Slavery In Egypt

Okay, grab a Bible, something to write with, come and have a seat. Let us begin with a word of prayer. Almighty God, you've called your church to witness that in Christ you have reconciled us to yourself.

Granted by your Holy Spirit, we may proclaim the good news of your salvation so that those who hear may receive the light of salvation through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.

Amen. Okay. Okay.

Israel, the Exodus, and the Motif of Slavery to a God-King

Today we begin formally looking at the book of Exodus. And in our first class, kind of in preparation for this study, we noted that scripture uses the word Israel in several different senses. One of the senses is it's referring to the particular guy who was named Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel after he had that nighttime wrestling match with Jesus, which again is one of the most bizarre stories in all of scripture.

Jesus shows up and says, hey, wanna wrestle? It's like, okay, let's do it. It's kind of like the princess bride. That's kind of how I picture it. After that, the other way in which you can talk about it, you could talk about it as Israel as literally referring to that strip of land between Egypt and Syria.

That's one way you can talk about it. Then you could talk about the children of Israel, those who are genetically descended from Abraham. And then the scriptural distinction, not all those who are descended from Abraham are part of Israel, nor are they children of Abraham.

True Israel, the thing that it all points to is that those who have the same faith as Abraham are children of Abraham and are part of Israel. And so there's Norwegian Hebrews now, because you guys have all been grafted in to Israel.

We've all been grafted in together. Now, as we look now at the story of Exodus, we're gonna see a changing up, kind of like a reshuffling of the deck when it comes to biblical typology. And another way to look at biblical typology is you can kind of talk about it as in motif form.

This is a motif, a kind of a theme or a motif in scripture that kind of recurs. And so as the story opens on the book of Exodus, we're going to find that Israel is enslaved to a God-king. Y 'all remember having to take world history as freshmen in high school?

I know you guys took copious notes. Y 'all remember, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, I oftentimes go back and I review the Fertile Crescent and things like that, yeah?

So.

What's copious mean?

Ha ha ha ha ha.

No, that's a cornucopia. All right, make a note to self here, okay. Copious is like extensive notes. It's another way of putting it. But if you remember back, when we study what's called the Fertile Crescent, and what was one of the major features of the kings in the ancient world in the area of the Fertile Crescent, they were God-kings.

They were seen as gods on earth. And so as the story opens, we're going to see that Israel, and notice this is type and shadow pointing to something that's the reality. Israel is in slavery to a false god, a false god who's the king.

And we're gonna hear about death of the innocent. We're gonna hear about the birth of a savior. And then we're gonna hear about salvation through water for this savior. And the funny part is, is that if I were to ask you, when we read the story of Moses and him being saved from being killed, I would say, what was he put into in order to be saved rather than killed?

You'd say, well, you'd say a basket, right? The Hebrew word is ark. I am not joking. Moses was put into an ark.

Right.

But it's the exact same word used for Noah's ark.

Yeah, that's right.

So yeah, they haven't, in fact, you'd probably recreate Moses' ark for On the Cheap as opposed to Noah's ark. You go down to Cincinnati and take a look at the new Noah's ark that they have there at the Creation Museum, which I'd really like to see that.

So, but that's a different story. I'm off on a tangent already. So these are the things we're gonna pay attention to today as we open up and then we'll note how this points to the situation that we find ourselves in because Israel here, the people of Israel, they're the type in shadow pointing to the reality, which is true Israel, which we are all a part of.

And so, like I said, that this is like a map that says you are here. So if you have been baptized, set free from slavery to sin, on your way to the promised land, then you know where you are, right? You're currently in the wilderness of the in-between time of having been set free from slavery on your way to your eternal abode.

So that's the idea.

So the wilderness becomes, well, a very interesting parallel to our own lives as Christians. But I'm getting way ahead of myself. So Exodus chapter one, that's Romans.

Here we go.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All of the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.

Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all of that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the people of Israel are too many, too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply.

And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramesses.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field.

In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. So things have not gone well for Israel. And how long did this go on? Anyone remember? More than that. Lots of time. I think we're up to what, 400 years this goes on?

400 years. That is a long, long time that this goes on. It's still, you live as a slave, hard work and labor, your lifespan is gonna just tank. You're gonna go into the grave quick. So this is the kind of stuff that will kill you quickly.

Deliverance from the Dominion of Darkness

Now, to kind of pick up on the theme then, so one of our motifs is slavery to a god king. All right, let's take a look at a couple of things that kind of point this out, biblically what this motif is looking at.

And I quoted this passage today in Colossians chapter one in the sermon. And let's take a look at it. Colossians one, I'll start at verse nine for our context. Here's what it says. And so from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

He has delivered us from the dominion or the domain of darkness. He has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. So here, this, we start to see the connector points.

Remember, this is type in shadow and Exodus, pointing to the reality, which is really pointing to where we're at. This is our story as well as theirs. See, each and every one of us, because of Adam and Eve's rebellion, because of their sin against God, we were born under the dominion and domain of darkness.

And like I pointed out in my sermon today, we're all familiar with dictators and tyrants and the human wreckage that they've created in human history. I mean, you think of how many tens of millions of people died under communist Stalin in Russia, six million people who were exterminated in the Holocaust because of Hitler.

And then we don't even want to talk about Pol Pot and other tin penny dictators around the world that rise up. And all of those dictators, in a way, kind of give us a very interesting way of viewing the devil.

He is a lot like that. He is a lot like that. In fact, the devil is a lot like Pharaoh here, putting these people in slavery, making their lives miserable, and just grinding them into powder. Now, all of this then is in a very real way, you know, part of what we see as the result and the consequences of our rebellion against God.

In Genesis 3, it's good for us to remember.

What Genesis teaches.

Now, the serpent, in Genesis 3, one was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. What's he gonna do? He's gonna enslave her, really, through all of this. You will not surely die. God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate, and then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden, but the Lord God called to the man and said,.

Where are you?

He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden. I was afraid, because I was naked, I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

The man said, the woman you gave to be with me. She gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate, and then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate.

Now watch how the curse works. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go. Dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and he shall bruise your heel. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and the woman said, thanks, Eve.

In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you, and watch how the motif then works. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So here we see as part of the curse, humanity is put into a situation where the only way in order to meet our needs is for us to work, toil, anguish, pain, suffering.

It's for the birds. And so there's kind of your motif. There's your motif going all the way back to the garden. And then coming then into this story, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.

They ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, made their lives bitter with hard service and mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field. And all their work, they ruthlessly made them as slaves.

So here's the idea.

Coming up then in type and shadow, you can see, all right, there's something going on here. This is a grand metanarrative, if you would. It's a big sweep. So the story itself in the book of Exodus points us in very stark parallel to the situation we find ourselves in.

The devil being that ultimate tyrant and dictator, the one who is so self-absorbed and self-obsessed wants people to worship him the way they worship God. He wants to exalt himself even above God himself.

To what end would that leave us? Literally enslaved, hard labor, no care. You need to just keep working hard for the devil. And when you're ground to powder, they stick your body into the ground. And who cares, we'll grab the next guy and do the same thing to him.

This is all part of the curse. You have a question?

It's part of these slaves, 400 years, why?

Okay, Marilyn, you have asked a loaded question in a sense. I'm going to give you the biblical answer for it. And I'm gonna give you the biblical answer for it. And I'm gonna give you the biblical answer from next week's epistle text.

There is a sense in which what you're describing, you're describing, it's like, why are people so stupid? Why are they believing these lies? Why aren't they trusting Christ? Why aren't they being forgiven?

It just seems like, are they thick? Do they have low intelligence? That's not the issue. Let's take a look at next week's epistle text and you'll see what I'm talking about. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter two.

We'll get a little bit of a preview for next week. And what we're gonna read here about what happens, what God is doing. Keep this in mind, there are many other cross references where God speaks in this exact same way.

And I'll give you another one. I'll give you a text from Romans on this as well. 2 Thessalonians two. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has already come.

Yeah, see they were sending out false letters, claiming to have come from the apostles. Oh, I wish you'd all been ready. The Lord has already come, you've been left behind. That's literally kind of like what was going on here.

So let no one deceive you in any way, he says, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes. Now that word for rebellion is the Greek word apostasia. And throughout Christian history, for all 2000 years of Christian history, every generation has talked about becoming great apostasy.

And this is what this is referring to. And the rebellion is not out in the world. The rebellion's in the church. So that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. The man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God, proclaiming himself to be God.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who restrains it will do so until he's out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth to bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power, false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Here's the important verse that gets to your answer now. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

So the answer to your question is no, they're not stupid. God's judging them and basically saying, oh, really, you don't care about the truth? You don't really wanna worship me? You don't wanna be saved?

Fine, I'm going to make it so that you look stupid. You're just gonna believe every blatantly false teacher coming down the pipe, and you're gonna believe that person's really a person of God. And I'm gonna make a statement here that is really politically incorrect, but what I'm gonna say is factually true is my other vocation that I have, as doing radio and offering critique of what's going on in evangelicalism, there are certain people today, and I'm not making this up, who are out there putting themselves forward as prophets or prophetesses, and I know for a fact some of these people are actually certifiably bunkers.

They actually have a mental illness. And people are believing that they are prophets and prophetesses, and it always fascinates me, the ones that I know from their family members who've contacted me and said, my brother, my sister, that person is certified, yeah, they've spent time in institutions, they're not mentally stable, and now they're traveling the world claiming to be hearing from God, and there's some kind of prophetic visionaries, and I'm sitting there going, you've gotta be kidding me.

There are literally people who are saying, oh, this person is a man of God, this person is a woman of God, she's a prophetess, and no, she's not. She's actually mentally ill. And everyone's sitting there going, oh, that's from God.

And I'm thinking, this is an example of what is said here. God sends a strong delusion. Let me give you another cross-reference, and also then, Marilyn. In Romans chapter one, we see kind of the descent into sin, where it says, starting at verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth.

So here we, we're human beings, we've got the truth, and what do we do with it? We suppress it. And the mental, and kind of the word picture that's set up in the Greek, it's, I liken it to, you know, when somebody smokes a cigarette, and they get down to the butt, and they put the butt on the ground, and they go like that, that's the suppressing of the truth.

There's the truth, I'm gonna just stamp it out, right? So watch what happens as a result of this. For what may be known by God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

So the idea then is this, is the inability to know the truth, and worse, this craziness of believing what is patently absurd, is all actually a judgment from God. That's the scary thing. And so this is why, as Christians, we guard two things very carefully, our doctrine and our lives, because we see in scripture that those who depart from sound doctrine, they fall into these delusions, but also on the same token, those who chase after their own sinful lusts, and wantonly practice sin, and turn the gospel of Christ into a license to sin, that God oftentimes will judge that person with this exact same judgment.

So the idea here is that you don't tempt God. Does that make sense? He is holy, he is just, he has revealed his will for us, and as Christians, we are to contend with our sinful flesh. We are to resist the devil.

And does that mean that we always come out on top? No, but you keep striving. Now, do you remember years ago, who was it, was it Patti Hurst, who was taken hostage by some terrorist group, and what happened to her?

She became one of them. So I want you to kind of think of it this way. As Christians, as Christians, we are always, the devil is always planning the next hostage-taking incident, and you may be one of the hostages he wants to take.

And so he's gonna take you down the road of false doctrine, or he's gonna take you down the road of sin. You're gonna feel like you're hijacked, but you don't wanna end up like Patti Hurst. When given the right, the ability to go free, she's now one of them.

The idea, then, is that there's always going to be temptations to sin, there's gonna be times when the devil's gonna come at you hard, and may, even for a short time, really get the upper hand. But as soon as you have an opportunity to escape,.

Flee!

Does that make sense? And so that's the thing. It's not that Christians don't sin, it's that they never are satisfied and stay put when they're taken hostage, and they fight back. Does that make sense?

Right, we do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to the devil. So, coming back then, okay, so, does that answer your question, by the way, Marilyn? Okay, good question. All right, let's come back to our text, then.

Midwives, Civil Disobedience, and the Sanctity of Life

So, we see here, as a result of the fall, we are enslaved in the same way Israel was enslaved, and again, this is a picture of the story we find ourselves in. So then it says, the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, and this is a fascinating, fascinating little bit, and this kind of reiterates one of the things I've said before, is that sometimes, as Christians, you know, we have the Ten Commandments, but sometimes, the only right thing for us to do is break one of them.

It's the weirdest thing. Yeah, I know, I'll explain in a second here. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one who was named Shipra, and the other, Pua. This is an honor, by the way, to have their names written in scripture.

That's a big deal. When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, boy, I would hate to see something like that, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it's a daughter, she shall live.

But the midwives feared God and did not do, as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So notice, they flat out disobeyed a direct order from the king himself. Fourth Commandment's in play, is it not?

Honor your father and mother. This includes all the way up to the government officials. So here, they're breaking the Fourth Commandment,.

Straight up.

Is God gonna punish them for this? So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? Watch this one. So the midwife said to Pharaoh, oh, those Hebrew women, whoo, they're not like Egyptian women.

Oh, they're vigorous, and they give birth before the midwife comes to them. They just pop them babies right out. So now we've got breaking of the Fourth Commandment. We've got breaking of the Eighth Commandment.

We've got all kinds of commandment breaking going all up in here. Oh, that's right, they did. You shall not murder. So you notice here, sometimes as Christians, because of the cursed creation that we find ourselves in, and because of the devil and his unreasonable and sinful demands, sometimes the only right thing to do is to break a few of the commandments.

So they just flat out lied to his face, flat out disobeyed a direct order. So what is God going to do with them? Well, we're gonna find out. Verse 20, so God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew strong.

And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Are they punished for their breaking of these commandments? No, they're blessed. So this creates the fascinating scenario. And I think as the United States gets darker and darker, culturally and morally, we need to keep this one tucked away.

You never know, you may, in your lifetime, see the need to disobey the government and to obey God. Uh-huh, well, now this kind of opens up an interesting thing here. Now we're gonna talk about vocation, real quick.

When a soldier kills the enemy, that is not a breaking of the commandment that says thou shall not murder. All right, when it says thou shall not kill, the Hebrew word really is referring to murder. This is premeditated murder of your brother, your sister, your neighbor.

That's not what is prohibited. So when a soldier goes to war, and in the course of executing his duties, must kill the enemy for the sake of the common good, in that case, that's not a sin. That's actually a good work.

I know it's weird to think of it that way, but that's exactly how you have to think about it. Because they're in the vocation of soldier. They've been tasked with protecting us. Well, now look at the Old Testament.

King David, he was a soldier. He goes and he fights the Philistines. Was he murdering, or was he doing good works in his vocation as soldier? He was doing a good work. Think of it also this way. When it comes to that gift from God, sex.

Before you're married, if you're having sex, that's a sin. After you are married, sex is not a sin, it's a good work. So you get the idea then, okay.

So.

Self-defense.

Self-defense is actually permitted in Scripture. It is not considered murder.

No, I knew that.

Yeah.

But I thought it was different.

You might, I mean, we all own firearms, right? Okay, of course we do. So if somebody were to break into your house, and this was a dangerous situation, in order to protect yourself and your little ones, you discharge your weapon, and the person is dispatched into eternity.

Make sure they're in the house.

Yeah, make sure they're in the house. And pick up the shell casings. Yeah, if you got them down in your yard, make sure to pick up the shell casing and then just drag them in and mop up the blood. Anyway, that's not, that's a joke.

Oh, Lord have mercy.

Thank God.

Yeah, so you'll notice then, coming back to Renee's point then, a soldier killing the enemy in the line of duty in battle, that's not a breaking of the commandments. So it's not a parallel. So you get the idea here.

So when we look at the commandments, we understand that they are there for us, but as Christians, sometimes we may be put into that catch -22. Maybe put into that catch -22, and what do you do? You have to do the right thing, which oftentimes will involve doing the wrong thing, which is weird, really weird.

So the Germans who were hiding Jews during the Holocaust, and the SS knocks on their door, are you hiding Jews?

Of course not.

You can come look if you like. Lying to their face. So the idea then is that you gotta think carefully. There may come an opportunity for you to break a commandment and in so doing, do a good work. But that's a tenuous situation.

It's a fine line. In other words, it is better to save life. You love your neighbor by protecting him. When the government goes rogue, which they do from time to time, when the government goes rogue and is no longer acting in accordance with their God-given duties to punish evildoers, but they are instead punishing those who are doing good, you have to resist the government.

And here's the important part, and we'll talk about this just in passing. When we are put into a situation as Christians where we must resist the government, we don't do so in a way merely that we're engaging in some kind of activism.

And I want you to think about this. Activism is a good way to correct an injustice in society. And oftentimes, people need to be engaging in activism in order to address injustices. But as Christians, as the church, let's just kind of put it this way.

When the government is sinning, when the government has gone rogue and they're no longer acting in accordance with their God-given mandate, it's the people in the government who are doing this, the leaders and people like that who've made these decisions.

We must love them enough to say, not only will I not obey you, I'm going to tell you you need to repent because what you're doing is wicked and evil and you need to repent and be forgiven. You see, if you just engage in social justice, warrior-type stuff, where I'm going to oppose the injustices of society, then it becomes a power struggle.

Who's going to get the upper hand? And then let's say you correct the injustice. The people who were perpetrating the injustice have just lost power, but they're still going to hell.

Uh-huh, yeah.

Well, here's the thing. We're messengers, right? Exactly, I get that.

But if you say that person, you are causing harm and they're going to sit there and go.

Are they?

Scripture says the law of God's written on their heart.

We

They're evil people.

Of course they are.

But see, here's the deal. What are they doing? They're suppressing the truth, which means they already know it and they already know you're wrong. So when we speak prophetically and we speak God's law, what that does is it lifts the foot up and says, oh, look what you're doing.

You're suppressing the truth. They know what they're doing is wrong and they know it deep down inside. They know it in the front of their mind. And you know what? At some point, they've just abandoned themselves to it and just decided to go whole hog.

I'm thinking of Stalin and Hitler.

Oh, he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Oh, yeah.

I have not heard that story. Let's save that for another time.

Yeah, I want to hear that.

I have something.

They were all power. They wanted all power.

Yeah.

People who want that power, they're not going to comprehend anything else.

Oh, here's the thing. Their will to power is sinful and they know it. So we get to speak prophetically. But remember, we have two words, not one. The first word is law. And so our word to them is, you know what you're doing is wrong.

And you just have to say it like that because they already have the law of God written on their heart. And if you're not sure, let me tell you what God's law says.

You appeal.

Stalini would have chopped your head in a second.

Oh, I know.

Of course.

Of course.

And then you sit there and say, you need to repent. But Christ has bled and died for these sins and you need to be forgiven of them. And if they take your head off, so be it. Then they just hasten you being able to be with Jesus and be done with all of this nonsense anyway.

I don't know if you've noticed this life is a little difficult. So, all right, Steven.

Whenever we're telling them, you know, they're sinners, what are we doing ultimately? Yeah, we're just messengers delivering the King's edict.

Exactly.

Only the King will be able to turn their minds.

Yeah.

Only the King will be able to convince them that they are sinners, and that Christ has bled and died for them. We're just delivering that message. So whenever you're doing this, you know, don't trust in your own, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna change this person.

That's the wrong attitude. Christ is gonna change him.

Yeah.

He's done for us.

Right.

And that's the idea. Yeah, and I think that's a great clarification. It's not your job to make them understand. It's not your job to convince them. It's not your job to get them to walk the aisle, to get on their knees and pray a prayer.

Your job is to deliver a message, and the message is from God.

That's the idea.