Exodus 12:31-42
Joys for Our Journeys 4
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ July 28, 2019
The Journey Out of Egypt The Faithful God Keeps His Promises In the name of the faithful God who always keeps his promises, dear friends, Last week we heard about the 70-or-so people of God—the extensive family of Jacob—journeying down into Egypt because of the famine in Canaan and at the urging of Joseph, Jacob’s son, who was a powerful man in the Egyptian government. That was the journey of God’s people into Egypt. Today we fast-forward 430 years to hear about the journey God’s people made out of Egypt. But before we jump into that and thinking about what importance that has for you and me today, we should at least quickly mention what went on during those 430 years. That will help because otherwise our lesson for today begins a little abruptly! When Jacob’s caravan of God’s people reached Egypt, they enjoyed the favor of Jacob’s high-ranking son and the Egyptian government. Eventually, however, Joseph died and we hear this in Exodus chapter 1: Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly (6-13).
For those among God’s people who were paying attention, the ugliness and burden of slavery was offset some as they watched God constantly fulfilling his promise to make them into a great nation of people. By the end of those 430 years, they were no longer a group of 70 but probably approached 2 million strong, considering the 600,000 men mentioned in our lesson! Perhaps you recall how the LORD called Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt and how Moses stood before Pharaoh and demanded that he release the Israelites from servitude. The plagues on Egypt followed: blood, frogs, gnats, flies, the death of livestock, festering boils on the skin of people and animals, hail, locusts, three days of complete darkness. And still the hard heart of Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go. Finally, the plague of death to the firstborn son in every Egyptian home—including Pharaoh’s—got the attention of Egypt’s leader. That’s what directly preceded our lesson today and prompted Pharaoh to summon Moses and Aaron and command them to gather their people and leave his country.