Exodus chapter 1, verses 1 through 7. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our gracious God and King, we thank you and praise you for your word this day. We pray now that you would take what we have heard with our ears and read with our eyes and impart it our hearts and to our souls, that we might know the deep things of your Word, that we might gain a heavenly understanding. Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, work in us wisdom and knowledge as we search your Scriptures, that we might find not only the truth about who you are, but more so that we might find the Word made flesh, that we might find Jesus Christ, and that in finding him As we leave our study of the New Covenant in Hebrews this morning, we appropriately, I think, turn to a study of the Old Covenant as it is found in the book of Exodus. In order to appreciate the unity and continuity of the covenants of God given to his people throughout the ages, it is incumbent upon us to study them in conjunction with one another. And in so doing, we will, hopefully, gain a greater appreciation of God's promises to his people throughout redemptive history, as well as finding ourselves rejoicing in the words of the Apostle Paul with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God shown to his people in Christ Jesus. But before we begin a detailed exposition of Exodus, we must first look to the context of the book. We must understand how the stage has been set for one of the most dramatic works of literature ever written. And we must recognize that in the perfect plan and timing of God, the things of this book were not only ordained by him, but every detail was worked out by him for the full salvation of his own, as he pointed them and us, as we study these things, to the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ, our Lord. In looking to the context of Exodus then, we will look to two particular contexts. The first will be the spiritual context, and the second will be the historical context. In looking to the spiritual context of Exodus, we find all of the great themes of redemption. There is slavery and emancipation. There is blessing and curse. There is divine punishment and divine reward. There is rebuke and reconciliation. There is supernatural condemnation and miraculous deliverance. There is death, there is life, there is a people to be saved, there is a Savior, and there is a God who ordains all things that take place in Exodus for the salvation of his people that they might worship him as he promises to dwell with them as their God. In this, theologians have noted, there is first that singular event for which the book is named. the Exodus or going out of the people of God from slavery in a miraculous way. From the plagues that were set upon the land of Egypt to God's parting of the Red Sea, From his leading them by smoke and fire to giving them his law, the exodus of the people of God is truly a breathtaking event. It is intense and it is dramatic. It is a glorious picture of God's saving grace to his people, not only as seen explicitly in Exodus, but as a model of his salvation throughout human history. But the event of the Exodus only leads to a second event, as God then brings them to Sinai, the place where he had originally called Moses, that he might there reveal his character in giving them the holy law, that he might enter into covenant with them, that they might worship and adore him, and him alone as their Redeemer and their Lord. Yet we know the results of that. Almost immediately, in fact, as God was giving them the law and as he was covenanting with them, the people broke that very covenant in the worship of the golden calf. But even though they had spurned God, God still promised to deliver them and to bring them into the promised land. Even though they had broken his covenant, he continued to make covenant with them through Moses. And as he led them away from Sinai, he protected them, and he guided them, and he provided for them with manna, with water from a rock. In the midst of the parched and barren wilderness of Sinai, he gave them food and water and led them toward the ultimate promise, toward the land he had covenanted to them with Abraham in Genesis. But then we come to the third event of this book. And as our Alan Cole notes in his commentary, this is the penultimate event. Not the Exodus, not the giving of the Law at Sinai, but in the final realization of God's presence with his people. As the tabernacle is built and God dwells among his people for the first time since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. For in this, the covenant God made comes to full fruition as he establishes the tabernacle as a place to meet with his people. and to minister grace and mercy through the ceremonies of the Old Covenant as he meets with them and they meet with him. Thus, as we move through Exodus, we move from slavery to freedom, we move from Egypt to the shores of the Promised Land, and along with the people of God in Moses' day, we find God to be the author of their salvation, we find God to be the Almighty who does indeed deliver and lead and provide for his people. Ultimately, that he, in his words to them and to us, in Exodus 6, verse 7, that he will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. All of Exodus is found in this verse, that God does indeed take them to be his people. that he is their God, and they will come to know that he is the Lord in every way. To find this dramatic redemption played out, we must also look to the historical context of Exodus, turning first to Genesis. For as we find in the first verses of Exodus, God had led Jacob and his sons into Egypt. And though he had made covenant with them through Abraham and through Isaac, he then brought them into a foreign land. And we know from the end of Genesis, as the entire family of Jacob was moved from the land of Canaan to the land of Egypt, they were moved for their own welfare. For a great famine was sweeping through the native region, but God had prepared a way for them, sending Joseph ahead. for we remember that story as well. Though his brothers, jealous and full of hate, faked his death and sold Joseph into slavery, Genesis tells us that what they meant for evil, God meant for good. And thus Joseph went to Egypt as a slave. But through the providence of God became a man of great power and authority, second only to the Pharaoh himself. And in his position of authority, Joseph oversaw the building of greeneries and the storing of food for the coming famine. And thus, as the hardship was coming, God sent his people to the place he had already prepared, where they would enjoy the generosity of their brother. of Joseph who forgave them, that they would enjoy the generosity of Egypt itself and where they would be safe and well for a time as the famine spread throughout the land of Canaan and beyond. And so as we open Exodus, we find the historical record of those who came into the land of Egypt. We find the sons of Jacob who came to be with their brother, to sojourn there as God had prophesied to Abraham when he made covenant with him. In Genesis 15, 13 through 16, the Lord told him that this is exactly what would happen. For there we see, the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, you shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Thus, as the book of Exodus begins, we find the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy. as the descendants of Abraham come to dwell in the land that is not theirs, as they come to a land to sojourn there, growing in number, filling the land of Goshen, we know, as we are told further on in our text, as we will see in the coming weeks, filling the land of Goshen all around them and growing in strength such that the people of Egypt will, as we will see in the next section, take notice and the people of Egypt will respond. For we know the prophecy we have just read that the people will not only sojourn there, they will become servants there and they will ultimately be afflicted there. But beyond the particulars of the book, we also find the great themes of the scriptures played out for us to behold as we watch God affect the salvation of his people in dramatic and miraculous ways. As we watch God guide them and guard them, Until that day, he would complete the prophecy made to Abraham and bring them into the promised land. And as we see these things, may we rejoice. For we find in the story of Israel the story of all of God's people. For we too have been brought into a land that is not our own. We are, as Peter says, and the author to Hebrews says, we are exiles. We are sojourners in a strange land. And it is in this strange land that God has made himself known to us. As we wallowed in slavery to sin and death, as Paul tells us through Titus. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. And as he alludes to both in Romans and Corinthians, we are indeed not only sojourners in a strange land, but slaves to both sin and death. But in this condition of God's people, God has made himself known to us. by sending us the greater Moses, that we might be freed from our slavery. Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he, Jesus, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he, Jesus, might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. And so God sent us Jesus Christ to reveal to us all of the grace and mercy and all of the glory of God himself. That as he did so, he would not just reveal God to us, but that he would begin to bring us out of our slavery. And so we find in Christ, God has defeated our Pharaoh, so to speak, our great enemy, destroying through his own death and resurrection, the one who has the power of death. And it is Christ, our great prophet, who has led us out of slavery to freedom, not through the parting of the Red Sea, but through a far greater miracle, through his own death and resurrection. through baptism into Christ, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians, and then in Romans, whereby we have been identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. In this, he has saved us to the uttermost. He has redeemed us. He has brought us out from under the slavery in which we wallowed. He has freed us that we might be his people. But though we have been saved to the uttermost through Jesus Christ, God has not brought us immediately to the heavenly city. He has not brought us immediately into our promised land, nor has he brought us to Sinai to worship God in ceremony and ritual. We have instead been brought to Mount Zion, as Hebrews tells us, that in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we might worship our God in spirit and in truth. And just as Moses beheld the glory of God on that mountain in the desert, we have beheld the glory of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For as John tells us in John 1 verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glorious of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Yet in spite of the new covenant God has made with us through our Savior Jesus Christ, and in spite of him taking us to be his people, that we might know him as our God, we, like the Israelites of old, have broken covenant with him. We have sinned, we have transgressed his holy law, we have not obeyed his word, we have not kept covenant. We are no better than the Israelites worshiping the calf. We might like to think so, but in our wanderings, the reality is we worship a variety of calves of our own making. But praise be to God. Like them, God has not given up on us. He continues to call us to His Son, to call us to the foot of the cross, to call us to repent, knowing that as we do so, the promise of the Word is we will be forgiven. He continues to work in us His will by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He dwells with us even now, not in a tabernacle made with hands, we are told, but in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, He who is Emmanuel, God with us. And we are able to come and worship. We are able to meet with our God, not through the sacrifices of bulls and goats, but through the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the righteous, the Lamb of God, who has taken away our sin. And we are able to enter where no Israelite ever could. For as the tabernacle was constructed, the Holy of Holies was built, and no Israelite was allowed into the Holy of Holies except for the high priest once a year. we are told in Hebrews, are allowed to enter the very holy of holies in heaven itself. We are allowed to enter through the broken body of Jesus Christ, there to kneel before the throne of grace as we find ourselves worshiping the God of peace who has sustained us, who has fed us, who has watered us, who has guided and guarded us as we sojourn in exile, as we await that day. when he will end our wandering by bringing us home to be with him in the heavenly city, that promised land of eternal grace and peace. For as we study Exodus, we will find the comfort of God's guiding hand in the redemption of his people then and now, working in us that which is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so may we rejoice, and may we find the fullness of hope in His blessed promises, that He is indeed working out all things for our good, that we might be brought one day into that eternal city to dwell with our merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever. To God alone be glory. Amen.