The Book of Exodus: The Victorious God
Too often we read the Bible assuming it is about us, but primarily it is about God and his plan for salvation history.
Exodus Chapter 1: Deliverance is Needed!
Exodus chapter 2:1-10: A Deliverer is Born.
When we trust the Lord we have to let go.
Exodus chapter 2:11-25: The Deliverer is Prepared.
God was preparing for the needed deliverance by providing and preserving the deliverer. God is preparing the deliverer himself for the task ahead.
A Deliverer is Prepared
Exodus 2:11-25
Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.
13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?” 14 “Who made you a commander and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought, “What I did is certainly known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.”
We have to develop and prepare to do great things.
1. Prepared through life experiences.
Exodus 2:11
Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.
Acts 7:22-23
So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions. 23 When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.
God uses our everyday lives (our upbringing, our families, our education, etc.) to prepare us for what he wants to do with us in the future.
2. Prepared through failure.
Exodus 2:12-15
Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?” 14 “Who made you a commander and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought, “What I did is certainly known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
Moses took matters into his own hands, rather than wait on God’s timing and do it God’s way.
Acts 7:24-25
When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.
3. Prepared through community.
Exodus 2:16-22
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.”
A. The blessing of a faith community: Moses found a place to belong.
We are formed in community!
B. The blessing of a faith community: Moses found his identity.
Exodus 2:11
Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.
Moses understood that he was an alien in Egypt the place he was born and raised, and that his home and identity is with the people of God.
1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
Philippians 3:20
Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
We find our belonging and identity in Christ, and his people/church.
4. Prepared for a divine purpose.
Exodus 2:23-25
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the Israelites, and God knew.
What you are going through now might be what God is using to prepare you for the future, for a God-given purpose.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NIV)
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”