"Israel Is My Son"

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 4:18-23

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Well, this morning we continue on in Exodus 4. We're going to be looking at verses 18 -23.
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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.
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And as we headed into chapter 4 last week, we saw the objections of Moses and how
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Moses was filled with great fear about what God had commissioned him to do and how he sought to evade
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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.
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Now we're following the narrative. We always seek to follow the path of the text.
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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.
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You'll find these little forest trails. Maybe there's large, dense foliage on either side of the path, tall trees and bushes beside.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And these things that will propel the story of redemption forward.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Secondly, we're going to zoom in and focus on this language of Israel being the
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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.
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So first, Moses returns to Egypt. We read, beginning in verse 18,
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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.
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And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. Now the Lord said to Moses and Midian, Go, return to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead.
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Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt.
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And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Moses has now left the theophanic presence of God at the burning bush.
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He's put his sandals back on his feet, cleaned himself up a little bit, and he's heading back to Midian's household.
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So as he makes his way out of Horeb and makes his way toward Egypt, he first wants to return to Jethro.
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Remember that Moses had been tending to Jethro's flocks in the wilderness, not just for a few years, but for decades.
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So it's natural that he has to return and speak to Jethro. He wants to tell Jethro of the change of plans.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Let me go and see the state of my brethren in Egypt. It could be an indication of his fear. We've already seen
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Moses' fear earlier in the chapter. Maybe he can't even mention what he's about to do, so he just says,
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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.
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Perhaps this shows some budding courage in Moses' heart. He doesn't want to be dissuaded.
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He doesn't want to be held back from his calling. Maybe Jethro would think, Moses, you have lost your mind.
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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.
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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.
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Maybe some of you this afternoon will be able to sympathize with feeling that way.
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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.
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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.
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That's how Jesus' own family thought about him at the beginning of his ministry. We don't know
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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.
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However fearful Moses had been up to this point, notice that God is continuing to encourage him along the way.
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He had given this revelation at the Mount of Horeb, and then he gives another revelation in Midian.
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Go, return to Egypt. All the men who sought your life are dead. He didn't tell
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Moses that at the burning bush theophany. He could have. He could have said, don't worry,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And maybe then you'll find encouragement along the way. Maybe then you'll find some comfort, some victory along the way.
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But until then, don't think that God's going to unfold everything before you. We see that here with Moses.
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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.
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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.
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And it's a dynamic providence. He loves to give further light as His people surrender willingly to Him.
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We read in verse 20, Moses took his wife and his sons. We had only heard of Gershon.
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Eliezer 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 Eliezer.
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But Moses took Zipporah, his wife, and his sons, Gershon and Eliezer, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt.
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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?
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Well, that's deja vu. That's the very language of Matthew chapter 2. So we're developing little parallels to the life of Christ.
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And this is very significant. We'll expand on this shortly. But I want you to keep in mind the context of Matthew 2.
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The context of Matthew 2, the context of Exodus 4, is the
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Pharaoh -like massacre of the sons of Israel. It's really important to understand this layered imagery.
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Another thing that's important to understand is the emphasis, again, in verse 20, on the rod of God.
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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
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Hebrew's way of emphasizing, right? Moses also took the rod of God in his hand.
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Reminder, keep that in mind. This is really important. The rod of God. This is really important. That's what the narrative is doing.
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This was the first of the signs that God had given. What's that in your hand? Well, it's a shepherd's staff.
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It's a rod. I'll do my wonders through that rod. With this rod, the sea...
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Please put your listening ears on. This will all come again towards the end. The sea, the waters, will be parted.
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Pharaoh will be drowned. Waters will be opened, and waters will be closed.
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The rod of God is with Israel to deliver and defend.
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We're going to come back to that. Layered imagery. Very important. The Son of God.
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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.
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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
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I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart so he will not let the people go.
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The Lord reminds Moses of all the wonders, ensures Moses' obedience, and then
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He also gives Moses some preparation for how the negotiations will go. How will those negotiations go?
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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!
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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
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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.
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He said, this is now the second time a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace.
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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.
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Now go home and get a nice, quiet sleep. And then the blitzkrieg happens and bombs start blowing up all over the
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English cities. The Israelites will not have a nice, quiet sleep, the Lord says.
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There will be no peace for the time. Instead, God says, I am going to harden
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Pharaoh's heart. He lets Moses know that this will be a deliberate act on the part of God.
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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.
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In order for that to be accomplished, Pharaoh will not relent. So we'll see as this exodus unfolds,
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Pharaoh hardening his own heart. We already saw that in chapter three. I know that he will not let the people go.
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No, not even with a strong hand. Then he says in chapter four, I will harden his heart.
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And as the narrative unfolds, we'll see both sides of this same thing. Pharaoh hardening his own heart.
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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.
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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.
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And yet, God in His sovereignty may judicially harden a sinner.
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He does not extend His hand forever. Be gone with this thought of God as the whimpering
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Divine Grandfather who only ever has mercy for rebels. That is not an image you get from Scripture.
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Repent, for the time is near. That's the kind of image you get from Scripture.
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God is going to make a spectacle out of Pharaoh. It's a depiction of His utter sovereignty.
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Egypt is a stage for the drama of redemption. We're going to see that in deeper ways yet, even this morning.
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And Pharaoh is one of the main players on this stage, on this play, on this drama, on this rehearsal of what the
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Gospel is. And if we read Exodus with that kind of understanding, we'll see all sorts of riches within.
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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
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Israelites and bring them to obedient faith are the very same signs that harden the heart of Pharaoh and harden the hearts of the
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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.
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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.
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It is the same Word, the same sign, the same event that is in view, and yet two diametrically opposed responses.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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So what does Scripture say? If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Psalm 95.
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Repeated in Hebrews 4. If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
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If Pharaoh would hear His voice, do not harden your heart. 22 and 23.
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We have this language, this layered imagery of Israel being the
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Son of God. Verse 22. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the
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Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me.
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But if you refuse to let him go, indeed, I will kill your son, your firstborn.
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Now we follow the logic of the plagues and that tenth and last plague that God pours out upon Egypt is when not only
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Pharaoh's son, but all the firstborn sons of Egypt die. And all the firstborn sons of Israel are saved through the
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Passover Lamb. But before we get to the Passover Lamb, which won't be this morning, I simply want to point out what
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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.
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Israel is my son, my firstborn. And then he says to the ruler, Pharaoh, you have a son too.
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You have a firstborn. And just like my firstborn is the corporate people, so your firstborn are a corporate people, the nation under you.
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And if you don't let my son, my people, my nation go, I will kill your son, your people, represented by the firstborn.
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So the charge is clear. Israel is here serving Pharaoh. But Israel belongs to God.
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That's my firstborn, the Lord says. If you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn.
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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.
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And here we have a particle, behold, it happens a lot of times in narrative, and it's almost like a huge exclamation point.
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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,
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I'm about to kill your son. That's how direct the warning is. Pharaoh, if you don't let my son go,
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I'm in the process, I'm about to strike down your son. And that will not be repeated until the last plague is introduced.
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But notice the claim. Here's the claim. Here's where we tread deeper into the theology and the unfolding redemptive drama of Scripture.
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Israel is my son, my firstborn. Now we've cleared the trees and the bushes and we're staring into the expanse.
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The word son clearly here does not mean direct descendant. Blood relative.
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The word son translated here as son, it's used in a number of ways in the Bible. Not least, a political dependent.
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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.
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And so you have the higher power and then the son and its language of political fealty, of loyalty and dependence.
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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.
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And so rulers having rulers underneath them. You have the language of sonship. The word can mean simply a disciple.
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That's how it's used in Proverbs. Take heart, my son. Listen to the words that I'm saying, my son.
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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.
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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.
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Because Adam was created by God and intended to be the image of God. In that sense,
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Adam was the son of God. I love this.
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Some great modern music. And I love Come Behold the
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Wondrous Mystery. And this point is drawn out in the lyrics. Come behold the wondrous mystery.
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He the perfect son of man. Already you see this imagery. Son of man.
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Son of Adam. Man, Adam. Interchangeable in Hebrew. He the perfect son of man.
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In his living, in his suffering, never trace nor stain of sin. See the true and better Adam.
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Do you see? That's very significant. See the true Adam. See the true son of God.
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So you get to Colossians 1 .15 and Jesus is the first born of all creation.
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He's the true Adam. He doesn't follow after Adam so much as Adam follows after Him.
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Very important reversal in redemption. With the nation of Israel, this idea of sonship is repeated.
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As Adam was meant to behold God and image God as God's son, but then miserably fails.
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Israel is brought forth. Israel is now meant to behold God and image
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God and be as a son to God. And like Adam, Israel fails.
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And it brings us to this redemptive turn where the true son, the obedient son, the true
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Israel, the true Adam arrives to fulfill all that God had required and accomplish all that God had promised.
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So the New Testament authors, as Raymond Dillard points out, understood Jesus to be the culmination of the
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Old Testament. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. He's the last
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Adam. But even as the last Adam, He's the first born of all creation. He is the embodiment of faithful Israel.
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So when we see here in Exodus 4, Israel is my son. My first born.
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We're meant to start connecting gospel dots to that. Israel is bringing us forward to think of Jesus as the faithful son.
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Jesus as the one who is promised and belongs to God and fulfills
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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.
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Matthew's Gospel, just in the genealogy, in the way that he recounts 14 generations moving from Adam to David to fulfillment.
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You have these beautiful pictures in Matthew's Gospel where you have Jesus shown as the culmination of Israel's history and purpose.
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But we can go deeper than that. After Jesus is born, Jesus goes down into Egypt, familiar to what we're saying with Moses.
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Matthew can't help but connect this to Hosea 11, verse 1. Out of Egypt I have called my son.
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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.
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Go back to Hosea 11. The reference is clearly to the nation of Israel being brought out of Egypt in the
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Exodus. And yet when Matthew records the family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus coming out of Egypt, Matthew says, in this the
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Scripture is fulfilled saying, out of Egypt I have called my son.
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So Jesus is the true son. Jesus is the true Israel. Jesus comes out of Egypt, and where does
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He go in Matthew's Gospel? He goes through the waters of the Jordan. Where does
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Israel go when they're led out of Egypt? Well, they pass through the waters as well.
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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?
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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.
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So layered imagery of Jesus being the true son, the true
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Israel. Yes, we could say Israel is my son, but Jesus is true
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Israel. God's son, representative of His people, just as Jesus is the true
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Adam. Obeying in every place where the first Adam failed to obey. Fulfilling everything that Israel failed to fulfill in every way
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Adam in Israel had proven to be. The unrighteous son. The unfaithful son.
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But then Jesus comes as the righteous son, fulfilling the demands of the law. Only that fulfillment could be the good news of the
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Gospel. It's a fulfillment on our behalf. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased.
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And the Father's pleasure is there throughout the entirety of His life.
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Every time He positively did what the law required. Every time He passively resisted temptation.
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Every time He gave Himself over to sacrifice after sacrifice.
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Even to the point of death. Even the death on the cross. He pleased His Father. Isaiah 53 says it pleased the
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Father to crush Him. This is how we behold the wondrous mystery.
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Now third. And now we're really going into the deep in more ways than one.
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The serpent and the rod and 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.
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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.
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If you were among us on Sunday night at SLBC we started getting into some of these issues.
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We spoke about atonement and how we rightly embrace substitutionary atonement.
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Meaning Christ took our place as sinners on the cross. Christ bore the wrath that was due us on the cross.
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He died for not indiscriminately for everyone. No. He died for His people.
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He died for His people as a substitution for them. And so substitutionary atonement.
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But we said there's more to atonement than that. There's something to say about the evil one.
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And how when man and woman fell in the garden they gave the evil one dominion, domain in this world.
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In this fallen world. He became the prince of the power of the air. He became the strong man that bound up all
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God's creation under a curse as possessions in His house.
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And Jesus came with the gospel of the kingdom to bind that strong man and plunder His house.
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And so the conquest against this satanic tyranny is held out to us in the book of Exodus.
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I'm going to keep coming at this. But it ought to enlarge the way we typically think about the atonement.
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About the cross. About what Jesus death accomplished. Let me start here.
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The kingdom of Egypt is just one historical embodiment of satanic opposition to God.
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We'll start there. The kingdom of Egypt Pharaoh in Exodus is just one historical embodiment of satanic opposition to the purpose of God.
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What we see beginning in Genesis is continuing in Exodus.
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And it's as one particular historical episode in Genesis. Perhaps one of several.
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Now it's a whole another historical episode. But it's still the same theme.
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Satanic opposition to the redemptive purpose of God. That's why you have the repetition.
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The massacre of Pharaoh against the Israelite children. The massacre of Herod against the
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Israelite children. Layered imagery to show fulfillment. Of course there's others that come.
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Assyria, Babylon, Rome. By the time you get to Revelation uses the language of Pharaoh.
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The imagery of Exodus uses the language of Babylon. Come out from her my people. But the beast in reference is surely the
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Roman Empire. Think of Daniel chapter 7. The four beasts. These are all historical kingdoms.
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Tyrannical rulers that oppose the people of God. And persecute the people of God. These are historical embodiments of satanic opposition to God.
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In this way what we read in Exodus is more than just a historical account of God delivering
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His people that becomes some metaphor for the Gospel. No, no, no. That's a terrible misreading.
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This is a preview. A parallel prefiguring of the
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Gospel. That's the whole reason this is occurring. This is meant to help us understand the
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Gospel before the Gospel actually comes. In this way
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Egypt is a manifestation and prefiguration of the fallen domain of the evil one.
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And Egypt and Pharaoh in particular representing Egypt is linked with the evil one through the imagery of the serpent.
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Through the imagery of the serpent. Remember last week I spoke about the ureus. The coiled headdress on the head of every pharaoh.
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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.
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Many, many examples of this from archaeology. It's a symbol of Egyptian imperial power. And remember what happens with this symbol.
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God says throw that rod down and when he does it becomes a serpent. And Moses begins to run for his life.
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And then God commands him take it up by its tail. The most dangerous thing to do to a venomous serpent.
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But Moses does it and as soon as he does it turns back to a rod. It stiffens out and dies.
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It becomes an exercise of God's power. This is the first preview in Exodus of the
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Lord's dominance over the serpent. Really important.
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Exodus 4. We're not done with it yet. But this is the first preview of the Lord's dominance over the serpent.
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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.
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More importantly than the Urias, more importantly than Egyptian symbols of power, that serpent and that term serpent brings us right back to the
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Garden of Eden. Remember that it was the serpent that deceived the woman and she became a transgressor.
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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.
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And he gained rulership, dominion though under God's sovereignty because fallen man and woman had listened to the serpent's
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Torah, the serpent's instruction, rather than God's Torah, God's instruction. They were essentially making him their
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Lord. As we said last Sunday evening Satan wasn't bluffing in the wilderness temptations of Jesus when he said,
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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.
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So in Genesis 3 we have the serpent slithering into the garden, deceiving humanity, bringing about the fall, reigning now tyrannically over them just as Pharaoh is reigning tyrannically over the people of God.
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Now all fallen men like enslaved Israelites are in a bondage that they cannot break.
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All they can do is cry out for deliverance. And like in Exodus, so in Genesis 3
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God promises deliverance. He sees the misery and says I am going to act,
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I am going to deliver. It will be through a promised seed. It will be through a deliverer, through a mediator.
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Now it's not for nothing. The snake, there's many Hebrew words. Nechash is the main one.
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Tanin, Leviathan, Rahab, all this reptilian serpentile imagery.
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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.
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And it seems to be within the larger picture of the Hebrew narrative, the idea is that the dragon had become the serpent.
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So you have terms like Tanin that would be better translated dragon. And I think
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Revelation chapter 12 where we have the fiery red dragon gives that some weight.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Foisting a satanic opposition against God's purpose, against God's people. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12,
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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.
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Against cosmic rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of evil in the heavenly places.
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How much does that factor into your world view as a Christian? We almost always think we're wrestling against flesh and blood, don't we?
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Paul was aware there's a much bigger conflict. Much bigger conflict that's going on behind the flesh and the blood.
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Such a sobering reality reminds us, as Michael Morales says, the dragon represents true evil, true darkness, bitter tragedy, violent loss, unbounded evil and hatred that threatens the lives of God's people.
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That's what we wrestle against. Also remember from Genesis 3,
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God declares that He's going to put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
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So this is a major insight for us to start looking at the story of Exodus. Enmity that has been funneling down from the story of Genesis into the story of Exodus where we see opposition between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, between Moses and Pharaoh, between God's people and God's enemies.
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And of course, the great hope in Genesis 3 is verse 15.
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The promise that a seed will come from the woman and will crush the head of the serpent.
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The dragon will be slayed. The sea monster will be drowned. Satan and all satanic opposition to God will be conquered.
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So here's the main thing. If I've lost anyone, maybe everyone, here's your entry back onto the train.
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Here's the main point we've made so far. Pharaoh is an embodiment of the serpent, or dragon, which is an embodiment of Satan.
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Starting at a big level here. Pharaoh equals Satan. Not Satan himself, but a historical manifestation of satanic power.
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Let me spell this out with some other places in scripture. And I want you to start seeing imagery from Exodus as we unload it.
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Ezekiel chapter 29 verses 2 and 3. Ezekiel is now prophesying.
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The Lord is telling Ezekiel what he is to say. Ezekiel significantly takes to himself this title,
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Son of Man. And Jesus significantly takes to himself the title Son of Man.
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Most likely that's a reference to Daniel, but certainly there's some significance there for Ezekiel as well.
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Jesus is our prophet, priest, and king. This is what the Lord says to Ezekiel.
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Ezekiel chapter 29. Son of Man, set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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Prophesy against him. Against all Egypt. Speak and say this. Thus says the
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Lord. Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt. O great monster, who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, my river is my own.
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That's the Nile. My river is my own. I have made it for myself. My prosperity, my security is by my own power.
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Now this is not from Exodus. Ezekiel is far removed from the events of Exodus and yet notice this imagery that Ezekiel is given by the
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Lord. Pharaoh is the monster in the water. Pharaoh is the dragon of the deep.
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O Pharaoh, king of Egypt. O great monster who lies in his rivers. We'll go further.
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Isaiah chapter 27. I'll begin with chapter 26. At the end of chapter 26, you're going to start to notice allusions to the
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Exodus story here, but Exodus is in the rear view mirror. It's already happened and yet Scripture keeps using the language and the themes and the images of Exodus to move us toward the
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Gospel. So Exodus, at the end of chapter 26, God is preparing His people for a great judgment
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He's going to bring against His enemies. Come, My people. Enter your chambers. Shut your doors behind you.
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Hide yourselves as it were for a moment until the indignation has passed. Behold, the
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Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the land for their iniquity. Sounds like Exodus, right?
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Go into your homes, shut the door, and wait for My judgment to come. Chapter 27. In that day, the
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Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent.
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Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and He will slay the reptile in the sea.
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And what's the result of that? What's the context? Verse 12 and 13. It will come to pass in that day, the
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Lord will thresh from the channel of the river, that's the Nile, to the very brook of Egypt, from the greatest body of water to the least.
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And you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel. It will be in that day, the great trumpet will be blown, and those who were outcast in Egypt shall worship the
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Lord on the Holy Mount. Does that sound like Exodus? That might as well be right out of Exodus.
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But notice again the significant imagery. It's not just that the Lord is opposing a political ruler like Pharaoh.
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What's the Lord opposing according to Ezekiel 29, according to Isaiah 27?
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The serpent, the dragon, Leviathan from the deep, the reptile, the monster in the river.
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All of this is satanic imagery of opposition. And did you notice the imagery of water?
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Water always in Hebrew imagery is evocative of a threat, an existential threat. It spells the grave.
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We see that again and again throughout the Psalms. Well, the narrative of Exodus is bookended by water.
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It begins with water, Moses taken out of the water, and as far as Egypt in the narrative of Exodus is concerned, it ends with water.
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So Egypt in the book of Exodus begins and ends with water which is a way in the Hebrew mind to say it's the watery abode.
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Egypt is the land of water. You think of it in your mind as the land of sand. To follow the theme here, to follow the imagery, it's the watery abode.
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And the only way you escape Egypt is through water, through death. God's victory over Pharaoh is depicted in terms of Him slaying the serpent, slaying the sea monster, crushing
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Leviathan, crushing Rahab. These are all the same images. And when we look at these images, we're meant to keep in the back of our minds the conflict that began in Genesis 3.
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The enmity between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent, between the promised seat, the deliverer, and Satan himself.
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And so the opening of Exodus chapter 1, the dragon, the sea monster,
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Pharaoh calls for the destruction of the Israelite children. They are those from whom this promised seat would come.
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So they have to be crushed. That's the enmity that the serpent has put in Pharaoh's heart. He's an embodiment of that satanic opposition.
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Now we get to Revelation chapter 12, and John helps us see this bigger picture, using images from Exodus as well as from the massacre of the innocents.
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So cold. Revelation 12, beginning in verse 1. I'm not going to go into too much detail with the imagery up front, but I want to emphasize what
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I've been trying to show from Isaiah 27, Ezekiel 29. Revelation 12,
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John says, a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.
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On her head a garland of twelve stars. And being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
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And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads, ten horns, seven diadems on his heads.
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And his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born.
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This is an apocalyptic image showing the massacre. Exodus 1. Matthew 2.
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The dragon, the serpent at enmity, opening his jaws, wanting to devour, wanting to oppose, wanting to crush
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God's promise, God's purpose in the world. Everything that we're seeing is about this conflict, this opposition.
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And who is this child that the dragon is seeking to devour, seeking to destroy? Verse 5.
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She bore a male child. Your translation ought to have a capital C. Mine does. Male child.
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Capital C. Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.
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And her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And then she fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God.
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So you have the woman of Revelation 12. I won't go into detail here, but most likely this is John's presentation of the people of God, both before and then after the fullness of time and Jesus' fulfillment.
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She's the woman seeking to give birth before Jesus comes, and she's the woman who flees into the wilderness, a place prepared for her after that Deliverer, after that male child, capital
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C, has ascended. So you have here in Revelation 12, the storyline of Israel preparing to give birth to the
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Savior. The Savior then being caught up, being ascended. So embedded within this imagery is the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
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And then she flees from the dragon into the wilderness. What I want to point out is the red dragon's opposition to the child, that which connects us from Genesis 3 to the story of Exodus to the other things that we rehearsed from the prophets and the
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Psalms, even to the Gospels itself. And all of this is being put together for us in Revelation chapter 12.
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The child has been caught up now. The dragon failed to devour, to crush him.
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He's now sitting at the throne of God. What does he have in his hand? What's that in your hand? A rod of iron to rule the nations.
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And this causes the dragon great rage. And of course, the dragon as we turn to 13 becomes the beast rising out of the sea.
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Where's that imagery coming from? The point here in Revelation 12 is now the
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King has ascended and has been given all authority. And now his enemies will be subdued underneath his feet.
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And this is accomplished through his ascension. And it brings about a new
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Exodus of the people of God. Because the people of God have now fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for them, awaiting their full deliverance.
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We're meant to anticipate something of the pattern of the Gospel from Exodus as it's given to us by John in the
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Revelation. And that brings us back to this very pattern. Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn.
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We're meant to ask the question, whose son, whose seed is going to survive this conflict?
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Will it be the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent? Will it be the Lord's son or Pharaoh's son?
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Well, we know at the end, at the end of the 10 plagues, the Lord himself will kill the firstborn son of Egypt.
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And that will lead to the liberation of his enslaved people. Now, put that as a summary over the storyline of Exodus.
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Here's a summary. Here's a summary. God will kill the firstborn son and deliver his people from the tyranny of the evil one.
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Is that a fair assessment of the things we've discussed? Let me repeat it. God will kill the firstborn son and so deliver his people from the tyranny of the evil one.
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That's a summary of Exodus. And that's a summary of the Gospel. God will kill his firstborn son and so deliver his people from the tyranny of the evil one.
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It's not just this private salvation that we experience from our guilt.
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We were in bondage not only to our sins, but to Satan himself.
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We were not just dead passively in trespass and sin. We were actively in rebellion, linked in arm with satanic opposition against God and His purposes until He came and those people who were not
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His people became His people. Jesus is that son who was killed as a ransom for His people.
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Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. Romans 8, 29. The firstborn of all
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His brethren. Let me put this together for you. Now, we have these pieces.
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The Son, the firstborn. Leviathan, the monster of the deep. Satan himself.
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Let's put that all together. Psalm 89. Psalm 89.
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Beginning in verse 8. O Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord?
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Your faithfulness surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea.
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Notice that imagery? Sovereignty over the chaos. Sovereignty over the waters. When its ways rise,
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You still them. You have broken Rahab in pieces. As one who is slain,
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You have scattered Your enemies with a mighty arm. That's a story of Exodus. Crushing Rahab with a mighty hand.
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Verse 24. Speaking now of the Messiah. We have this Exodus imagery and now it's turning to the promised seed.
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Psalm 89, beginning in verse 24. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with Him.
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That is, with the Messiah. And in My name, His horn shall be exalted. And I will set
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His hand over the sea. Now whose hand is ruling over the waters? And His right hand over the rivers.
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And He will cry to Me, You are My Father, My God, the rock of My salvation. And I will make
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Him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My mercy I will keep for Him forever.
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My covenant shall stand firm with Him. His seed I will also make to endure forever and His throne as the days of heaven.
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Do you see what Psalm 89 is putting together? Look at Exodus. Look at the imagery of satanic opposition.
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Look at Rahab. And then look at the Son of God. Look at the Davidic son. David's son, but David's Lord.
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The King whose throne knows no end. And put those things together. The serpent slithering through God's creation, bringing in His trail every plague, all bondage and tyranny, every misery and groaning evil.
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But the One who is greater coming to crush the serpent's head and drown the monster of the
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Nile and crush Rahab into pieces. The Son of God. The conquering
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Son of God. Crushing Satan under His feet. What does Paul say in Romans 16, 20?
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The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That's not something that factors into our presentation of the gospel, our understanding of the gospel, readily.
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That's why we talked about it on Sunday night. We were kind of talking about how should we think about the atonement in terms of being freed.
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It's like, oh, we're free from our sins. We're free from the guilt of our sins. It's all my sin, my sin, my sin. Okay, okay, okay.
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I get where you're going. My flesh, my flesh. Oh, no, no. Okay, I get where you're going. The world, the influence of the world.
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Like we couldn't quite get to Satan. Satanic tyranny. The bondage of the evil one.
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That's what Christ has come to call. And we see His glorious reign in Revelation 12.
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Not in terms of our flesh or our sin, but in terms of defeating the dragon and the beast.
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Putting the head of the serpent under His foot, like all of His enemies under His feet.
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That's what Revelation is meant to show us. She bore a child who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
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Where's that imagery coming from? It's the last image we have in Exodus that I want to focus on, the rod.
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Well, John mentioned it earlier in Revelation 2. He shall rule them with a rod of iron.
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Like vessels of a potter, they'll be broken to pieces. Where's that imagery coming from?
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Very important for a man like John. Very important for the kind of believers that gathered to worship with John on the
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Lord's day. They're primarily focused on Psalm 2 and Psalm 110.
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Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. That's where this imagery of the enthroned deliverer, the conquering king, the ruler of the nations, the ascendant promised one.
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There's a reason Psalm 110 is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. For us, it's like the least referenced.
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For them, it was the most. Because we don't take the time, the care to map the story of Exodus onto the
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Gospel. So Psalm 2, beginning in verse 7, just to make the point.
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I declare the decree. The Lord has said this to me. You are My son. It's an enthronement psalm.
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Today I have begotten you. Ask of Me. I'll give you the nations as an inheritance.
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The uttermost parts of the earth will be your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron.
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You'll dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. You see the reference. Psalm 2, Revelation 2.
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The enthronement of God's Son. The conquering king bringing about a new
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Exodus for God's people. Raising up His mighty arm of salvation. Bringing forth a mighty deliverance.
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Psalm 110. More important than Psalm 2 for early Christians. The Lord said to My Lord, again.
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Something Jesus Himself referenced to Himself. Sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.
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The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.
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The Lord sends the rod of strength. The rod of deliverance. The rod of power out of Zion.
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The rod imagery here with Moses and Aaron as Exodus unfolds is all meant to point us forward to this deliverer.
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To this mediator. To this power of God. To this deliverance. To this Exodus. Do you see? Exodus did not come sealed off and prepackaged as a separate book cut off from the
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Bible. Exodus flows off of Genesis. If you want to understand Exodus and all that happens between Exodus and the
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Gospel, you have to go back to Genesis 1 -3. The satanic opposition and the plague of death and bondage and misery over all of God's creation and the victory of dominion.
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The exaltation of the King who conquers by His own blood. So the conquering King, the
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Lion of Judah, is the slain Lamb. And that's what we're doing here this morning. It's what we do every
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Sunday morning. We gather to be reminded that this conquering King has risen indeed.
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And therefore, the serpent is now underneath Him, coiling wildly about, still threatening
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His people in persecution and threat, and yet cannot wriggle His sleathy head from underneath the foot of the exalted
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Son. Soon, He will be crushed under our feet by the God of peace.
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The resurrection is not a way to think about butterflies and flowers in spring. It's a way of putting together a cosmic understanding of the final conquering victory of the
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Son of God over the serpent seed that had persecuted Him and His people from the very beginning of the fall.
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And that is why His Bride gathers on the Lord's Day. Because He's risen and He's ascended, and His enemies are being put beneath His feet.
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Amen? I mentioned on Sunday evening this great dictum from Hermann Bavink, grace restores nature.
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And we talked about we have to begin with creation to follow the logic of redemption. If it's just redemption, it becomes interior, private.
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Me and God. God's my life coach. God's my co -pilot. Jesus, take the wheel. All of that imagery.
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We lop off creation and we start to make redemption something very small and very subjective and sort of following our own wishes and desires rather than the logic of what
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God has made. So you don't get new creation unless you start with creation. Creation, counter -creation or rebellion or fall.
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Decreation, God's judgment against that. And new creation. So grace restores nature.
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Clearly, never is that seen better than in Christ's resurrection. He is the firstfruits of our glory, of what we shall be.
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So grace restoring nature. And we've seen the consequences of disconnecting creation from the
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Gospel. I'm trying to remind us here that this is one of the consequences. Losing the view of Satan in terms of the conquest of Christ.
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No longer viewing redemption as something that's a victory over death. A victory over the evil ruler and tyrant of bonded souls.
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That's what we lose when we cut off creation. So I don't want to merely reduce the good news to being acquitted.
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I was forgiven. My guilt was cancelled out. As if the Gospel is only justification. Well, the
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Gospel is a lot more than justification. Someone will say, yes, it's about restoration too.
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Grace restores nature. Yes. Yes, that too. Justification, acquittal, expiation.
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Yes, also restoration. Jesus redeems what was marred. Restores what was lost. Renews what was disfigured.
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But if you've been listening this morning, we have to go even farther. It's not just justification.
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It's not just restoration. It's deliverance.
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He rescues what was captive. He frees what was enslaved. He delivers from the strong man who we were always held in a yoke of His bondage.
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Helpless to cry out. The serpent. The tyranny of Satan. That's held out to us by the story of Exodus.
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How many times, how many winters have we sung, O come, O come, Emmanuel. And we've never fixated on the truth of this marvelous line.
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Come thou root of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny.
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From depths of hell thy people save. Give them victory o 'er the grave.
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Come thou rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny.
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Can you... We're closed now. We're at the very end. So let me just ask. Could you sing that meaningfully?
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Could you sing that meaningfully? Could you look at your life and say, there was a time when
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I was under the sway and tyranny of the evil one. And the things that He desired,
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I did. The things that He loves. All the horrific things and the damage that it causes,
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I embraced. And the idols He put before me, I served. And I was a willing slave to His tyranny.
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Except sometimes the slavery was harsh. So I looked for little helps. And I tried to clean myself up as best
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I could, but I'm just under His tyranny. I'm in the strong man's house. Or can you sing from experience that the root of Jesse has freed you from Satan's tyranny?
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Can you sing it in such a way that it's not just a present reality that is yet to be consummated, but for that very reason, it's a bright and burning hope that causes us to say,
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Maranatha, Lord. You said you would soon crush Him, so crush Him. Drop the heel all the way down.
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Come and deliver us fully and finally forever. Is it a burning hope as it was for the earliest
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Christians? There's a reason they gravitated to Psalm 110. There's a reason they said, Come Lord, do this.
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Rule in the midst of your enemies. Can you come behold the wondrous mystery of this?
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Are you plugging your life, your walk with Christ, into this larger biblical story, this unfolding history of redemption?
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Or is it something so private? It's sort of Sunday only garment you put on.
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It's something for the little times in between the daily grinds and pressures and vicissitudes of life.
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That's what the narrative of Exodus is going to pressure. Come behold the wondrous mystery slain by death, the
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God of life. But no grave could ever restrain Him. Praise the Lord, He is alive.
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What a foretaste of deliverance. How unwavering our hope.
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Is that a foretaste of deliverance for you? How unwavering our hope.
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Christ in power, resurrected as we will be when He comes. Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for Your Word. The beauty of Your Word. The layered imagery that draws all to the full accomplishment of Your great promise.
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All yes and amen in Christ our Savior. Lord, so often we look at our lives and look at the world and look at the unfolding of history as something far less than this.
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Far less than the final drags of satanic opposition as He is slowly and surely being crushed under the nail -pierced foot of our conquering
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Savior. May our hearts burn, Lord. May we be softened to the beauty of the
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Gospel. The wonder of our redemption. May we behold the wondrous mystery of Your love and Your plan from all of eternity.
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May it soften us, Lord, and not harden us. I pray for those in this room, Lord, that Your Word hardens.
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They get distracted and lost by the details. They don't care to ponder or reflect.
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They don't consider the Word, much less even themselves. Lord, have mercy on them.
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Open their eyes. Give them a heart to know You. To know themselves. To know the bondage, the tyranny of sin.
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The relish and delight of the evil one who seeks to devour them even as the dragon sought to devour
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You. We praise You, exalted Son. That You have crushed
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Rahab. That You have drowned Pharaoh, the monster in the water. That You have curtailed and put beneath You, beneath Your footstool, all opposition to Your will.
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Rule, Lord, in the midst of Your enemies, we pray. As we long for You to return, that we may be like You and with You forever.