Immanuel Sermon Audio
Exodus (2:66)
As we left off last week in Genesis, look at Genesis 50, verse 26, it says, "So Joseph died being a hundred and 10 years old, they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." Next page, Exodus 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Iscar, Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt, then Joseph died. And all his brothers and all that generation, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Verse 8, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Cue the foreboding, scary music. Bad things are about to happen." And the first part of this book is maybe some of the most exciting literature in all the Bible. To read the first 15, 20 chapters or so, you're on the edge of your seat. It's gripping, it's thrilling, it's exciting. And then you turn to the second half of the book and it slows to a halt and it's like you're watching an instruction manual on how to put your tent up and you're thinking, "Oh my goodness." It was so, so exciting in the first part of the book. And now they're talking about how to build a tent and then a few little things happen and then they talk about actually building the tent. They just described it, now they're describing it again. And the second half of the book for a lot of people kind of drags, but it is equally important and we're gonna end up talking about that. The book of Exodus is a great story of rescue. And so let me start by telling you another story of rescue. There's a movie made about this story called The Great Raid. The Winter, 1945, World War II was coming to a close and there were still an awful lot of American POWs behind enemy lines at the end of World War II. 511 of them, and that's a picture up on the right. It's not a good picture. Remember this is 1945, prisoners of war, but that's some of them. And then that's where they were at. It was Cabana-twan prisoner camp. And so they were there, 1945, the war's wrapping up. And the United States government says, you know what, we need to go get these guys. We can't just leave them behind. And so they task a group of army guerrillas to team up, or army rangers, excuse me, army rangers, Filipino guerrillas, and they say, you guys need to go in and you need to get these guys out of the POW camp. And so they got their little group together and there was 327 of our guys going in. Guarding these 511 soldiers were 7,800 Japanese soldiers. So that's the mission. These guys are at the camp. You know where it's at, 7,800 of them, and we're sending in 327 of you. Go get 'em. They're starving, they're weak, they can't fight, they can't do anything. They will be of no help to you. It's not like you're gonna go up to 838. As soon as you get those guys, you're gonna have to carry them out of here. First, you're gonna have to go in against 7,800, bring 'em out, that's the mission. And so army rangers do what they're told, and so they start planning. How do we get there? They look at this camp and the mission gets more difficult because the camp is in the middle of a field. And by field, I mean hundreds and hundreds of yards of flat grassland. No trees, no rivers, no hills, no rocks, no things you can hide behind, sneak up behind, just flat, open territory. And so they say, okay, so this is a problem. It would be helpful if we could surprise these guys, catch 'em off guard, that doesn't look like it's gonna be possible. How in the world are we going to get our people up here and rescue these guys and get 'em out when we're outnumbered this bad. And so here in a nutshell, from a non-military mind is what they did. They went at night, they crawled on their bellies when the sun went down, beginning on the outskirts of this field all around the camp, crawled on their bellies in the cover of darkness silently without talking until they were all in place and somehow they had some signals and they said we're all in place, somebody gave the big AOK, and they attacked the camp in the middle of the night, stormed the camp, in the end, all 511 POWs were rescued. No man left behind. None of the POWs lost their life. One person, not a POW, but one person was left behind in the camp. He was a British civilian, British civilian. You're gonna think I'm making this up when I tell you this, but he was blind and deaf and the night of the raid, he was sick and on the toilet all night long. Blind and deaf, the raid's going on and he's sitting on the pot. He doesn't hear a thing or see a thing and he comes out the next day, everybody's gone. And so eventually they realized they left this guy behind, they sent, huh? Brilliant, brilliant analysis. How did he know? No one was there. He felt around, he figured it out and about two weeks later they went and got this guy. Here's the casualties from the raid. I'll put this up here. 523 Japanese dead, three Americans dead in the raid. Those are mind-blowing numbers. When you look at how they were outnumbered, when you look at the situation, they tried their best to use the element of surprise. It was just almost impossible, but they pulled it off. 523 Japanese dead, three Americans dead, all 511 POWs rescued and the blind and deaf man who was sick on the toilet eventually made it out too. And for the most part, from our perspective, we look at that and say, that's a happy ending. And if you were going to make that story into a movie, which they did, what better title than the great raid? That's a pretty great raid. That's an amazing, amazing story of rescue. It has nothing on the story of the Exodus. Not even close. You cannot even compare the two in terms of being outnumbered, in terms of being out manned, in terms of being out armed, in terms of there was absolutely no element of surprise involved whatsoever. In fact, all along through the Exodus, God is calling his shots, an amazing story of rescue. And so people have tried, like the great raid, to put the Exodus into movies. And you may think of some that I didn't think of, but here's the ones that came to mind when I thought about this, the Ten Commandments. How many of you have seen the Ten Commandments? Great, great, film adaptation of the story of the Exodus. Cecil B. DeMille, Charlton Heston, a great, great movie. Another one that came to mind, the Prince of Egypt. Animated film, pretty good at hitting the high points of the story, for the most part, completely leaves God out of the story. God really plays no role whatsoever, is not really acknowledged in the story, but does hit some of the high points and some of the main events. The Bible mini-series. How many of you watched the Bible mini-series on TV? One of the episodes, I think it was episode two, maybe, told the story of the Exodus and did a pretty decent job of telling that story. How many of you watched this on TV? You remember this? Some of it. You remember that Pharaoh was in there. There was Young Pharaoh and Young Moses, and you probably didn't know that I'm a movie star. I was Young Pharaoh. Here's a picture. That's Young Pharaoh in the movie, and that's me. And so, you can just tell everybody you know that our pastors Pharaoh, we just call him Pharaoh. So, there you go, Bible mini-series. Here's another one. This one is coming out in December. It is called Exodus, God, and Kings. And I would describe this as a real movie. You know what I'm saying when I say that? There's real movies, and then there's like, come on, that's not a real movie. Be list actors, be list acting, just cheesy, special effects. You watch it and you think, oh, this is embarrassing. Christian's probably made this. This is so lousy. This is the kind of junk we put together and we call it good. Believers are not making this movie. Christians are not making this movie, but they do have A-list actors and best of the best special effects and things like that. I have no clue what the storyline will be like. I know just from that, you see Christian Bale is Moses and they did not ask me to be Pharaoh in this movie, some other guy's Pharaoh. And you know that if that's on the cover, they're gonna talk a lot about the dynamic between Moses and Pharaoh and their relationship and some of that backstory, which is something that Hollywood likes to speculate a lot about when they do movies on the Exodus. It's all about the power struggle and the history and the relationship. And if you've read the book of Exodus, none of that's in there. None of it's in there. There's no back and forth between these former brothers and power struggle and family conflict. None of that, none of that's in there, but it usually plays a big role in these film adaptations. So take your Bible. We're gonna just sort of flip through here a little bit. Begins with Joseph and we read the verse that Joseph brings all of his family to Egypt. We talked about last week, see how well you were paying attention. Who sent Joseph to Egypt? God, okay? Who sent Joseph to Egypt? His brothers, you gotta have both. You can't lean too far one way or the other. The brothers did it and they were guilty. God was the one who sent him there. Both of those things are true. So he ends up there. He's second in all of Egypt, brings the family. They survived the famine. Exodus 1, 8, we read there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he decides that they're a threat Joseph and his people as they've multiplied and had kids and grandkids and all of these babies are being born. He says, this is getting out of control. And he says, we're gonna start murdering all the baby boys. And we read in the early chapters of Exodus, chapter two that a woman from the tribe of Levi has a baby boy. So if you're tracking this from the book of Genesis, you're saying, okay, Abraham was married to Sarah and they had a son, the son of the promise was Isaac. And Isaac married Rebecca and the son of the promise was Jacob. And Jacob had how many sons? After he married sort of a crazy situation, 12 sons. One of them was Joseph. One of them was Levi. One of the oldest sons was Levi. And so this baby is born into Levi's family. And she says, I don't want him to die. I'm gonna put him in this basket, this mini arc, if you will. And I'm gonna put him in the Nile River and I'm gonna float him down there. And as you read through the book of Exodus, it's sort of like a big wink and a smile. It just so happens that Moses floats right down to the royal family. They take him in and he is raised in Pharaoh's house. And this is where Hollywood really just starts to speculate. What was it like, the dynamic with the other children, the brothers, the eventual Pharaoh on and on and on? The Bible says you can read it in Exodus two and into the following verses there that he just eventually realized that his people were being mistreated by the Egyptians. There's no big sort of tale about how he discovered this and how it came about. Did they keep it from me when he was young or did he know? It just sort of says he realized he came to understand that his people were being mistreated. He went out, he identified with him. You remember the story, he sees an Egyptian beating on Israelite and he just loses it. It all sort of comes rushing out in one moment and he kills the guy, kills him dead. Says that was probably not the best thing to do. Let me bury him in the sand. And eventually if you've read the story, they make it public, it comes out that he killed somebody. Moses panics and he takes off to the wilderness. He's out in the wilderness and he becomes a shepherd. He becomes a husband. He goes about life year after year, decade after decade until he's about 80 years old. And then you come to Exodus three and the title of that section says The Burning Bush. And he's tending the sheep. And we're making a long story short here, but God says you're going back and you're gonna talk to Pharaoh and you're gonna tell him, let my people go that they may serve me. Let them go so that they can come out here and serve me. And they argue and God wins the argument and he eventually goes back. And when he goes back, he has the power of God more or less at his disposal. And here come the 10 plagues. Pharaoh says you don't get to go. And so here's the 10 plagues. We'll see how many of them you got. Exodus seven verse 14 talks about water turning to blood. Exodus eight verse one talks about frogs. Exodus eight verse 16 talks about the gnats. Exodus eight 20 talks about the flies. Exodus nine starting in verse one talks about the death of the Egyptian livestock. Exodus nine starting in verse eight talks about boils on their skin. Exodus nine starting in verse 13 talks about terrible hail. I have seen a preview of the new Exodus movie of the hail storm and it looks pretty cool. I will tell you that. I don't know how the storyline goes but the scene looks pretty cool with giant hail stones crashing down on Pharaoh. Exodus 10 starting in verse one, locusts. And then we end up with darkness in Egypt. Exodus 10 starting in verse 21. Darkness in Egypt, not in Goshen where the people of Israel live. And then we come final plague is threatened in chapter 11. Chapter 12 is all about the Passover. So the Passover is pretty simple. God says to Moses, I'm gonna go through the land and I'm gonna kill all the firstborn. If you are not interested in that happening in your family here's what you need to do. You need to take a young goat or sheep from the flocks and you need to take that animal into your home and on the night that I'm talking about you need to slit its throat. You need to catch some of the blood and you go out to your door and you smear some on the top and you smear some on the sides. Then you go in and you eat the animal. If your family can't eat a whole animal get together with your neighbors. If you still can't eat the whole thing you burn whatever you don't eat. You don't leave any of it. You eat it, you burn it, you get rid of it. And if you do that death will pass over. Okay, so they observe the Passover and the firstborn throughout Egypt are killed. No one in Israel is killed. Pharaoh finally says after all of this get out, go. So they go and then one last time, Pharaoh says, mmm, maybe I don't want you to go. So he chases him to the Red Sea. He's got him trapped. God sends a wind all night long. Moses stretches out his arms. The sea parts, Israel goes through and eventually Pharaoh comes in behind him and all of the Egyptian army is killed in the sea. And after all of that, the plagues, the protection, the deliverance, the salvation, the miracles, all of it. If they get out in the wilderness and it is a very short amount of time until what happens. Oh, God. We've got nothing to eat. We've got nothing to drink. We don't like what you're giving us to eat. You just brought us out here to kill us. We had it better off in Egypt. I mean, can you imagine the ingratitude, the wickedness, the stubbornness in their hearts to say, we had it better off slaves in Egypt. Being beaten and abused and used than being out here with you. And so God provides for them. God is patient with them. He talks to Moses and Moses intercedes for them over and over and over again. Then we come to the 10 commandments. We're up to Exodus 20 and we're skipping a lot, but you know that we've got to do that. Exodus 20, 10 commandments. Anybody get all 10? Few of you got all 10, okay? I'm going to put them on the screen and you can fill them in here and then I will give you something that will help you never forget them again. Only one God, these are not quotes, but these are landings paraphrase. No idols, keep God's name holy, keep the Sabbath, honor your parents, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, no coveting, one through 10. Okay, pins down, fingers ready. Feel good, loose, limber, only one God. Number one, only one God. Number two, cut out idols, okay? Get rid of them, cut them out. Number three, use God's name with respect, okay? Number four, this is like two people walking. You go to church on the Sabbath. You worship on the Sabbath, okay? First four go together, all about your relationship with God, only one God, cut out idols, use God's name with respect, worship on the Sabbath or the Lord's day, if you want to get into a new covenant debate. Number five, I don't know this to be fact, but I'm told that this is father and mother in sign language, honor your father and your mother, okay? Number six, no murder, that's a good one. Kids like that one, if you're ever teaching kids, they like number six, they get to shoot something. No murder, number seven, you got two people, husband and wife walking together, no adultery, be faithful to your spouse, okay? Eight, no stealing. If you steal in some parts of the world, what do they do? Lop your thumbs off, no stealing, okay? Number nine, it's all I got, a promise. It's all I got, right here. I'm showing you everything I have, you're lying, okay? No lying. Number 10, give me, give me, give me. You don't get the gimmies, okay? One through 10, next time you'll just rock it, easy. You'll be sitting there doing your hand signals. So they get the 10 commandments. Moses is up on the mountain, and by the way, you should read all of this if you haven't read it. This week you should go back and read Exodus 'cause we're skipping some amazing snippets. Moses is up getting the commandments from God. Aaron is down with the folks, and I've been reading through Exodus just in my Bible reading as I go through the Bible. And it's a great story where the people come and they say, Aaron, we need some gods. And Aaron says, okay, give me all your gold. And it very specifically says Aaron took it, and he melted it, and he fashioned it with a tool, and he made this idol. And then Moses comes down and he sees all the stuff, and Aaron says, Moses, I don't know what happened. I threw the stuff in the fire and it just popped out. Just like this. I have no clue how this happened. Moses takes the idol, grounds it into powder, puts it in the water, and looks at everybody and says, drink it. You want an idol? You got it. Drink it. And then he says, who's with the Lord? And the tribe of Levi, right? Moses is tribe. They come to Moses and Moses says, go get 'em, boys. Get your sword and go get 'em. And it says they go up and back through the camp. 3,000 people slaughtered. And after that, it says God sent a plague among the people to punish them for their rebellion. So the big picture of all that is Moses is on the mountain, getting the tin commandments from God. The people have promised they will obey God. And Aaron and the people are down at the same time, breaking all tin, right? And it's pictured when Moses comes down and he takes those tablets and he smashes 'em and he breaks 'em. So 3,000 dead, there's a plague. God says, all right, it's time to go leave Mount Sinai. So people start going, and the rest of the book is where it really slows down as far as a story goes. There's some other good snippets and exciting little things. We're gonna talk about one in a minute, but basically the rest of it is God says, this is how you build the tabernacle. Do it exactly like this. And then a few things happen, and then it says, this is how they built the tabernacle, exactly like this. And they build the tabernacle and the glory of God comes and lives with the people. And that's the storyline of the book of Exodus. And so let's think about what does it teach us. Number one, what does it teach us about us? What do we learn about ourselves from Exodus? Number one, we are sinners. We are sinners. We are no different, although we'd like to think we are no different than the stiff-necked, hard-hearted people of Israel who saw all the miracles and signs in Egypt, all the glory that God displayed through the Exodus and they get out in the wilderness and they start grumbling and whining and complaining. We're exactly the same, no different. So the book of Exodus reminds us who we are as sinners. Number two, closely related. It reminds us that we need a substitute. Book of Exodus teaches you that you need a substitute. Where do you see that in the book of Exodus? Passover, right? That's the first big place you see it. God says, look, you owe me. You're on the hook to me and I'm gonna take what is rightfully mine, that's the life of the firstborn. If you don't want that to happen, you need someone or something to die in your place. You need a substitute. You also see it and this is where we kind of daydream and doze off at the end of the book, but you see it at the end of the book too. And that God says, look, here's a bunch of commandments I want you to keep, the people don't do it. And so God says, okay, we're gonna build a tabernacle. What happens at the tabernacle? Substitution, sacrifice, right? The whole point is that you need someone to die in your place because, number one, you're a sinner. Number two, you need a substitute. Number three, a little bit of good news. God can use sinners for his glory. Moses was an ex-con 80 year old man and God used him. He's the one that God sent back. Could have used Joshua, right? Joshua, I mean, yeah, Joshua, Joshua was around. Could have used Joshua, prime of life, healthy, strong. We know he had leadership qualities and skills, but God says, I'm gonna use this guy. You may think he's passed his prime. You may think he's not a very good communicator. It doesn't matter. This is the guy that I wanna use. God used Aaron. I mean, think about Aaron. Down there building an idol with the people and lying about it and making excuses and all of that. Who was the first high priest? Aaron. Aaron was the one who eventually led all of the worship and things at the tabernacle. God used him, even though he was a sinner, used him for his glory. So that's a few things we learn about ourselves. What do we learn about God? A couple of ideas we learn about God. Number one, God has a plan and God is in control. God has a plan and God is in control. Where's the first place you see that in the book of Exodus? With Moses and his birth, that he wasn't supposed to live through, and he gets floated down a river in a basket that he shouldn't have survived, and he gets raised in the exact particular family that God wants him to be raised in. It's sort of ironic. It's sort of God saying to the Egyptians, look, St. Joseph and I put him in all these situations to get him right where I wanted him. And this new Pharaoh came along and screwed the whole thing up, but that's okay, 'cause I'm gonna take Moses and I'm gonna take this guy and through a bunch of crazy circumstances, I'm gonna put him right where I want him in the exact position. God has a plan, God is in control. Take your Bible, hold your spot in Exodus there. Let's just go back to Genesis 15. I want you to see that this is not plan B for God. This is not Peyton Manning at the line of scrimmage calling Omaha, right? Omaha, Omaha, we're going to the next play. The first one doesn't look very good. This is not what's happening. Look at Genesis 15 starting in verse 12, okay? We're going back to God and neighbor him. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, no for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your father's in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Happened to the letter. Hundreds of years before it all went down. Happened exactly like God said it was going to happen. Nothing that happens in Exodus is God saying, oh man, I had Joseph right in the perfect spot to work everything out. What am I going to do now? God says, this is exactly how it's going to go Abram. Your descendants are going to end up somewhere else even though I've promised you this land, they're going to be there for several centuries and then I'm going to bring them back and I'm going to punish the nation that afflicted them and when they come back, they're going to come back with a whole bunch of stuff. It's going to be awesome, trust me. Don't worry, this is exactly what's going to happen. God has a plan, God has in control. Look at the book of Exodus chapter four, one more example of this and I could give you dozens upon dozens but for the sake of time, I'll give you one more. Exodus four, this is God and Moses in their initial consultation. All right, he has not gone back to Egypt. He has not talked to Pharaoh. Pharaoh has not been told what to do yet. None of that has happened. Exodus four verse 21 and the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, in other words, let's end the debate because you are going. Not if, when you go back, see that you do before Pharaoh, all the miracles have put in your power but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. God's not saying to Moses, look, here's the plan. You're going to go back and you're going to do all this stuff in front of Pharaoh and then we'll just kind of see what happens. We'll have some contingency plans in place and depending on what Pharaoh does, then we'll know what our next move is going to be. He says, this is exactly how it's going to happen. You go, do the signs, I harden his heart, I get glory over him. That's how it plays out Moses. God has a plan, God is in control. Number two, this one is important. God takes the initiative to save his people. Amen, amen, amen. God takes the initiative to save his people. He did it in Egypt, he did not wait for the Israelites to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but he went and he saved them from their affliction. We see the same thing in the New Testament. You might jot down Romans 5-8. God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He took the initiative. First John 4-10, my little girls are in a wana in cubbies and this is their memory verse this week, an abbreviated version, but this is their verse. This is love, not that we have loved God, but God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. It didn't start with us loving God, it started with God loving us. God takes the initiative to save his people. Number three, and the order of two and three really matters. God is the law giver. First you gotta nail down that God is the one who takes initiative to save his people, then you're ready to understand that God is the law giver. And I hope you see why that's important. God did not send Moses to the slaves in Egypt and say, "All right, I know you want out of here. "I'll make a deal with you. "I'm gonna give you 10 rules. "I'm gonna make 'em so simple that Moses "can make up hand signs to help you remember. "10 simple rules. "Here's the deal, you keep the rules, "I get you out of here." Not how it happened. God comes and he says, "Let's go. "I'm bringing you out. "I'm taking the initiative to save you." Then he saves 'em and he turns back to them and says, "Now here's the rules." Did he save them because they kept the rules? No, did he save them to keep the rules? Yes, it was not based on their obedience, but he is the law giver and he gives them these commandments and he says, "Look, "you need to forget all those gods in Egypt "and you need to know what I'm like. "So I'm gonna give you some rules "that help you understand that. "You need to forget how those Egyptians live their lives "because they're chasing after vain idols "and I'm gonna show you guys how life works best. "I don't care what the Egyptians do. "You need to do it this way. "I made all of this. "I know how it works and I'm telling you people "if you will not murder each other, Moses, "life is a lot better. "If you don't sleep around with each other's husbands and wives, "everything will be a lot better for you. "If you would just tell the truth, "if you would take a day to worship, "if you would not build a stupid idol, "if you will do these things, "this is how life works best." And so he gives them this law, but make it clear in your mind, when he gives them this law in Exodus 20, it's after he saved them, right? First he saves them, then he gives them the law. Does that sound like Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10 to you, right? We are saved by grace, through faith, not according to our works, right? God does it, but he saves us for good works that he has prepared that we would walk in him, right? Not saved because we keep the law, but saved so that we can keep the law, and you've got to get the order right where you completely miss the point of salvation. You also see this in the book of Exodus, this idea that God is the law giver, and that he's not giving the people these laws so that they can go to heaven one day, and that God gives them the laws. Here you go, Moses, you take them down to the people, and the very next thing he says is, when you break the laws, this is what we're going to do. Not if you break the laws, but when you make a total mess of that stuff, then you come to this tent that we're going to build, and here's how we're going to build it. And when you come to this tent, this is what you need to do. You need a substitute. You need blood to be spilled to cover your sins. So even when he gives them the law, law part B is when you screw it up, here's how things get made right between you and me. And so God is the law giver, but just sort of asterisk that and say, it's not that God is saying, here's a bunch of rules, keep them and you get to go to heaven someday. He's already said, I saved you. You are my people. You belong to me. We're together. Now here's what I want you to do, the order matters. The last thing is this. No, it's not the last thing. Two more. Number four, God wants to dwell with his people. Wants to dwell with his people. Think about Genesis and Exodus. The whole story could have ended with Genesis three. That could have been the end of the book. God made a people. They were together. It was great. They messed it up. The end. Could have ended at the flood, Genesis six, five, right? God gave him a second chance. And all these people died and Enoch was a pretty good guy. The rest of them were lousy, didn't love the Lord, didn't trust the Lord, Genesis six, five. He saw that every intention of the thoughts of their heart were only evil continually. So he wiped them all out with a flood. That could have been the end. Babel could have been the end. Abram could have been the end. All along the way, the story could have ended. And you get to Exodus and the light bulb starts to go on and you say, this is crazy, but God actually wants to be with these people. It's not because they're good people 'cause they're horrible people. They are in grateful. They are stubborn. They are wicked. They are dense. And for some reason, God keeps putting things in place so that he can be with these people. I read today, just flip over to Exodus 33. This is just my Bible reading today. And we won't read all of this, but some of these verses just struck me as amazing. Exodus 32 is the golden calf, so they worship this statue. Exodus 33, look at verse three. God says, go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff-necked people. Okay, Moses, here's what we're doing. You're going up and I'm not going. You people are idiots. You're just flat, stiff-necked and stubborn, and I'm not going. And look at verse four. They did have some sense because when the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned and no one put on his ornaments. In other words, they said, if he's not going with us, we're toast. He's gotta go with us. We cannot go by ourself. He has got to go with us. Look at verse 15, if you jump down. Moses and God have a discussion. Verse 15, Moses said to God, he said to him, Moses to God, if your presence will not go up with me, do not bring us up from here. That's pretty good statement. If you're not going, we're not going. If you're staying here, we're staying right here with you. We're staying with you, we need to be with you. I need you, I need you, every hour, I need you. I'm not going anywhere that you're not going. Look at verse 17, the Lord said to Moses, this very thing you have spoken, I will do. For you have found favor or you could say, you have found grace, you have found mercy in my sight, and I know you by name. In other words, after Moses intercedes for the people, God says, all right, we'll go up together. But an amazing thought that God wants to dwell with his people. And that's the point of the whole second half of the book. That's why the whole second half of the book, even though it's kind of boring to read about a tent, ought to just make your brain explode, is if the first half wasn't awesome enough, he brings the people out, it's great storyline, great excitement, adventure, action, all of it. The people are fools. And then God says, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to build this place and I'm going to come be with you right in the middle of you. I'm with you. Moses says, we're with you and God says I'm with you. We're together in this thing. So it's an amazing thought as you read about the tabernacle being built that God is with us. And when you think about that thought in the book of Exodus, God wants to dwell with his people. You ought to jump forward in your mind to the Gospel of John chapter one that says, the word became flesh and he. Literally, he tabernackled, came to be among us. And you ought to think about Matthew 28. We're going to talk about that passage this Sunday morning. But Jesus says, it's an amazing verse. He says, I'm out. See ya, I'll be with you forever. Thought you said you were leaving. I am leaving, but I will be with you forever. And you think about the Holy Spirit of God coming to live with us. Just an amazing thought that God wants to dwell with his people. Number five, last one. God does everything for his own glory. Everything he does, he does for his own glory. And the amazing thing is, every now and then, that lines up with grace and mercy for us, which is a great thing. Sometimes God does things in judgment for his glory. Sometimes he brings destruction on people for his glory. Sometimes he's gracious to his people for his glory. But everything he does, he does for his glory. And he wants people to know him. He wants people to know the truth about him. He wants to have a global, worldwide reputation. And so, here's how we'll end. Take your Bible, we're gonna flip through the book of Exodus. I just want you to show you a few of the many passages that talk about God doing things for his glory so that people would know him. So, start in Exodus six, verse seven. We're gonna read about 10 verses here. Not just in Exodus six, but throughout the book. Exodus six, seven. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you will know, underline the word know, that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I'm doing this so that you know me. Chapter seven, verse three. He says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know, underline the word know, that I am the Lord. When I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. Chapter eight, verse 10. He said tomorrow, and Moses said, be it as you say, so that you may know, that there is no one like the Lord our God. He wants you to know this. Exodus nine, verse 14. This time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people, so that you may know, that there is none like me and all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth, but for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name, my reputation, my glory, may be proclaimed in all the earth. Jump down to verse 29. Exodus nine, Moses said to him, soon as I've gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail, so that you may know, that the earth is the Lord's. Chapter 10, verse one. The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart in the heart of his servants, that I may show the signs of mine among them. I want them to see these things. And Moses, I've done it so that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I've dealt harshly with the Egyptians, and the signs I've done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord. Exodus 11, nine. The Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. Chapter 14, verse four. God says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. He will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh, and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, and they did so. Exodus 14, verse 17. He says, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh, and all his hosts, his chariots, and his horsemen. One last verse, after the Exodus is done, Exodus 18, starting in verse eight. Moses told his father-in-law, all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh, and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, how the Lord had delivered them, and Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, and that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Look at verse 11. Jethro says, now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. Throughout that book you see the idea that God does everything he does, he does it for his glory. So that's Exodus, we're gonna pray, and then we will share prayer requests and spend some time praying in smaller groups. So let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a powerful God. We thank you that you are a God who does not fly by the seat of your pants. We thank you that you are a God who does not wait on us to pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps, to make ourselves acceptable to you. You don't wait for us to be good enough. Father, you take the initiative to save us. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. Father, our love for you is only a response to the love that you first had for us. And Father, as we confess our sin to you, we are amazed that you have a desire to dwell with your people, and that you want us to know you. In all your glory, your justice, your anger, your wrath, your love, your mercy, your patience. Father, you want us to know you as you truly are. Father, we are grateful that we can know you through your son, Jesus, that he is the fulfillment of the Passover. He's the fulfillment of the tabernacle. He is the lamb who came to take away the sin of the world. He is the sacrifice to end all sacrifice. Father, in through the blood of Christ, we have peace with you. We have a relationship with you and we can know you. Father, we're grateful for the Bible. We're grateful for the Book of Exodus. And I pray for these folks here, that if they have never read the Book of Exodus, they will take the time to read this amazing story. Father, so many times in the Old Testament, your word looks back to the Exodus and you want your people to know. You want them to tell the next generation about the great things that you did in Egypt. So Father, we don't want to forget these things. We don't want to be bored with portions of your word. And so we pray that as we read it, your spirit would give us eyes to see truth and hearts to receive it. We love you. We're grateful for the chance to study together and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.