Following Christ =/ Easy Life

Over the past couple of weeks we have been in Exodus. We have look at Moses who was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter and ultimately was an heir of the throne. We then saw him fall and run for his life after killing a man and then becoming a lowly shepherd for years.

Lastly, we saw Moses excuses for following after God’s calling in his life. Moses felt inadequate and unworthy to be used by a Holy God much like all of us! However Moses ultimately laid down his wants for God to use him completely!

Exodus 5:1–5 LEB

1 And afterward, Moses and Aaron went, and they said to Pharaoh, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Release my people so that they may hold a festival for me in the desert.’ ” 2 And Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice to release Israel? I do not know Yahweh, and also I will not release Israel.” 3 And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day journey into the desert, and let us sacrifice to Yahweh our God, lest he strike us with plague or with sword.” 4 And the king of Egypt said, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people from their work? Go to your forced labor!” 5 And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now many, and you want to stop them from their forced labor.”

1. Bad things will happen after saying YES to God!

Moses obeyed God but yet the situation that the Israelites are in turned much much worse. The Israelites original slavery was bad because they had to build everything that Pharoah instructed but now they have to without any straw.

Imagine you were instructed to build a house and all of the materials were given to you?

You could probably manage enough to build the house.

Now the boss takes away all of the materials and says build a house in the same amount of time.

This task now became almost impossible.

That is exactly what was happening to the Israelites except it was in the blazing sun in the middle of desert.

But why are they in this mess?

Moses was obedient to God. There is one thing i can tell you for certain that once we are saved and begin doing what God has called us to do our life will not magically become a cake walk.

In fact i would venture to say that our life becomes more difficult the moment we are saved.

There are people that will promote salvation and Christianity by saying that once we are saved we have no troubles or once we obey God our lives will be perfect.

That is awesome to say but that is completely contrary to scripture.

2. Moses’s returned to God

Exodus 5:19–23 LEB

19 And the foremen of the Israelites saw they were in trouble with the saying, “You will not reduce from your bricks for each day on its day.” 20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them when they were going out from Pharaoh. 21 And they said to them, “May Yahweh look upon you and judge because you have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants so as to put a sword into their hand to kill us.” 22 And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why ever did you send me? 23 And from the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble to this people, and you have certainly not delivered your people.”

The foremen turned to Pharaoh but Moses “turned” to God. The foremen are also being punished due to the slaves not being able to be as productive. They thought that the slaves should be getting the brunt of the punishment for not being productive but Pharaoh punished them. And the foremen would punish the slaves.

They then turned to Moses in order for him to pray to God.

Moses questions God because of the difficulties that are now happening to the Israelites. Moses is confused and angry and afraid because he had obeyed the Holy God but that made the matters worse for them. Moses firstly questions God’s goodness.

Exodus 5:22 LEB

22 And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why ever did you send me?

Then Moses questions God’s purpose for sending him anyway.

Lastly Moses questions God’s actions.

Moses is confused as to why God would allow for bad things to happen to his people and was completely honest before God with his concerns.

Exodus 5:23 LEB

23 And from the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble to this people, and you have certainly not delivered your people.”

3. The ultimate promises of God.

God is in control of all circumstances regardless of if we think so or not. God allows for bad things to happen in order for us to turn to him.

We must have faith to know that God is ultimately in control of everything when difficulties arise.

The promises of God throughout the Bible are clearly stated here through his I will statements.

Exodus 6:6 ESV

6 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 deliver you. This is the first I will statement which shows us salvation.

God is a God of salvation and freedom from slavery. God is not a God that does not save but yet he is a God that saves the Israelites but also us.

This is the first promise of God.

The 2nd promise is redemption.

God redeems his people. God will redeem the Israelites through a series of plagues but God redeemed all of those who have faith in him through Jesus.

Redemption is a act of purchasing something in order to save it from destruction. God redeemed us when we could not save ourselves.

Exodus 6:7 LEB

7 And I will take you as my people, and I will be your God, and you will know that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the forced labor of Egypt.

The 3rd promise is Adoption.

When we are saved we are then adopted into God’s family. We are loved as a son or daughter of God. Adoption is the ultimate reflection of love because they are cared for and protected as if they were a person’s own flesh and blood.

“Dennis Omondi and his bride live in Kenya. Their adoption story was on MSNBC. They told the story of Benjamin. Benjamin was thrown into an 18-foot hole in Nairobi slum. This hole was the public toilet. A passing stranger heard his cry and spent 2 hours digging down into the filth to rescue him from death. Benjamin was taken in by New Life Home Trust and eventually placed into the loving family of Dennis and Allison.”

We were in the filth of life but once we are saved we are placed into the arms of a loving father.

Exodus 6:8 ESV

8 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.’ ”

The 4th promise is inheritance.

God promises to the Israelites the inheritance of land that was promised to Abraham. The promise was not immediately revealed but the Israelites had faith that it would and in the book of Joshua the inherited it.

Out promise of inheritance is that we will inherit eternal life with Christ in heaven where there is no more pain or suffering or death. This promise allows for us to have peace in the midst of difficulty.

Exodus 7:3–4 ESV

3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.

The fifth promise is mercy and judgement.

Pharaoh is portrayed as being god and people worship him as so. But God in his Mercy and Judgement demonstrate that there is only one true God.

There are 2 ways that we can know God:

through mercy and salvation.

through judgement and wrath.

Everyone in the world is eventually going to acknowledge God as God in one of these two ways.

God demonstrated his wrath on Pharaoh and the Egyptians but demonstrated his mercy on the Israelites.