From the time of Adam’s fall,God prepared a people to meet with Him. The preparation and the promise was a great process.
God started the process with Abraham back when he was in Ur of the Chaldeans.
God called Abram out from his family and homeland. Before there was a people for God, there was a man whose heart was given to God. When Abram responded to God’s voice and call, the Lord responded.
Genesis 15:1 NKJV 1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Genesis 15:5–6 NKJV 5Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
Abram was childless when the Lord God made this promise, but Abram believed the Lord, the Great I AM.Without physical evidence, Abram held on to his faith in God. On account of his faith, God credited it to him as righteousness.
In Genesis 32:12, God promised Abraham that His descendants would be as the sand of the sea, which could not be numbered for multitude.
On account of Abram’s faith, God renewed the covenant He made when he brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans.
Genesis 15:8–15 NKJV 8And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” 9So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.
Then God told Abraham that his seed would fall into slavery for 400 years.
Seventy of Abraham’s descendants went into Egypt when there was a great famine in the land. God prepared Joseph to bring deliverance from that famine. After thirty years, Abraham’s descendants fell into slavery. For 400 years, the seed of Abraham was afflicted.
Exodus 1:12 shows us that Israel flourished in Egypt. When they were afflicted in Egypt as slaves, they were multiplied in number and grew. When God brought them out of Egypt, there were 603,550 men who were 20 years and older, plus the women and the children. God promised Abraham that He would establish a new generation, a new people. During the 400 years, it appeared to them that God did not know where they were. They kept repeating the promise that God would send a deliverer. They cried out and groaned because of their bondage, but nothing seemed to be happening.
Many times when God is working, it is silent.
No one can be as quiet as God. We don’t have to know what God is doing for Him to be working things out. Ten generations passed without a prophet of God or a word from the Lord. God was quiet for 400 years.
Israel’s God was the living God.
He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Abraham was dead.
- Isaac was dead.
- Jacob was dead.
The people kept crying out, but for 400 years nothing seemed to be happening. Sometimes it is difficult to see what God is doing in the background.
Israel’s God was not the same as the Egyptian gods.
Egypt’s gods had a dominate place in Egyptian society. Abraham’s descendants were exposed to all of their gods.
Egypt had its own gods.
Everywhere they turned in Egypt there was another god.
- Ra- was the god of the sun and sky.
- Amon-Re, their sun god of Thebes, was the chief god of upper Egypt, (Amun means hidden).
- Anubis was their guardian of the dead.
- Osiris was their god of the afterlife and the underworld.
- Horus-Re was the sky god.
- Ha‘pi, was the Nile-god of floods or waters, the god of fertility.
- Heqit, was a goddess of fruitfulness.
Egypt had 22 districts called nomes. Each nome had a key city and a local god was worshiped in that territory. Ptah in Memphis, Amun-Re in Thebes, Thoth in Hermopolis. The goddess Maat personified truth and the cosmic force of harmony and stability.
Israel’s God was different.
Israel’s God is the Creator of the world and everything in the universe. He is the giver of life. He is superior to all of the Egyptian gods that were the creation of man’s hands.
Exodus 3:7 NKJV And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
Exodus 3:9 NKJVNow therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
The time had come for Abraham’s descendants to be brought out of Egyptian bondage.
God sent Moses to Pharaoh to declare the message of the living God.
God told Pharaoh: “Let My people go that they may worship me.”
Pharaoh refused to recognize the God of Israel. He kept asking “Who is the Lord your God that I should obey Him?” After God sent nine (9) plagues on Egypt, Pharaoh let God’s people go.
After Abraham was dead, and the people of Israel had 400 years of crying and moaning, it was God’s appointed time to recover, reconcile, and redeem His people.
God made a promise to Abraham. When He was ready, nothing could stand in the way of God’s plan being done.
Exodus 19:1-5 NKJV In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ’You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
God was ready to give them a great blessing and covenant. Nothing was exempt from what God was prepared to do, for He said, “all the earth is Mine.” The blessing and covenant included special fellowship that they would enjoy with Almighty Sovereign God.
God had a plan for delivering Israel.
He told Abraham what he was going to do. God said they would come out with great possessions. Almighty Sovereign God was in control for Israel.
God always has a reason for what He does for you.
God claimed them as His very own special treasure. It was not the will of man that brought them out of bondage. In God’s appointed time, He brought them out with His mighty hand.
All things work in God’s appointed time and ways.
It is the will and plan of God that brought you out of sin. God wants to work everything out for His own glory. It is difficult for us to understand the ways God has chosen.
Who can know the mind of the Lord?
It is amazing to see what God did with Israel in Egypt. They entered Egypt during a famine with only 70 souls. During the 430 years they were in Egypt, they became a mighty nation of people. When they left Egypt, they took the silver, gold, and wealth of the Egyptians with them. They left Egypt with more than 70 souls could handle. They left with 603,550 men age 20 and over, plus the women and children.
God told Abraham what would happen to his descendants.
How many times do you question why you had to go through the things you have faced? Why does it seem like God is not listening? Why are you exposed to all of the negative things the enemy of your soul brings against you?
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
God had a plan that they did not understand.
They could not see from the beginning of the story to the reward that was ahead for them. When it looked like nothing would work out, God called them out of Egypt.
God wants to draw people unto Himself and nothing could hinder what God planned.
Pharaoh was standing in the way of what God wanted to do. You don’t want to get in God’s way when He is ready. It may take a while, but when God is ready, He acts rapidly. When God was ready “He brought them out on eagle’s wings.” Pharaoh could not stop God’s program. The Red Sea could not block God’s deliverance. The wilderness could not destroy God’s people.
Moses told Pharaoh, God has said: “Let My people go, that they may worship me.”
They were serving Pharaoh. God wanted His people to serve Him.
God had a plan that was greater than Pharaoh’s plan.
They are going to meet with God and serve Him. Whatever it took, God was ready to do it. They would come out of Egypt and serve Him.
God expected them to serve Him with the same vigor that they served Pharaoh. If God knows that you will serve Him, He will take you out of anything.
It does not matter what holds you captive, God is able to set you free. These people became known by their God. They were known by their faith. They walked with God. They were a peculiar people.
Exodus 19:5 NKJVNow therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
This is God’s purpose when He is dealing with people.
God wants us to be different than the world. We will never be able to walk with God until we are willing to give up to Him. We cannot be like the world. We cannot act like Egyptians. God is calling you to be different.
Every man or woman of God will be pulled out of the world.
This is God’s purpose in dealing with His people. For 400 years, it appeared that God had forsaken them to slavery and oppression. They did not know God like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him.
Suddenly, God moved in and started bringing them out.
God is telling the world: “I will have My people.” He is establishing a place for them to fellowship with the invisible God.
They did not know what it would be like to tabernacle with the Almighty God.
The Egyptian gods were easy to dwell among. You could put one on the wall and nothing would happen. They could easily be destroyed or removed. Those strange gods did not live, move, or have being.
The Lord God Almighty was bringing His people into His presence.
They would see the glory of the Lord God almighty. They would recognize His power. The power of His presence would shake the earth and them. They would eat His provision and drink His water out of a rock.
God is preparing to bring us into a place where He will walk and talk with us.
God will reconcile His people to Himself. He will redeem them from their sins. He will come close and make things right in their lives. God will tabernacle with His people.
When Israel began to understand Who God was, He removed the tabernacle and revealed Christ.
God is opening up a new and living way into His presence. He is drawing people into His presence and showing them the power of His Spirit.
