"let My People Go" Series

“LET MY PEOPLE GO” Exodus 5:1ff

FBCF – 4/25/21

Jon Daniels

INTRO – The delivery business is big business these days, especially during the months of the pandemic:

- UPS – 2020 revenue up 14.2% to $84.6 billion

- FedEx – 2020 revenue was $69.2 billion

- Grub Hub, Door Dash, Uber Eats

- I was a Mazzio’s pizza delivery guy in college.

But there’s a difference in the delivery business & the deliverance business. In the delivery business, you’re bringing something to someone. In the deliverance business, you’re bringing someone out of something. And that’s the business that God is in! He’s in the business of bringing His people out!

- Out of bondage into freedom

- Out of captivity into liberty

- Out of confusion into peace

- Out of hatred into love

- Out of trouble into joy

- Out of sorrow into comfort

- Out of sin into forgiveness & salvation

- Out of death into life

I’m so glad that He is in the deliverance business.

- Psalm 18:2 – “The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, & my Deliverer…” (CSB)

- Psalm 32:7 – “You are my Hiding Place; you protect me from trouble; you surround me w/ joyful shouts of deliverance.” (HCSB)

- Psalm 34:17 – “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears & delivers them out of all their troubles.”

John Paton, a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the 1800’s, told of how one night, hostile cannibalistic natives surrounded his mission’s headquarters, intent on driving the Patons out of their home & killing them. He & his wife prayed through the entire night, & when daylight finally came, their attackers were gone. A year later, the chief of the tribe became a Christian, & Paton asked the man about that night. The chief replied, “Who were all those men you had with you there?” The missionary explained only he and his wife were there. The chief insisted he had seen hundreds of big men with shining garments & swords circling the mission headquarters, so the natives were afraid to attack (Billy Graham in Angels, God’s Secret Agents, page 3).

Whether by angels, or circumstances, or a preacher preaching just the right message that you needed to hear, God is in the delivery business.

EXPLANATION – Last week, we saw how God called Moses from the burning bush. In that calling was His commission to Moses to go & tell Pharaoh to set God’s people free from bondage & captivity. Moses jumped into the “yeahbut” crowd & started pushing back against the Lord by excuses as to why he couldn’t do what God had called him to do.

- He said he wasn’t qualified

- He said he didn’t have enough knowledge

- He said that he didn’t believe the people would believe him

- He said he didn’t have the skills & abilities he needed to do the job

- He said he just didn’t want to do it – “Send someone else, Lord!”

But, as God always does, He rejected Moses’ excuses & showed him all the ways that He would equip him & provide for him.

As we move into chapter 5, we see the process of

God’s deliverance beginning. And I emphasize the word “process.” Most of the time, when God delivers us, it’s the result of a process & a plan that He has put into action to bring His work about in our lives.

- Walk through order of events in Chapter 5

APPLICATION – God has a plan for deliverance. We have to trust Him.

TRUST HIS TIMING – We have to trust God’s timing in the deliverance that He has planned for our lives. Sometimes that’s hard to do. Look at what happened to Moses & the children of Israel:

- Encounter opposition – Didn’t take long for Pharaoh to oppose Moses’ request to let the people go. Look at verse 2.

- Endure tough times – Not only did Pharaoh oppose their request, he made life much more difficult for the people (5:7-9). Pharaoh told his taskmasters not to give the people any straw to make bricks, but keep the number of bricks required from them at the same level. Then they beat them when they couldn’t keep up the work (5:14).

- Experience frustrations – The foremen of the Hebrew slaves cried out to Pharaoh, but to no avail (5:15-19). Then they met w/ Moses & Aaron & aired their frustrations to them (5:20-21).

It’s hard to keep trusting the Lord for deliverance when the circumstances of our lives look so bleak. The same things that happened to Moses & the Hebrews can happen to us.

- Opposition

- Tough times

- Frustration

Babbie Mason song:

“God is too wise to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind.