From Egypt To Heaven - Part Iv Series

“THE EXODUS”

(All passed through the sea)

“To Him who smote the Egyptians in their first born,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And brought Israel out from their midst,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

With a strong hand and an outstretched arm,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

And made Israel pass through the midst of it,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Psalm 136:10-15

We are all aware, I am certain, how versatile music is in its very nature. Surely, there is nothing new under the sun to sing about, but every year new songs win awards for their various categories, and there seems to be no end of ways to express the emotions of mankind in verse.

In Psalm 136 the song writer boasts of God as Creator, Deliverer and Redeemer. From the creation through the exodus out of Egypt, he gives an account of the majesty and omnipotence of God.

Note that he begins by praising and ascribing glory to God, (Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; ...To Him who alone does great wonders) and ends the same way (Give thanks to the God of Heaven).

But focus for a moment on the third portion of the Psalm; verses 23-25. The psalmist has declared God’s might and wisdom in creation, and His power in delivering the children of Israel. But now the psalm turns personal, and the writer brings the message home with the timeless truth: God is the Redeemer.

“Who remembered us in our low estate”

(For while we were still helpless,

at the right time

Christ died for the ungodly)

“And has rescued us from our adversaries”

(When He had disarmed the rulers and

authorities, He made a public display

of them, having triumphed over them

through Him)

“Who gives food to all flesh”

(Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the

blood of Christ? Since there is one bread,

we who are many are one body; for

we all partake of the one bread)

“Give thanks to the God of Heaven”

(Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!)

Note also that the end of every declaration is a word of praise. “For His lovingkindness is everlasting”

Thus, the psalmist has tied all things together, for every generation of man. All that God has done, all that God will do, springs from His everlasting lovingkindness. “He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities”; quite the contrary, He looked from eternity to eternity, saw our black condition, saw that there was no man to stand in the gap’ “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, not because they deserved it, not because they earned the deliverance, not for something they could do later to repay Him, but because He chose them. He chose them to be the vessels of clay through which He would demonstrate His power and His goodness and His mercy; and reveal His great plan of redemption for all who would believe.

The plan was His, the power was His, the purpose was His...the glory is His, now and through eternity.

So it is with us.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and who He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

The people of Israel had no clue why they were doing what they were doing. They were to pick a common weed dip it in the blood of a lamb and splash it on the doors of their houses, and this was going to save them from destruction!

What foolishness, in the mind of men! What wisdom to the eyes of faith! “By FAITH he kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood”

My friends, the Bible is written, and in it is all that is necessary to ‘make man wise unto salvation’. But the plan didn’t stop at the end of the written page. Each one of us has a place in the greatest story. Each of us has as much a place in God’s eternal plan as Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or any other name in the great script of the ages. Our every step of obedience, however small, furthers the working of His plan. Only eternity will tell our stories. We read theirs now; but ours will be told around the ‘campfires’ of God’s eternal universe. What will our names be then? Will they be changed in accordance with our works in His name, as we so often see in the Old Testament? I don’t know either. But I am confident right down to my socks of this; there is nothing insignificant in the lives of His saints. Whatever He instructs to do, however silly it may seem to the mind of flesh; however paltry or minor we may perceive it to be, it must be done, and it must be done in faith that He, who sees eternity from eternity, “is able to preserve that which we’ve committed to Him”, and will bring us through in triumph just as He did His Obedient Son, whose we are.