Exodus B Lesson 3 Outline

I. Ex. 4:29 B Mountain Top Experience B The people believe Moses and Aaron and their response to learning of God=s concern and plan for them is worship.

AAfterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, >This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: >Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.@

(Ex. 5:1)

II. Exodus 5:1 B Moses is on a roll here and I bet he expected that Pharaoh would let the people go at the moment he spoke. Unfortunately, Moses had not listened very carefully to what God had told him: ABut I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.@ (Exodus 3: 19-20)

III. Pharaoh=s response to Moses is AWho is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.@ (Ex. 5: 2)

A. That is not the answer Moses expected or wanted.

B. Remember Pharaoh is not just the ruler of Egypt; he was considered a god. As far as he was concerned the Israelites belonged to him.

IV. Moses and Aaron try another approach. AThe God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.@ (Ex. 5: 3)

A. What is Pharaoh=s reaction to this? ABut the king of Egypt said, >Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to work!@ (Ex. 5: 4)

B. Things proceed to just get worse and worse for the Israelites.

C. How would you like to have been one of the Israelite foremen who had to deliver the message about the new Astraw law@ from Pharaoh?

D. AThe Israelite foreman realized they were in trouble when they were told, >You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.= When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, >May the Lord look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.= @

(Ex. 5: 19-21)

V. Things have gone from bad to worse for Moses and the Israelites. Moses had to be discouraged and disillusioned by all this. He had done everything he was told to do and it had all gone horribly wrong. What does he do? AThen Moses returned to the Lord. . .@ (Ex. 5: 22)

A. What a great picture of an honest relationship with God! Moses came to the Lord asking two questions: Why? and How?

B. How did God respond to Moses and his questions? He didn=t scold Moses for questioning. Instead he told Moses: ANow you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go ; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.@ (vs. 6:1)

C. God gives Moses two pieces of counsel. He told Moses who He was, and then He told him what He was going to do.

D. He repeated the message from the burning bush, saying AI am@ five different times in Exodus chapter 6: 2, 6, 7, 8, 29 B AI am the Lord@

1. Important lesson for us: AUntil your eyes are fixed on the Lord, you will not be able to endure those days that go from bad to worse.@

(Charles Swindoll B Moses)

2. AFix your thoughts on Jesus! @ (Hebrews 3:1). Do it constantly especially when you are experiencing a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

3. Remember who Yahweh is & that He is in control.

E. After the Lord told Moses AI am@ five times, He told him AI will@ seven (8) times!

1. AI will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.@ God delivers us from the burden of sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

2. AI will rescue them from their bondage.@ God planned for the Israelite=s deliverance from physical bondage and He also planned for our deliverance from bondage to sin.

3. AI will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.@ When we come to God in repentance, He will redeem us with an outstretched arm.

4 & 5 AI will take you as My people, and I will be your God.@ We are His people through His Son, Jesus. Yahweh is our God!

6. AI will bring you into the land . . .@ This was an actual physical place promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. J. Vernon McGee says that Canaan is a picture of the Christian life as believers should be living it.

ACanaan typifies the heavenlies where we are blessed with all spiritual blessing B the believer has to walk worthy of his high calling for perfect enjoyment of spiritual blessing. This is done through the filling of the Spirit. (Eph. 4:1-5:18). There are also warfare and battles to win. Believers sometimes live as if they are bankrupt in the wilderness of the world and never enter into the riches of His grace and mercy.@ (J. Vernon McGee B Exodus)

7 & 8 AAnd I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage. . .@ Our heritage is that we have been justified by faith and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

F. Why the repetition? God wants us to get this message: I AM WHO I AM and I AM will do what is best for us if we will let Him.

VI. So Moses took this message back to the Israelites but they didn=t believe him. Why wouldn=t the Israelites listen? Two reasons are given in vs. 9

A. They refused to listen Aon account of their despondency@ which means Ashortness of spirit.@

B. They didn=t listen because of the Acruel bondage@ and they blamed Moses for that.

VI. What does Moses do this time? He went back again to God and asks God another question: ABut Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, >Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech.= @ (vs. 6:12)

A. Back to his old insecurities. Moses still does not have a firm hold on the promises and assurances of God.

B. Moses is at the end of his rope. Charles Swindoll says we need to understand a major truth about how things work:

AThe best framework for the Lord God to do His most ideal work is when things are absolutely impossible and we feel totally unqualified to handle it. That=s His favorite circumstance. Those are His ideal working conditions.@ (Swindoll)

C. Questions in life often far outnumber the answers. When Moses asked questions of God, God didn=t answer the questions. He simply reminded Moses of who He is.

D. Sometimes we just have to live the questions as Maxie Dunham puts it. The way we can live the questions is to remember who God is. Remember what God has done in the past for the Israelites and for us in our own lives and to remember His promises. When we remember who God is, we know that He is faithful.

AHis name and character are on the line when He promises to deliver us. . . God=s reputation is at stake. He has promised to deliver us. When we remember that, we can live the questions.@ (Maxie D. Dunham B The Preacher=s Commentary)

VII. Verse 7:1 is one of those difficult verses: ASee, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.@

AWhatever else that means, it certainly means this: God had endowed Moses and Aaron with supernatural power far greater than their own native facility to express. In their weakness, they were made strong. The less Moses tried to assert himself over Pharaoh, the more dependent he would be upon the Lord B and the greater the victory for the Lord when he prevailed . . .With God with him, Moses would be Aas God@ to Pharaoh. Moses would not be acting in his own strength, and the power of God would be visible in him B so much so that Pharaoh, who boasted, >I do not know the Lord,= would wither before Moses, the Lord=s agent.@ (Dunham)

A. Peter Enns says that we are to Abe God@ to this world. Genesis 1:27: ASo God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.@ 2 Corinthians 3:18: AAnd we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord=s glory, are being transformed into his likeness, with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is Spirit.@ Such knowledge ought to have an effect on how we live from day to day.

B. How many of you have heard the excuse, AI am only human.@ There is nothing Aonly@ about being human. Being human means being created in God=s image.

AOur shortcomings are not the result of being human, but of our sinful nature that has tarnished true humanity. . . It is our humanness, that, of all the wonders of God=s creation, shouts loudest to us that we are not an accident of the random convergence of cosmic forces. We are here by design. We are here for a purpose. . . Our ultimate purpose is here to reflect the glory and image of God . . . As Christians, therefore, we have the obligation and privilege of telling a fallen world, ABe all you can be. . .@

Enns speaks about ABeing God@ to others. ASuch an understanding of humanity should instill confidence in us, both in how we view our relationship to God and in how we relate to the world in which we live. . . For God to reach us, he became like us. Christians, in whom the image of God has been restored in Christ, are the ideal means to spread God=s Word. . . As Christ=s brothers and sisters, we are God to the world. . . All of life is ready to be used by the Lord to bear witness and bring glory to himself. He makes us God to the people around us so that they may know the great and awesome mystery B their Creator is their Savior. @

(Peter Enns B The NIV Applciation Commentary BExodus)