Several months ago, we began a biblical journey to discover more about God by examining some of His promises. The primary purpose of the Bible is to help us understand who God is, who we are, and His plan for us and His creation. A significant way to understand God and His character is to investigate His promises and whether He has kept them.
We began in the Garden of Eden with God’s promise of a redeemer, and from there, thrilled at the stories of God’s grace and provision with Noah and the continuation of the Edenic promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
After Joseph died, a new pharaoh decided to enslave the Israelites and use their labor to advance his kingdom. For many years, the Israelites languished under the cruelty and oppression of this despot. The promise God made back in the Garden of Eden seemed to be all but forgotten. But God had not forgotten and called out an eighty-year-old fugitive-murderer named Moses to return to Egypt and deliver His chosen people from bondage. God appeared to Moses in a blazing bush and, answering Moses’ strong objections to God’s plan to use him, sent him back to Egypt with the promise of His presence and the breaking of the stubborn will of the pharaoh.
This brings us back to Exodus 3, where, in our last post, we left Moses arguing with God and making excuses why His plan will not work. During His conversation with Moses, God revealed His covenant name, Yahweh, which means “I will continue to be what I have been.” This promise refers to His faithful actions toward Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the past, and that Moses could depend on Him in the task to which He was calling him.
God’s Promise to Moses
What did God promise Moses? Exodus 3:12 captures a two-pronged promise of a personal assurance to Moses and the deliverance of the enslaved Israelites.
“Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you; when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
God promised Moses that He would accompany and empower him to complete this arduous assignment. He would have the authority and power of Almighty God to free God’s people. Furthermore, God told Moses that a reminder of His presence throughout this dangerous task will be when he, Moses, will return to Mount Horeb as he leads the Israelites on their trek toward the promised land.
Let’s step back a moment to put this promise in the context of the bigger promise, to see this incident in the big picture of God’s plan. The Exodus is considered by many to be one of the greatest event in Jewish history, and is celebrated today as Passover. While this was a momentous event, it is a piece of the larger promise to Abraham and his posterity to bless all nations through the Jewish nation. As Christians, we believe that promise has been fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.
When God Promises, God Acts
What have we learned from Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob about how God keeps His promises? We have observed that his timing is perfect, although it tests our patience, seldom corresponding to our sense of urgency. But when He promises, He follows through. We see this pattern in the way He goes about freeing the Israelites from Pharaoh’s tyranny.
Why didn’t He just “zap” Pharaoh and get the situation resolved quickly? He knew the Israelites would be set free, but did Moses and the Israelites need to learn something about themselves and God in the process He would use to free them?
The process of freeing the slaves begins in Exodus 5 and concludes with chapter 14. In Chapter 5, Moses and Aaron did as God told them, went before Pharaoh, and asked permission to go out for three days to worship God. This didn’t go well with Pharaoh, and He told them to get out and put more work on the slaves, which brought strong criticism on Moses and Aaron. Moses complained to God about the heat he was taking for doing what he was told, and God reminded him that He would make Pharaoh change his mind to the point that he would “drive” the slaves out of Egypt.
Chapters 7-14 give specific ways in which God acted to convince Pharaoh to let His people go. God’s wrath against Pharaoh took many forms, including turning the Nile to blood, frogs everywhere, gnats, locusts, lightning strikes, and hail-destroying crops, but he did not give in to God’s demand. God had one last option: to send the death angel to kill the firstborn of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Israelites were instructed on what to do to be spared and to prepare to leave Egypt quickly. God promised to set the captives free, and He acted. God freed His enslaved people into free people, but the hardened Pharaoh foolishly attempted to bring them back to Egypt. Here is how this part of the story ends:
“Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptian dead on the seashore. And when Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and His servant Moses.”
Exodus 14:30-31.