(Exodus 6:1-9) Help me! Deliverance for the Brokenhearted.

A wonderful theme in Scripture is that God is the deliver of hurting people.

- David called God, my deliver, in Psalm 18:2 –

Psalm 18:2 ESV

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

- And a major theme of the book of Exodus is that God delivers his people.

- One of my favorite titles of Christ - is redeemer, which is the idea of a deliver.

Colossians 1:13 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

But have you ever been at a place

- where you hurt so much you don’t think that you could be redeemed?

That seems hard to imagine, when taken at black and white, face value.

A believer who doesn’t think they can be redeemed.

But if you work with people long enough,

you will come across some people who are profoundly hurting,

And wonder how God is going to help them through this.

And especially if you are the one hurting - you wonder how God can deliver you from this.

You may even feel like your hope and trust has been in God has been betrayed.

ILLUSTRATION:

I think of one lady whose husband had a brain tumor a year after they were married.

And now she is a caregiver of a husband with profound disabilities.

Disabilities that make it impossible for him to function on his own.

- Her dreams of a happy normally family are smashed.

- And there is no fixing it - at least in this life.

She will probably one day have to answer her daughter,

why would God allow that?

And you can imagine her hurt, and pain, that just doesn’t go away.

And for someone like that - Her hurt can cause her to doubt whether God can deliver her.

She might even be angry with God,

feel betrayed by God,

and distrust God.

Today,

we are going to read about an Israel who is so crushed and oppressed by Pharoah,

that they don’t believe that God is really going to deliver them.

In fact, they are angry with God,

feel betrayed by God,

and distrust God.

Let’s read - Exodus 6:1-12

Exodus 6:1–12 ESV

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ” Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Based on this passage,

I encourage us -

When you are brokenhearted, look to God.

And this text will remind us why brokenhearted people should look to God for deliverance.

First observe, how

1) Israel’s Trust and Hope in God is Crushed by Pharaoh.

Our text teaches us -

a) God declares deliverance is now (Ex 6:1), but Israel doesn’t believe (Ex 6:9).

Exodus 6:1 ESV

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

“Now” is a really important word in this text.

Up to this point God has given no timeline for when this should happen,

only a promise..

It’s obvious from Exodus 5 that neither Moses or Israel

expected to delay, or further oppression.

And now they are faced with a worse situation, then when they began.

It’s hard to imagine something worse then this – hard oppression and genocide,

but the new measures are even harsher.

- Israel’s literally scattered across Egypt looking for hay,

- and they can’t keep up with the quota.

- and Pharaoh is rewarding their failure - with beatings.

And it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better, or easier.

And they are really starting to doubt whether God is really going to deliver them.

Moses prayed this after a confrontation with the leaders of Israel -

Exodus 5:22–23 ESV

Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

God’s response to Moses fear and frustration -

is “now”.

The LORD encourages Moses by telling him - the deliverance you and Israel doubt, I am beginning now.

***No Slide****

Exodus 6:1 ESV

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

However, unlike the first time - they don’t believe.

- The first time they heard God’s word, Israel worshiped God.

Exodus 4:29–31 ESV

Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

But read of the response after Pharaoh's oppression in Exodus 6:9

Exodus 6:9 ESV

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

In fact, Moses himself doubts God - Ex 6:10-12.

Exodus 6:10–12 ESV

So the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

Moses complained that no one would believe him in Exodus 4, and now he is essentially saying -

See, I told you no one will believe me.

The idea that “they did not listen” means they did not believe.

In other words,

they do not trust God to be able to deliver them

They did not believe.

Now, this sounds crazy?

Why would God’s people ever doubt God’s ability to deliver them?

Why would Moses doubt God would deliver them?

How can they not believe after the burning bush, and the three sign miracles God gave Moses?

Last week I challenged us not to be impatient with God, like Israel was.

But may I balance that out this week - by recognizing

b) The cause of their unbelief (Ex 6:9):

Exodus 6:9 ESV

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

(1) A Crushed Spirit.

The text literally means - a “short of Spirit”

They are are brokenhearted and oppressed.

And also because of the -

(2) Difficult Oppression.

The hard labor has so oppressed and exhausted them - that they have lost hope.

In other words,

they are so brokenhearted that they do not believe that God can actually deliver them.

they are so exhausted and oppressed that that can’t see how God is bigger than Pharoah.

One commentary said this -

Optimism is often dashed by suffering, especially ongoing suffering. Faith is often diminished by hardship because emotions play a powerful part in most human thinking, and thinking can become increasingly pessimistic when any sort of pain continues unabated. Accordingly, it is understandable that the Israelites would not listen (v. 9) to Moses’ latest message of divine reassurance, even though they had previously welcomed Yahweh’s words (4:29–31). Pharaoh’s strategy (5:7–9) had proved remarkably successful. The people were overcome by impatience for relief and by hard slavery (niv “discouragement and cruel bondage”). (NAC)

But -

2) God is Still the deliver Israel needs to look to. (6:6)

Remember how God promised Moses - “Now”.

Now what?

Ex 6:6 gives a wonderful description of what God is going to do now.

Exodus 6:6 ESV

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

You might say -

Ex 6:2-8 is a repeated of what God has already said,

but God looks to encourage Moses by repeating himself and promising to begin the process.

Repeated promise of God -

a) I will bring you out.

b) I will deliver you.

c) I will redeem you.

d) The “Now” of Exodus 6 begins their deliverance.

The answer to the broken and crushed spirit of Israel, was God.

The answer to pharaohs defiant voice, was God.

We can understand why Israel is crushed and brokenhearted.

We can understand why Israel might struggle with believing the promises of God.

As Christians,

I hope we can have compassion on Israel.

Understand their struggles.

But the answer hasn’t changed.

Whether they doubted

or believed God, the answer was still the same.

The answer to their struggle - is God, their deliverer.

And the next few chapters will show that God was always the answer.

God’s answer was to send Moses to give the first plague.

Which brings me to my third point.

3) God is the deliver we need: The Bible’s theme of deliverance.

Why did Moses include Exodus 6:9?

What do we learn about God, that we did not know before?

I would suggest it is this –

that God, as part of his character, is concerned about and has compassion on hurting, oppressed, and brokenhearted people of this world.

We see this in the Exodus.

But we also see this in rest of Scripture.

What does the rest of Scripture teaches us about God’s deliverance?

Often -

a) God delivers us from the trials we face now.

(Besides Israel being delivered from Egypt.)

David was delivered from his enemies, and his betrayers.

Psalm 18 celebrates this.

Psalm 18:1–2 ESV

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

And ultimately from all our troubles.

Psalm 34:17 ESV

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

CAVEAT:

As I say this, I must emphasize that he many times he delivers us from our troubles.

But not always.

In his Wisdom and Goodness - he sometimes lets us continue in our struggles.

- Paul faced an affliction God did not remove.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 ESV

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Romans 8:28-29 told us of how God uses suffering in our lives.

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Laura Story has a book titled,

When God doesn’t fix it.

Why?

Because sometimes, in God’s goodness, he doesn’t fix it.

I would also suggest,

that our present struggles should point us to God’s ultimate deliverance.

The day when we will need no other deliverance because-

b) Christ ultimately delivers the Christian from all.

- In Luke 4:18, Jesus teaches this about himself.

Luke 4:18 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

Paul taught this -

Galatians 1:3–4 ESV

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

***Slide***

In what sense does Jesus deliver us from all?

He delivers us from sin. (Col 2:14-15)

He delivers us from judgement. (1 Th 1:10)

He delivers us from death. (1 Cor 15:54-55)

He delivers us from Satan. (Col 2:14-15)

He delivers us from everything corrupt in this world. (Rev 21:9-27, 2 Peter 2:9)

Israel needed to look to God for deliverance,

and I challenge us - so do we.

We need the deliverance that is only found in Christ.

CONCLUSION:

Exodus 6:1 – 9 reminds us that life is not always easy and black-and-white.

There are things in this life that can crush our spirit.

Life can break our hearts.

And in this passage we see Israel understandably struggling to believe that God can deliver them.

As you live in this world

- you will find Christians who are hurting so bad they don’t believe that God will deliver them.

Unless pride overtake us,

may we admit the possibility – that we can come to a point that were hurting so bad were not sure that God can deliver us or not.

I get great comfort when great men of the church are honest.

***Slide***

Charles Spurgeon once admitted this on a Sunday Morning about this text:

I do remember when in my anguish I could not believe even Jesus himself. Therefore, as one who has worn the chains, I speak to those who are still in chains. I know the clanking of those chains. I know what it is to feel the damp of the stone walls and to fear that there is no coming out of prison. I know and have felt the despair that even when the emancipator turned the great key in the lock and set the door wide open, yet still my heart had made for itself a dire cage. Ah, there is no prison so awful as that which is built by despair and kept under the custody of a crushed spirit.

Exodus 6:1-12 should remind us -

When you are brokenhearted, look to God.

Look to the Christ who will ultimately deliver us from every trouble in this life.