30 Pharaoh arose in the night …
and there was a loud cry in Egypt …
31 Then he summoned Moses … and said,
“Rise up, go away from my people …
Go, worship the Lord …
32 Take your flocks and your herds
… and be gone …” 34 So the people took
their dough before it was leavened …
35 [A]s Moses told them … they had asked
the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold …
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses
to Succoth, about six hundred thousand
men on foot, besides children.
40 The time that the Israelites had lived
in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.
Exodus 12
Israel was enslaved in Egypt. God acted powerfully on their behalf, but their freedom still required their journey.
Our freedom requires a JOURNEY too. And yesterday, we ended with this acknowledgement: The journey to freedom can be hard. It takes commitment and effort. Don’t turn back! Keep remembering that the God who cut the chains in Egypt and journeyed with them powerfully all the way to the Promised Land, is available to journey powerfully with you too.
Did you notice the key word in that passage? It’s “remembering.”
God knows that “remembering” is a powerful, freeing word. That’s why in even before rescuing the Israelites, God established the Passover as “12:24 a perpetual ordinance.”
He said, “12:26 And when [and when you do this year after year after year, and when] your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt [and] spared our houses.’”
“Remembering.” God was teaching a powerful lesson:
If you’re not remembering
God’s power to deliver, then
you’ll be a permanent slave.
You’ll say the journey is too hard. You’ll want to go back to the familiar bondages in your personal Egypt. You’ll fall in despair … rather than stand in hope. You’ll act on fear … rather than venture bravely in trust. You’ll give up in defeat … rather than experience the freedom of God’s victory.
Look at the passage above, and remember the generous provision of God in setting us free:
· You get to escape your Pharaoh (and whatever is enslaving you). God takes the initiative. He is kicking open the door to freedom!
· You get to keep your godly assets. Whatever is godly and helpful in your life – your “flocks and herds” – get to come with you!
· Furthermore, God promises to enrich you further. Indeed, he allows you to take treasures from what you’re escaping. Yes, the enslavement in Egypt was hard. (Yes, some of your enslavements are cruel and abusive.) But when you leave with God, he allows you to take Egypt’s “36 silver and gold” and “36 plunder.” At the very least we learn from our experiences, and come out wiser and stronger. But it’s more than that! We are invited to carry away plunder from our experiences! When we choose to lay down our unforgiveness, bitterness, and defeat, we become the rich ones (and it’s our tormentors who are truly impoverished).
· The future blessings will be greater than what you’re seeing at the moment. The Israelites escaped so hurriedly that they didn’t have time to leaven the bread. Their first taste of freedom was eating the unrisen, unleavened cakes (v. 39). It was a small victory at first. But there would come a future day when they would feast on risen bread … and milk and honey. That’s the way freedom truly works. Each journey to newly freed territory is a foretaste of the greater feast that God promises for our lives.
· Pharaoh won’t just send you out saying, “Go”; under God’s provision, you’ll be sent forth to experience the fullest expression of freedom: “Go, worship the Lord”!
It’s tempting to stay in bondage. It’s tempting to try, struggle, and want to head back to Egypt. But I want to escape Pharaoh and take his plunder. I want to keep what’s good, and add what’s better. And most of all, I want the joyful freedom of worshiping the one who sets me free.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who wants
to say, “Arrr!”
(I want to plunder
Satan and Pharaoh
and live a life that is
rich and free)
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