Freedom for a Purpose: Knowing and Worshipping Yahweh

Intro:

Let’s look at the passage…

Exodus 5:1 “1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’ ”

Look at what Moses and Aaron are saying that Yahweh is asking here…

This is what Yahweh (the covenant-maker), the Elohim (the deity) of Israel, says…

A deity is announcing that these people you are oppressing, these are MY people. There’s a personal relationship, an ownership, a connection to these people.

Let the go have a festival = make a pilgrimage, celebrate a feast

This is a request to take all the Hebrews into the wilderness on a camping trip to worship God.

The entire purpose of letting the people go is worship. This is not just freedom for freedom's sake.

What is worship? And why is it such a big deal… we get to more of this later, but for now…

Worship is putting something in the center of your existence, to give glory to something, to hold someone or something in the highest esteem.

God is declaring to Pharaoh through Moses, that he wants his people put himself in the center, the Hebrews are to reorganize their lives around Yahweh—and that's exactly what he teaches them to do after they are delivered.

Exodus 5:2 2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Pharaoh's perspective: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”

I don't know this name, this god means nothing to me, stop wasting my time and get back to work. I could care less. Yahweh is of no significance to me. Your deity means nothing to me.

Knowing Yahweh is going to be key to understanding all of these passages

The rest of the narrative is God's response to Pharaoh's challenge. Yahweh is going to introduce himself to Pharaoh.

a giant part of Egyptian culture is the belief that the king/Pharaoh and the divine are one. The Divine has made himself known in the person of the king—Pharaoh was thought to be the embodiment of all divine power.

In fact, the storage cities were most likely storage for everything that was needed to worship the Pharaoh after he died—for as long as possible

The deity worshipped by this immigrant slave population has zero significance here in Egypt

This is a rivalry between deities/Gods—this goes way beyond two cultures; Egyptians and Hebrews. In the tenth plague God says he's striking down all the gods of Egypt.

A human just challenged the One Who Is, as if they're on equal ground, and Yahweh is going to reduce that king down to human size.

Do you realize that at some point, God is going to reduce everything to it’s proper size?

I wonder if a giant part of living this new kind of life—this "kingdom of God" life—that Jesus invites us into is about learning to live as if everything is already reduced to its proper size…

Exodus 5:3 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

Notice that this first request isn't for total freedom from slavery to the Egyptians… its for a three-day weekend

In Pharaoh's response to this small request we begin to see what kind of taskmaster Pharaoh is, we begin to see his hard-heartedness on display

…also, their argument is that it's in Pharaoh's best interest that they go, so that his labor force doesn’t get wiped out by a plague or something.

Exodus5:4–14 “4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

More bricks! Less straw! The heat gets turned up in this situation. Pharaoh’s desire to be the deity in charge isn’t going down without a fight.

Our desire to the the deity in charge of our lives, our selfish and self-centeredness never goes down without a fight. It just never does. Pharaoh wants all the worship, this king wants the people to serve him. So do we.

Exodus 5:10–14 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’ ” 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”

The work load and expectations increase, the resources decrease — there is so much in these passages.

Listen, you might not be in slavery to an ancient Pharaoh, but I’d bet that you’re struggling against a slavery of some kind today…a longing, an addiction, an annoying habit… you’re looking for some freedom, but as you do the expectations increase and the resources seem to decrease. The heat gets turned up and you feel worse than before you realized that there was an issue!

and you begin to feel pretty beat up…

Exodus 5:15–18 “15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.” 17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.””

So the Israelite overseers went and appeal to Pharaoh (the false deity). Notice how they don’t turn to Yahweh, the one who made the covenant with them… rather they run for help to the one holding them captive…

I wonder how often that last place we go for help is to God himself?

And they don’t get any help, other than being told that their lazy… Can I let you in on a pastoral secret…whenever your struggling and hear the message, you just need to try harder

Exodus 5:20–21 “20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.””

The Israelite leaders are mad! They were hoping for freedom, and not only did Pharaoh say no, he made their lives more miserable. And so now they blame Moses and Aaron.

Let me remind you of something that had just happened at the end of chapter 4…

Exodus 4:29–31 (NIV) 29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

The elders had just believed what God was about to do through Moses and Aaron…and they had just humbly bowed in worship, in gratitude because it was clear God was involved; he had seeing their suffering and was about to answer their prayers

BUT, it was not working out according to their plan, the way they think it should work out—and their mad about it because life is a bit tougher than blissfully living in slavery!

This will be a repeating pattern.

God be going to prove his trustworthiness over and over again. and every time, when their needs are not immediately met in the way they want, they will complain and criticize their leaders.

I wonder how often we get mad, or turn our backs on God because he doesn't do what we want when we want it?

Exodus 5:22–23 “22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.””

Good ol Moses doesn’t have anyone else to complain to…he actually turns to Yaweh for an answer. This is not working! And we get quite a long speech from Yahweh…

Exodus 6:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

God is saying that he will get his way in this situation. And that Pharaoh will not only let the go… he'll drive/cast them out of Egypt.

What would have to happen for this Pharaoh, who doesn't want to lose his slave labor force and let them go, to change course and actually drive the out? A whole lot of pressure!

Exodus 6:2 God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

From chapter 5 all the way to chapters 11–12, the big point is knowing who Yahweh is …God is making himself known

How you translate the next few words is a long-standing debate…I agree with other scholars who point out most of our english translations right here are not all that helpful.

…I am Yahweh, and I showed myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai [the Almighty One]… and then all our English translations set up a contrast between God revealing himself as Yahweh versus revealing himself as El Shaddai. Once I revealed myself as El Shaddai, but now I'm revealing myself as Yahweh.

There are two problems with this: first, we read in Genesis that God revealed himself to all three (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) as both Yahweh and as El Shaddai. Secondly, you have to fight against the way the Hebrews words and sentences normally work.

One way to read this…(Umberto Cassuto, an Italian Jewish commentator) They didn't know me as that, yet, because the lived before the fulfillment of all the promises Yahweh made to them.

Here's a better way to read this part… a four line poetic parallel, a poem in parallel…

I am Yahweh

And I showed myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Almighty/Shaddai

But my name is Yahweh

Didn't I make myself known to them? Surely I made myself known to them.

The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew, by Francis I. Andersen

This is a true Hebrew linguistic rabbit hole!

The emphasis of the overall context isn't about what Yahweh didn't do in the past…it's just the opposite.

I am Yahweh. I showed myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Almighty, the powerful one. But my name Yahweh, my covenant name…surely I made myself known to them, I made my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.

this is all in the past…

(v.5 in the present) furthermore, I have heard the groaning of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered (in the present) my covenant that I made (in the past)

(v.6–8 he moves to the future) say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am Yahweh. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from bondage, I will redeem you with an out-stretched arm, and great judgment, I will take you to be my people, I'll be your Elohim…

(and here's the key line) and you-all will know that I am Yahweh, your Elohim (covenant-maker who is almighty), who brought you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, I'll bring you to the land that I swore to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob to give you as a possession. I am Yahweh.

In this speech there’s a repeated line (twice in the opening and twice in the closing) I am Yahweh. They knew in the past, I'm telling you now. And by what I'm about to do, everyone will know.

The literary design of this whole speech leads to this one point! Everyone will know who I am and what I am like.

Alright, let’s make some more practical application!

The purpose of our freedom is to worship

From a biblical point of view; the purpose of our freedom/deliverance/exodus, the purpose is worship — isn't freedom without restraints, freedom for freedom’s sake.

the purpose is so that we can be reoriented in the proper direction, to be reestablished into the life we were/are created for.

You and I are created to be worshippers. We will worship something. And we will become more and more like whatever it is that we worship. You and I will always put something into the central, most important place in our lives.

Sometimes we put something we want more of…if we just had a little bit more, we think we’d finally feel satisfied… And honestly, human nature hasn’t changed even a little bit in this regard…

more of a substance of some kind

more of an identity we want to be know for

more security, more autonomy, more “my” time

more of a certain kind of experience

and we often put really good gifts that God has given to us in this place…family, friends, our children.

And we know were doing this most clearly when the thing we worship begins to feel threatened… life hardly feels worth living, all of the joy is gone. When one child isn’t doing perfectly, we can’t even acknowledge the great things happening in another child’s life.

Listen, God offers us a whole different kind of life, a radically different kind of life than what we're used to in our culture, a life with him at the center — it's only this God-centered life that brings the fulfillment and joy that we're after.

When your worship is rightly centered, then even in the middle of adversity we can experience a peace that shouldn’t be possible

Philippians 4:6–7 “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

And the story of scripture is that we can't get there on our own, which is why God comes to us in the person of Jesus—Yahweh does all the heavy lifting to make this kind of life available—Jesus, who is the Christ, has accomplished this for you and I…

That’s why we practice musical worship like we do at the Vineyard. It’s a human activity and helps to reorient our hearts and lives and longings and appetites towards God.

It’s interesting that the word "serve" is used repeatedly in these passages, often translated as worship. The purpose of the freedom is so that they can do the same thing for Yahweh that they were doing Pharaoh. They will end up building a tabernacle, and then a temple.

…well, in the process of walking towards that freedom and worship, the heat often gets turned up…

When the heat gets turned up, the doubts are real

Pharaoh want the same unreasonable amount of work with fewer resources. The heat gets turned up!

That’s exactly what serving other God’s feels like. No matter how much your put into your body, the next time you need more, and more and more and more, until you end up being controlled by it all.

We all have a built in desire for a really fulfilling kind of life—life to the fullest extent possible, as Jesus once talked about (John 10:10)

Addiction happens when we attach our desire to something that can’t produce this kind of life—alcohol or street drugs or sex or gambling or making money, more education, another person, or whatever.

As that attachment grows, it consumes us. Little by little, we become captive to the very things that give us pleasure and meaning.

We are set up for addiction because we are wired to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. The pleasure never fully satisfies us, however, and we need more and more of it to get the same result. We feel trapped and all alone.

It starts simple enough with a craving—chocolate! And before we realize it we’re losing control…there are so many times a day that I need chocolate, that I’m hiding it all over the house…maybe there’s even a baggie of it kept cold in the toilet tank for those “emergencies,” because we’re stuck in a cycle of continuing use. We’re avoiding pain and seeking pleasure apart from our relationship with God.

And then all sorts of doubts set it…

The leaders that Moses and Aaron are trying to lead to freedom are doubting them…

Exodus 5:20–21 (NIV) 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Even when Moses come back with a direct answer to their prayers…

Exodus 6:9 (NIV) 9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.

Moses returns to doubting himself…

Exodus 6:10–12 (NIV) 10 Then the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” 12 But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”

Exodus 6:28–30 (NIV) 28 Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” 30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?”

The doubt is real.

Actually knowing Yahweh in the main point

The main point of all of this is not all that complicated…even though it can often feel that way. The main point in all of this is that we, and everyone else, will know Yahweh.

The word translated know in Hebrew is yaw-dah – this is an experiential kind of knowledge (Adam knew Eve and they conceived a child). This is not just a Wikipedia kind of knowledge, or let me Google that for you, kind of knowledge.

Some of us never actually get that far, we’re kind of like Pharaoh, who just refuses, he doesn't know, nor does he want to know Yahweh.

If you see yourself as divine, as completely in control, as utterly self-sufficient… how can you ever bow before another? It’s tough!

Remember the rich young ruler walking away from Jesus. A case of realizing that the thing you think of as being a blessing from God, has actually become your God.

God will bring Pharaoh down tto human-sized to show us there no such thing as competing deities, or rival gods

Coming to Christ initially requires only a couple of things: you have to come as both bankrupt and as a failure. That’s why its so difficult to us humans.

Paul reminds the early church that we can’t accomplish this on our own…

Ephesians 2:4–9 NIV

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

And this brings us back to worship; Worship is a word that describes response to our knowledge and experience of God.

Worship is our response to our knowledge and experience of God.

Worship is the thing that flows from us as we have experiential knowledge of God.

God delivers us so that we can experientially and personally know him, and that our lives are freed to worship, to put him at the very center because that the very best, most fulfilling way to live.

And this entire exodus event is like a monument that constantly reminds us who God is and what he's like… and it reminds us what our lives are to be like—who and what we serve, whose we are, what it means to be the people of God in our current moment in history.