WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.959 Morning, Church. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:07.040 Our scripture dates Exodus 1, 1 through 14. 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:12.160 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:20.160 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Itzakar, Zebulun and Benjamin, Dan and Napali, Gad and Asher. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.120 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:25.039 Joseph was already in Egypt. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:28.800 Then Joseph died, and all of his brothers and that generation. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.159 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:36.479 They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:40.399 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.359 He said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.880 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:53.759 And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.000 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.840 They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pitham and Ramses. 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:06.640 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:09.439 And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:17.920 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:22.079 And in all their work, they rush they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:23.359 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:24.640 Please be seated. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:32.000 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:33.519 My name is James Rathman. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:36.719 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:45.840 And this morning is an exciting morning because we are beginning our Exodus series, which I've been greatly looking forward to. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:51.840 We've spent the last four years during this early part of the year moving through Genesis. 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:56.000 And that was an extremely joyful thing to preach through. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:02.799 And right after I finished Genesis, I had the sense of, okay, I feel like I'm finally capable of preaching through Genesis now. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.480 Could we just start over and preach through Genesis again? 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:20.240 And uh while we aren't going to do that, um I'm excited to move back into the Old Testament and continue on in this same story that were uh that left off on this sort of cliffhanger in Genesis, which we'll look at. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.439 So uh yeah, thanks for joining us this morning and welcome. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:25.280 And it's a great day to be here. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:29.759 It's a a sort of fresh beginning for uh what we're preaching through. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:34.879 So uh before we look into our text for the day, let's pray together. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.919 Holy Father, we thank you for joining us together as your church. 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:47.120 We thank you that as we read the story of your people in Scripture, that we are reading our story. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:03:04.479 That we are not just hearing some folk tale of uh some wonderful story that we've seen animated and we've seen acted out, Lord, but that we are seeing the word of God, that the God that is described in the book of Exodus is our God, Lord. 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:14.719 We praise you that this is true and stable, and that in it you give us wisdom to understand the world and understand your workings in it. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:22.479 Lord, I pray that you would give us wisdom to see who you are as you've revealed yourself to us in your word in this book of Exodus, Lord. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:24.719 Lift this up in Jesus' name, amen. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:46.800 So you know the story, the boy in the basket, the children murdered, the boy rescued, raised as a prince in Egypt, the murder, the exile, the burning bush, getting called back to Pharaoh, let my people go. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:58.800 You remember the Passover, the parted sea, the journey to Sinai, the mountain and the Ten Commandments and the flaming mountain, and then the building of the tabernacle. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:01.199 You probably don't remember that part, to be honest. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:06.639 But that's like half the book is instructions on how to craft this most beautiful tent. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:13.439 See, this story is so immersed in our imagination. 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:21.839 Exodus, I think, even more than the stories in Genesis, are they just in the air. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:35.680 And so before we move into a story like this and we begin exploring this book of Exodus, I want to sort of name two things that we aren't doing when we're looking at the book of Exodus. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:48.000 Now, the first thing is we have to understand that more than, I think more than any other story in Scripture, Exodus has this character of like a folk story. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:58.639 And that can cause us to think that the Exodus story doesn't have any angles or any real details or particularities that are worth considering. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:04.639 It's just the type of story that exists almost like a fairy tale that's just out there for anyone to grab. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:08.160 We read a lot of fairy tales in our house. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:16.319 And we were at uh this past week when it was so cold, we went to the Edgewater market and they have a used bookstore in there. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:21.040 And so we found another book of fairy tales, and my wife was like, we should buy this other book of fairy tales. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:24.399 And I thought, we've got a lot, we've got a lot of them. 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:26.639 We've got a lot of books of fairy tales. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:34.959 And then I was leafing through it and went to the table of contents and it called it Jack the Giant Slayer, not Jack and the Beanstalk. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:37.040 And I thought, okay, we can buy it. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:46.240 That means it was published like, you know, before 1990, which is so it's reliable. 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:47.439 Here's a little pro tip. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:58.879 If it's published after 1990, it's usually like a like a deconstructionist fairy tale, where it's like everything's upside down and there's the it's like about how fairy tales are bad. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.560 That was like the trend in publishing. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:04.879 It's like Shrek, which is funny, but it's about how fairy tales are bad. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:17.360 Just those stories, when we pick them up, we think, okay, I I know that there's a sense in which I have the real story, no, no matter who's written it. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:21.600 Like Jack the Giant Slayer, Jack and the Beanstalk, it is the same story. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:28.240 And so we can think of Exodus in those same terms, that it's just sort of a folk story. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:37.759 And so it can just be taken by anyone, and you get the gist of the story, and you get the understanding of the of the story, whether it's Cecil B. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:44.720 DeMille telling it, or whether it's DreamWorks Animation Studios telling it. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.560 But when we're moving through Exodus, we are not just moving through a great folk history. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:55.839 We are reading the word of God. 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.560 Exodus is revealed to us in Scripture. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:02.480 It is written down. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:12.160 All of the angles and particularities of the story of Exodus, I think that you will find many of them surprising and shocking. 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:18.720 You'll find a lot of the details that are given to us in Scripture of Exodus just simply strange. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.360 And you'll think, I didn't know that was in the story, or I don't remember that part at all. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:30.399 And so when we're engaging with Exodus, we are not just engaging with an interesting folk history. 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.040 We are engaging with the Word of God. 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:39.600 So while you may be familiar with the story of Exodus, there's something better than the story of Exodus. 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:40.959 That's the text. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.399 In the text, we're going to be looking at the words themselves to see what Exodus is. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:50.319 And I think that will be pretty thrilling and pretty exciting to see. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:57.439 The second thing that we're not doing is this is, unfortunately, this is not the Daily Wire Plus. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.480 And I'm not Jordan Peterson. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.040 For some of you, this is a very meaningful distinction. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.000 For others of you, you're like, I already don't know what you're talking about. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:14.959 This is not, we are not reading through Exodus as though it is a mere compendium of archetypes. 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:21.439 And it's not exactly clear to me that a compendium of archetypes is exactly what you need. 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:27.199 In fact, perhaps searching for a compendium of archetypes is the last thing you should be doing. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:29.439 You should be cleaning your room, Bucko. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:31.600 Okay, that's the last time that will happen. 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.679 For those of you who know what I'm talking about, that was funny. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:45.039 My point is we are not analyzing the book of Exodus from the outside. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:55.200 We're not looking at the book of Exodus and we're saying, look, this is an important story to analyze because it has been so culturally influential. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:18.879 Even if we are considering Exodus as the most important story in human history and therefore deserving of our attention, we are considering it far more than that as we move through this as a church, not as just interested academics, perhaps even very authentically interested academics. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:20.799 We are doing something more than that. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:27.200 We are doing something even more when we move through Exodus as a church. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:33.600 We're doing something even more than considering it as as important as a story about God. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:42.480 Because here's the distinction that I want us to see and understand as we move through this story in the book of Exodus. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:50.240 You, church, are moving through this as the story that reveals your God. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:54.559 This is the story of your people. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.799 We are the ones who were rescued through the waters. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:08.240 And the very God that we are hearing about this morning in the book of Exodus, the very God who will be revealed throughout this story, is our God. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:12.159 The one who this morning inhabits our praises. 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:16.080 The one who gives us his spirit that we might understand his word. 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:20.559 The one who the highest revelation of him is in our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.759 It is this very same God, and he is our God. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:25.039 We are his people. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:30.159 And in the book of Exodus, he reveals to us just what precisely that means. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:33.840 That he is our God and we are his people. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:46.879 And so as we engage with Exodus as a church, there are all sorts of ways and tendencies that we we might think we ought to understand this book, but I want you to see that we are doing something more personal here. 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:52.639 And part of what I'm saying is we're doing something here that you can't get this anywhere else. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:59.519 You can't study the Word of God outside of the church like this. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:10.399 And we're moving through it not as a folk history, but as the very Word of God given to us in the Bible. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:18.480 I think Exodus, the story of the Exodus, is the most important story in the Old Testament. 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:22.960 It is more referenced than any other narrative. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:26.720 It is more referenced even than the creation itself. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:32.960 And of course, it seems obvious that the without the creation, you know, not much else happens. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:41.200 But the Exodus is this initial story of redemption. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:48.559 In fact, you can even think of the books, the first two books of the Bible, we have a creation story and then a redemption story. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:12:01.600 And these books are teaching us how to understand our lives, that we are God's creatures, but we are the types of creatures who need to be redeemed because of our fallenness. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:06.240 And these are described in the very narrative structure of the first two books of the Bible. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:22.799 But the best uh, I think, to uh, way of stoking our imaginations and sort of getting our uh framing rightly what it is that we're about to look at in the story of Exodus is given to us by Moses himself in Deuteronomy, as he calls the people of God to reflect back. 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:27.679 In fact, the very generation that it had happened to, he calls to reflect back on the Exodus. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:31.759 And in Deuteronomy 4, verses 32 through 35, he says this. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:33.200 Listen to this. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:51.919 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of? 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:54.080 This is referring to the Exodus. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:59.519 Go from one end of the earth to the other, from the history of humanity. 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.120 Have you ever heard anything like this? 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:04.879 Like this story? 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:18.000 In verse 33, did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.000 Do you guys know anyone? 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:51.840 Verse 34, or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:55.039 Has any God ever done such a thing as this? 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:58.399 Do you know of another story like this? 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:01.120 The Exodus story is singular. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:07.679 And then Moses tells us what we ought to understand from this story. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:16.639 To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God, and there is no other besides him. 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.720 So, what is it that we will learn as we go through this Exodus story? 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:21.759 It is exactly that. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:23.200 The Lord is God. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:25.200 There is no other beside him. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:28.320 This is the great claim of the story of Exodus. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.360 So that's what we're going to begin looking at this morning. 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:35.840 Exodus 1, 1 through 4. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:50.480 It begins: These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:56.320 Now, if you went through our Genesis series with us, those names will be familiar names. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:01.039 These are the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:04.559 And they had made their way into Egypt. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:13.120 And the ending of Genesis ends with the family of God, the chosen people of God, in the land of Egypt. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.799 Now it's this sort of bittersweet ending. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:25.039 Now it's sweet because the people of God had all been rescued by God's use of Joseph. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:35.279 The world was in a famine, and God sent one of the brothers into Egypt by having him betrayed by his own brothers, and then Joseph becomes the instrument of their rescue. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:44.720 So that in the midst of this famine, the people of God are preserved, along with many other families in the world that are preserved by Joseph's work. 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.759 The sweetness is that the family is reunited. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:53.200 They're reunited in forgiveness of one another. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:16:00.559 They're reunited in the promise of God and the blessing that had been passed on to them from their father, Israel. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:08.639 But the bitterness is that the story of Genesis does not end in the promised land. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:11.120 It ends in Egypt. 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:18.159 The narrative of Genesis can be understood as tracing the promise of God for the chosen family. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:29.440 And the promise of God can be summed up in you will have a place, a promised land, and you will be a people, a nation. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:35.279 So the people themselves will be multiplied, and they will have a place that is home. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.440 The bittersweetness of the end of Genesis is that they are a people. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:44.799 And so the promise of God is held to there. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.200 But they are not in a place. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:54.879 The last phrase in Genesis is this kind of an incredible last way to end a book. 00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:02.320 It's describing Joseph, and the last sentence in Genesis is that Joseph's body is in a coffin in Egypt. 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:05.680 That is where Genesis ends. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:09.759 Genesis ends in a coffin in Egypt. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.759 Now that's a bitter place to end. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:27.440 But as we'll see, that coffin that is buried in Egypt is also attended to by a promise. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:32.160 One that Joseph himself gave to his brothers. 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:40.559 He says, That I will be, I will die in Egypt, but the Lord will visit us, and the Lord will take us out of here. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:48.000 Joseph holds to the very promise of God that was given to Abraham, and then passed down to Isaac, and then to Jacob. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:53.119 This promise that God will give you a place and he will make you a people. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:55.440 That's the promise that was given. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:56.559 And Joseph holds to it. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:06.880 And so when he is about to die outside of the promised land, he tells his brothers, We will be taken up, and God will come and he will rescue us out of this place. 00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:14.640 And when he does, bring my bones, so that I will be buried in Canaan, the promised land. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:17.839 Verse 5 through 6. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:18.799 Continue on. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:30.480 So we've got a timeline jump now. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:34.720 We have this initial generation that is, in a sense, buried in Egypt. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:39.039 But now we're jumping forward, and that whole generation has passed. 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:42.640 But their descendants have grown. 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:53.920 We get glimmers that that coffin was buried like a seed is buried, because it is incredibly fruitful, miraculously fruitful. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:55.680 Listen to this in verse 7. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:00.480 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:05.680 They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:10.000 Look, the land of Egypt becomes covered with Israelites. 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:21.039 And that first generation, we saw glimmers of this, because that first generation that is taken down to Egypt during the famine, they caused something like a revival in Egypt. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:30.640 Loads of Egyptians come into Canaan when Abraham dies and is buried, and they are mourning the death of this great patriarch. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:42.160 The evidence that the Pharaoh who knew Joseph and who gave to Joseph his power had converted to Joseph's God seems clear. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:49.359 There is this revival that took place with this first generation, and out of that comes this fruitfulness of the people. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:54.160 The promise of God to the people of Israel is just shining. 00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:02.720 They're in exile, they are not in the promised land, but they are spreading like crazy, just multiplying. 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:05.920 So that promise to Abraham is just showing forth. 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:09.599 What we see in this is the language of creation. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.359 We see the language of Genesis 1. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:16.880 This beef they were fruitful, they increased greatly. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:23.279 This is the very blessing that God gives to Adam and Eve at their creation, that they would be fruitful and multiply. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:28.319 And here the people of God are, and they are receiving that blessing of God. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.119 They are being fruitful and they are multiplying. 00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:35.680 The promise of being a real people and a real nation is showing itself here. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:40.799 They become exceedingly strong so that the land is filled with them. 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:42.960 It is not their land. 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:48.559 And yet the promise is showing itself in their multiplication. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:56.559 Part of what we see in this story is that the pattern of creation and the pattern of redemption are wed together. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:04.880 That what God is doing in his redemption is a restorative act of a broken creation. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:14.079 So that he is causing this people to be fruitful and multiply just as they were called to at the very beginning. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:26.400 So the beginning of Exodus picks up this creation language as we start to see that the pattern of creation, pattern of redemption are wed. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:42.960 But just as at the story of creation, right after they were called to be fruitful and multiply, just within three chapters, the fall takes place. 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:49.920 And here Exodus has its own sort of fall, and it enters in by the tyranny of a Pharaoh. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:56.400 Exodus 1, 8, and 9, it says, Now there arose a king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.519 And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.799 Too many and too mighty for us. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:06.960 Okay, so let's move a bit more slowly through this. 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:12.240 Now, there arose a new king over Egypt. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:14.640 Now that makes sense. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:17.279 The entire generation had passed. 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:24.240 This is likely many generations since Joseph and that first generation had entered Egypt. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:29.440 So that Pharaoh who Joseph was under has since passed away. 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:35.599 But the distinctiveness about this new Pharaoh is that he didn't know Joseph. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.759 So there's this initial forgetfulness. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:58.640 And what we're going to see here is a pattern that shows us that when a nation forgets its origins in God, it always results in tyranny and cruelty. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:02.480 This is the pattern that we can see in Pharaoh. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:08.880 When a nation forgets its origins in God, it always results in tyranny and cruelty. 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:19.759 What I want to help you to see is that the this is not, Pharaoh is not just like an arbitrary bad guy in this story. 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:23.119 He's not just like a useful foil for the goodness of God. 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:34.319 He is showing us the way that societies collapse, the way that tyranny happens, and how this is built into the world since the fall. 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:44.480 Because part of the nature of our fall is our obedience against God to a tyrant. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:56.160 When Adam and Eve listened to the serpent in the garden, they gained as their true functional lord this serpent, who is Satan. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:02.799 And so in that forgetfulness of God, they inherit this tyrannical structure, becoming slaves to sin. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:07.359 And here the Israelites become slaves to this tyrant. 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:10.960 So he continues on. 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:18.079 In verse 9, he says, and he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:30.960 Okay, now what's interesting about this is in the Pharaoh forgetting his own, in the Pharaoh forgetting Joseph, he is forgetting the source of his own power. 00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:38.480 Because it is by the work of Joseph that Egypt was able to become the superpower in the world. 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:42.559 The world was approaching a famine. 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:45.680 And the Pharaoh, I'll refresh your memory of what happened. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:49.039 The world was approaching a famine, but they didn't know it. 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:54.000 And Pharaoh dreamed these dreams while Joseph was still in prison in Egypt. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:58.559 And he dreamed these dreams, and Joseph is called up to interpret them. 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:07.359 And the dreams Joseph describes are of seven years of prosperity that will be followed by seven years of a global famine. 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:27.039 And so Joseph, being a shrewd economist and policymaker, says, What you need to do is you need to store up during these seven years, and then you will, during these seven years of affluence, and then during the seven years of famine, you will be able to have enough grain to care for your people in the land. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:29.119 And so that is exactly what they do. 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:45.759 The Pharaoh listens to Joseph, and the uh he preserves the he he preserves like the whole world, so that all the world is drawn to Egypt to be supported during this famine. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:56.240 And so Egypt during that becomes the center of power in the world because of what Joseph had accomplished for them by the wisdom that was given to him by God. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:12.240 And so Pharaoh is resting in the very power that had been secured for him by the Israelites. 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:17.839 But now he looks at the glory of God's people. 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:25.759 And instead of making the right conclusion, which is my glory is tied to their glory. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:32.319 So that when they are glorious, I am glorious. 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:36.160 That was the right conclusion that the Pharaoh who knew Joseph had made. 00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:44.559 This pharaoh now sees that their glory is not tied to his glory, his glory is not uh derivative of their glory. 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:56.960 But instead, he forgets the connection to the Israelites for his own glory, and he begins to think that he is the one who created his own glory. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:05.119 He, in his forgetfulness, he thinks of himself as autonomous in his role as Pharaoh. 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:14.559 He thinks of himself as a self-created being, so that the glory that he has is rightfully his and belongs to him. 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:25.279 And therefore, any other glory is not viewed as distributed from God, that he might share in in some way. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:29.119 Any other glory is just a threat to his glory. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:37.200 When he forgets Joseph, he forgets that glory comes from God. 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:44.480 And that means that all glory is just self-created. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:56.960 So that means that there is no real hierarchy in the world from which glory comes, but it means that we're all just competitively seeking and creating our own glory. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:02.400 And so any other goodness that he sees is a threat to his own. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:18.720 In Genesis 12, 3, God made a promise to Abraham, and he told him that anyone who blesses him will be blessed, and anyone who curses him will be cursed. 00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:24.000 Egypt is a case study in the reality of this promise. 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:36.000 Because Pharaoh, in his forgetfulness, that his power was a gift from God, and therefore ties him to the people of God. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:46.640 When he forgets that, he then positions himself squarely against the intentions of God. 00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:52.559 And he will find that the blessing that he has received will turn to a curse. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:59.440 Pharaoh will certainly realize both the blessing and curse of that promise. 00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:13.599 So, Pharaoh's plan and the intentions of Pharaoh show us that he then stands in precise opposition to the promises of God. 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:16.799 So Exodus 1.10 says this. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:29.519 And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:37.680 Look at how it is in perfect opposition to the promise of God. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:42.319 The promise of God is a people and the land. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:47.920 Pharaoh in his forgetfulness, where does he position himself? 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:53.279 Look, we need to keep them from multiplying so that they would not be a people. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:30:05.279 Because if they did multiply and say there's a war, they might escape from the land so that they would not be able to return to the land of Canaan. 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:12.319 We often think that the world is structured like this. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:17.759 We follow God, and there's one way to do that. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:19.839 There's one way to follow God. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:30.480 And it's constraining, and you have to live by these certain rules and the certain code, and it's it's it uh you know sort of like forces you into this narrow way of being. 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:37.519 But then if you would like to rebel against God, it is this whole world of freedom and exploration. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:43.039 And there's all kinds of things that you would then be able to explore and participate in. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:51.119 And if you are a self-created person, then you are living in a world of freedom that is not experiencing the constraints of God. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:54.720 The Bible teaches, the Bible does not teach that. 00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:03.119 If you find yourself in rebellion against God, you are just as constrained. 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:11.519 You will find that you are brought into a precise like opposite of what God calls us to. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:16.240 It is not that there is life in God and then there's other types of life. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:20.319 It is that there is life in God and there is death. 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:31.039 There is following the intentions and the good purposes of God, or there is standing in direct opposition to them. 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:44.160 Look, to Pharaoh, and you can see it's so pragmatic and so reasonable that it would probably feel to Pharaoh like he's just coming up with them, with this himself. 00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:46.079 This is just a reasonable conclusion. 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:58.000 Look, there's all these people, they seem to kind of have their own thing going, and if they multiply, then they're a threat, and the threat is that they could escape. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:03.119 It seems so reasonable that he could just come up with that himself. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:17.839 But we see that the way the world is, that he finds himself in perfect opposition to God's intentions, even bound up in opposition to God's intentions. 00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:24.880 Okay. 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:32.720 So he stands against i the the drama of this text is is laid out in the in the most precise terms. 00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:40.480 In Lexus, Exodus 11 through 12 it says, Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:44.319 They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithum and Ramses. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:50.559 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. 00:32:50.799 --> 00:32:55.039 And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:02.400 Now there's sort of there's this irony kind of all the way down in the way that the oppression of the Israelites takes place. 00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:25.200 The first thing I want us to see, and it's related to a point that I've made previously, is that the ability for Pharaoh to oppress the Israelites is a participation in the power that he had received from the Israelites. 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:52.079 Now, the reason this is the case is you can tell just a very practical story, which is that Joseph is the one who negotiated the terms which afforded all, concentrated all of the power of Egypt into the hands of the Pharaoh, so that all of Egypt was enslaved to Pharaoh. 00:33:52.640 --> 00:34:10.000 So why is it that Pharaoh was able to look among his people and say, I will treat particularly harshly this group of people, these Israelites, and I will be able to compel those beneath me to treat this group of people harshly. 00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:13.440 It was because all of Egypt is enslaved. 00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:23.440 The difference is he is taking a particularly harsh stance against these slaves. 00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:26.880 And so, where did that power come from? 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:32.239 Well, it was a power that was given to him in the story of the Israelites. 00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:46.400 See, their oppression is so related to the Pharaoh's forgetfulness of where his power came from. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:50.800 And I I want us to see that this is the shape of all sin. 00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:55.199 All sin is shaped like this. 00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:58.400 Consider Adam and Eve in the garden. 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:07.840 Why was it that they had the capability, the freedom of the will to be able to take and eat from the fruit of the tree? 00:35:08.079 --> 00:35:11.039 Well, it was because God had given it to them. 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:18.320 Why is it that any of us stand able to rebel against the Lord? 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:23.519 It is because He has made us. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.280 He upholds us. 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.480 In Him we live and move and have our being. 00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:40.400 We are always participating in the goodness that God has given to us, and we are using the very goodness that God has given to us in our sin to rebel against God. 00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:44.880 This is the absurdity of our sin. 00:35:46.480 --> 00:36:00.000 That we are not rebelling against some arbitrary God who we have no relation to, but our very ability to rebel against God is given to us by him. 00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:06.320 And yet we turn it against him. 00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:11.199 We see this same shape in Pharaoh's rebellion. 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:18.079 And then I want us to also see how it is that Pharaoh chooses to oppress them. 00:36:18.320 --> 00:36:20.960 Oh, well, one more point from this text actually. 00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:29.039 They were oppressed, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. 00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:33.519 You see, there's another power that Pharaoh is working against. 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:43.920 That as he tries to push against and he tries to stop the promise of God, in the most practical means, there is another power at work. 00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:48.960 That there is a higher authority than Pharaoh. 00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:52.559 There is a higher glory than Pharaoh. 00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:54.559 He has forgotten it. 00:36:56.159 --> 00:37:01.679 But in all his attempts to work against it, he will be reminded that it is truly there. 00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:20.559 So they, in verses 13 through 14, they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field, in all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. 00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:30.800 Look, this is it just like in Genesis 3, we are given a picture of the fall here, the worst effects of the fall. 00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:33.920 Adam, you will be cursed. 00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:38.960 You will toil against the thorns and the thistles of the ground. 00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:41.440 Your labor will now be toil. 00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:51.840 Well, this is brought into sharp relief, as the very intentions of Pharaoh, the highest authority in the land, are to make the Israelites' lives toil. 00:37:52.320 --> 00:38:00.719 So that it's like it's like the fall itself is being concentrated onto the people of God by means of Pharaoh. 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:04.960 But the Lord will rescue them. 00:38:05.519 --> 00:38:08.000 He will bring them out of this bitterness. 00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:18.079 The people of God are ruthlessly persecuted, forced into lives of bitter labor. 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:33.840 It's worth noticing that the hard service is particularly related to mortar and brick, which must be a call to the Tower of Babel, which is the last time that we've heard of mortar and brick in Scripture. 00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:36.559 Because what is Pharaoh trying to create? 00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:52.000 On the backs of his slaves, he is trying to create a tower for his own glory, a place which allows him to forget that there is any glory above him, that he is able to build his way to the heavens himself. 00:38:52.159 --> 00:38:55.840 There is no glory given to him from anything higher. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:02.960 There is only a glory that he has made for himself, conjured up from the ground on the backs of his slaves. 00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:07.039 And so that is the way that the Israelites are forced to work. 00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:12.800 Why is it that forgetfulness of God always results in tyranny? 00:39:14.719 --> 00:39:19.679 It's because it causes us to imagine that we are the ones that make glory for ourselves. 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:29.360 And even in our sin, our rebellion against God, we think we're operating in a freedom, but really we are being enslaved. 00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:47.679 Just as Adam and Eve in the garden, when it could look like this rebellion against God was shrugging off the one limitation that they had experienced in their life, which was this demand, this command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? 00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:51.519 Now, once that's out of the way, I will be maximally free. 00:39:52.079 --> 00:40:01.280 But in their rebellion against God, they found themselves enslaved to Satan, enslaved to sin, in desperate need of rescue. 00:40:01.599 --> 00:40:14.000 So how does God treat a people who have rebelled against him and find themselves enslaved to a tyrant? 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:17.599 We're just beginning. 00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:22.000 And today we're just seeing the shape of the drama, but you can see the shape already. 00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:24.719 God will show his glory. 00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:30.400 He will bring judgment upon the tyrant, he will free his people. 00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:39.119 And you will be shocked to see the role that the Lord plays in this story. 00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:47.840 Now, of course, the story of the Exodus is a great story in Scripture. 00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.360 But it is not the greatest story in Scripture. 00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:54.400 I think it is the second greatest story in Scripture, if I'm ranking. 00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:58.559 If I have the ability to rank, that's how I would rank it. 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:01.519 Do whatever you want with my rankings. 00:41:07.199 --> 00:41:26.960 The greatest story in Scripture is when we see that what Exodus shows us in tying back to the to the fall of man, we see that even if the Exodus problem is solved, we need this first fall to be solved. 00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:30.880 That all of us live in opposition to God. 00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:38.719 That all of us have fallen into slavery to sin, that all of us have become slaves of Satan. 00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:43.199 And so we need our tyrant to be crushed. 00:41:43.840 --> 00:41:58.159 We need our sins to be atoned for, so that we might be brought into true relationship with God, receiving his glory as good news, even for us. 00:41:59.920 --> 00:42:03.440 And that story is shown to us in Jesus. 00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:17.039 Because the story of Exodus is incredible and it is thrilling and it is mind-blowing, and and the ways that God manifests his power in the story are just are they so cinematic. 00:42:17.199 --> 00:42:19.360 Like I get why there's so many movies. 00:42:19.599 --> 00:42:26.159 Because the images are just incredible of what the Lord does, the way that he demonstrates his power. 00:42:26.480 --> 00:42:42.400 But then, when the only thing more incredible than the Exodus, this story that you've never heard, where a God takes a nation for himself out of the midst of another nation, perhaps the only thing more incredible that you could imagine than that is God himself becoming incarnate. 00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:46.320 Entering this story. 00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:50.079 That God himself stands in opposition. 00:42:50.639 --> 00:43:02.880 And then when you consider if God himself were to become incarnate and he were to have his own Exodus story, what role would he play in that story? 00:43:03.119 --> 00:43:06.880 This is the absurdity of what we see in Christ. 00:43:08.079 --> 00:43:12.400 He takes the role of the lamb. 00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:17.679 The lamb at the Passover meal. 00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:35.760 The highest authority, from whom all our authority is just derivative, the one from whom all of our actions are just him allowing us to do that. 00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:54.800 The one in whom exists all of our freedom comes down to the lowest point beneath even the slaves, so that he might rescue them and call them his people. 00:43:55.840 --> 00:43:57.840 It is a glorious story. 00:43:58.000 --> 00:43:59.760 Here's the good news the Lord. 00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:02.639 Is more powerful than the Pharaoh. 00:44:03.280 --> 00:44:06.400 He is able to crush our tyrants on our behalf. 00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:14.239 And he is even able to change our own hearts to see him. 00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:20.719 The story of Exodus is going to be an incredible story, and I look forward to moving through the rest of it with you. 00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:22.480 Are there any questions today? 00:44:23.039 --> 00:44:23.440 Great. 00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:24.800 We covered it. 00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:28.239 Everybody has full understanding of Exodus. 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:41.679 Paul writes this. 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:45.280 He says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. 00:44:45.519 --> 00:44:48.800 That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. 00:44:49.039 --> 00:44:53.519 And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you. 00:44:53.760 --> 00:44:55.920 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:44:56.639 --> 00:45:01.519 In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 00:45:01.679 --> 00:45:04.960 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:11.440