Eisodus After Exodus (A Way In After A Way Out)

[THIS SERMON WAS DELIVERED LIVE IN A FACEBOOK GROUP ON 11TH APRIL, 2020. IT IS POSTED HERE WITH MINOR EDITS. THE STARS **** INDICATE A TRANSITION IN THOUGHT AND INTENSITY OF DELIVERY]

Welcome to our live stream service.

My name is pastor________and I am so thankful for you joining us today.

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Our message today is...

“Eisodus after Exodus”

And our Key text is from the book of Deuteronomy 6:23

Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.(Deuteronomy 6:23)

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The book of Exodus is central to the nation of Israel and the theology of the Bible as a whole.

The word Exodus comes from the Greek word ‘exodos’ which means a way out or departure.

It is from this Greek word that the English language got words like exit, exude, exhume, etc.

Similarly, the word Eisodus also is a Greek word which means a “way in” or “entry.”

So, our message today literally means “a way in” after “a way out” or just “an entry” after “an exit.”

For the people of God, Israel, the exodus meant a departure from bondage.

This exodus started with a clash between God’s people and Pharaoh but it ended with hope.

It ended with God pitching His tent among His people.

The deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage echoes forward to a greater deliverance.

This is the final redemption of God’s children.

This second exodus also culminates with God pitching His tent among His people.

Follow along I don’t want to lose you.

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Our planet is in a spiritual as well as physical emergency.

Since the fall of our first parents - Adam and Eve - we have been in bondage to sin.

In the epistle to the Romans the apostle Paul aptly describes the wretched state of the fallen man in these words:

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15, NIV)

This is the hopeless state of every human being since the fall.

Man is not alone in this hopelessness and despondency.

The apostle Paull in the next chapter of the same letter to the Romans describes nature as groaning and waiting for deliverance.

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Romans 8:22, ESV)

So, both human beings and the whole creation are all in bondage and are waiting for the final deliverance. We are all under a curse.

Allow me to digress a little...

The word “lockdown” has been thrown about by the media lately

I read a story yesterday of a Fox News journalist who was forced to delete a tweet that compared lockdown to willful slavery.

Lockdown is a state of confinement and restricted movement because of an emergency.

In a jail environment, lockdown happens when a prisoner is confined to a cell to regain control over him or her after a riot or fight.

But lockdown is not the same as bondage or slavery.

The Israelites were put in bondage - a far worse condition than a lockdown.

A new Pharaoh ascended to the throne. A Pharaoh who knew not Joseph or who chose to deliberately forget Joseph.

Probably it was the memory of Joseph that had up to this point cushioned the children of Israel from the wrath and hostilities of the preceding Pharaohs.

So, this new Pharaoh chose to ignore the record of Joseph’s saving act.

He chose to erase the memory of Joseph from history.

He chose to forget how Joseph saved the nation from the starvation of a 7-year famine.

That’s the world for you.

Our good deeds are easily forgotten and our memories erased the moment we cease to be relevant or die

So, the new monarch put in place some brutal population control measures.

But these measures ended up achieving the opposite because God overruled them.

That’s God for you.

God overrules what has been designed against us.

God turns our adversities to blessings.

God’s favor overrules all evil devices set by man or the devil.

Man disappoints but God appoints.

And, so, instead of the population declining, the population grew exponentially.

The oppressive measures could not overrule or reverse what God had predetermined.

The Pharaoh doubled his effort to oppress the people of God

And the children of Israel cried to God.

And God heard their cry. God hears our cries.

Brother Moses composed a song to celebrate this in Psalm 107 verse 6.