Remembering Redemption: Trusting in God's Promises

Introduction

A concept that seems to be repeated time and time again in the Scriptures is that of using one’s memory. Dozens of times throughout the Scriptures, God calls his people to remember

The purpose of this is to anchor us when life feels uncertain. It reminds us that we’ve been here before and that God will be faithful now just as He was before.

Yet so often we tend to remember pain and forget His promises. We recall the feelings of loss, and the weight of the struggle but lose sight of the Savior that brought us through it.

Have you ever uttered the words, “I cannot do this any more” or “I cannot take another step”? What has been true is that you continued to do what you needed to do and you have taken many steps since.

God enabled you to continue while you were uttering those words. Yet, what we remember most is the struggle and not God’s strength that sustained us through it.

As we come to the end of our study in Exodus, we see that God’s final word to His people before they leave Egypt is not about escape but about remembrance.

He wanted them to never forget who He is, what He has done, and what He will yet do.

The Exodus story is a call to remember redemption. To remember who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised to do.

The people of Israel were about to step into freedom, but before they did, God gave them a lasting memorial—the Passover. It was more than a meal; it was a memory.

It was the memory that their freedom was not earned, it was given, and that salvation did not come from their strength, but from the blood of a lamb.

They were to continue remembering so that when the true Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world would appear, they would be able to go, “aha!! I get it”.

And for us, we who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Jesus the Christ, we too are called to remember the God who sees, who saves, and who keeps His promises.

Our message taken from the Israel experience is quite simple:

I. Remember who God Is (3:7)

II. Remember What God has Done (12:1-30)

III. Remember What God Has Promised (12:31-51)

I. Remember who God Is (3:7)

Let us talk about remembering who God is shall we, because before any act of deliverance, before a single plague is unleashed, God makes his character known to his people. He says,

Exodus 3:7 LSB

7 And Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings.

While you are going through your heartaches and your headaches, your heartbreaks and your setbacks, your burdens and your breakdowns, your lonely nights and your weary days,

Your questions and your quiet tears, your fears and your frustrations Your doubts and your disappointments, your pain and your pressure, your trials and your failures, did I cover everything? Did I come down your street?

While you are going through any or all of these He revealed Himself as a God who sees, hears, and cares. The first thing Israel needed to remember was not what could could do but who God is.

In 1976 Robert J, Fryson wrote a little song He said

“God is the joy and the strength of my life,

He removes all pain, misery, and strife.

He promised to keep me, never to leave me,

He’ll never, ever come short of His Word.”

They needed to remember we need to remember, your children and your children’s children need to remember who God is.

When God says, I have surely seen, the Hebrew construction intensifies the verb. It means, I have certainly, fully, deliberately seen. Nothing escapes His notice. He had watched every lash of the whip, every tear that fell, every burden they carried.

Psalm 34:15 LSB

15 The eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry for help.

When He says, “I have heard their cry,” it’s not the casual hearing of someone who happens to overhear; it’s the attentive listening of a Father whose heart is moved by the cries of His children. Look at

Isaiah 65:24 LSB

24 “And it will be that before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

And when He says, “I know their sufferings,” that word know (יָדַע, yada‘) speaks of intimate, personal awareness—knowledge born out of relationship, not observation. God wasn’t distant; He was deeply involved.

If this was true then before God became man, how much more true is it after the cross when God Himself took on flesh and gained experiential knowledge of what it means to walk in our shoes?

Hebrews 4:15–16 LSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When we face our own Egypts—seasons of oppression, grief, or waiting—we must remember that God still sees, still hears, and still knows. He has not changed. His compassion is not seasonal, and His awareness is not selective.

Isaiah 40:28–31 LSB

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weary, And to him who lacks vigor He increases might. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And choice young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who hope in Yahweh Will gain new power; They will mount up with wings like eagles; They will run and not get tired; They will walk and not become weary.

Redemption begins not with what God demands from us, but with what God feels toward us. That’s who He is. And once we remember who He is, then and only then we are ready to remember what He’s done.

II. Remember What God Has Done (12:1-30)

Once God revealed who He is, He showed what He can do. The God who sees, hears, and knows now acts. And when He acts, He redeems.

In Exodus 12, we come to one of the most sacred moments in all of Scripture—the first Passover. Israel had been crying for deliverance, and now redemption was at the door. But notice: before deliverance came, God gave them instructions to remember. The very night He set them free, He also told them to never forget.

Exodus 12:1–3 LSB

1 Now Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.

Whatever Israel was, or was doing before now their history of redemption would come first. From this point on, the entirety of their lives would revolve around the story of God bringing them out.

Everything about Israel’s life would be reordered around redemption. Their calendar changed, their identity changed their story changed. God was rewriting time itself to center their lives around what He had done for them

And church, that truth isn’t just for Israel—it’s for us too. Whatever we were, whatever we were doing, whatever defined us before salvation must now take a distant second place.

Our lives, our priorities, our identity must be reordered around our redemption story. The cross becomes the new center of gravity for everything we are and everything we do.

Because if God reordered Israel’s entire life around their deliverance from Egypt, how much more should we reorder ours around our deliverance through Christ?

Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. Many times, we choose where we live based on where we work—not where we worship. Our spiritual formation becomes secondary to career convenience.

We choose what our calendar can handle based on our children’s school activities, ball games, concerts, and commitments—even if it means God’s house and God’s mission get whatever scraps of time are left.

We build our weekly routines around everything except the things that actually shape our souls. Then we wonder why we feel spiritually dry, stretched thin, or disconnected from God’s people.

These aren’t meant to condemn, but to remind us: redemption reorders everything. God didn’t save us so that life could go on as usual; He saved us so that life could revolve around Him.

“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” (Deuteronomy 5:15)

Every household was told to take a lamb. A spotless, blameless lamb and mark their homes with its blood. When God saw the blood, He would pass over that house. Judgment would not enter where the blood had been applied.

The message is clear: Deliverance requires a substitute. Freedom would come through the death of another.

They weren’t saved because they were better than the Egyptians. They weren’t saved because they prayed harder or worked smarter. They were saved because a lamb died in their place.

Exodus 12:13 LSB

13 ‘And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

That night Israel experienced redemption. The cries of Egypt filled the air but in the homes covered by the blood there was peace. The people of God were safe under the sign of substitution.

Centuries later, John the Baptist would see Jesus and cry,

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Paul would write,

“Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

So the blood on the doorpost was pointing to a greater blood on a greater cross. The first Passover lamb pointed to the final actual Lamb Jesus Christ whose blood did not just deliver one nation for one night but all who believe for eternity

So when life gets heavy, and you start to question if God is still working, remember what He has already done. Remember the night He passed over judgment to reach you with mercy. Remember the Lamb who was slain.

The Israelites were told to commemorate the Passover every year, not because God forgot what He did—but because they would and did. That’s why Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread and wine and said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

And like Israel, we also forget what has been done for us. We do not celebrate communion to earn anything but to remember everything. Paul says,

Romans 5:8–9 LSB

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Ephesians 1:7 LSB

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace

The Passover taught Israel to look back in gratitude and forward in faith. And that’s what remembering does—it fuels trust.

Is your life ordered and or reordered based on your redemption story

Because the God who has acted in the past will surely act again. Which leads us to our final point:

III. Remember What God Has Promised (12:31-51)

God revealed who He is, he showed what He can do, and now He invites His people to trust what He will do. Redemption is not only past event and a preserving force but is it also a future expectation.

In Exodus 12-31-52 we see God fulfilling what he had promised generations earlier:

Exodus 12:31–32 LSB

31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have spoken. 32 “Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have spoken, and go, and bless me also.”

God promised Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land… afflicted… enslaved… but also delivered with great possessions

Genesis 15:13–14 LSB

13 Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.

And here — hundreds of years later — on a night no one expected, God kept every single word.

Exodus 12:35–36 LSB

35 Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses—they had asked from the Egyptians for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; 36 and Yahweh had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

“And the sons of Israel… asked from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing… and thus they plundered the Egyptians.” (Exodus 12:35-36)

God not only brought them out — He brought them out with blessing, with favor, and with provision. Everything God said, He did. Every promise made became a promise kept.

The Exodus became a memorial not just of what God did, but of what God promised to keep doing — leading them, sustaining them, protecting them, and ultimately bringing them into the land He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If the Old Covenant came with promises of land, provision, and presence according to Hebrews 8:6 the NC comes with better promises:

He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5)

He who began a good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6)

All things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28)

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38–39)

He is coming again (John 14:1–3; Revelation 22:20)

The answer to everything you are feeling is: remember His promises

When fear rises. When doubt grows. When life feels uncertain. When your heart is heavy. When obedience feels costly, the answer is the same: remember His promise.