A Great Deliverance

A Great Deliverance

Exodus 12:13

Israel’s bondage in Egypt is really a physical representation of our spiritual bondage in sin. What I would like to do today is look at how alike both experiences really are.

I. Israel’s Bondage in Egypt.

A. The Children of Israel were brought into Egypt by Joseph.

1. They stayed here for about 450 years.

a) For around 200 of these years they fared pretty well.

(1) They were blessed,

(2) They multiplied to around 3 million,

(3) They became educated in the Egyptian culture.

b) After the death of any Pharaohs who knew of Joseph, this came to an end.

(1) There followed 200 years of hardship.

(2) Years of slavery and suffering.

2. The Egyptians were Ungodly people.

a) They could care less about people who served God and tried to do right.

b) They placed taskmasters over the Hebrew people and made them work hard.

(1) They had to make bricks and mortar,

(2) They worked in the fields.

(3) They built cities and pyramids for Pharaoh.

c) He also had them treated severely, harsh and cruel.

d) Their lives were lives of bondage and slavery.

B. God heard their cries for Deliverance.

1. He sent a deliverer named Moses.

2. How does Mosses do it?

a) He goes to Pharaoh 9 times on behalf of God to warn about plagues being sent upon the Egyptians for holding God’s people.

(1) 9 times Moses comes and 9 times pharaoh’s heart is hardened.

(a) Blood (Ex. 7:14–7:25)

(b) Frogs (Ex. 7:25–8:11)

(c) Gnats (Ex. 8:16–8:19)

(d) Wild animals (Ex. 8:20–8:32)

(e) Pestilence (Ex. 9:1–9:7)

(f) Incurable boils (Ex. 9:8–9:12)

(g) Hail (Ex. 9:13–9:35)

(h) Locusts (Ex. 10:1–10:20)

(i) Darkness (Ex. 10:21–10:29)

(2) Pharaoh finally tells Moses to get out and stay out and if he ever came back he would be put to death.

b) When you are serving God and you have done everything that He has told you to do but you are still no better off, don’t give up…

(1) God still had one other plan:

(a) He told Moses to go back one more time and ask permission for His people to go, if Pharaoh refused then the first born in all of Egypt would be destroyed.

(b) And it happened just as Moses said it would.

3. We see that the Hebrew people who did as God told them to do were spared this final punishment.

a) God’s instructions:

(1) Each Family was to take a lamb without a blemish

(a) It was to be a male less than one year old,

(b) They were to fatten it for 14 days,

(c) They were to kill it before the whole assembly,

(d) They were to then take the blood and strike it to the two side door post and the upper door post of their houses,

(e) Then they were to eat the slain lamb in their homes,

(f) Finally they were to remain behind the blood smeared door post until morning.

b) That night, as the Death Angel came over the land, all the first born sons of Egypt were slain.

(1) However, the sons of God’s chosen people who obeyed were protected.

(2) They were delivered by the blood of the slain lamb.

(a) We are told that Pharaoh rose up and called for Moses.

(b) He then gave Moses and the Children of Israel, permission to leave Egypt.

II. Our Bondage in Sin.

A. In the story of creation we see that mankind was sold into slavery by Adam.

1. We are slaves to Satan because we are enslaved to sin by the nature of Adam.

a) The very nature of every one of us is to sin.

(1) Paul said of his slavery to sin before Christ,

(a) “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. (Romans 7:14-15 ~ HCSB)

(2) Paul - wretched while bound in slavery to sin cried out,

(a) “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24-25)

2. The way of Transgressors is very hard (Proverbs 13:15).

a) Sin makes it hard for everyone.

(1) Your sin not only affects you but those who are around you also.

B. We are freed from sin by the blood of the Lamb.

1. Scripture is pretty plain about who Jesus was…

a) Isaiah said about him,

(1) He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)