The God Who Sets Us Free
They say back in the days of vaudeville, every show would invariably include a magic act. First, you might have some old guy telling jokes as old as himself; maybe a few people singing and some dancing, but then the magician would make his way out to center stage.
He would point to the audience and say, “would the nice person sitting there on the end of the row, please come forward?”
Just imagine being there, sitting on the end of the row and hearing those words. Imagine hearing those words and then not seeing anyone rise and make their way to the stage. Imagine how you would feel realizing that magician was pointing to you.
I know there are exceptions, but I think most of us would not feel real comfortable in that setting. Most of us would not feel happy being called upon to be part of the magician’s disappearing act, or whatever it might be.
I think that is sort of how Moses must have felt out in the desert in Arabia when God spoke to him out of that burning bush with the flame that would not go out. I can just imagine how Moses might have felt when he walked over to see what was going on when he heard God say, “I am so glad I have your attention, Moses. I have some things for you to do. I need you to make your way to Egypt and rescue my people. I need you to go and tell the Pharaoh to set my people free.”
We heard about that last week, right? Moses was to go to Egypt and rescue the Israelites from slavery.
Of course, it would be more correct to say that Moses was returning to Egypt. He had already been there. He was born there. He was raised in the palace of the Pharaoh. He was educated by the Egyptians. He knew the territory. He was familiar with the neighborhood.
And, he had made at least a half-hearted attempt to strike out against the oppressive power of the Egyptians; but when he started to feel the heat, he turned tail and ran out to Midian in the desert where he planned to live a quiet life as a simple shepherd.
And that is where God found him. That is where God called him, you might say. God sent Moses back to Egypt to confront the Pharaoh which is where we are in our text today.
God sent Moses to set the people free, and that freedom was just a few short steps away.
The people of Israel, the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were slaves in Egypt.
Once Joseph had been a much admired and respected leader in all of Egypt, those days were gone. There is a new sheriff in town, a new pharaoh on the throne who did not know Joseph, or his people and the people of Egypt began to feel threatened by the rising population and prosperity of the Israelites. Among other things, there was some fear they would join with other nations and seek to overthrow the Egyptians.
So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and put slave masters over them. They set out to make their lives miserable. They not only enslaved them, they eventually began to throw all the male babies of the Israelites into the Nile River to drown them. They were oppressed and treated unbelievably harshly.
Then God heard their cries and sent Moses to do something about it.
Moses made his way to Egypt. He confronted the Pharaoh. But, the Pharaoh, who saw himself as “kind of a big deal,” just dismissed Moses over and over again. The deaths of the children continued – the slavery continued and became more and more cruel and inhumane, until we arrive at the situation described in our text today from Exodus 12.
A scene which, admittedly, sounds a bit harsh to our ears. God is going to take the lives of all the first born of Egypt, of the children and even the animals.
I’ll admit, this description of God taking the lives of all the first born is a lot for me to take in. It is not the way I see God who sent Jesus to die on the cross and save us all.
But I also think it is hard, if not impossible to put ourselves in that historical context.
And we don’t want to forget Israel had lived under Egyptian bondage for 400 years.
Israel suffered unbelievable cruelty at the hands of the Egyptians for 400 years.
We don’t want to forget all the babies thrown unmercifully into the Nile.
We don’t want to forget that the Pharaoh could have let the people go when Moses first pleaded with him to set them free.
For all we know (and there is a lot we don’t know) maybe that last plague occurred as a natural result of things that happened because Pharaoh didn’t listen to Moses’ initial pleas.
I don’t know
What we do know is the Pharaoh didn’t have to enslave the people to begin with.
We do know the Egyptians were unspeakably cruel to the Israelites.
There is a lot I don’t get in this story because we just don’t have all the story. It was written to people who didn’t have the same questions we have.
But there are some things I believe God is truly saying to us in this story.
I’ll mention four very briefly:
Slavery is bad (whether it’s addiction to drugs or pornography or human trafficking these days or the Egyptians enslavement of Israel during Biblical times). Slavery is bad.
Oppression is bad (taking advantage of someone economically or politically or emotionally) Oppression is bad.
Cruelty is bad, (Being cruel to someone just because you have the power to do it is bad. It is not a good thing to be cruel.)
The fourth things I see in this text is telling us those who are cruel and oppress others like Pharaoh and the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites are going to have to answer for it. The last thing God wants is for anyone to suffer
God would have definitely preferred Moses and Pharaoh coming to an agreement much earlier
Prior to that…God would have much preferred the Egyptians never enslaving the Israelites and making their lives full of harsh suffering.
God is a God of freedom….of wide open spaces
God is our freedom. Freedom comes, whether you are an Egyptian or an Israelite as you embrace God’s will.
Freedom comes as we pursue God’s way.
I have heard it said, that sin is its own punishment and virtue is its own reward.
I can’t say that I agree with that entirely, but I do believe we can’t be happy when or if we reject God’s way.
We can’t be happy if we mistreat another person just because we can. (I know I’ve never been happy whenever I’ve mistreated someone, even if I could convince myself they really deserved it).
We can’t be happy if we turn a blind eye to God’s will and way, as least not for long. As we read in the Book of Hebrews, “sin has its pleasure for a season.” Once that “season” is over, it’s “plauguesville.”
Even the Pharaoh had to honor God even though he thought he was all that and a little bitty bag of chips. The great king had to honor God.
Moses had to honor God. Moses had to walk with God in order to experience all God had for him. Because, as the great hymn writer has said:
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies
But his smile quickly drives it away
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear
Can abide if we trust and obey
(Repeat chorus)
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way
What he says we will do, where he sends we will go
Never fear only trust and obey.
Trust and obey
For God will make a way for those who are oppressed
For those who are enslaved
For those who are mistreated
And those who oppress others
And would seek to enslave others
And mistreat others
Can be set free too
Because God is a God of freedom