Exodus
Part 1
“Bondage”
Exodus 1:1-17
Genesis 15:
Psalm 105
This morning with your blessing I would like to begin a sermon series and bible study plan on the 2nd book of the bible
Exodus
It once again is my desire to show you not only the relevance of the Old Testament
But to show you Jesus
To show you God’s plan of redemption
And
To show you ourselves in the stories and lives of those who were trying to live in Covenant with God
As I was praying
And reading
And studying
And contemplating what to preach for this first of many sermons from this great book
I kept coming up against a brick wall
I truly believed in my heart as I read Exodus 1
And as I read about the slavery of God’s children
That I needed to preach about
Slavery
Bondage
Slavery to sin and how we get ourselves into these messes
And we are going to go there just a bit
But
As I read scripture and prayed and studied
I realized that I was trying to make the bible say what I wanted it to say
Instead of preaching it for what it was
I was following a common patter
Many preachers before preached this material in just such a way
And those sermons were sometimes powerful
Life changing
But
They all took liberties with scripture
So I saw that we needed to go another way
To change the focus if you will
Before I get into the meat
Let me tell you a little story
First off
Let me tell you
My God
Is amazing
In more ways than one
But For me
When I begin to prepare for a message
God in his wisdom and his grace
Gives this hard headed Cowboy
Analogies from my life
Either past things or new things
To tie in with his word to
Make “His word “more understandable for me and prayerfully for you
And today is no different
Back in January
Patti and I bought a new bull
He is just a young bull, not much more than a big calf
Patti for some reason
Has called him
Knot head since we got him home
Now I am not sure what I wanted to name the little bull
But
I can assure you it was not
Knot head
Last week
He earned his name
And now he will forever be known as knot head
We went out to feed and hay the cows last week
All the cows and calves
And all the horses and mules were there with the exception of Knot head
We got to looking for him and noticed him down in a little stand of trees close to where I feed hay
He was just standing there
At least we thought
He had not jumped the fence into the neighbors place’
Cause I really like this little bull
But will not put up with a bull that won’t stay home
So as usual
Patti got a sack of cubes to feed
While I got the tractor to put out hay
As I came to the gate with the tractor
She had shut the cows up in the pen
And walked down to check on knot head
Patti was yelling and waving her arms for me to come
She had discovered why he was just standing there
Why he did not come when the others came
He had gotten himself into a mess
And earned his name
There was a forked tree in that little clump of trees
And the little bull
Either by scratching an itch
Curiosity
Boredom
Or who knows why or how
Had stuck his head through the fork and he was STUCK
This was very funny but also very scary
Many times I have found dead cattle from a similar situation
But fortunately he had not been in his predicament long
But he was in a mess
And
The harder he tried to get out
The more stuck he got
Every time he would try and back up
He would lower his head and that big old knot head and his ears would stop him
He was getting tired
And
He needed help
He needed to be rescued
So
After a lot of sweat and shear force
We were able to calm him down
And he allowed us to get him out of the mess he had gotten himself into
I’m not sure Bulls have the ability to reason
I’m not sure how much they truly understand
But I believe Knot head understands more than I want to give him credit for
Because
He sure kicked up his heals when we got him out of that mess
I don’t know if he really understood
Why or how he got in this mess
I am not real sure he understood that
He needed help
But without help
He would have died in the situation he was in whoever or whatever caused it
As we begin our study of Exodus
We will like we have done for the last 2 series
Teach and preach on the same book
Our Sunday Morning round pens will have one focus
Our sermons another
And it is my prayer that they will both complement each other and build on each other
To give us a better understanding of the writings
And helping us see Jesus in the book of Exodus
See God’s plan of redemption in the book of Exodus
And see ourselves and our problems there
As well as give us tools to use to strengthen our faith
As I said
It was my intent to preach on Slavery
Bondage today
To show you and myself
How the things we do get us into messes
And make no mistake
Sin has penalties and Sin has consequences
In my mind
I had decided that this is how the Israelites had gotten into their mess
That they had done something bad or wrong
Guys make no mistake
The bible says no one is perfect
No one is sinless
I have no doubt parts of the messes these guys were in were from choices they made
But where I kept getting hung up was that
I could not find teaching for this story that says they did anything wrong
In fact I found just the opposite
As much as I wanted the bible to say it was their fault
It did not
So I had to change directions
As a matter of fact after more study
I think like my little bull
They were surprised when they became slaves
It kind of slipped up on them
When we read Exodus chapter 1 we see that Exodus picks up where genesis stopped
Exodus continues with the history of people relating to God
Let’s read Exodus 1:1-7
Then back track a bit
These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 In all, Jacob had seventy[a] descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.
6 In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. 7 But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.
We ended our Genesis study with Joseph
Joseph
The 11th and Favorite Son of Jacob
The one who had been sold into slavery
Joseph
The one who was faithful to God in the bad times
Joseph
God’s vessel
In Egypt
Rising from slavery to the second highest position in all of Egypt
We studied about how God blessed him for his faithfulness
And how the blessings that Joseph received
Passed on to his family
And their families
God used Joseph to deliver his chosen people to safety
The world was in a drought
So God brought his children to Egypt where they flourished
You see God moved them to Egypt to protect them
And then as we pick up today
A few verses later they are no longer living as welcome foreigners, they are slaves
In verses 8-14
Let me read that for you as well
8 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.[b]”
11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.
Between verses 7 and 8 is just a little space here in the written word
But in history it is several years
God’s people went from living and prospering in a foreign land
To slavery in that same land
Slavery
Bondage
Loss of freedom
How did this happen?
How could this happen?
Joseph had moved his family to Egypt
They had been warmly welcomed
They had been given choice grazing lands
They had been respected
I would say even loved
And then just a few years later
They are slaves
I think part of the reason for this was that
The people of Egypt had through the years forgotten about Joseph and all he had done
The Pharaoh- King- the new king
Did not know about Joseph and all he had done or had forgotten as well
And I can safely say that maybe the Israelites had forgotten a little too
See
In my mind
I need to place blame for the slavery
At first I wanted to blame the ones who were slaves
For getting themselves into this mess
Into slavery, into bondage
I figured they made their own mess, by making bad choices
I wanted to say they were complacent and I’m sure they were
I wanted to say they had lost their focus, and I’m sure they had
I wanted to say they had let down their guard
I wanted to say that they had sinned
And the bible says we are all sinners
So I’m sure they had
And I wanted the bible to say that as well
Why
Because that’s what we do when we give into the things that place us in spiritual bondage
So
That’s what I wanted the bible to say
Why
Because I can understand that
Bad choices equal bad circumstances
Good things happen to good people
Bad things happen to bad people
Right?
So as I studied about this I turned to the book of Psalms
And in Psalms 105 verses 23-25
Psalm 105 verses 23-25
Then Israel arrived in Egypt;
Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
24 And the LORD multiplied the people of Israel
until they became too mighty for their enemies.
25 Then he turned the Egyptians against the Israelites,
and they plotted against the LORD’s servants.
And then I found myself back in Genesis chapter 15
Genesis 15:13-14
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.
And I had to rethink this slavery thing
And who to blame for the slavery
You see the bible tells us clearly that God’s chosen people would be placed into bondage
The people spent many years separated from the promises of God
Many years in slavery
I do not know for certain how many years they were actually in slavery, many people have many differing opinions and they are just those opinions
And
I have enough confidence to just say I don’t know for sure
But I do know they were separated from God’s promises for a long time
A type of slavery and bondage in itself
And
I do know that that slavery did not happen overnight
I can tell you that I do not believe that one day the Pharaoh just made a new decree and said
Ok Guys starting today ya’ll are slaves, the bible says that they had risen in number
I need to believe they would have resisted
Fought back
I think instead he kind of slipped it in on them
I like to think about that frog story you may have heard
If you drop a frog into a pot of hot water he will just jump out when he feels the heat
But put him in a pot of cold water and place that pot on the stove
And gradually increase the heat
And he will sit right there and get boiled
I tend to think that because that’s how it works with us
If that dope or marijuana joint of beer and whiskey bottle
Had a warning label on it
Not a simple label like
“This can be bad for your health”
But instead
Caution you can get hooked
You can ruin your life
You can lose everything
Including your freedom and your health
Even your life
I want to believe
Most people would think twice before trying it
Guys
Addictions of all types
Drug abuse
Alcohol abuse
Sexual addictions and sins
Very seldom just happen
Bang
Instead
They kind of slip in and build up over time
So
I kind of wanted to go that way this morning and blame the Israelites for their bondage
But then after reading Psalms
And after reading Genesis
I realized I could not biblically place all of the blame on the Israelites
So after that I wanted someone else to blame
I tried to blame it on Pharaoh
The King
A bad dude
But as I studied
He did what most Kings of that day did
Placed people in slavery to oppress them- control them
To subdue them
To restrain them to stunt their growth and prevent uprisings
To protect his county and his kingdom
Actually this still happens in many places throughout the world
I don’ think this Pharaoh was a nice guy
But he was not acting much different than other kings
But then to top it all off Psalm 105 says that God turned the Egyptians hearts against the Israelites
So I could not completely blame Pharaoh or the Egyptians
Then I tried to give Satan the credit
The devil made them do it
Make no mistake every evil thing in this world has Satan’s hand in it
And we know old Slick loves to cause people to be in bondage
Either physically as was the case with The Israelites
Or spiritually as is the case when we let things enslave us and stop our walk or worse yet prevent someone from coming to know Jesus
Either way he wins
As much as I believe he can and did manipulate people and does often cause bad things to happen
He was not completely the cause of Israels’slavery
So then
I went back and reread Exodus
Went back and reread Genesis
Went back and reread Psalms
And I came to a conclusion
And I can tell you I at first had a problem with it
Just a bit of a problem
It kind of rankled me
Kind of rubbed me wrong
At first
Guys
The Israelites were not completely innocent in this deal
But they were not completely responsible for their situation
Pharaoh, like him or not
Had done what most kings would have or might have done in a similar situation
So while he had a hand in the slavery of the people
I don’t think he was the main cause either
And
Old slick did what he does
Manipulates and spreads evil
But I could not place full blame on him either
Because I kept going back to scripture
So
I realized that God had orchestrated the bondage himself
It was part of his plan
As I said this bothered me a bit as it may you also
“How” I asked myself could a God who loves us allow us to be slaves
How could he allow us to be in bondage to sin?
How could a God who loves us want us to be slaves?
The answer is he does not want us to be slaves
He wants us to be free
He wants us to love him and him alone
He wants us to focus on him
Worship him and him alone
He wants to bless us
He does not want us to be slaves- to be in bondage to our sins
But sometimes he needs us to be enslaved to get us where he wants us
Get us doing what he wants us to do and receiving what he wants us to have
So
He allows us to be enslaved
But
This still bothered me a bit
Until
I really began to pray
And I really began to realize the purpose of Bondage in our lives
The purpose of bondage in the lives of the Israelites
Bondage seems to be a common theme with God’s children
Bondage seems to be such a common problem with the world today as well
But in God’s plan
Why did and God allow his Children to be slaves
And why does he allow his children today to enslaved by sin and addictions
First
He wants us to see him for what he is
Our deliver
Our savior
He wants us to see his power
He wants the world to see his power
He wants 100% of our worship
He wants 100% of our praise
He wants all of us
I can tell you
If you yourself have been delivered from an addiction or compulsion
Delivered from the bondage of sin
Then you understand
When I tell you that there is a bond
A strong bond
Between the deliver and the delivered
You see
In order to rescue us
God needs us to understand that we need rescue
That we are unable to rescue ourselves
That he alone is the one who can rescue us
And he needs us to cry out for that rescue
So he allows bondage so that we will look to him for deliverance
Second
He wanted the Israelites to see Egypt for what it really was
And he needs us to see the things in our lives for what they are as well
Egypt represents the world in this passage of Scripture
The people had begun to adapt to the Egyptian way of life
Adopt the morals and beliefs of the people they lived around
And worked around
Sound familure?
And God
Need them to see that they were not gods
That they were not him
That the people and things placing them in bondage were just that
People and things
Not idols
Not gods
Not God almighty
God often allows us to be placed into bondage so that we will see the things for what they are
When we trust in a drug or addiction or a certain behavior
When we focus on it
What we are doing is in sense is worshiping those things
And that is unacceptable in God’s eyes
And he wants to deliver us from that mess
So that we can be free and he can once again be glorified
And we can be delivered
And that we will place 100% of our trust in him for that deliverance
Deliverance
Here in Exodus we see people who desperately need deliverance
Let me talk to you about deliverance
Another word would be salvation
This is where Jesus first comes into the book of Exodus
The people of this world desperately need deliverance
In Exodus God uses one man
Moses to deliver his people and he is a sign of the true deliverer Jesus Christ
We are going to see all through this study
Jesus
Us
Redemption
Restoration
And God’s plan
Hang on tight
It is going to be a great ride
Close from the heart
Pray
