Think of some times in life when it seems that God is absent. It seems He is not present in your life… How do you deal with it when you feel God is absent?
When we pick up with the book of Exodus, the Israelites had been in Egypt for a couple of hundred years. God has not communicated with Israel since Genesis 46. In Egypt, on what can the Israelites base their faith? What would they tell their children and grandchildren about God?
Look through Exodus 1 & 2 – where is God…? What did God do in those first two chapters? Could the absence of God be a part of the story?
When we remember the past (how God has worked in the past and His unchangeable nature), we praise Him in the present and we can have faith for the future.
Let’s begin with Exodus 1:7. Israel is living, even in pagan Egypt, under the blessing of God given to Adam and to Abraham. Thus, the blessings of God were moving forward even in this pagan land. This blessing is what leads to the conflict between the God of heaven and the Pharaoh of Egypt (1:9). Pharaoh is actively seeking to undermine God’s purposes for Israel and for the world. The world, even today, wants to restrain the church from doing what we are supposed to be doing – making God known to the world. But we’ve got to know God ourselves.
What was God doing during those 430 years when Israel was suffering?
Up to this point (1:1-2:22), “God” is used three times. But, notice in 2:23-25, “God” is used five times. God finally responds, in general terms, in 2:23-25. That’s when God calls Moses in chapter 3 and makes Himself known. Scan through chapter three and see “God” or “Lord” used: “God” (21 times); “Lord” (7 times). God, in fact, becomes the focus of the rest of the book of Exodus.
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God will introduce Himself to Moses, at the burning bush, through the famous words “I am who I am.” The expression “I am” will be used over 100 times in the rest of the OT and comes to its fulfillment in the famous “I am” statements of Jesus Christ, especially in John.
But in Exodus, notice 5:2. Moses stands before Pharaoh for the first time. What is Pharaoh’s question to Moses? Is Pharaoh asking a question for information? Or is he asking a question in defiance of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Pharaoh’s conflict in 1:8 was not with Israel but with God. Here, that conflict becomes explicit. This question (5:2) is the underpinning behind what transpires in the next ten chapters.
The purpose of the plagues is to answer Pharaoh’s question. Notice 9:14-16. The liberation of Israel is not the controlling motive for God’s behavior. Otherwise, Moses, in writing Exodus, could have skipped the plagues. The plagues are the context in which God acts but the controlling motive is God making Himself known to Israel and Egypt.
Today, church growth is not the main issue. It is God’s nature and His glory. Paul does not say, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the salvation of souls” (1 Cor. 10:31). No, he says, “do all to the glory of God.” That’s the controlling motive for our life and work as Christians and as the church: making known the glory [nature] of God.
God is at work to make Himself known through His Word and through His Son. His people need to make Him known to a world that is woefully ignorant of Him. We study Exodus, among other reasons, to come to know God. The Gospel account that is the most heavily influenced by the Old Testament is Matthew and the final words of Jesus are: “Go therefore and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Go share with the world who does not know God, Who God is.
Paul Holland
