Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Well, good morning. You can turn to Exodus, chapter five. We're going to cover the whole chapter.
[00:00:08] Have you ever heard the phrase, it's going to get worse before it gets better?
[00:00:11] I remember first time experiencing that, I think it was playing some sports and we had been lifting and I came home after a leg day and I was like, dad, I can't walk. He's like, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Right? Day two after that was terrible. Maybe you've experienced that with a joint that was giving you some pain. And then you go see the doctor and they're like, we're gonna get it better, but it's gonna get worse before it gets better. That there's a path or maybe you're in. You've experienced that with financial trials, that in order to walk out of where you're at, that it's gonna get worse before it gets better, but there's hope of continuing through it. What we're gonna see in our text today, that an interesting concept of the people of Israel and Moses and Aaron, they obey God, and yet it seems to get worse, that their circumstances seem to deteriorate even more, that it gets worse with their obedience rather than better with their obedience. I was in Honduras and I was hanging out with this group of guys and they were working construction and I was telling them just some Bible stories. And then one of them, who's a leader in the church there, he leads worship, and he was like, I got a question for you. How come whenever it seems like I pursue God or get closer to God, I always face more temptations? It always gets harder.
[00:01:37] I was like, man, you get it that in the Christian life, that's what it seems like in this world. The closer we get or the more we pursue the Lord, the harder it gets in our circumstances. And so how do we respond in that?
[00:01:54] Going to actually see some profiles throughout this text that will kind of make the application at the end of these three different profiles that we see of different people throughout this text. But the question for us through this text today actually comes to us in verse two, and it comes from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh asked this question I'd love for you, if you're a Bible writer, it's a great one to read. Underline if you're a note taker. It's a great phrase just to capture. Here's what Pharaoh says. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?
[00:02:30] That's a phenomenal question.
[00:02:32] Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I remember as a Junior in high school. I grew up in the church, and I was always in church. But I reached this point my junior year of high school. I wasn't living my life in order to please the Lord or because I knew the Lord. I was living my morality based off of trying to please other people, namely my parents, trying to avoid negative consequences.
[00:02:57] And so I had to answer this question. Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?
[00:03:03] Because there's a lot of people, there's a lot of voices that are saying, obey me. My own heart was saying, obey your own heart, your own feelings.
[00:03:12] And so we all reach this place where we've got to answer this question, who is the Lord that I should obey him and obey his voice?
[00:03:22] Thankfully, the Lord, in reading His Word, I just began to read it in high school and read the Word and read the Word and read the Word. And the more I read it, the more God just told me and reminded me and showed me and confirmed that the Lord is good and His Word is true, and he always does what he says he will do, and that he's faithful and that he's sovereign and that he is compassionate in all the things that we see in the book of Exodus of who the Lord is really in the whole book of Exodus. From this point forward in this next section, what the Scripture is really doing is lifting up the Lord and saying, this is who God is, that you should obey Him.
[00:04:08] So if you would bow with me, and we're gonna pray, and then we'll jump into this text.
[00:04:16] God, you are the creator of all things.
[00:04:19] As Colossians tells us, that by you and through you and in you, all things hold together, that all of this is for you.
[00:04:28] So I pray this morning that we might get a clearer picture of your character, of who you are, that we might obey your voice, Lord, that we would know you as you have revealed yourself to us, that we would know you, and therefore we would obey you and worship. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:48] Let's read this text and just see the way that this narrative unfolds. Now let me catch us up. That God has already spoken to Moses and Aaron. He's already revealed Himself that He's mighty and that by his mighty hand he will bring the Egyptians out of slavery, that they find themselves in slavery. God's gonna provide salvation. He's going to be with them in his presence, and then he's going to display his glory to the world through all of this, that this is the journey we're on. But God has already Shown himself to Moses and Aaron. He's given them this command to go to Pharaoh and to say to Pharaoh that Israel is my son and you should let him go. There's this covenant language that God is covenantly connected to his people in Israel. And so he's sending Moses and Aar to deliver this message. They've already talked to the elders, the leaders of Israel, and they have believed that God has sent them on this mission. And so we pick up chapter five, verse one, afterward. So after they'd spoken to the people, they believed, afterward, Moses and Aaron went and they said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord. Now, that's an important phrase. We're gonna actually see it in opposition here in just a little bit. But God is speaking to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron. But this is a command from the Lord.
[00:06:12] Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. That God there is connecting, that they're his people, that he is the owner, the possessor, that they are his, that he created all things and he is the designer creator. And therefore he gets the say that these are my people. So Pharaoh is holding something which does not belong to him, something which belongs to God. And so he's holding them, and he's preventing them from doing what they were created to do. And so God says, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. This feast is worship. That God's people would go out into the wilderness and that they would worship him.
[00:07:01] That's what God is commanding.
[00:07:03] Verse 2.
[00:07:05] But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
[00:07:13] I don't know the Lord. Moreover, I will not let Israel go. So Pharaoh, in response to God's command, stands brazen. I don't know you and I'm not obeying you.
[00:07:27] Maybe you've experienced that. I remember as a little kid, my brother, we were staying with my aunt and uncle, and my aunt had told him to do something. And he said, you're not my mom, right? Pharaoh is standing in rebellion.
[00:07:45] You can't tell me what to do.
[00:07:47] Who is the Lord that I should obey him? Pharaoh sits at the supreme authority over all that region.
[00:07:57] He has all authority and control within his power. And at his word, things happen. Who's the Lord that I should obey him? And why in the world would I ever let all of these servants go?
[00:08:11] I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.
[00:08:15] Verse 3.
[00:08:16] Then they said, this is Moses. And Aaron, in response to that, the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
[00:08:23] Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
[00:08:36] This is interesting. You read that and you think that they would make it a threat to Pharaoh that lest God fall upon you.
[00:08:45] But that's not what they say. They actually say, lest he fall upon us, that if we don't do what God has commanded us to do, if we don't obey, we will face consequences of that, that the Lord commands obedience.
[00:09:00] Again, maybe this is an appeal to compassion rather than an appeal to authority. With Pharaoh, we're not exactly sure. But verse four tells us that the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? His focus was on their product.
[00:09:17] That these people were a means to an end of production. Their work.
[00:09:22] Get back to your burdens.
[00:09:25] He doesn't care about worshiping God. He doesn't care about the consequences which may come.
[00:09:30] He cares about the work.
[00:09:33] Verse 5.
[00:09:35] And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.
[00:09:42] The same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen. You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past.
[00:09:51] Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
[00:09:55] But the number of the bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them.
[00:10:00] You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. That's interesting. It's a word that's translated oftentimes lazy that Pharaoh looks at. Their wanting to be in the presence of God, their worship. He sees it as laziness.
[00:10:16] You could be productive with that time, and yet you just want to be lazy. You just don't want to work.
[00:10:22] Therefore they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.
[00:10:28] Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.
[00:10:37] It's interesting just in that section that we see that obedience does not eliminate opposition.
[00:10:45] Obedience does not eliminate opposition. And yet oftentimes we think, if y' all are like me, that if I obey, then that means things will go well.
[00:10:57] And yet their obedience has done the exact opposite.
[00:11:02] Their obedience has caused opposition.
[00:11:08] We can expect resistance when you obey.
[00:11:12] We can expect that. That obedience is not a shield from hardship, that to obey the Lord is going to be costly. Jesus even said it, if you want to follow me, then you must give up everything that it's going to be costly to obey.
[00:11:30] And yet obedience in the eyes of the world might look like laziness.
[00:11:37] It looks like a lack of productivity.
[00:11:39] And so they misconstrue that.
[00:11:43] The second thing that we see in this next section is that the world responds to worship with pressure.
[00:11:51] We see that obedience isn't a shield from hardship. And now we're going to see that the world responds to obedience with pressure. Look at this in verse 10 through 19.
[00:12:02] So the taskmasters and the four men of the people, they went out and they said to the people, thus says Pharaoh. Now that should just resonate in our mind.
[00:12:13] In verse one we've seen thus says the Lord.
[00:12:18] And now in verse 10 we see thus says Pharaoh, that Pharaoh is holding himself up in opposition as an alternative to what God is doing, that he has hardened himself in opposition to God.
[00:12:32] Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
[00:12:37] Go get your own straw yourselves wherever you go, and you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.
[00:12:46] So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
[00:12:51] The taskmasters were urgent, saying, complete your work, your daily tasks each day as when there was straw. And the foreman of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, why have you not done all your tasks for making bricks today and yesterday as in the past?
[00:13:13] Do you see what's happening? There's this systematic Pharaoh from the top down. Pharaoh has withheld the straw from the people. He probably has storehouses of this, that there was an assembly line in order for them to produce bricks to where Pharaoh used to provide this straw. And now he said, don't give them any of the straw. It's probably sitting there ready to go. He said, now they have to go find it.
[00:13:37] He's. He's intentionally oppressing them.
[00:13:40] He's put four men over the top of them. So Pharaoh sends out this edict.
[00:13:46] Now these leaders are. Are minions of his oppression. And so they're now telling the four men, which are the Israelite people who are leading their own people, they're now telling them, you have to produce the same amount, and yet you don't have the same resources.
[00:14:04] And so they're being beaten because of this verse 15.
[00:14:12] What does that cause within them? When the foreman of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, so now because of this oppression, they're now going to Pharaoh and they're crying out to him, we're going to see this in opposition that where do you Run to in your oppression? Where are you running to? They're running to Pharaoh. They ask the question of why. We're going to see these why questions show up a few more times. They're important. They ask here, why do you treat your servants like this?
[00:14:46] Why would you do this to us?
[00:14:49] Look at the response.
[00:14:51] No straw is given to your servants. Yet they say to us, make bricks and behold your servants are beaten.
[00:14:58] But the fault is in your own people.
[00:15:01] Look, they're pretty bold in this.
[00:15:05] They're saying, you're intentionally making this harder for us.
[00:15:10] There's pressure.
[00:15:12] As Moses and Aaron have tried to walk in obedience. All they've done is ask to go and worship, do what they were created to do. And in opposition to that, Pharaoh has now applied pressure to make their life miserable.
[00:15:30] Verse 17. We get a little insight as to the why.
[00:15:35] But he said, you are idle. You are idle is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.
[00:15:47] That there's an opposition, that Pharaoh has set himself to the people of God worshiping. This is spiritual in nature.
[00:15:56] That Pharaoh is opposed to a God who would exercise his sovereignty and say he has control and that everyone should submit to his authority. And Pharaoh says, no, and so I'll turn you against him.
[00:16:11] You're just lazy. Your worship is laziness.
[00:16:16] Your desire to be obedient to the Lord, that's laziness.
[00:16:21] Verse 18. Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. The foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce the number of bricks. Your daily tasks each day.
[00:16:39] Pharaoh calls them lazy.
[00:16:42] To the world, productivity is always greater than God's presence.
[00:16:48] That's what the world says, that output is always more important than obedience.
[00:16:53] Listen, we've seen this.
[00:16:56] Maybe you get caught up in this.
[00:16:59] What does it look like to be the most productive?
[00:17:03] I put forward an example that many of us know, because some of y' all will drive to Chick Fil a today, realize that it's closed. I know some of y' all will do that. You're like, oh, yeah, closed on Sundays.
[00:17:16] Think of how much more money they could make on Sundays.
[00:17:20] Think of just how much more.
[00:17:22] Think of the productivity that they could have.
[00:17:26] And yet, early on in that organization, there was a decision for the workers to be able to worship and to be able to go to church if they desired.
[00:17:35] That there was a decision that to sit in the presence of God was actually more important than the productivity that could be produced.
[00:17:43] And yet the world doesn't understand that.
[00:17:47] The world looks at that and goes, no, productivity is of greatest gain.
[00:17:53] There is a cost to faithfulness.
[00:17:57] And yet God says that he will bless obedience.
[00:18:03] I challenge you with this.
[00:18:06] How do we put something like this into practice? I just challenge you maybe for you personally, or maybe lead your family in this. Set aside a time that you're just going to be in the presence of God.
[00:18:17] Set aside a time that you're going to gather as a family and you're going to maybe read God's word and just read a little bit and pray as a family.
[00:18:26] You know what's going to happen?
[00:18:28] I guarantee that's when people will knock on your door. You're like, nobody ever comes to our door. Guess what? They'll show up right then in that time.
[00:18:37] Promise.
[00:18:38] That's the day that everything will go haywire at work. And you'll go, I've got to work late. I can't be home.
[00:18:45] That's the time when the kids will lose their mind in a temper tantrum and just totally combust.
[00:18:53] I promise.
[00:18:55] Because when you set aside time to be in the presence of God, the world hates it.
[00:19:03] The world will throw everything at you that we can expect.
[00:19:07] Opposition and pressure. That when we set aside time for the most important thing that God has created us for, the world will throw everything at it.
[00:19:20] See how this story then unfolds that we get to verse 19. The foreman of the people of Israel, they saw that they were in trouble. And so what did they do then?
[00:19:33] They went to Pharaoh first. And now who did they go to? They met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh.
[00:19:43] So now they're going to go to Moses and Aaron and look at the response here. And they said to them, the Lord, look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.
[00:20:01] Whoa.
[00:20:05] What was their response?
[00:20:07] Their response was to go to Pharaoh and say, wait a minute, there must be an understanding. Why are you doing this to us?
[00:20:14] And then their response is to go to their leaders and say, this is your fault.
[00:20:20] You caused this.
[00:20:23] Listen, it's okay. You can email me if you set aside that time.
[00:20:26] And then everything goes crazy. And you can email me and be like, life was great till you told us to do that.
[00:20:35] But they turned to Moses and Aaron and just think of what's going on here.
[00:20:41] Moses already knows what it's like to be Blamed he already has experienced trying to walk in obedience to the Lord and say, I'm going to set my people free. I'm the deliverer that God has raised up to set my people free. And earlier in Exodus, then he murdered an Egyptian or defended the Israelites and killed an Egyptian to try to set them free. And then he had to run and flee for 40 years because they sought to kill him. They turned on him.
[00:21:13] Then, you know, he's just thinking, oh, here we go again.
[00:21:18] Here's the discouragement. Here's the discouragement of I'm trying to walk in obedience, and now Pharaoh's mad at me, and now all the people of Israel are mad at me.
[00:21:29] Why did I even do this?
[00:21:31] That there's a tendency to despair.
[00:21:35] That this discouragement that Moses is confronted with.
[00:21:40] He has to figure out the answer to the question, who is the Lord? That I should obey him.
[00:21:47] Because he's not going to be doing it for the results that he gets from the people.
[00:21:52] If he's living for the approval of people, then he won't continue.
[00:21:57] Look at then how Moses responds, Verse 22.
[00:22:03] Then Moses turned to the Lord.
[00:22:07] It's opposition, right?
[00:22:09] The people faced opposition, and they turned to Pharaoh.
[00:22:15] Moses faces opposition, and where does he turn? He turns to the Lord. I would love if that would just become our natural default, right?
[00:22:24] That when you face opposition, when you face discouragement, when you face oppression, when you face the unknown, where do you turn?
[00:22:34] Turn to the Lord.
[00:22:36] He turns to the Lord in a very raw and real sense. Look at how he acts and what he prays. He says, oh, Lord, why have you done evil to this people, man? That's a pretty bold prayer.
[00:22:49] Again, it's a why question. He's going to give us two why questions. Why have you done evil to this people? And then look at his second one. Why did you ever send me?
[00:22:59] Why did you do this, and why me? Maybe you can relate to that. I know I can.
[00:23:05] Why did you allow this to happen, Lord? Why did you do this, and why me?
[00:23:11] We see in here this incredible relationship of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility that Moses is praying, lord, why have you done this evil? And yet the narrative has clearly set up that Pharaoh is the one that's doing this evil. And so we see God's sovereignty and man's responsibility both at play in this.
[00:23:30] And Moses is questioning that why?
[00:23:34] And then he goes again, why me?
[00:23:37] Is this what I signed up for, verse 23? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all. This is where we get to the crux of Moses concern.
[00:23:55] He says, you made a promise, God, and you haven't kept your promise.
[00:24:01] You have not delivered your people and you said you would promise to deliver them, and you haven't done that.
[00:24:10] There's a crisis of faith right here that Moses is calling into question and he's coming to God and saying, God, you said you would keep your word and that you always keep your promises and that you would deliver your people. And yet you haven't.
[00:24:26] If I could maybe just walk through these three portraits that we see of characters in this text as we make application of this.
[00:24:36] The first portrait that we see here is a portrait of arrogance.
[00:24:42] That Pharaoh stands in opposition, defiant opposition. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I. I don't care.
[00:24:53] That's what he's saying.
[00:24:55] And yet what he needs to know about the Lord of who he is is that he is sovereign.
[00:25:03] So those who stand in arrogance need to know the sovereignty of God. That he holds all things together, that he is in control of all things.
[00:25:14] I love when Job begins to question God and he begins to express some of the same questions that we see from Moses as to who God is.
[00:25:26] Then all of a sudden, God's very patient and he gets to this certain place where God's like, alright, that's enough.
[00:25:34] And then God begins to question Job.
[00:25:38] God tells Job, he says, dress like a man, because I will question you.
[00:25:44] That if you stand in arrogance to God, I just would plead with you, don't harden your heart to that. That he stands as sovereign and there is a day when he will come and he will question you and all will bow before the sovereign king.
[00:26:04] That all in that day will find themselves wanting apart from the grace of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:14] The second portrait that we see here is a portrait of oppression.
[00:26:17] I know that that word is chock full of political ideas right now, but I just want us to see the portrait that we see here in the scripture that how do the oppressed answer the question, who is the Lord that I should obey him?
[00:26:36] That why would I keep doing this when everything is pressing in against me? Why would I continue to try to be obedient to the Lord when all I face is oppression?
[00:26:48] How do you answer that? You need to know the Lord's compassionate.
[00:26:52] That's who he is.
[00:26:54] Look at this oppression. That you have a systematic oppression from the Pharaoh who has control and has resources and he intentionally is withholding those resources. In order to keep the Israelites down. We've already seen this from another Pharaoh, that he oppressed them by telling them that their children had to be thrown into the Nile. And now we see in this oppression that it's an oppression in order to break their will.
[00:27:21] It's an oppression in order to crush them, the removal of straw. And yet the same expectations that this oppression comes through systematically, from the Pharaoh to his leaders, to the next level of leadership, to where they turn on themselves, and ultimately there's infighting among themselves to where they're even blaming themselves for this, that this is a systematic oppression. And yet in the midst of that, what do the people need to know about the Lord?
[00:27:51] They need to know that he hears them, he sees them, and that he moves with action.
[00:27:57] They need hope that who is the Lord that I should obey him? He's the God who's compassionate and who is moved to action at the cries of his people.
[00:28:10] The third portrait that we see in here is the portrait of the discouraged.
[00:28:16] It's a portrait of discouragement that we see from Moses.
[00:28:20] Moses, walking in obedience, goes into Pharaoh.
[00:28:25] The Lord's going to work.
[00:28:28] And yet all it does is cause more trouble.
[00:28:33] Moses has already been told. God's told him that Pharaoh's not going to let him go, except for God's mighty outstretched hand. And yet we see this discouragement set in from Moses as the circumstances around him deteriorate.
[00:28:49] Do the circumstances around you cause you to lose hope?
[00:28:56] Things get worse before they get better?
[00:29:00] And yet, what is it that the discouraged need to know? Who is the Lord that I should obey him? He's the faithful one.
[00:29:11] See, Moses biggest concern is God has not kept his promise.
[00:29:16] And yet, let me just give you a little preview of next week.
[00:29:22] Exodus 6. 1.
[00:29:25] But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do.
[00:29:33] The Lord says, I'm at work.
[00:29:36] I'm at work.
[00:29:37] You see, these why questions actually should probably jump us Forward to Psalm 22.
[00:29:45] For Psalm 22, the Psalmist records, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:29:55] Why did you not keep your promise? See, that actually ought to jump us forward to Mark, chapter 15.
[00:30:03] When Jesus, hanging on the cross, the Messiah, the one who came in order to restore all things, the one who came to set the prisoner free, to set his people free from captivity.
[00:30:15] Those who lived in darkness, who were under bondage of slavery, those who dwelt in darkness, he came to set them free. And yet now he finds himself on the cross, and the whole world looks at him and goes, we thought he was the one.
[00:30:30] And he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:30:37] And God says, now you shall see what I will do.
[00:30:44] That in three days I'll raise him from the dead, defeating death and sin for all time, for all people. That anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ would be set free. Now you will see what I'm about to do.
[00:31:01] Listen. For those who walk in discouragement, they need to be reminded God's not done.
[00:31:07] Your discouragement isn't the end of your story.
[00:31:10] God's still at work.
[00:31:13] You just have to believe and walk by faith that he will keep every promise that he says he will keep.
[00:31:22] Let's be those people.
[00:31:24] Would you pray with me, Lord, whether we find ourselves arrogant and opposed to you wanting to rule our own life or whether we find ourself oppressed, Questioning. Where are you, God?
[00:31:44] Questioning. Why would you do this? Why would you allow this?
[00:31:48] Questioning if you even hear our cries. Questioning if you're present, Questioning if you're good if we find ourselves oppressed or whether we find ourselves discouraged going God, are you going to do it?
[00:32:01] I've waited.
[00:32:03] I thought it was going to look differently and I'm just discouraged that God, are you gonna be faithful?
[00:32:10] Lord, I pray that we would be reminded of who you are, that you are the I am.
[00:32:19] That you are the one who is sovereign over all things. You are the one who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
[00:32:34] And God, that you are the faithful one who always keeps your promise that we can bank our life on it.
[00:32:44] Walk by faith knowing that you will be faithful to what you said.
[00:32:49] Lord, would you help us to be those people that our life would look different and that you would use us to demonstrate your glory to those around us. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
