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Getting the World Out of
Christians
(Returning
to Egypt)
As
one reads through the book of Exodus and learns how God used His great power to
free the Israelites from the Egyptians, he cannot help but to be impressed. The God of the Egyptians was just no
match for the God of the Hebrews. One by one He brushed them aside until Egypt's
economy was wrecked. But it wasn't
until after Egypt lost all of her firstborn that she finally let Israel go. After the death of his own firstborn,
Pharaoh told the Israelites to leave the land; to go and serve their God. But after they left, Pharaoh had a
change of heart; he decided he wanted them back and so he sent his great army
after them and overtook them at the Red Sea. But once again God proved that the
might of Egypt was no match for Him.
For there, in the Red Sea He destroyed the Egyptian army. In recording
this the scriptures say…
(Exo 14:31) 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 in His servant
Moses.
And the
people rejoiced in their salvation (Ex. 15).
As
one gives some sober thought to these historic events, it becomes evident that
it was no problem for God to rescue Israel from the clutches of Egypt. Though we are amazed at the
demonstration of His power, we know that it was nothing to Him. For the God of the Hebrews is an
omnipotent God. He is the One who, with only a word, created all
things.
(Psa 33:6-9) By
the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all
their host. He gathers the
waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let
all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He
commanded, and it stood fast.
So to do
what He did in Egypt was no big deal.
God could have done much more, had it been His wish. Getting Israel out
of Egypt was not the problem. But
how was God going to remove Egypt from the hearts and minds of
Israel?
Israel moved to Egypt during the
days of Joseph, about 200 years before the birth of Moses. At the beginning, God, through His
providence, separated them from the Egyptians, giving them the good land - the
land of Goshen. There they were able to live apart from the Egyptians and remain
a distinct people. However, at the
end of 200 years things had changed. Israel was now in slavery to the Egyptians
and had managed to embrace many of the customs of that nation. Thus, when they
left that place they took many Egyptian customs with them. Though physically they were no longer in
Egypt, Egypt was still very much in them.
Let me explain.
After seeing God's power
demonstrated in Egypt and the Red Sea, the people came to Mt. Sinai. There God caused "thunder and lightning"
to flash and He enveloped the mountain with a thick cloud. Then He spoke the Ten Commandments. Upon seeing this great demonstration of
His power and upon hearing the sound of His voice, the people were so afraid of
what they saw and heard that they pleaded with Moses to stand between them and
God. They were afraid for their lives.
So Moses, at the invitation of God, goes up the mountain where he stays
for 40 days. During that time God
wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. But when Moses comes down from the
mountain a noise was heard in the camp. Joshua thought that was the noise of
war. But it was not that; it was
not the cries of people struggling for their lives. Instead, it was the noise of
people playing; not simple games but the immoral rejoicing of people who had
built a golden calf. Moses had only been gone 40 days and the people were
already forgetting the 2nd commandment.
(Exo 20:4) "You
shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
But
where did the idea come from, to worship Jehovah through the form of a calf?
(cf., Ex. 32:4-5) It came from
Egypt. For you see, in that country
the gods were personified through animals.
(This was a reason why it would have been an abomination to the Egyptians
for the Israelites to worship their God in Egypt. (Ex. 8:25-26) The Egyptians would have been enraged to
see the Hebrews offer their gods to their God). But Israel had lived for 200
years in Egypt; and when they came out they brought this Egyptian custom with
them - worshipping Jehovah through the form of a calf. (Ex. 32:4-5) This was a relic of Egypt.
But
there were other things they were unwilling to leave behind. In fact, the first generation brought so
much Egyptian baggage with them, that they even forgot how bad it had been for
them there. They even complained
that it would have been better for them to have remained in
Egypt.
(Num 11:4-6) And
the rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel
wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used
to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions
and the garlic, but now our
appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna” (cf.,
Num 11:11-20)
God
delivered over 600,000 men, over the age of 20 out of Egypt (Num.1:45-46), but
out of this number only 2 entered in to the land of promise; all because they
refused to let Egypt go. The final straw was when the spies came back with the
report of how good the land of Canaan was, but then discouraged the people from
entering it, less they be devoured by its inhabitants. When they heard this the people cried
and immediately sought for someone to return them to
Egypt.
(Num 14:1-4)
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the
people wept that night. All the
sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said
to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died
in this wilderness! Why is the
LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little
ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to
Egypt?” So they said to one
another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
At that time
God said to Moses:
(Num 14:28-35)
"Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My
hearing, so I will surely do to you;
your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men,
according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have
grumbled against Me. Surely you
shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the
son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. Your children, however, whom you
said would become a prey--I will bring them in, and they will know the land
which you have rejected. But as
for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds for
forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your
unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. According to the number of days
which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your
guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. I, the
LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are
gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and
there they will die.'"
As I
said in the beginning of the lesson, God had no problem getting His people out
of Egypt. But to get Egypt out of
His people was another matter altogether.
They simply would not let it go; they just would not submit their hearts
and minds fully to the to the Lord and all but 2 perished in the wilderness
because it! As it is written in
Heb. 3:16-19
For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did
not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty
years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the
wilderness? And to whom did He
swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were
disobedient? So we see
that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
Paul speaks
about this also in 1 Cor. 10:1-11
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our
fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in
the cloud and in the sea; and
all ate the same spiritual food;
and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a
spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with
most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the
wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we
would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as
some of them were; as it is written, "THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND
STOOD UP TO PLAY." Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and
twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some
of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of
them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened
to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the
ends of the ages have come.
Brethren,
what happened to them serves as examples to us and it was written to admonish us
not to do what they did.
Sometimes we forget how much alike
we are to the Israelites. There are many similarities to their physical
salvation from Egypt and our spiritual salvation from sin. For example:
1.
It
was through the death of a lamb that the Israelites were saved from the death
angel on the night of the Passover. Likewise, it is through the death of Jesus,
"the Lamb of God," that we are saved from spiritual death.
2.
The
Israelites finally escaped from the Egyptians and began their new life of
freedom after crossing the Red Sea. Likewise, Christians receive the forgiveness
of sins and begin their new life of freedom after their baptism in
water.
Having been rescued from sin,
Christians sometimes act as the Israelites acted in the wilderness. They glory in their salvation, but often
complain about how much better things were for them before they were saved. They try to live in the light while
walking in darkness. But this is an
impossibility.
(1 John 1:6-7 NNAS)
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the
darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He
Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Secondly,
whether we like it our not, we become the slaves of the one whom we
obey.
(Rom 6:12-18)
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
lusts, and do not go on
presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over
you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we
are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you
present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of
the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience
resulting in righteousness? But
thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from
the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you
became slaves of righteousness.
So
what must we do to rid ourselves of the baggage which will cause us to fall like
the Israelites fell? At all times
we must seek to be like our God instead of like our companions in the world.
(1 Pet 1:13-16)
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit,
fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. As obedient
children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in
your ignorance, but like the
Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your
behavior; because it is
written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
Eph.
4:17-5:21 (Go through these verses and notice what is involved in putting off old
self and putting on the new.) | 
