"Israel Is My Son"

Well, this morning we continue on in Exodus 4. We're going to be looking at verses 18 through 23. We've been following the narrative of Exodus now for quite some time. We spent a lot of time in chapter 3 with the self-revelation of God.

And as we headed into chapter 4, last week, we saw the objections of Moses and how Moses was filled with great fear about what God had commissioned him to do and how he sought to evade God's calling, sought to object to God's calling.

But now as we continue on with verses 18 and following, we see that Moses has relented and he is now on the way back to Jethro's home and from there on the way back to Egypt. Now we're following the narrative.

We always seek to follow the path of the text. If I could put an image before you, I'm not much of a hiker these days, but I know we have hikers in our midst. You'll find these little forest trails. Maybe there's large, dense foliage on either side of the path, tall trees and bushes beside, and it's almost like you're walking through a corridor and so you're following the path and it's really hard to see anything other than the path ahead of you.

You're closed off by the height of the trees and sometimes following a narrative feels like following a path in that sense where simply following where the text leads us. But like a hiker might find at times, there's a clearing.

All of a sudden the trees drop off and maybe you're on the side of a hill and now you can not only see the path in front of you, but you get this clearing and you get this view of the expanse. Maybe you get some view of where you've been and certainly a view of where you're going and you see some marvel, some beauty of creation that was somewhat obscured by that corridor of trees.

And kind of what we're doing this morning would be similar to that. We've been following the path of the text and we've come now to this great expanse where we can look back, but more importantly look forward and see where this path is going and unfold larger themes and issues that have been developing not only in Exodus 1 -4, but really from Genesis all the way up to Exodus 1 -4.

And these things that will propel the story of redemption forward. We're going to start out light and then get a little bit heavier and then really do some heavy lifting at the end of the service. That's probably not wise on my part, but it's just how it will be.

You should probably get the heavy stuff out of the way and then lighten up as time lingers, but you're going to have to put your thinking caps on. This will be a triumph for note takers. It's a good saying.

The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory. I'm going to throw out a lot of references, some things that may be very helpful for you to digest as we continue on in the book of Exodus. Maybe it will be things that you start picking up in your scripture reading elsewhere.

That's always part of the thrill when you start to see these themes and make connections that previously had not been made. So we're going to look at the text of verses 18 -23. The first thing we're going to see is Moses returning to Egypt.

Secondly, we're going to zoom in and focus on this language of Israel being the Son of God. That's going to be part of looking at the expanse. And then, perhaps the heaviest part, we're going to return to the image of the rod and the serpent and talk about salvation.

Moses Returns to Egypt

So first, Moses returns to Egypt. We read, beginning in verse 18, Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, please, let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see whether they're still alive.

And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, go, return to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead. Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt.

And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Moses has now left the theophanic presence of God at the burning bush. He's put his sandals back on his feet, cleaned himself up a little bit, and he's heading back to Midian's household.

So as he makes his way out of Horeb and makes his way toward Egypt, he first wants to return to Jethro. Remember that Moses had been tending to Jethro's flocks in the wilderness, not just for a few years, but for decades.

So it's natural that he has to return and speak to Jethro. He wants to tell Jethro of the change of plans, what is unnatural is that he seems to avoid the revelation of God. When he goes to Jethro, he says, please let me go return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see whether they're still alive.

He doesn't say, please let me go take your daughter and your grandchildren with you, and I'm going to return to Pharaoh and stand against him in his armies and give him the threat of God upon him. Now, maybe that's why he doesn't say it.

We're not actually given a reason. It simply could be a genuine part of Moses' request. Let me go and see the state of my brethren in Egypt. It could be an indication of his fear. We've already seen Moses' fear earlier in the chapter.

Maybe he can't even mention what he's about to do, so he just says, I'm going to at least go back and see my brethren. Or maybe it shows that he was simply giving the easiest reason for him to leave, something that Jethro would not object to.

Perhaps this shows some budding courage in Moses' heart. He doesn't want to be dissuaded. He doesn't want to be held back from his calling. Maybe Jethro would think, Moses, you have lost your mind. You are off your rocker.

When Jesus began to preach and teach about the things he had come to do, that's how his family reacted. Mark 3, verse 21, when his family heard it, that's Jesus' earthly family, they went out to seize him, and they said, he's out of his mind.

Maybe some of you this afternoon will be able to sympathize with feeling that way. You're gathering with family, and they think, we're with the Jesus freaks for lunch. They're out of their minds. They're so far from how the rest of us are in the normalcy of this life and this world.

They're so obsessed with Jesus, and who knows what kind of Kool-Aid they've drunk along the way. Well, you're in good company. That's how Jesus' own family thought about him at the beginning of his ministry.

We don't know Moses' reasoning, but what he does say is genuine. He had a burden from the Lord to go and rescue his people from Egypt, and so he wanted to return to see them. However fearful Moses had been up to this point, notice that God is continuing to encourage him along the way.

He had given this revelation at the Mount of Horeb, and then he gives another revelation in Midian. Go, return to Egypt. All the men who sought your life are dead. He didn't tell Moses that at the burning bush theophany.

He could have. He could have said, don't worry, I'm clearing the way for you. In fact, the old pharaoh had sought your life, and any men that would be in his employ, they're all dead. You won't have any resistance there.

There's no wanted posters for Moses on the court halls of Egypt any longer. But God doesn't tell him that yet. First, Moses has to act in obedience. And when he acts in obedience, though he's fearful, he receives more revelation, more encouragement along the way.

Please notice that though Moses was fearful and stubborn, when he relented, when he surrendered, when he obeyed, it was only then that he found additional encouragement, additional revelation, additional comfort along the way.

And I want to say that's very important for you if you're a believer here this morning. There's something that God has put on your mind, on your conscience, on your heart, but you're fearful and frankly you're stubborn.

And you have no encouragement within or without to do so. Well, you will not have encouragement perhaps within or without to do so until you surrender. And maybe then you'll find encouragement along the way.

Maybe then you'll find some comfort, some victory along the way. But until then, don't think that God's going to unfold everything before you. We see that here with Moses. Moses, like every believer, is on a need-to-know basis.

And God determines what we need to know when we need to know it. When we're brought to certain understandings and insights into our situation or application of Scripture, when we receive a word in season.

That's all determined by the providence of God. And it's a dynamic providence. He loves to give further light as His people surrender willingly to Him. We read in verse 20, Moses took his wife and his sons.

We had only heard of Gershon. Eleazar has not been introduced by name to us, but we have the plural sons here in verse 20. In chapter 18, we'll read more of Eleazar. But Moses took Zipporah, his wife, and his sons Gershon and Eleazar, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt.

Now, if you're a gospel reader, verse 20 is deja vu. A man called by God, given revelation by God, putting his wife and his son on a donkey, returning to Egypt. Well, that's deja vu. That's the very language of Matthew 2.

So we're developing little parallels to the life of Christ, and this is very significant. We'll expand on this shortly. But I want you to keep in mind the context of Matthew 2. The context of Matthew 2, the context of Exodus 4, is the Pharaoh-like massacre of the sons of Israel.

It's really important to understand this layered imagery. Another thing that's important to understand is the emphasis again in verse 20 on the rod of God. We had already had the importance of the rod laid out earlier in this chapter, but even in Midian, we have this rehearsed in the narrative, and this is Hebrew's way of emphasizing.

Moses also took the rod of God in his hand. Reminder, keep that in mind. This is really important. The rod of God. This is really important. That's what the narrative is doing. This was the first of the signs that God had given.

What's that in your hand? It's a shepherd's staff. It's a rod. I'll do my wonders through that rod. With this rod, the sea... Please put your listening ears on. This will all come again towards the end.

The sea, the waters, will be parted. Pharaoh will be drowned. Waters will be opened, and waters will be closed. The rod of God is with Israel to deliver and defend. We're going to come back to that. Layered imagery.

Very important. The Son of God. Second point. The Son of God. We're going out of the kiddie pool now a little bit deeper. Five, four foot, five foot level water. The Son of God. Exodus 4, verse 21. The Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go.

The Lord reminds Moses of all the wonders, ensures Moses' obedience, and then He also gives Moses some preparation for how the negotiations will go. How will those negotiations go? They will utterly fail.

He will not come back to Jethro's house waving a white sheet of paper as Neville Chamberlain did in 1938 after successful negotiations with Adolf Hitler. And he came back and said, peace for our time!

And then a few months later, Hitler invaded Poland, and Europe was ablaze with war. I was actually reading about that this week. And what Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister, had said in 1938 on the eve of the war, as he stood out on Downing Street in front of the assembled press,.

He said,.

This is now the second time a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace. Reference to Disraeli at the Congress of Berlin. I believe it's peace for our time. And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Now go home and get a nice quiet sleep. And then the blitzkrieg happens and bombs start blowing up all over the English cities. The Israelites will not have a nice quiet sleep,.

The Lord says.

There will be no peace for the time. Instead, God says, I am going to harden Pharaoh's heart. He lets Moses know that this will be a deliberate act on the part of God. He is going to make a spectacle out of Pharaoh.

For this very reason I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, he will say. In order for that to be accomplished, Pharaoh will not relent. So we'll see as this exodus unfolds, Pharaoh hardening his own heart.

We already saw that in chapter 3. I know that he will not let the people go, no, not even with a strong hand. But then he says in chapter 4, I will harden his heart. And as the narrative unfolds, we'll see both sides of this same thing.

Pharaoh hardening his own heart. God judicially hardening Pharaoh's heart. And I don't think we're meant to see it as a seesaw, so much as two angles of the same activity. Pharaoh fully accountable and responsible for the hardening of his own heart.

As every sinner is fully accountable and responsible for the hardening of their own heart. And yet God, in His sovereignty, may judicially harden a sinner. He does not extend His hand forever. Be gone with this thought of God as the whimpering divine grandfather who only ever has mercy for rebels.

That is not an image you get from Scripture. Repent, for the time is near. That's the kind of image you get from Scripture. God is going to make a spectacle out of Pharaoh. It's a depiction of His utter sovereignty.

Egypt is a stage for the drama of redemption. We're going to see that in deeper ways yet, even this morning. And Pharaoh is one of the main players on this stage, on this play, on this drama, on this rehearsal of what the Gospel is.

And if we read Exodus with that kind of understanding, we'll see all sorts of riches within. Please note this before we leave and focus on the Son of God. Please notice this. The very same signs that soften the hearts of the Israelites and bring them to obedient faith are the very same signs that harden the heart of Pharaoh and harden the hearts of the Egyptians.

Do you know it's no different with the Word of God? We don't have two different messages, two different Gospels, two different Bibles. It's the same Word. And that same Word will either be the aroma, the fragrance of life to those who are being saved, or the stench of death to those who are perishing.

It is the same Word, the same sign, the same event that is in view, and yet two diametrically opposed responses. And we're going to see that in Exodus. The same signs will either soften the people of God or harden the enemies of God.

And that's how it is with the Word of God. So you always have to be sitting, if you're fortunate enough to be in a place where the Word is shared, you need to view that as something that's fortunate. Not many people throughout human history have had this kind of access to the Word of God.

And if you're sitting here and you're being hardened to it, indifferent to it, unprovoked, unmoved, unstirred by it, you should know that you're being hardened by the very thing that God is using to soften others.

So what does Scripture say?

If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Psalm 95, repeated in Hebrews chapter 4. If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. If Pharaoh would hear His voice, do not harden your heart. 22 and 23.

We have this language, this layered imagery of Israel being the son of God. Verse 22. Then you shall say to Pharaoh,.

Thus says the Lord,.

Israel is my son, my firstborn.

So I say to you,.

Let my son go, that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed, I will kill your son, your firstborn. Now we follow the logic of the plagues and that tenth and last plague that God pours out upon Egypt is when not only Pharaoh's son, but all the firstborn sons of Egypt die.

And all the firstborn sons of Israel are saved through the Passover lamb. But before we get to the Passover lamb, which won't be this morning, I simply want to point out what God says in response to Pharaoh.

He says, the people of Israel, the people that are in bondage to this evil ruler, they are His son. Israel is my son, my firstborn. And then He says to the ruler, Pharaoh, you have a son too. You have a firstborn.

And just like my firstborn is the corporate people, so your firstborn are a corporate people, the nation under you. And if you don't let my son, my people, my nation go, I will kill your son, your people, represented by the firstborn.

So the charge is clear. Israel is here serving Pharaoh. But Israel belongs to God. That's my firstborn, the Lord says. If you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn. And the syntax is alarming.

It's hard to get this out in translation. In Hebrew, there's so many ways you can add emphasis or add significance. And here we have a particle, behold. Hinnah. It happens a lot of times in narrative, and it's almost like a huge exclamation point.

And then there's a participle, and when you put those two things together, it's saying this is imminent. You could almost translate it, I'm about to kill your son. That's how direct the warning is. Pharaoh, if you don't let my son go, I'm about to strike down your son.

And that will not be repeated until the last plague is introduced. But notice the claim. Here's the claim. Here's where we tread deeper into the theology in the unfolding redemptive drama of Scripture.

Israel is my son, my firstborn. Now we've cleared the trees and the bushes, and we're staring into the expanse. The word son clearly here does not mean direct descendant. Blood relative. The word son translated here as son is used in a number of ways in the Bible.

Not least, a political dependent. When you had a change of king, an enthronement, that coming ruler, even a vassal ruler, could be called the king's son or the son. And so you have the higher power and then the son.

And it's language of political fealty, of loyalty and dependence. So it's used in ancient documents all over the ancient Near East in this way. It's meant to establish not only a loyal relationship, but the privileges and responsibilities that would be shared between a father and a son.

And so rulers having rulers underneath them. You have the language of sonship. The word can mean simply a disciple. That's how it's used in Proverbs. Take heart, my son. Listen to the words that I'm saying, my son.

It's a son being, again, this privileged position of a learner, of a disciple. It can be, as it's used here, a nation subject to God, owned by God. This is my son. But if we're thinking biblically, we go back to the Garden of Eden and we're brought to think about the sonship of Adam.

Because Adam was created by God and intended to be the image of God. In that sense, Adam was the son of God. I love this. It's some great modern music. And I love Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery. And this point is drawn out in the lyrics.

Come, behold the wondrous mystery. He, the perfect son of man. Already you see this imagery. Son of man. Son of Adam. Man, Adam. Interchangeable in Hebrew. He, the perfect son of man. In his living, in his suffering, never trace nor stain of sin.

See the true and better Adam. Do you see? That's very significant. See the true Adam. See the true Son of God. So you get to Colossians 1 .15 and Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. He's the true Adam.

He doesn't follow after Adam so much as Adam follows after Him. Very important reversal in redemption. With the nation of Israel, this idea of sonship is repeated. As Adam was meant to behold God and image God as God's son, but then miserably fails, Israel is brought forth.

Israel is now meant to behold God.

And image God.

And be as a son to God. And like Adam, Israel fails. And it brings us to this redemptive turn where the true Son, the obedient Son, the true Israel, the true Adam arrives to fulfill all that God had required and accomplish all that God had promised.

So the New Testament authors, as Raymond Dillard points out, understood Jesus to be the culmination of the Old Testament. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Him.

He's the last Adam.

But even as the last Adam, He's the firstborn of all creation. He is the embodiment of faithful Israel. So when we see here in Exodus 4, Israel is my Son. My firstborn. We're meant to start connecting Gospel dots to that.

Israel is bringing us forward to think of Jesus as the faithful Son. Jesus as the One who is promised and belongs to God and fulfills God's will in the world. A great example of this is in Matthew's Gospel.

We talk about the recapitulation of Christ in the prologue of Matthew. Matthew's Gospel, just in the genealogy, in the way that he recounts 14 generations moving from Adam to David to fulfillment. You have these beautiful pictures in Matthew's Gospel where you have Jesus shown as the culmination of Israel's history and purpose.

But we can go deeper than that. After Jesus is born, Jesus goes down into Egypt, familiar to what we're saying with Moses. Matthew can't help but connect this to Hosea 11, verse 1. Out of Egypt I have called my Son.

So Matthew is saying, if you want to understand something about who Jesus is and what it means for Him to be the Son of God, look very carefully at the history of Israel. Go back to Hosea 11. The reference is clearly to the nation of Israel being brought out of Egypt in the Exodus.

And yet when Matthew records the family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus coming out of Egypt, Matthew says, in this the Scripture is fulfilled saying, out of Egypt I have called my Son. So Jesus is the true Son.

Jesus is the true Israel. Jesus comes out of Egypt. And where does He go in Matthew's Gospel? He goes through the waters of the Jordan. Where does Israel go when they're led out of Egypt? Well, they pass through the waters as well.

And how do they enter into the promised land? Well, they enter across the Jordan. And what happens to Israel when they're led through the waters in Exodus? They're brought into the wilderness where they're tempted.

And what happens to Jesus when He's brought through the waters? He's brought into the wilderness to be tempted. So layered imagery of Jesus being the true Son, the true Israel. Yes, we could say Israel is my Son, but Jesus is true Israel.

God's Son, representative of His people, just as Jesus is the true Adam, obeying in every place where the first Adam failed to obey. Fulfilling everything that Israel failed to fulfill in every way Adam in Israel had proven to be.

The unrighteous Son. The unfaithful Son. But then Jesus comes as the righteous Son, fulfilling the demands of the law. Only that fulfillment could be the good news of the Gospel. It's a fulfillment on our behalf.

This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased. And the Father's pleasure is there throughout the entirety of His life. Every time He positively did what the law required, every time He passively resisted temptation, every time He gave Himself over to sacrifice after sacrifice, even to the point of death, even the death on the cross, He pleased His Father.

Isaiah 53 says it pleased the Father to crush Him. This is how we behold the wondrous mystery. Now third, and now we're really going into the deep in more ways than one. The serpent and the rod in salvation.

These are the other elements that we have here in Exodus 4 and really the whole book of Exodus that reverberate throughout the rest of the biblical storyline. So this is where you're going to have to pay close attention.

I'm going to try to throw out a lot of references, but I hope you'll be captivated by the depth and the beauty of the imagery we have here. If you were among us on Sunday night at SLBC, we started getting into some of these issues.

We spoke about atonement and how we rightly embrace substitutionary atonement, meaning Christ took our place as sinners on the cross. Christ bore the wrath that was due us on the cross. He died not indiscriminately for everyone.

No, He died for His people. He died for His people as a substitution for them. And so substitutionary atonement, but we said there's more to atonement than that. There's something to say about the evil one and how when man and woman fell in the garden, they gave the evil one dominion, domain in this world, in this fallen world.

He became the prince of the power of the air. He became the strong man that bound up all God's creation under a curse as possessions in His house. And Jesus came with the gospel of the kingdom to bind that strong man and plunder His house.

And so the conquest against this satanic tyranny is held out to us in the book of Exodus. I'm gonna keep coming at this. But it ought to enlarge the way we typically think about the atonement, about the cross, about what Jesus' death accomplished.

So let me start here. The kingdom of Egypt is just one historical embodiment of satanic opposition to God. We'll start there. The kingdom of Egypt, Pharaoh in Exodus, is just one historical embodiment of satanic opposition to the purpose of God.

What we see beginning in Genesis is continuing in Exodus. And it's as one particular historical episode in Genesis, perhaps one of several. Now it's a whole nother historical episode, but it's still the same theme, satanic opposition to the redemptive purpose of God.

That's why you have the repetition, the massacre of Pharaoh against the Israelite children, the massacre of Herod against the Israelite children, layered imagery to show fulfillment. Of course, there's others that come, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, by the time you get to Revelation, uses the language of Pharaoh, the imagery of Exodus, uses the language of Babylon, come out from her, my people.

But the beast in reference is surely the Roman Empire. Think of Daniel chapter seven, the four beasts. These are all historical kingdoms, tyrannical rulers that oppose the people of God and persecute the people of God.

These are historical embodiments of satanic opposition to God. In this way, what we read in Exodus is more than just a historical account of God delivering his people. That becomes some metaphor for the gospel.

No, no, no, that's a terrible misreading. This is a preview, a parallel prefiguring of the gospel. That's the whole reason this is occurring. This is meant to help us understand the gospel before the gospel actually comes.

In this way, Egypt is a manifestation and prefiguration of the fallen domain of the evil one. And Egypt, and Pharaoh in particular representing Egypt, is linked with the evil one through the imagery of the serpent.

Through the imagery of the serpent. Remember last week I spoke about the ureus, the coiled headdress on the head of every Pharaoh. An imagery that would be replete throughout imperial courts in the land of Egypt.

The divinizing ruler having his sovereign rule emphasized or symbolized by that coiled serpent. Many, many examples of this from archeology. It's a symbol of Egyptian imperial power. And remember what happens with this symbol.

God says, throw that rod down. And when he does, it becomes a serpent. And Moses begins to run for his life. And then God commands him, take it up by its tail, a most dangerous thing to do to a venomous serpent.

But Moses does it, and as soon as he does, it turns back to a rod. It stiffens out and dies. It becomes an exercise of God's power. This is the first preview in Exodus of the Lord's dominance over the serpent.

Really important. Exodus 4, we're not done with it yet, but this is the first preview of the Lord's dominance over the serpent.

Take it up.

Take it up by the tail. It is simply a demonstration of my power. If Moses would depend on God's power, even the might of Egypt, even satanic opposition to God's promise, cannot withstand. More importantly than the Aureus, more importantly than Egyptian symbols of power, that serpent, and that term serpent, brings us right back to the Garden of Eden.

Remember that it was the serpent that deceived the woman, and she became a transgressor. And it was the serpent that gained rulership over a fallen world, bringing sin and death through Adam and Eve's fall into the world.

And he gained rulership, dominion, though under God's sovereignty, because fallen man and woman had listened to the serpent's Torah, the serpent's instruction, rather than God's Torah, God's instruction.

They were essentially making him their lord. As we said last Sunday evening, Satan wasn't bluffing in the wilderness temptations of Jesus when he said, I have authority over the nations of the earth. I can give them to you if you would but bow to me.

He really did have the authority to do that. So in Genesis 3, we have the serpent slithering into the garden, deceiving humanity, bringing about the fall, raining now tyrannically over them, just as Pharaoh is raining tyrannically over the people of God.

Now, all fallen men, like enslaved Israelites, are in a bondage that they cannot break. All they can do is cry out for deliverance. And like in Exodus, so in Genesis 3, God promises deliverance. He sees the misery and says, I am going to act.

I am going to deliver. It will be through a promised seed. It will be through a deliverer, through a mediator. Now, it's not for nothing, the snake, there's many Hebrew words, nakash is the main one, tanin, leviathan, rahab, all this reptilian, serpentile imagery.

It's all evocative of the evil one. Remember, in the garden, it's a result of God's judgment on the serpent that he is led to slither on his belly. And it seems to be, within the larger picture of the Hebrew narrative, the idea is that the dragon had become the serpent.

So you have terms like tanin, that would be better translated dragon. And I think Revelation chapter 12, where we have the fiery red dragon, gives that some weight. But the serpent and the dragon are the same figure in biblical imagery.

I know we're going deep, but bear with me. We're going to keep spelling this out. The Scriptures link the serpent with Satan. The dragon, the serpent, the chaos monster that rises from the sea, the doom and the existential threat to God's people.

You'll see this is always embedded with watery imagery. The fallen angel who takes with him a host of dark powers and sways and deceives the nations against God, foisting a satanic opposition against God's purpose, against God's people.

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, Paul says, we're not struggling against flesh and blood. Hey Moses, you're not struggling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against cosmic rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of evil in the heavenly places.

How much does that factor into your worldview as a Christian? We almost always think we're wrestling against flesh and blood, don't we? Paul was aware there's a much bigger conflict, much bigger conflict that's going on behind the flesh and the blood.