The Hand of God

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 3:18-22

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Well this morning we complete chapter 3, which has been in the crosshairs for quite some time.
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We're not done with the burning bush, neither are we done with what the Lord is instructing
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Moses to do. That will carry on into chapter 4. But this morning as we come to the end of chapter 3, verses 18 through 22, we're reminded that we're continuing to learn more and more about God, the great revelation of God that really carried us through the chapter and came to its summit in verse 14 with the revelation of God's divine name.
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I am who I am, he tells Moses, and we spent some time talking about that.
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Last time I preached, I was about to say last week, but two weeks ago, we also spoke about how
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God, the God who is, is the God who is for us.
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I am for you. What God is for his people. So we began with the aseity of God, the self -sufficiency of God, the utter transcendence and freedom of God, and then correlated that to how
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God is a covenantal God, a covenant making, covenant keeping God, faithful in all of his ways, upholding his promises, sure to the end, even when his people are faithless, he is faithful, and that work which he has begun he carries to the end.
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Now this morning, we want to consider the instruction that God is giving to Moses, and we're going to bear out some of the details that will emerge as we continue through the story of Exodus.
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Remember, God is giving Moses specific instructions to the elders and to the people as a whole and to Pharaoh.
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And as we walk through these verses, 18 through 22, we're going to see in miniature that which is going to characterize the unfolding story of Exodus, especially in God's relationship through Moses to Pharaoh.
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And within that, we're going to find a motif, in other words, a picture, a word, something thematic that will run the gamut of the book of Exodus, and that is the hand, the hand of God over against the hand of Pharaoh that will not let go of the people.
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And so the hand of God is going to act, and we're going to see this imagery and this language of the hand develop and cultivate throughout the unfolding narrative.
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So this morning, this is somewhat introductory to what will follow in more ways than one, but we're going to use this imagery of the hand of God, which is a major theme in Exodus, and we're going to preview it.
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We're going to look at three themes embedded within verses 18 through 22, which highlight certain things about the hand of God.
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First and foremost, that it's a guiding hand. That'll be the first point. Secondly, that it's a striking hand.
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And third, that it's a favoring hand. A guiding hand, a striking hand, and a favoring hand.
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So number one, the guiding hand, and this is God's providence.
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Verses 18 and 19, then they, this is the elders, will heed your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him,
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The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us, and now please let us go three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the
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Lord our God. But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go.
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No, not even by a mighty hand. In verse 18,
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Moses and the elders are instructed to say this to Pharaoh, the Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us.
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Pharaoh wouldn't have taken much out of the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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Who's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? That would mean very little to Pharaoh, but the Hebrews were something
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Pharaoh knew very well. The Hebrews were those people that were enslaved by Pharaoh.
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The Hebrews were those people that were detested by the Egyptians. And so this was a way that, in some ways,
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Pharaoh is feeling the pressure, the God of the people you're enslaving, the God of the people that you hate, the
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God of the people that you persecute. This God has met with us. With the great descriptors of the
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Lord God, we should also notice what God is saying about himself here. He is, first and foremost to Pharaoh, the
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Lord God of the slaves. The Lord God of the afflicted, the weak, the vulnerable.
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And he's not ashamed to identify himself in that way. In an ancient way of thinking, a strong people had strong gods.
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If your army was victorious, your gods were stronger. And so you wanted to associate your gods with the strongest forms, the best forms of your civilization.
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The gods of your great temples, or the gods of your mighty armies, the conquering gods, the victorious gods.
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But look at how the Lord God identifies himself here. Say this to Pharaoh, I'm the
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God of the slaves. I'm the God of the persecuted. I'm the God of the weak, and the vulnerable, and the afflicted.
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He's not ashamed to be called their God. Notice also that although God is currently meeting with Moses, then
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Moses leaves this theophany, leaves this presence of the burning bush, and goes to the elders, just as Moses, and then tells them about this message from God.
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And then when Moses, with the elders, goes to Pharaoh, they all say this, the Lord God has met with us.
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Isn't that interesting? The elders and Moses, they don't go to Pharaoh and say, the
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Lord God met with him, and we heard about it. They say, the Lord God met with us.
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In other words, for the elders to have received God's Word from Moses, was as if they themselves had met with God.
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Christianity functions in the same way. Christianity functions on the trustworthiness of God's Word.
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Wherever that Word is rightly given, it is as if you heard from God Himself. And that makes what we're doing this morning incredibly humbling, if not for you, certainly for me.
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Where the Word is rightly preached, you're hearing the Word of God. Now, what is the request that Moses and the elders are to bring?
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Please, let us go three days journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the
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Lord our God. Essentially, they're saying, can we have but a short forbearance, so that we may sacrifice to our
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God, the God of the Hebrews. This is something that was reasonable. You've whipped us, you've beat us, you've made us beasts of burden.
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We've endlessly made bricks for you, endlessly built all your great wonders in the land.
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Will you please let us go for a three days journey to sacrifice to our God? This was something that was easily granted by Pharaoh.
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There would have been many religious occasions throughout Egypt, and likely the slaves were given some time away, even as the masters were.
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This was very common in the ancient world. A religious observance was a religious observance, and slaves were able to take that time as their masters did as well.
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This wouldn't have been something very hard for Pharaoh to do. Add to that the fact that Pharaoh, like many polytheists in the ancient world, would not have dared offending a foreign
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God, an unknown God. If they're saying, our God needs to be sacrificed to, then
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Adidi would say, go and do that. We always want to be on good terms with the divine. So someone who thinks there's many gods, gods that are known and unknown, like the ancient
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Egyptians, would have been disposed to say, take three days. Maybe that'll put us on good footing. We're always hedging our bets when it comes to gods.
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So notice then, already we're seeing something of the callous, hardened heart of Pharaoh.
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Already, he will be stubborn. A three -day journey to hedge your bets against the anger of the
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God of Hebrews? No. Just three days to let the people who are endlessly slaving under your reign go and make sacrifice?
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No. God says, I'm sure he will not let you go. This is meant to introduce us in some ways to Pharaoh's hardness of heart.
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That even when something was reasonable, it would be rejected out of this bitter, rebellious hatred of God's people and the
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God of those people. I don't know this God, he will come to say. And so he always is doubling down on his tyranny.
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Always doubling down on his hardness of heart. Even when God made it easy. Even when God gave a reasonable request, he rejects it.
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So Pharaoh will not grant even a few days of rest and celebration. I want to tell you, friends, so it is with every sinner.
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So many churches think they can baby -step people into the faith. That's like saying, if you just gave
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Pharaoh a reasonable request, he would come arms open to the faith. How can we, how can we lower the bar for Pharaoh to become a
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God worshiper? How can we let Pharaoh in on the glory and the beauty of Yahweh?
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Maybe if we just make it a little bit easier for him to get his way to Yahweh, he'll become a believer. You see the fatal mistake there?
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God knows. It wouldn't matter if you made it effortless. They will not come.
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But I am sure God says, verse 19, the king of Egypt will not let you go. Not even by a mighty hand.
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Whether it's a reasonable request or a mighty hand, Pharaoh will not go.
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This is not a guess on God's part. He doesn't say, based on what I have observed about Pharaoh, it's probably not gonna work out, but it's worth asking because you never know.
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You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. That's not what God is saying. He's speaking in terms of his own guiding hand, his own providential hand, as we'll come to see, as he will come to say, for this very reason
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I have raised up Pharaoh. So we see here, first and foremost,
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God's sovereignty displayed in verse 19. I surely know the king of Egypt will not let you go.
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In fact, that's why I've raised up this king of Egypt. That is why I'm about to unfold the spectacle of the
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Exodus. This is not God merely acting out of his foreknowledge, the fact that he knows all things that can be known.
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He's not looking down the corridor of time and reacting to what Pharaoh will do. God is not reactive.
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God is active. He does whatever he pleases. So this is not so much his foreknowledge, though that's always in play, but his fore - ordination.
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In other words, his predestination. This is the God who knows the end from the beginning, not because he reacts to it, but because he ordains it.
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God knows everything because God has ordained everything. And keep in mind the larger context of what we're looking at.
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Moses is told ahead of time how Pharaoh is going to react. Amos 3, verse 7 says, surely the
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Lord does nothing without revealing at first to his prophets. And in this case, just like that verse is saying,
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God is preparing Moses for what he will encounter. So that he'll be left without excuse when things seem to go horribly wrong.
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If God wasn't revealing this to Moses, what would happen? He would raise up the elders and go to Pharaoh with all this expectation that because God has moved in this mighty way,
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Pharaoh would say, yes, of course you can go. Like when Nehemiah went to Cyrus, yes, of course you can go.
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In fact, here's provisions for you. Oh, amen. This is wonderful. So what is God doing? He's preparing
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Moses for the fact that he will be rejected. Pharaoh will not let the people go.
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And so this is to leave Moses without any excuse or any discouragement to realize that even in this rejection,
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God's plan is being fulfilled. And of course, this is important as we head to chapter 4.
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You're going to see Moses trying to come up with every excuse in the book why he shouldn't go. Why he's not the right man to go.
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He's already psyching himself out, already thinking in terms of his discouragement. And so God is preparing him for this.
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I am sure the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even by a mighty hand. And here that mighty hand of God's ordination, that mighty hand of God's providential guidance is going to wield mighty plagues.
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And yet Pharaoh will not do what 1 Peter 5, 6 says he should do. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so that you may be exalted in due time.
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Now, the hand of God, I mentioned this is a motif in the book of Exodus. The hand of God underscores divine power.
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This is the imagery of war. In conflict, the victor has the mighty hand.
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And Pharaoh uses this language of himself in many ways. More important than that, this word, often
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Hebrew narrative loves to do this. I was reading this from Thomas Dozeman, who has a technical commentary, and he points out the root of the word mighty.
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Hand in Hebrew is Yad, mighty is an adjective, Hazak. And the root of the word mighty takes on a variety of meanings.
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When you take those consonants, we would transliterate it as H -Z -Q, Hazak, mighty.
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Well, that root, those letters, that combination of letters shows up in various ways. When it's used as an adjective to describe the hand of God, it's always a term of salvation.
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The mighty hand of God that rescued his people from the clutches of Pharaoh. However, when it's used as a verb, it's often used to describe the hardened heart of Pharaoh.
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It's another way of pronouncing those consonants. So as a verb, Pharaoh is hardening his heart.
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He's Hazak -ing his heart. But God, against that hardened heart, is going to use his
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Hazak, his mighty hand, to deliver his people. This is some of the wordplay in the narrative.
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We're going to see this. This is not all we're going to say about this. We're going to see this again in chapter four with verse 21.
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Again, in Exodus 9, verse 16. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the mighty hand of God.
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Of course, Exodus 9, verse 16 is what Paul quotes in Romans 9 when he's describing and defending
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God's sovereign predestination. And so we'll dive into these things more fully in times to come.
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The key here is this. God will raise his mighty hand because the hand of Pharaoh will not let the people go.
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That's the key. The king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not even by a mighty hand.
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And so what's the result of that? It's our second point. It's a striking hand. The guiding hand, the providential predetermining hand, becomes the striking hand.
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This is God's punishment. So first we look at God's providence.
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Now we look at God's punishment. The striking hand. Verse 20, so I will stretch out my hand and strike
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Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in its midst. After that, he will let you go.
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As a result of Pharaoh's obstinate rebellion to God's clear command, God's guiding hand becomes
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God's striking hand. It becomes outstretched.
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It's not a good thing in Scripture when God is raising his hand. Something fateful is about to happen and it's outstretched in wrath against the evil empire.
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As we said, it's a display of power to raise one's hand in this way. It's militaristic imagery.
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And as the story unfolds, we're going to see this again and again, whether it's God's hand figuratively or quite literally
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Moses' hand or the extension of Moses' hand by the staff. This is all embedded with the imagery of the hand.
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Now it's interesting. We can look at this language of the outstretched arm and the strong hand.
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This was an idiom that was well known in Canaan. We know this from several documents. We have preserved letters from an archaeological discovery at Tel Amarna and we have this idiom being used, the outstretched arm or the strong hand.
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It's militaristic imagery. And Pharaoh himself, we know, at least if not this
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Pharaoh, many other Pharaohs, likely this Pharaoh as well, often referred to himself in times of conflict as the
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Lord of the strong arm. So Pharaoh would be known to his conquered vassals as the
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Lord of the strong arm. And that, of course, is part of the irony, part of the parody. Pharaoh makes himself out to be the
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Lord of the strong arm, but who's really the Lord with the strong arm? It's the God of the slaves.
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It's the God of the afflicted. He's the Lord with the mighty hand. And he raises that hand. He outstretches that arm.
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I will strike Egypt with all of my wonders. We'll see this quite literally fulfilled.
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God, the imagery of striking when the Lord strikes the Nile and turns it to blood.
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Chapter seven, when he strikes the dust, when he strikes with gnats, when he strikes with hail to beat down the grain, when the firstborn are struck down, you see this imagery, this repetitious verb.
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And it's always a sense of justice. Pharaoh hardens his heart. And as a result, God strikes and the
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Egyptians are portrayed. Remember this in chapter five. We saw it already in chapter two.
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The Egyptians are the ones striking the Israelites. So here's the picture of justice. The taskmasters and Pharaoh himself have struck
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God's people. And so God is striking back. This is, by the way, why we need to rehearse things like we did last
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Sunday night, chapter six of our confession, which is on the fall and the doctrine of sin.
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Why do we need to rehearse? Why do we need to keep before us the doctrine of sin? Because we need to always retain the idea that sin is an offense to a holy
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God. As offensive as Pharaoh's hardened rebellion is to God, and what does sin warrant as an offense to God?
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God's striking punishment. That's what sin demands.
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If God is to be holy and just, when we speak of God's wrath. We're speaking of retributive justice, not something arbitrary, not something abstract, but tooth for tooth, measure for measure,
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God striking against sin. Now, listen, for sinners.
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With hardened hearts like Pharaoh, this is bad news, but for sinners.
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With softened hearts, seeking mercy by faith and repentance, this is good.
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We'll get back to that towards the end. The fact is, we were all sinners, whether hardened hearts or softened hearts.
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The question is whether we've resisted God's mercy like Pharaoh or cried out for that mercy like God's people.
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Have we turned to God, lest he outstretches his arm to strike? Judgment in the book of Exodus is bad news for those who harden their hearts.
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This is a meta level picture of the gospel embedded within the narrative of Exodus. Don't be like Pharaoh would be a great moral application from the book of Exodus.
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Do not harden your hearts in the day of his wonder. Do not stiffen your neck, but rather humble yourself under his mighty hand that you may find grace in in a due time.
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There's so few who enter the kingdom without conviction over their sin. Now, the degrees of conviction may vary widely.
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Some people can be rocked to the core about a sense of guilt and crime and offense before God.
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Others, it's far more gradual, far more encompassing and wide, but maybe not as deep, not as pronounced, not as sharp.
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And that doesn't invalidate the one over against the other at all. We could compare Lydia, where her heart is, to use
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Wesley's analogy, strangely worn. The veil's removed, she believes.
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Read a few verses later, the Philippian jailer, he's freaking out. His whole world is turned upside down.
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Conviction may look widely different between a Lydia or a Philippian jailer, but there must be that conviction.
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Pharaoh, you'll notice as we walk through Exodus, has absolutely no conviction. Absolutely no conviction.
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So how much conviction should a sinner have? How much conviction is necessary?
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Well, the answer that I've heard that I think is the wisest is as much conviction as is necessary to draw you to Christ.
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As much conviction as is necessary to bring you to an end of yourself and bring you to the
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Savior. That's how much conviction you need. But you'll notice with this hard hearted Pharaoh, there's no conviction and therefore there can be no repentance.
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He will not let go. Even when the mighty hand is striking him, he will not let go.
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And there's so many that have been struck by God's mighty hand, struck by the wonders of God, have met with the mind bending mercies of God, have been rocked by the chastisements of God.
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And yet neither bring them to repentance. They will not turn around. They will not, to go with the root of that word, repentance, metanoia, they will not change their mind.
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They will pursue that wide path of destruction to the bitter end. And so we see that there may be a certain level of conviction even that Pharaoh lacks.
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That's not enough to close with Christ, because repentance is more than regret. Repentance is more than guilt.
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Repentance is more than a sense of shame. Repentance is a turning. Repentance is a changing.
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Repentance is a Lord help my unbelief. That is repentance. Repentance recognizes not just the effect of sin, but the offense of sin.
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Other recourse, have I none, hangs my guilty soul on thee. It recognizes the offense of sin, do you see?
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Repentance sees sin, not in our own little winking ways in times past, not in the winking ways of the world around us, not in the watered down and slowly diffused lives and practices of others.
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A convicted sinner sees their sin in the eyes of a holy God. Woe is me, says someone who's under genuine conviction of sin.
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I am undone. If you don't come to that in your life, let me tell you, the striking hand of God is bad news.
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But as I said, judgment in the book of Exodus is good news, gloriously good news for those who are in bondage, for those who are crying out for deliverance.
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This is where repentance gives way to faith. It's two sides of the same coin, faith and repentance, repentance and faith.
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Faith considers Christ in all of his might, in all of his majesty, in all of his meekness and mercy, it casts all upon him.
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I love the definition of John Owen. Faith receives Jesus, looks to Jesus, comes to Jesus, flees to Jesus, leans on Jesus, trusts in Jesus, holds to Jesus, rests in Jesus.
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In short, faith renounces all hope and help and self or any other creature. It is a going out of the soul to Christ for life in him, comprehending and understanding, apprehending, laying hold of all the blessings of salvation found in him.
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That's a great definition of faith. In Deuteronomy, when
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God delivers his people, he gives them this recital, this this language of his mighty arm that has rescued them.
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This is something they are to worship God in light of. Yahweh provides a sort of recital for his people.
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And so they say this is from Deuteronomy 26, verses five through eight. They're to be reminded the Egyptians treated us harshly.
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They afflicted us. They struck us and laid on us hard labor. But the
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Lord God heard us and he brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with fearful deeds, with signs and wonders.
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This becomes the bedrock of their very worship. And notice their worship looks back to their great salvation.
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But it's here in Deuteronomy, because not only do they look back to their salvation, they look forward to what
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God has promised. When we look at this imagery of the hand, that's essentially what we're doing.
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This is the glorious good news for those who are in bondage to sin. We look back to God's striking hand, striking his beloved son for all of our sin, for all of our rebellion, for our hard heartedness toward him.
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His hand strikes his son. And that striking hand to us becomes a hand of provision.
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The imagery couldn't be more clear. The hand that strikes and strips the sun upon the tree is the hand that then anoints and clothes and covers and nourishes.
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We look back on the hand that had struck, just like in Israel, look back on the hand that had struck, and then we look forward to all that God will provide.
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Here's the bad news for someone who has a hard heart like Pharaoh. You have nothing to look forward to but the hand that will inevitably strike.
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The Christian can say, God stretched out his arm. God lifted up his mighty hand and did a wonder, and he poured out his wrath and his punishment upon all of my sin.
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Yet, not I was consumed by wrath, but my savior was consumed in that wrath. And that striking hand has now become the hand of my provision.
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It's become a hand that has favored me. And that's verses 21 through 22, the favoring hand,
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God's provision. I will give this people favor, he says, in the sight of the
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Egyptians. And it shall be when you go, you shall not be empty handed. Every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing.
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And you'll put them on your sons and your daughters. In this way, you'll plunder the Egyptians. So the result of God's judgment, his striking hand is provision for his people, his favoring hand.
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We're going to unfold this a little bit more, but we're trying to see the sort of larger story of the gospel here in this framework, right?
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There's the mighty hand of God, that providential guiding hand who's determined everything that happens in this drama of redemption.
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That guiding hand meeting against sin becomes a striking hand. And because he's exercised his hand in judgment on behalf of his people, it becomes a providing hand.
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The Lord will do his wonders. Pharaoh will finally release the Israelites. And to add to this beautiful imagery of the hand, they will not be empty handed.
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And this fulfillment is found in chapter 12, as we'll come to see.
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It's rehearsed in Psalm 105, Psalm 106. We have it in Psalm 106. He brought them out with silver and gold.
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He didn't bring them out with a pallet of ramen noodles and a few spare bottles of water.
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He brought them out with the greatest treasures of Egypt, with silver and gold to such an excess that they're putting the most majestic clothes on their children.
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Now, this language normally conveys the idea of plunder, right? A victorious army will plunder the conquered foe.
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This was a truism in all ancient combat. Whoever was victorious then went into the walled cities, then went into the villages and the hamlets, and they took whatever they wanted.
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They took cattle and they took women and they took everything that they wanted to make themselves mighty.
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It was the spoil of war. That's not exactly what's going on here, as God goes on to say.
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This is not a frenzy where Israelite men rush into the villages of Egypt, rush into the great walled cities and take whatever pleases them.
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That was something that I was surprised to find. I was reading this little book, it was an atlas of Scotland and it was meant for children.
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It had all these little cartoony maps. And we went over to Loch Ness, a place that some of us visited some years ago.
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And there was the ruins of Urquhart Castle. And I said, oh, Elsie, you probably don't remember, but we were there. We were on the banks of Loch Ness and we saw the ruins of Urquhart Castle.
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And so the little factoid that was there said, in 1545, Clan MacDonald raided
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Urquhart Castle, took hundreds of animals, beds, brewing pots, a chest with 300 pounds of money, and even the castle doors.
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And they took all of that and sailed back up, up northward. Thank God, that's not what the
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Israelites do. I had to kind of say, this is our family shame again. You know, God is not saying, go and steal from the
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Egyptians because chapter 20, verse 15, thou shalt not steal. Right?
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He's not, he's not warranting or giving a license to outright theft. Nor could we even say this is plunder.
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If this is plunder, it's the only description of plunder we've ever seen where the women are asking for gold and silver and clothing for their sons and daughters.
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And notice what God says at the very top of that. I will give you favor in their sight. So the women just have to ask.
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The enemy is so completely subjugated under God's mighty hand that even the populace begins to have sympathy and pity for them.
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The same way that God's mighty hand has directed the heart of the king, as Proverbs says, it's also moved in the hearts of the people.
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And so the wives, just as they're walking on the way out, just say, can I have some gold? Yes. A little more silver, please.
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Of course. Can I have some nice silk blouses for my girls? Yes. God has so moved that they're plundering without plundering.
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They're taking just by asking. The weakest among the populace simply request for the most precious things
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Egypt has to offer, and they receive it. God is giving his people favor in their eyes.
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Exodus 11 .3 will rehearse this again. The Lord gave the people favor. Exodus 12 .36.
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The Lord gave the people favor. Psalm 106 .46. He made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captive.
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So again, we're confronted with the reality of God's sovereign power. It is his hand that turns the king's heart after his own will.
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It is his hand that can grant favor from an empire or hostility from an empire.
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It is his hand that guides, that strikes and that provides. And of course, we're reminded that God is fulfilling his promise down to the details.
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What did God tell Abraham in Genesis 15, verse 14? The nation whom they serve,
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I will judge. Afterward, they will come out with great possessions. This is a picture of salvation, is it not?
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Revealed here at the burning bush to Moses. God's people held captive in a bondage, they cannot escape from only being able to cry out for mercy.
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And God, in response to those pleas and those cries, in response to that helpless estate, strikes and as a result of his striking, his judgment, his people are freed and secured with every provision, every costly gift imaginable.
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Is that not in miniature the gospel? We're reminded all these things are written for our sake, as Paul says, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
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We're assured that all things have moved according to the purpose of God on our behalf.
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He says in 1 Corinthians, all things are for your sake. It doesn't seem like that when you're a ragtag group of slaves and widows and orphans and maybe a few wealthy people gathering together in some defunct basement in Corinth, worshiping the resurrected savior.
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Does it really seem like everything around you is for your sake? Would it have felt that way if you were an
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Israelite slave? And as far back as you could think of your generations, all you had known was slavery, increasingly cruel slavery?
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Would it have seemed to you that the world was running around you and your fate? Well, then what a deep well of consolation we have here.
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If you're a Christian with an anxious heart or a fearful mind this morning, brothers and sisters, ponder these things.
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As a Christian, you will never meet a difficulty. You will never face an enemy, either in the world or even in your own heart, that has not been risen up by God's permission.
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You will never face an enemy or a hindrance or an obstacle that God will not conquer.
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As a Christian, you will never endure a trial out of which he will not deliver you. There may be weeping in the night.
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Joy always comes in the morning. And that's why the
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Lord is telling Moses all of this up front. This is what
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I'm going to do. This is what I always do. I always identify with the afflicted and the humble and the weak and the needy.
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I always raise up my mighty arm outstretched. I always deliver them and procure them with the greatest things, the greatest gifts imaginable are theirs.
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We can be confident of this very thing, Paul says, he who began a good work will keep it.
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He who calls you is faithful, he says elsewhere, he will do it. Everything in the
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Christian's life has been ordered with view to a final triumph. That's the consummation of Christ's redemption.
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Every trial, every obstacle, every enemy has been ordained by God that we would walk by faith and not by sight.
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And when it seems that we are at the most threatening impasse, the most indefeatable obstacle, it is then that God stretches out his mighty arm to deliver.
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And how does he deliver silver and gold? The most the most unimaginable glories that follow.
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And what did you do to get that? You simply humbled yourself and cried out for mercy.
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You acknowledge that you are a captive and you could not be otherwise, you felt the offense of sin. One other thing
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I want to point out from the text, and I want to keep just showing how this is a miniature of the gospel, it's thematic and we're going to see it throughout
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Exodus. There's all sorts of ways this is encoded. The Lord says,
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I will outstretch my arm, my mighty hand, and I will do wonders in their midst,
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I will do wonders in their midst. And that is a very specific word that doesn't appear very often. In fact, when it does appear almost always throughout the
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Psalms, as one example, it's always mentioned in the Psalms as the basis for the praise of the worshipper.
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The psalmist is always praising God for the wonders that he has performed.
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And so ordinarily, wonders are signs of salvation. For the wonders, the signs of his salvation, the wonders of his mercy.
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But here in Exodus three, the wonders are the judgment. The wonders are the plagues.
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I will perform my wonders. And it's the plagues. So the wonders are here in Exodus three,
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God's act of utter and final judgment. But then that same term wonders throughout the rest of Scripture's storyline becomes symbolic of salvation, symbolic of God's mercy.
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And I think we're meant to see that. Egypt is stripped by the judgment of God, stripped by his striking hand.
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But then it becomes this emblem of salvation. So we have an act of judgment here that is an act of salvation everywhere else.
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Do you see where I'm going with this? Ultimately, what is the greatest wonder of God? What is the greatest act of judgment that becomes symbolic of salvation, symbolic of his mercy everywhere else?
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It's the cross. The cross of Christ is the act of judgment.
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That becomes the wonder of his salvation, the spectacle of his mercy everywhere else.
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It is the plague by which his people worship. It is the striking hand that his people bless.
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Jesus constituted as our hardened sinful rebellion, stripped by the striking judgment of God.
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And we, the hard hearted captives to sin, rescued by his hand, brought out of bondage with exceedingly great possessions, with his own righteousness, his own blessedness now imputed to us, exceedingly precious promises now given to us, promised gowns and crowns and indeed the inheritance of the world,
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Romans 4. And all of this so that as Ephesians 2, 7 says.
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In the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. And his kindness toward us through Christ.
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So don't miss what we're seeing with the hand here. The hand that has determined everything, the hand that when meeting against sin's rebellion becomes a striking hand and that same striking hand for God's people is a providing hand.
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So when we read Ephesians 2, 7, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and the kindness he has toward us in Christ Jesus.
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What is that kindness? It's as as stunning a transformation as that word wonders.
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What is his kindness in Ephesians 2, 7? What are the exceeding riches of his grace?
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What are the wonders of his mercy? It's the outstretched arm striking the blessed son, strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.
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And yet that same outstretched judgment lending hand now nail pierced, gathers the sheep afterward, provides for them because he came to seek and save that which is lost.
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He gathers them near by his own blood. This is all the result of God's judgment. His striking hand becomes his favoring hand.
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The striking hand becomes the hand of provision. You see the judgment fall upon the son, and yet we are clothed.
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The striking hand smites the blessed one, and yet we are embraced, we're given triumph, we're given song, we're seated at the feast.
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Like the prodigal son, we only bring our offense, we come out of the far country. Expecting the hand of the father to strike us, but what does the hand of the father do in Luke 15?
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It says come, and it clothes us, and it takes the golden ring and puts it on our fingers, it exalts us.
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And as we're coming up with all the reasons that we're vile and guilty and ashamed, it can't even hear it, it's too busy saying slaughter the lambs, slaughter the bulls, prepare the feast.
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So then tell me, you who are weak in faith this morning. Will he ever let you go naked or homeless or hungry?
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Will he ever let sin in your life overwhelm you, overtake you, drag you away?
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Will he ever leave you unprotected ultimately from the world, the flesh and the devil?
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That doesn't mean that you may not be brought to places where you have to dwell by a cave or be fed morning and evening by ravens.
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Things might get dicey and it might be razor thin, but will God ultimately ever let you go?
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What we see and what we will see throughout the book of Exodus is that the striking hand, the very hand which smites the blessed son becomes the providing hand to such a degree that he provides all things for his people.
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Whatever is necessary for us to live for him. Do you really believe that?
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Look to the cross and see the striking hand and say to yourself, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not freely give us all things?
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And what does he give us? When he says all things, what does Paul mean? All things.
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He's got a thorn in his flesh, all things. He had to sew together leather scraps.
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What do you mean? He's given all things. Read the resume in 1 Corinthians 9.
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Look at all that he has to go without, all the things that he lacks. Where does Paul find his sufficiency? Paul can truly say he's given me all things.
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Whatever I need to live this life by faith, whatever I need to live for him and be found in him, in that sense,
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I've been given all things. And if you understand the providing hand of God.
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You will be brought closer to the nail, the nail pierced hand that welcomes you and clothes you and anoints you and exalts you in due time.
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Are you an unbeliever here this morning? Do you have a hardened heart and a stiff neck like Pharaoh? Are you under that bad news with that inevitable judgment?
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Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Recognize your captivity to sin, recognize your bondage.
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But if you're a Christian with weak faith. Recognize that that striking hand has already dealt its blow, that judgment of God has already been poured out.
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Now, there is only mercy and grace for all who will come to God, the father through Christ Jesus, the
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Lord. That is an open invitation for the weak and the downtrodden, those who are in misery and in bondage to sin, to come to the savior, find the nail pierced hand that provides he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
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How shall he not freely give us all things? Let's pray.
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Father, we we bless you for your determining hand, your sovereign hand, the hand that guides every atom and molecule of history, the hand that determines and conveys whatever pleases you.
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We bless the hand that strikes. Knowing that even when it strikes us as fatherly discipline, it's a strike of love and it proves our sonship, it shows that we belong to you.
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It shows that you take care for us and everything that hinders our walk with you, every sin which threatens our communion with you.
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We bless it even more as the striking hand, which in judgment fell upon the son, our savior, that that crushed him on the tree.
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That opened up. Flowing streams in a fountain of blood that it would become the favoring hand, the providing hand that close us with white robes and washes away the vileness and the offense of our sin.
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We bless the mighty hand of God. We bless the predestinating hand of God that has.
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Gathered us one by one into your heavenly kingdom that has known us by name.
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That has anointed our heads with oil, made a feast before us, even in the presence of our enemies.
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We come to you this morning, Lord, with empty hands. With open mouths, we pray,
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Lord, do not let us go the same way we've come. If there's one here,
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Lord, in bondage to sin, that's seeing the offense of their sin, don't let them be allayed and let their conscience go back to sleep.
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Lord, alert them to your striking judgment. It will be found on them unless it be found for them upon the savior.
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May they see the truth of that. Give them hearts that are soft, not hardened. And may those who are weak in faith this morning find fresh strength and fresh courage to know they've been given all that they need to walk with you by faith to find ways of escape in times of temptation, to find grace in times of need.
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Let them boldly go to your throne, pleading nothing but the blood of the slain lamb who gave his life for the world.