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Exodus - Redemption

We looked this Sunday at the ongoing story - God's story - in the bible as we turned the page from Genesis to Exodus.
If you were there you already know some of this...but it's always good to be reminded.  Exodus is really 3 large stories...
The First third is about God's redemption of the Israelites freeing them from Slavery.  God reveals himself to Moses in chapter 3 as "I AM"...God who a Covenant keeping God who has always been and will always be. 
Then through a series of Judgements against Pharaoh God brings them out of Egypt through Moses' leadership.  There's a couple of key verses in this section as God tells Moses why these Judgements are occurring:
First, God is clear through Moses to Pharaoh that the Children of Israel are HIS people...not Pharaoh's slaves. 
Exodus 7:16 
16  And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.”  
As God's people we are not slaves of anyone, but servants, even friends of God.

Secondly, God is clear that there is no God but Him...and Pharaoh and his gods are not gods at all.
Exodus 12:12
12  For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.

It ought to make us stop and realize that God's judgement is always against those who believe they are their own god. 
In this section God gives them the Passover celebration as a permanent way of remembering that they were redeemed and not judged because of the Substitutionary Sacrifice - a way of reminding them and us that we need a substitutionary sacrifice if we hope to come under God's covenant.
Exodus 12:5-7
5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,  6  and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7  “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

Jesus is the our Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7).  He became the sacrifice whose blood is able to give us forgiveness once and for all (Hebrews 9).

As the children of Israel leave Egypt they leave in triumph.  When Pharaoh realizes what he has done he takes his army to take them back, and once again God moves in a mighty way.  The nation of Israel - redeemed slaves - are delivered, and the army of Pharaoh is destroyed. 

Exodus 14:30-31
30  Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
31  Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

The story is only begun...but Redemption, Salvation, are hallmarks of God, the I AM, the one who has been, is now, and always will be.
If you want to see this first part in a skillfully done teaching, watch this:


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