, you know, if somehow you're new here or whatever, or if you're just thinking about going and watching soccer, um listen, stick, don't leave early, stick for three.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's talk about Pharaoh's hard heart, can we?
SPEAKER_00: Um I have to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a guy that I really like named Bruce Waltke.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys have heard me talk about him.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have read his stuff, some of you guys have maybe met him.
SPEAKER_00: Here's um, he talks about Pharaoh a fair amount.
SPEAKER_00: You can read Waltke's stuff um in his book on Old Testament Theology.
SPEAKER_00: Waltke is really, really good.
SPEAKER_00: Um here's why I like Bruce so much is some of you guys know this.
SPEAKER_00: That in on Labor Day of 2002, I lived in Vancouver, BC.
SPEAKER_00: I had moved there on Saturday, and on Monday, it was the first day of school at Regent College.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they don't take off school for Labor Day.
SPEAKER_00: I guess Canadians don't care about labor.
SPEAKER_00: But um anyway, I don't know why they don't go take off Labor Day, but they don't, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So it's first day of school.
SPEAKER_00: I'd moved up there, I bought a scooter, and I'm gonna make this brief.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys have heard the long story.
SPEAKER_00: But on Monday afternoon of Labor Day, um, I was driving my scooter home, I got hit by a car, it was very painful, um, ambulance came and got me, and then fast forward, um, my friend Suzanne Giannini called her dad and said, Dad and mom, will you go?
SPEAKER_00: We have this guy from our church in Seattle who's up there with you in Vancouver.
SPEAKER_00: Would you go look on look after him?
SPEAKER_00: And um, so what I didn't know was that Suzanne, my friend in Seattle, had a very famous dad in the world of theology.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I just never connected the dots.
SPEAKER_00: And so Bruce came over and helped me.
SPEAKER_00: And and Bruce brought me dinner, and Bruce's wife helped me, and then Bruce gave me, um uh brought me back down to the United States.
SPEAKER_00: He was this really amazing person.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I pay attention to Bruce, and here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the way Bruce lived out the Christian life and continues to live it out says to me, hey, he's trustworthy, right?
SPEAKER_00: The way he he doesn't see this as just you know abstract ideas, he really lives it out.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's what you have to know um, like the way Bruce would describe this is the way Bruce would describe what's happening here in the story of Exodus with Pharaoh is that what's happening is that God does not somehow create evil inside of an innocent heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what you have to know first and foremost, is that when you look and see Moses, right, that God is hardened in Pharaoh's heart, this is not coming out of a vacuum, right?
SPEAKER_00: That it it rather what happens is that God confirms sinners like Pharaoh on the path that they've already chosen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That what we see on one hand is um actually Pharaoh has human agency here.
SPEAKER_00: He's making decisions.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something that's happening actually just to him, right?
SPEAKER_00: By by the time we hit Exodus 1, what do we already know about Pharaoh before we see anything about language from Moses of like God hardening Pharaoh's heart?
SPEAKER_00: What do we know about Pharaoh?
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh is already proud, he's violent, he's self-defying, right?
SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's a God.
SPEAKER_00: This is way before all he's doing all that before we see any language in Exodus about God hardening Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what you have to know.
SPEAKER_00: So what's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: I think in some ways what we're seeing happen is this is like Romans 1.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says in Romans 1 that God will actually give us over to our sin, right?
SPEAKER_00: That if we keep going and going and going, ultimately God will say to us, if that is what you want, you can have it.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have everything that comes with it.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis will even say that ultimately we'll see God face to face.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see God face to face, we will either bend our knee and say to him, Thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: You are king and master over everything.
SPEAKER_00: I submit to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Or if we do not say to God, Thy will be done, God will say to us, Thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: All of the sin that you wanted to live in, you still can.
SPEAKER_00: And you will receive everything that that sin creates.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You want life to be all about you?
SPEAKER_00: Will it it will be all about you?
SPEAKER_00: And you'll you'll step further and further and further away from the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says in Romans 1 that God will actually hand us over to our sin.
SPEAKER_00: So I used to think that like the way like punishment worked, right, from God, is you do something bad over here, and then you know, let's say you do something, um, you're, you know, you you're you kick a kitten or something, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then because you kick a kitten, you know, God, you know, does some punishment over here, like he makes you not get a the job that you want, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, I I don't think it works quite like that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I think happens is um the punishment for sin is more like natural consequences.
SPEAKER_00: Um you want to live a life, for instance, of total sexual autonomy, right?
SPEAKER_00: And move from partner to partner to partner for 80 years.
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You will probably receive um the natural consequences of that.
SPEAKER_00: You will be, rather than sex being something that is like intimate and and breeds relationship and children and all that, instead it will lead to um deathly isolation, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you'll just be an 80-year-old who is very alone and probably has a lot of diseases too, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: Is there's natural consequences, right, to our sin.
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: So the natural consequences for Pharaoh here is that if you resist God again and again and again, man, your heart gets hard.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So the way, my friend, some of you guys, I don't see him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here somewhere, Greg.
SPEAKER_00: Greg, Luce, and I were talking about it this week.
SPEAKER_00: Of kind of like, in some ways, when you dig your heels in so deep, eventually you're you kind of get stuck in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And you're you're just locked in, and it's really hard to change after that, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's this question.
SPEAKER_00: I so I want you to think about that when we ask this question, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of us ask this question of almost like, is it even fairer for God to harden Pharaoh's heart?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So that that's the one question I've gotten.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the second question.
SPEAKER_00: And the second question um has to do with uh what um a lot of theologians and philosophers would call like theophany.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the goodness of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why would, and you guys have asked this question, you've heard this question, why would a good God allow bad things to happen to good people?
SPEAKER_00: You guys ever asked this question?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever asked you that question?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's the this this is I'm only gonna look at it from one angle today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just you know, we're not doing the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um that people write like whole dissertations on this, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: So um, if I'm not gonna, if I miss anything that you really feel like should have been covered during the next nine minutes of this section, just be aware, you know, I'm I'm only covering a little bit here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So here's here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: This is this question of um that I've heard, I've heard dear friends who just look and say, there's no way I can even believe in a God who would allow suffering to persist in the world.
SPEAKER_00: If God existed, he would take suffering more seriously.
SPEAKER_00: He would end it, he would stop it, right?
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't let oppressors keep oppressing um vulnerable people.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's like here's the thing, guys.
SPEAKER_00: As a Christian, that's not actually an unreasonable perspective to hold.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Bible answers it, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I think what um my friends who would say that, oftentimes, will say two things.
SPEAKER_00: On one hand, they'll say, I can't believe in a God who would allow people to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Also, I don't like the idea of a God who would, let's say, do really mean things to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is this if there is a God, which, you know, we're at church, so by and large, most of us would say, I'm already there, I think there's God, right?
SPEAKER_00: If there is a God who cares, like who desperately cares about the plight of the vulnerable, what would you allow him to do in your mind?
SPEAKER_00: What would be righteous?
SPEAKER_00: What would be just?
SPEAKER_00: What would be allowable for this God to do to end the suffering that we've talked about?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If you look and say, I don't believe a good God should allow suffering to persist, what would you allow him to do in your head, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just as a little thought experiment.
SPEAKER_00: What would be okay for God to do to end the suffering?
SPEAKER_00: How far can God go?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I think this question is would we would we give God the benefit of the doubt in the story of Exodus to say that what God is doing here in Exodus is God is stopping suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So we've said, I I can't, if you've said, I can't believe in a God who would allow for suffering to keep going, you look and say, that's what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the process of ending it.
SPEAKER_00: Because God takes human society very seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And so He He works within systems and He works within real life.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just like use lasers and you know UFOs to like move people around.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What God does is he actually functions in human systems.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is the challenge.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You look and say, modern nation states, you look and say, where's the hand of God?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's murky.
SPEAKER_00: Here in Exodus, you look and say, Egypt, Pharaoh, Israel, Yahweh, clearer.
SPEAKER_00: And here God is judging the nation of Egypt for their complicity in the slavery of his people, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing he's judging them.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of us, we look and say, I don't want a God who's judgmental.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want a God who's a judge.
SPEAKER_00: I want a God who's just merciful, nice, kind.
SPEAKER_00: He only I only want the part of God who does the good stuff, the nice stuff, the stuff I like.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is you actually need a God who's a judge.
SPEAKER_00: You actually need a God who cares enough about the vulnerable that he'll do something to help them.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is of this, the reason you need a God who's a judge so much is because if you don't believe that in the God of the Bible who is a judge, the challenge is you'll have to be the judge.
SPEAKER_00: Because somewhere in the story that you inhabit, you believe there needs to be a judge.
SPEAKER_00: And so either there's a God who will make wrongs right, or you look and say, well, somebody's got to do it.
SPEAKER_00: You know who's gonna do it?
SPEAKER_00: You.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds really nice for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Until you become a vigilante.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Until you become the one who, it turns out, doesn't know all the information.
SPEAKER_00: You're not nearly as equipped, to say the least, as the God of the universe to execute judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So actually what happens is if you look and believe there is a God who will execute justice in the world, then good news, I don't have to be that person.
SPEAKER_00: So it turns out, if that's the case, we can understand our role then as being God's agents of mercy in and salvation in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know God is taking care, we don't need to worry about the issue of you know what's happening and and making all these wrongs right it.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna deal with that, and he is dealing with that, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and ultimately what we see, and this is always our in a way, is the answer at church God did deal with it on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: God fundamentally dealt with the issue of justice, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because he righted all wrongs on the cross by taking on the punishment for all these people.
SPEAKER_00: So you look and say, how far is too far?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that God could do to stop this injustice?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We look, we we all know the story of 1930s Germany.
SPEAKER_00: We know the story of millions of Jews being killed, right?
SPEAKER_00: We know the story uh of gypsies being killed, right?
SPEAKER_00: We know the story of homosexuals being killed, right?
SPEAKER_00: We know the story of non-compliant Christians who didn't go along with the Fuhrer being killed.
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, um, what was God doing in the midst of that?
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend who served in World War II.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be to be with the Lord now.
SPEAKER_00: He served in World War II.
SPEAKER_00: You look, I will tell you, and I'm gonna, I'm not making a theological, like, for sure statement for a second, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I will tell you, you look at the soldiers from World War II that stopped Germany in the West, stopped Japan in the East, and you look and say, to me, it feels like they saved the world.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like these were like God's agents of mercy and grace in the world.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I say that is because what would happen had Germany won, and you have the rest of this whole people group getting annihilated.
SPEAKER_00: It gets worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_00: These folks were heroes, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um that's Germany in the West.
SPEAKER_00: In the East, right?
SPEAKER_00: If Japan had just kept going and going and going, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Korea keeps getting oppressed, the the imperial armies keep taking over more and more and more.
SPEAKER_00: So this, I have to tell you this real fast.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I never knew this before.
SPEAKER_00: Mia and I and our kids, we went to Korea last year.
SPEAKER_00: And we go we go to this big palace.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's actually where like the head of Korea used to live for years, you know, for centuries and centuries.
SPEAKER_00: It's this beautiful giant palace um called Kyongbokong.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, you don't have to pronounce it later.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I actually the it's in my notes, it's phonetic, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: But we went there, and it was really cool.
SPEAKER_00: And I had we had this tour guide named Thomas, he was like my best friend in Korea.
SPEAKER_00: And um so on this tour, Thomas told me something that I never knew.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas said that there's only one embassy that's really, really close to the seat of government in Korea, right in Seoul.
SPEAKER_00: You can see it from the palace.
SPEAKER_00: You know who it is?
SPEAKER_00: It's ours.
SPEAKER_00: It's the American Embassy.
SPEAKER_00: There's a teeny little sliver of one in Australia, but I'm not counting that one, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's tiny.
SPEAKER_00: There's this giant embassy, there's a huge American embassy.
SPEAKER_00: It's only we only get there's only one, right next to the seat of government in Korea.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Korean people love America.
SPEAKER_00: Because they looked and said, you saved us twice.
SPEAKER_00: You saved us in World War II from the armies of Japan and from sexual slavery that occurred to Korean women.
SPEAKER_00: You saved us after that from the Soviet Union and China marching down from the north in the Korean War started in 1950.
SPEAKER_00: It's why Korea says we we want America close.
SPEAKER_00: Because of what you've done for us in the past.
SPEAKER_00: God worked through you to save us.
SPEAKER_00: He he saw injustice.
SPEAKER_00: He saw suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He saw vulnerable people that needed help and you helped us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: I never knew even about how intimate the history of Korea in America was until that, until Thomas told me about it.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I tell you all this is because God is not a God who turns his head away from injustice.
SPEAKER_00: God is not a God who ignores the pleas of the vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: God is a God who acts in history and in real time in real space on the cross says that he will take on injustice.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So actually, what happens is that on the cross, in Jesus Christ, if you look and say, but how does God understand the suffering?
SPEAKER_00: God is a God who suffered.
SPEAKER_00: You know, only Christians believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Only Christians believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: God cares about the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And God cares about the suffering so much that God Himself suffered to identify with His people.
SPEAKER_00: Israel had been, life had been getting worse and worse and worse for them.
SPEAKER_00: As they're stuck in slavery.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: As sinful leaders had led a sinful country to enslave them.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's this odd little verse, and I want you to notice it.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice what I think in some ways it feels like an odd little verse?
SPEAKER_00: It says, Oh, in verse 2, tell people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.
SPEAKER_00: And that was in two, and then in three, it says, Yeah, because the Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people.
SPEAKER_00: That means he got the Egyptians to say yes.
SPEAKER_00: You know what this was?
SPEAKER_00: This is restitution.
SPEAKER_00: This is him saying, Listen, you get their gold and silver, because you know how they got it?
SPEAKER_00: They oppressed you.
SPEAKER_00: I will, and it's ours.
SPEAKER_00: We want it back.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens here.
SPEAKER_00: And so Israel on the way out gets the money that they actually earned the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I just realized a couple of your faces.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making a big political statement in that.
SPEAKER_00: I know I use the word restitution.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about another time, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying they got what was actually coming to them.
SPEAKER_00: They had earned this the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: And they got it as they left, right?
SPEAKER_00: God gave them favor from the Egyptians, and they take all this gold, all this silver with them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They and here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Life, and we're gonna talk about um God's protection and this distinction now for the rest of our time.
SPEAKER_00: Life was getting worse and worse and worse, like we said.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, it went from a real high point in Exodus, or excuse me, in Genesis 50, right?
SPEAKER_00: A couple hundred years go by, there's a new Pharaoh, he doesn't even remember Joseph, any of his family, anything, and now they go from this place of incredible favor to now being slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Life has gotten so much harder for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like there's there's um like the pain is peaking, right?
SPEAKER_00: As they're full in this full subjugation of slavery to Egypt, and God makes this like promise of hope to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking to Egypt now, he's just talking to Israel, and he says to Israel, but not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, not man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to notice two things that are happening in that verse.
SPEAKER_00: A promise of protection, and then this word that you'll understand in a second of distinction.
SPEAKER_00: He's separated them apart.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: First is protection.
SPEAKER_00: God says that there's gonna be this final plague coming upon Egypt, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be chaos for Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And I will just tell you, I don't know if you've noticed this this far in the reading Exodus together, but this whole story that we've been reading from Exodus 1 through 10 in the last 10 chapters, and it actually keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: This is like a reversal of the story of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: That's like what Bruce Walkie says.
SPEAKER_00: Is that actually what happens, and stick with me, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis, what do you have?
SPEAKER_00: It starts with chaos, and what's it moved to?
SPEAKER_00: To order.
SPEAKER_00: That's the story of creation.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening in Exodus?
SPEAKER_00: Exodus starts with order, it's becoming chaotic for the Egyptians, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, the waters originally in the creation story brought life.
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: Remember when the Nile turned into blood?
SPEAKER_00: It goes from waters are bringing life to now what's happening in the Nile, the water is bringing death.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, oh, remember, let there be light.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that verse from like being a kid and going to church and reading the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: God says at the beginning, let there be light.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what happened last week?
SPEAKER_00: It was a darkness so dark they could feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Creation in Exodus is going in reverse.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of the land being fruitful in the garden, what was happening?
SPEAKER_00: The land is is, you've got hail destroying crops, right?
SPEAKER_00: You've got locusts consuming it, you've got livestock dying.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is getting flipped around.
SPEAKER_00: But God's promise to Israel, he it's like this ancient idiom, just you know, of that not a dog shall growl.
SPEAKER_00: What it's saying is that they won't experience even the slightest disturbance or threat.
SPEAKER_00: God's saying, if you right, if he was a 21st century American, he might say something like, I've got your back.
SPEAKER_00: See, right?
SPEAKER_00: Dogs in the in the ancient Near East, they're um still in a lot of parts of the world, they're scavengers and they're watchdogs.
SPEAKER_00: These aren't your pets.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, even they will remain silent.
SPEAKER_00: That's how much my care and protection will be covering you, right?
SPEAKER_00: For Egypt, they'll have chaos, mourning, judgment.
SPEAKER_00: For Israel, quiet, safety, rest.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, I'll give you my protection.
SPEAKER_00: And then you know what else he says?
SPEAKER_00: And I will make a distinction.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the word I know for a lot of us, and that's why I said, You got I want you to stick with us.
SPEAKER_00: I know for a lot of us that you first hear the word distinction, it's not that impressive, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the word means.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, this is a word that we that means something like set apart, to separate, right?
SPEAKER_00: To take, you know, to take something and to divide it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is something, if you remember, going back to Genesis 1, creation itself happened through distinction or separation, to set things apart, right?
SPEAKER_00: God separated the light from the darkness, right?
SPEAKER_00: God separated the sea and the land.
SPEAKER_00: God separated the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And now, in this new creation redemption here in the book of Exodus, what do we see happening?
SPEAKER_00: God is separating things.
SPEAKER_00: He's making distinctions, right?
SPEAKER_00: Between Egypt and Israel, between death and life, between judgment and salvation, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we see this separating of this work that God is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: Why is he doing it?
SPEAKER_00: You know why he's doing it?
SPEAKER_00: He's doing it because of his promise.
SPEAKER_00: Because of his promise to his covenant people of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Because God said, I won't forget about you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What this is, this is like covenant election.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some type of moral superiority.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not ethnic superiority.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I just want to be super clear that throughout Scripture, what we see is Israel, and then later the church, is not spared somehow because they're morally better.
SPEAKER_00: They're spared because God has graciously bound himself to them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This becomes this major biblical theme.
SPEAKER_00: That God saves a people by grace.
SPEAKER_00: And by saving them, he then uses them to reveal his glory to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: As we read in our scripture earlier today, in Bree, thank you so much for reading from Romans.
SPEAKER_00: God's big plan was never to have a permanent distinction between the nations, and this is of vital importance, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we see for a second, God says, I'm gonna make a distinction between Israel and Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna set them apart.
SPEAKER_00: But then, just like Brie read, is that what Paul says in Romans 10 is there is now no distinction between Jew and Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys catch that by the way?
SPEAKER_00: When she, I mean, you might have missed it, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're like in the zone, you're like hands are lifted, like we're praising the Lord, you scripture reading comes up for a second, and and you're just like waiting for the next song.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Bree got up and read this incredible little line, right, that there's now no distinction between between Jews and Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, wait, how can this be though?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right, and that's what scripture teaches, how can that be true?
SPEAKER_00: And it be true that Jesus changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's because actually God's big plan was never that there would be this like set apartness between all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a specific thing that happened, right?
SPEAKER_00: So what happened was, I mean, just so you know, this is what's fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word here, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: So remember how I told you the Hebrew word that we read about of distinction here in Exodus 11?
SPEAKER_00: Um, what happened was by the time of Jesus, um, a lot of Jews across the Mediterranean and that it were dispersed across the area, they didn't even learn, they didn't even know Hebrew anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't read the Hebrew Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, starting about 200 years before Jesus, there was this new translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Septuagint.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you guys know about it.
SPEAKER_00: And then you know what happens in the Septuagint, so they translated all the all of um the Old Testament into Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Um the word that's used in the Septuagint here in Exodus 10, same word that Paul uses in Romans.
SPEAKER_00: Same set apartness.
SPEAKER_00: But you look and say, but it feels like a different type of set apartness.
SPEAKER_00: And you, you know, in Exodus, it's distinction between Israel and the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Now in Romans, there's no distinction between the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's whole plan has always been for all the nations to know him, right?
SPEAKER_00: Originally here in Exodus, what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: God, in order to show himself to people, has to show them, as part of his like revelation history, he has to show people that he is the only true God.
SPEAKER_00: And so that we would understand, like, wow, that is who we should worship, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't worship little things that will never satisfy you, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's the true God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So that's why it happens for a minute, right?
SPEAKER_00: All the rest are just small principalities.
SPEAKER_00: Don't trust in idols, right?
SPEAKER_00: But then the covenant has reached its climax in Jesus Christ, right?
SPEAKER_00: And now the plan is complete.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: God's people are now actively called to be ambassadors to the nations, doing the work, right, of bringing all of God's people from all of the nations to bend their knee because of Jesus Christ, to be led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So the the whole set of partness has shifted because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: See, I mean, what's incredible is you were reading the stories.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice that like this the biggest distinction between Egypt and Israel?
SPEAKER_00: It's not that one of them were sinners and the other were righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them actually stood under judgment.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The difference is that one of them was covered by the blood of a substitute.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna spend all next week looking at the Passover meal itself.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's amazing, though.
SPEAKER_00: On one hand, Romans 10 says there is now no distinction between Jews and Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: And the Christian church is still called to be set apart.
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, but then what's it mean to be set apart now?
SPEAKER_00: We're not set apart from the other nations, we don't wear different clothes than the rest of the world, we don't work at different jobs than the rest of the world, we don't eat kosher, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we, you know, we eat in the same restaurants.
SPEAKER_00: What's it mean for us to be set apart now?
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, oh, well, it's Pride Month.
SPEAKER_00: I guess that's what we're gonna talk about, right?
SPEAKER_00: That we're different than all of them.
SPEAKER_00: No, and that's not it either.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean is we get hung up as Christians judging the world.
SPEAKER_00: What set apartness is, is to say, oh no, God has called us to live a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: What's amazing is the Apostle Paul says he that as Christians, he says, we're not called to judge the world.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to get our house in order.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So then we so what we end up doing is making one of two errors.
SPEAKER_00: We either bless everything that's happening out in the world and say, oh, all that's awesome and seems to represent the kingdom, or we're just so busy judging the world that we keep them out of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, what the Apostle Paul is saying in this distinction, saying there's now no distinction between Jew and Greek, saying, oh no, no, but there is a distinction in how we're all supposed to live.
SPEAKER_00: We live differently than the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: What we're leading with now is leading with this like type of posture of love and welcoming in as Jesus Christ's ambassadors, because we know that he is the one who has reconciled people that were far away from the Father to God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, I know, but it's so hard to know then.
SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to know.
SPEAKER_00: What are we supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Are we supposed to, if what it means to be set apart, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Is it that we're called to radical holiness?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what it means to be set apart?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it that we're set apart, uh kind of like what you're saying, if we're supposed to be these ambassadors and everything, to hospitality?
SPEAKER_00: And you look and say, guys, it's always been both.
SPEAKER_00: We live holy lives, knowing that we're separated, separate set apart, and God calls us to live a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: And we have radical hospitality toward outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: I will tell you, when Christians live with radical holiness and radical hospitality, families are changed, neighborhoods are changed, cities are changed, and nations are changed.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is what is frequently missing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what's frequently missing in Christian mission.
SPEAKER_00: We're really good at either the holiness side or the hospitality side.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you know, it's not every Sunday that I we I can look up and get up here and say, Great, I've got something great for you to do on Monday.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not always the best at preaching that for you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But today, I've got it.
SPEAKER_00: You look and say, What is it I'm doing tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: You're set apart.
SPEAKER_00: God is calling you to radical holiness and radical hospitality because of the work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us live as agents of your reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Because now there is neither Jew nor Greek.
SPEAKER_00: All are one at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've drawn us all to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Please join us in person for community worship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We are located at 512 South Bernard Street, Spokane, Washington.
SPEAKER_01: 59204.