The Exodus, of course, was the mass movement of the people of Israel out of slavery, dying in the land of Egypt as they came back into the promised land of Canaan. Now, this movement from Egypt to Canaan was not an easy movement. For one, the Pharaoh up there in Egypt did not want them to go, and he threatened that he would come along with military retaliation if you dare take a step outside of my territory. The miracles that God performed during this time of the Exodus are among the most spectacular that are recorded in all of the Bible. The Nile River, for example, turned to blood, shepherds' roads turned into snakes, the first born in every Egyptian household dying, and the Red Sea, then, parting to allow the children of Israel to cross over on dry land as they escaped the clutches of the Egyptian army. Now we really must say something about the scheme of the exodus. Because films over the years and picture storybooks that perhaps were given to our children in Sunday school and all the rest of it, they tend to portray this event, the exodus, as a little band of nomads that are wandering about in the desert, camping under palm trees and singing Hebrew folk songs around a very small campfire. That picture could hardly be further from the truth. The book of Numbers, when we get as far as that, tells us that when the Israelites left Egypt there were 600,000 fighting men within their ranks. Now it's reasonable to assume, surely, that if there were 600,000 fighting men there were also 600,000 women and that brings us to 1,200,000. Each of the families, we may further assume, had at least two children. That brings in another 1,200,000. And in addition, you would have had the men who were too old to fight and their wives also. There was, as well as this, the priestly tribe, the tribe of Levi. They were people who did not fight, their wives and their children also. So, when we compute all the figures, conservatively speaking, erring in the side of caution, we have at least two and a half, right up to possibly three million people who left Egypt during this exodus. It was not, then, a little tribe of nomads roaming about in the desert. This was a nation on the moon. And when they got out of Egypt, instead of looking for some little flat spot underneath a couple of palm trees to set up their camp, they had to look for a valley that would have been about ten miles square to accommodate all of these people. So when we take this in context and when we've got this kind of steel introduced into the equation, the Exodus ranks as one of the greatest historical events of the ancient world and this of course was an event over which Moses, the servant of God, presided. So we've come to the third segment. on the Ark of Bible History. The little picture there with the pyramids in the background and palm trees in the foreground and even a bit of a rainbow there at the back. That's the Ark of Bible History, the Exodus era. Towards the bottom of page 2, we've got a review, and I'm sure you'd be able, if I were to ask you, you'd be able to rattle off all the little names that go in there to fill up the blanks. For example, under Era No. 1, which is Creation, you would say the main figure is Adam, the location that we associate here is the Garden of Eden, and you would fill in the blanks as, Adam is created by God, but he sins and destroys God's original plan for man. We come into the second era, the Patriarch era, and we have as a central figure, rising head and shoulders, above all the rest, Abraham. We have for location, the land of Canaan. Abraham is chosen by God to father a people, to represent God to the world. Now tonight, down to the bottom set of dashes, gaps there, we have the era being the Exodus era tonight, we have the central figure being Moses of course, and we have the location being the land of Egypt. So Moses, the Exodus, and they're coming up out of the land of Egypt. You'll note the storyline summary at the top of page 3. Moses delivers the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and then gives them the law. So that's an overall summary, the umbrella title basically, of what kind of territory we are going to be walking through tonight. Moses delivers the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and then gives them Now, when we begin to flesh that out a bit and put a bit of meat on the bones, we have as we see here the storyline expansion. There are four major events in the Exodus era. Major event number one is Deliverance. That's the Exodus itself. Then number two, the giving of the law. Number three, when they came to a place called Kadesh Barneum. And number four will be the 40 years of wandering about in the wilderness. So the centre of page three, the first title, the first of the four major events, deliverance Freedom from slavery in Egypt. And we read about it in Exodus chapter 1 right through to Exodus chapter 18. We have a summary there of what that set of chapters is all about. The Hebrews have languished under slavery in Egypt for 400 years. When they cry out to God for deliverance. God raises up Moses as his spokesman to Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, asking for spiritual freedom. Let my people go, God is saying, for that Hebrew people. Pharaoh, of course, digs his heels in and says, no, you're not going to go. And then we have a series of ten plagues that are levied on Egypt to prompt Pharaoh to let the people go. The plagues begin badly. They become even worse. Finally, Pharaoh agrees to let the Hebrews leave Egypt. But after they leave, then he changes his mind very quickly and he tries to recapture them before they get out beyond the boundary of his land too far. They get as far as the Red Sea and God parts that Red Sea and the Hebrew people cross over safely onto the other side. Destination now is as it has always been, the land of Canaan, the promised land. the land that is flowing with milk and honey, the land that, as we looked last week when we thought about the patriarch, Aaron, the land where Abraham had been, where he had settled in, that land of Canaan is again to be the home for the people of Israel. At the close of Genesis, the chosen family, with the promises of God in their hands, are living in Goshen, Anarium, in the land of Egypt. Joseph, of course, that prominent figure within that family, he occupies a position of influence and power in the land of Egypt. But then 430 years pass, Between the time when Jacob and his family go down into the land of Egypt and the events that are recorded for us in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus, you can check it out in Exodus 12 verses 40 and 41, Acts 7 to verse 6, Galatians 3 and to verse 17. Now over this long period of time, 430 years, as you can imagine, the family of Jacob has multiplied. The nation is now in front of us. Not just a little collection of people, not just a little family, we've now got a nation on our hands. And they've multiplied to a phenomenal degree as Exodus 1 and 12 tells us. And then the government in Egypt, it's a new government of course by now, and they look upon the Hebrew people multiplying among their ranks and they begin to take fear and they look upon the Hebrew people as a threat to their government. Many dynasties in Egypt have risen and fallen by the time that Moses comes on the scene, and the king who is sitting on the throne now at the beginning of Exodus, he belongs to a dynasty that has long forgotten Egypt's debt to Joseph. Joseph is dead and gone for long, many a year now. The king or the pharaoh in Egypt is believed to have been Ramesses II, the third king of the 19th dynasty. He was a man who was known as a builder, a warrior, and he found the Israelites, at least for a time, to be a very convenient labour force. We talk about it and we have employers all over Europe today who are looking to exploit cheap labour. Let's bring a few guys in, maybe from Poland, maybe from Romania, maybe from Lithuania, or wherever, and they'll not get the same kind of wage as the local population, but they will do the same work, if not more, and let's get them into the jobs and pay them peanuts, or at least as little as we can get off with. And that's what was happening here. They were being paid nothing. The Hebrew people were just a labor force, a slave trade within the land of Egypt. But now, A different day has dawned. It is the time for deliverance. Very interesting to note the words, let go, or similar words to these, occur no less than 57 times in the first 12 chapters of Exodus. So that sets the scene. People are going to be let go. There is going to be an exodus. The burden of the message is clearly deliverance. The story of Israel in the land of Egypt can be studied under three basic sections. Section number one, persecution. Number two, preparation. Number three, plan and progress. So we have, first of all, the persecution of the people in Egypt. If you were to look in as a bystander and see what was happening to Israel at the time, the Hebrew people, their condition would have drawn a tear or two out of your eye. It was pitiful. They did no national expansion. Exodus 1, 1-7. They were really growing in numbers. But they were forced to endure cruel affliction under Pharaoh. Exodus 1, verses 8-14. And Pharaoh had gone so far as to try and murder all of their newborn male children. To try and stop them producing and to try and curtail the population here. But in spite of these brutal attacks, the people still multiplied and they grew. Just as that bush that Moses encountered in chapter 3, though it was surrounded and enveloped in flame, it remained unconsumed, there was only one reason behind it on one side, an unconsumed bush, and on the other hand, a spared people. And that reason was, God was in their midst. The persecution of the people. Then we have the preparation of a saviour. The preparation of a saviour. God raised up Moses. He was to be the deliverer. He was to be the saviour, the leader of the nation, to bring them out of bondage into the place of liberty. Moses was introduced to him here as a scholar. You remember how he was born in these scabulous times when they were killing the male children of the Hebrews. But Moses was hidden by his parents in an ark of bulrushes. Discovered later by Pharaoh's daughter, Whedon by his own mother, Jochebed, adopted by the princess in Egypt, and educated in no less a place than the court of Pharaoh. So if we talk about the universities of Egypt, that is where Moses was brought up. Acts chapter 7 verse 22 tells us Moses was skilled in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. Social things, you want to talk about them? Moses would have held a long conversation on that. Philosophy, he knew. Architecture, he knew. Military matters, he was an expert there as well. Everything essentially Egyptian Moses would have known. By the time Moses reached 40, it was more than likely that no one else in the land of Egypt showed a greater capacity for leadership in that entire country than him. Potentially, and I say it advisedly, potentially Moses could have been the next Pharaoh. However, the events recorded in Exodus 2 verses 11-15 ensure that did not take place. You remember how he went out one day and he saw a bit of a small scale riot, one man slugging away at the other man and he intervened and he slew the Egyptian, buried him in the sand and then He was able to hide that particular offence. But when it came one other day to two of his own people fighting, he reminisced, fiddled with them, and one of them said, are you going to kill us the way you killed the Egyptian? And Moses knew that his number was up. He needed to move out of the country. The people, while they knew what had happened, it wouldn't be long before they started to tell him. And Moses learned an important lesson back then. The efforts of the flesh. cannot further Jehovah's plan and cause. So we see him as scholar. Then we find him as shepherd. We read part of chapter 3 in Exodus there tonight as a Bible reading. We discovered there that Moses fled to the land of Midian, that he married Zipporah. He served his father-in-law out there in the back side of the desert, Jethro, or he is otherwise named as Ruel. And Moses was now tending sheep. So the scholar has become A shepherd. Not by accident. All again in plan of God. Staying now with these desert dwellers, Moses could hardly have had better preparation for the wilderness journeys that Israel would have to go through in years to come. He could hardly have had better preparation than what he was having right now. 40 years after he settles in this land of Midian, as he's feeding the flock in some remote part of the desert, God comes to him and God reveals to Moses his purpose to deliver Israel. Acts 7 to verse 30 tells us Moses was 80 years of age when he met God at the bush. And you tie that in to Exodus chapter 7 and to verse 7. Now, as soon as God said, I have a commission for you, I have a call for you, I have something for you to do, really important, I want you to go into Pharaoh and say, I am leading the people of Israel. God has told me to take them out, out of your country, away to worship Him. Well, Moses' response to the call of God was to offer four excuses, one after another. Four excuses, but God eradicated every excuse. First of all, he pleaded lack of fitness, but then the divine presence was his fitness, as he was told in Exodus 3, 11 and 12. He then pleaded, well, I don't have a message, but God says, my divine name, that is your message, Exodus 3, 13 to 18. Then he went down to excuse number three, well, I don't have any authority. God says, the divine person working within you, that is all the authority you need. And God gave Moses Three signs with which he would convince the people. Exodus 4 verses 1 to 9. And then Moses, he's not finished with the excuses, he pleads a lack of capacity. I can't do this thing. The divine power, he is told, will be your capacity. Exodus 4 verses 10 to 12. When these excuses have been forwarded, then pushed down by God, the real reason Why Moses was unwilling to approach Pharaoh becomes clear. He is suffering from a tragic lack of faith. Exodus 4 verses 13 to 16. Now Moses tries to back out. And you know the way maybe someone says to you, I think you could do this in the service of the Lord. Or maybe you should be doing this and praying about that. And the natural reaction is, oh let's back out. Let's not go for it. Moses here says, please send somebody else. And because of his lack of faith, the blessing that would exclusively be Moses is now to be shared with his brother Aaron. And they both were to have the blessing rather than it just being given to Moses, scholar, shepherd. Now we find him as the saviour of his people. He left the wilderness of Horeb re-entered public life, Moses appeared before Pharaoh and announces himself as the would-be leader of the people of the Hebrews. Now, as he comes to Pharaoh, he's a changed man. There's a tremendous contrast, you know, between Moses as he left Egypt at 40 years of age and the way in which he came back to Egypt 40 years later when he was 80. For the first 40 years of his life, he had been trained in the ways of the Egyptians. Acts 7 tells he was mighty in word, mighty in deed by the time that he was compelled to flee from the land of Egypt. But as he goes back, he's a man who has no confidence now in his own abilities. He claims that, I have slow speech. I don't see any qualities in myself as to be the reason why God is calling me to be the leader of the Hebrew people. What a contrast! between what he was when he left and what he is when he now comes back. And we shouldn't be surprised at this, because this is God's way. This is God's pattern. 1 Corinthians 1, 26-29 lays down the principle, God always delights in using the beast and the foolish and the poor things to work out his will upon the earth. And this was not merely something he began to do in the days of the New Testament Church, even in the Old Testament, God worked according to this pattern. You'll remember if you move on in the Bible through the book of Judges, the chapter 7, especially verse 2, he is Gideon Sports, and there are many thousands of men that come, 32,000 initially, to stand up and be in Gideon's army and God reduces and reduces and reduces and pairs it all down until there are only 300 left. God is going to show him that he can do mighty things through very weak vessels indeed. God again in the days of Samuel shows that he picks up the vessels that in the estimate of men are the least likely to succeed and Samuel comes to anoint a new king. He goes in with the family of Jesse. He sees seven of Jesse's sons walk past him and he thinks at the sight of every one of them, this has to be the man, this has to be the man, this has to be the man that God has chosen. But it wasn't. Son number eight was then called in, David, just a stripling of a lad and he was the person God had in view to face later and ultimately Goliath and be his king. Now this was the reason why Moses spent 40 years in the deserts of Midian. God was draining His own confidence in Himself that He had got through His training in Egypt. And now, shorn of bolts, stumbling in speech, emptied of self, Moses meets God at the burning bush, and God shows Him high with just a mean shepherd's crook. He will engineer the defeat of the most powerful, influential nation of that era. Exodus 4, verses 2-5. When he gets to Pharaoh, the initial response he receives is hardly encouraging. Pharaoh doesn't say when Moses says, I'm on a mission from God, I want you to let go of the Hebrew people, let them out and serve the Lord. Pharaoh doesn't say, oh yeah, Moses, that's fine. We will do that. Pharaoh imposes heavier burdens upon the people. And it is at this point that God reveals Himself to Moses as Jehovah, the great I Am, the covenant God. Chapter 3, verse 14. And He promises that He will bring His people out of Egypt into this better land. He gives Moses a thrilling series of I wills. Exodus 6, verse 6 through to verse 8. So we've seen already the persecution of the people down in Egypt, we've seen the preparation of the Saviour, how God was dealing with Moses, getting him ready for this big task, and we come to look at the plan and the progress of redemption. The plan and progress of redemption. Very interesting to notice the plagues that God brought upon Pharaoh and his land, Egypt. We think of some particulars of the plagues. Number one, the turning of the water of Egypt into blood. And of course, we're talking about the River Nile here, and we have met with the River Nile in our lesson number two, the Geography of the Old Testament. And we note there pages three and four. You can read a bit about that in that second lesson. But God takes this great supply line, the River Nile, and He utterly contaminates it. The water on which the whole country depends ruins it, makes it unusable for them, and that plague lasts in Egypt for seven days. Then frogs. Aaron stretches forth his hand, with his rod in that hand, over the rivers and the ponds, and frogs come forth abundantly, multiply everywhere. Then lice. Now those lice affected man and beast Though the magicians of Egypt had been able to come and replicate and imitate what Moses and Aaron had been doing with turning the water of Egypt into blood, with causing flogs to appear, we find when it comes to plague number three that they're out of their depth. The magicians cannot imitate this plague and they can't imitate any other ones. They are forced to concede defeat in front of this one. And so in Ectodisee, verses 15 to 20, they cry, this is the finger of God. We are no match for him. Flies come in. And we discover when the flies come, that swarm that is sent all over the land of Egypt, corrupting it. It is only in the land of Goshen, that part of the country where the Israelites are living, that there were no flies. Why did God do it? Chapter 8, verses 21 to 31, to the end, Thou, Pharaoh, mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Then he sends us plague number five, a very grievous Murim. Affected the animals of the Egyptians, but again it was a discriminatory plague because the cattle of the Hebrews were not affected. There is a boil that comes. Moses and Aaron, to bring about this plague of the boils, they're told to take handfuls of ashes. Where did they bring the ashes? This is interesting. They were to get the ashes out of the furnace. What use had the furnace been? Well, up until this point, it was the furnaces that the Hebrew people had been sleeving around as they were making their brick for the Egyptians. And so, out of the very scene of their affliction, God turns the tables on the Egyptians. Bring handfuls of ashes out of the furnace. Sprinkle them towards heaven in the sight of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and they will become small dust in the land of Egypt. They will take the form of a boil breaking forth with flames. Then there is the pestilence, a very severe plague. Then Lucas. Anything the pestilence left behind, the Lucas ate up. Then the darkness. That lasts for three days in Egypt. They describe it as thick darkness, again as darkness which may be felt. What a darkness it must have been. Surely a picture here of that awesome separation that poor, lost, unconverted sinners will experience at the end of life's passage when they descend into hell. Darkness which may be felt. And only, you will note, the children of Israel had light in their home. Exodus 10, 21-29. And we come eventually to number 10, which is the slaying of the firstborn at midnight. The Lord goes through all of the land of Egypt and He slays all of the firstborn and those Israelites, protected by the sprinkled blood on the lintels and the doorposts of their houses, they are saved. And they are so saved, we are told, in Exodus 11 and 7, that not even a dog's tongue was raised against them. So we have the particulars of the plagues. What about the purpose of the plagues? These plagues were sent for three basic reasons. Reason number one, to reveal the power of God over his enemies. Number two, to demonstrate that Israel belonged to the Lord and not to Pharaoh and that's why the plagues hit Egypt and did not hit Goshen where his people, the Hebrews, were living. They also were given, these plagues, to establish the faith of the Hebrews in their God. So God's here and I find this a very interesting subject. In fact, I preach this as an individual message and we've done it in the midst of a PowerPoint display also that we might do sometime before I leave here. Sometime in the dim distant future I suppose. But we've done this presentation on the plagues of Egypt. And how through each particular plague, it wasn't just God thinking, ah, what will cause the most misery to come into Egypt here? God was sending these particular plagues for very definite reasons. He was targeting, one by one, the false gods, the idols, the images that all of these Egyptian people were serving. And he was showing that He alone, Jehovah the I Am, had power, and that these puny idols, the Egyptians and Pharaohs, scurried after Him, they were nothing. In Romans 9, verse 17, we are told that when God sent the plagues into Egypt, He did so to show His power, and that His name might be declared throughout all the earth. The ten plagues showed God is everything. While the little false gods those Egyptians worshipped were absolutely nothing. If we could describe it like this, ten plagues were actually ten boxing rounds in a contest. God, Jehovah, against the little gods of Egypt. And in each round, the little god that comes in through the ropes changes. In fact, some rounds If not all rhymes, there are several little images and idols that come in taking on Jehovah here. For example, what I'm saying is this. Plead number one. The Egyptians believed and taught that several of their gods and goddesses guarded the Nile River. What would they think of their gods and goddesses whenever God Jehovah turned the Nile into blood and showed that their gods and goddesses were totally unevil? to guard or protect that river. Plague number two. Why did God send frogs? Why ever? Well, the Egyptians, that are very famous, frog faced God called Osiris. But by sending the frogs, multiplying them through the country, affecting everywhere, Jehovah showed the powerlessness of Osiris. Plague number five. The sending off the murine that affected the animals. A lot of the Egyptian gods were meant to protect their animals. Well how then could the livestock be wiped out, as they were during this fifth plague, if the Egyptian god Hathorn, with a cow head, protected the cows? And if they were looked after by that famous Egyptian cow god Apis, which was also a symbol of fertility? You see, God again was clearly showing through this plague that both Hathor and Apas and the other gods of the Egyptians were false. In plague number seven, God sent hail and thunder and fire and destroyed the Egyptians' crops. Again, he showed that several gods and goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon of gods were not able to control the storms in the sky or prevent crop failure on the ground. Their gods that they were looking to here would have included the sky goddess Nut, Osiris, who we've mentioned already, the god of crop fertility, and Set, who was meant to be the god of storms. But these could do nothing when Jehovah came into motion. Take number 10. In the Tenth Plague, one of the leading goddesses, Isis, supposedly protected children. But in every Egyptian home, this goddess, Isis, was incapable of preventing the death of the firstborn child. Their gods were useless. And that's what God was showing them. So we do have boxing rounds here, we do have showdowns between Jehovah and the false gods of Egypt, and the message that keeps coming through with that trumpet blast is this, the Lord God omnipotent, real. God is on the throne, and He alone. Now Pharaoh, under pressure from the plagues, talked of a compromise. Four compromises in fact, he was a good negotiator. He told, well, you Hebrew people, you can go and sacrifice what you need to do in the land of Egypt. Don't go beyond our borders. That was compromise position number one. When they wouldn't agree to that through Moses, through God of course, he commanded, Pharaoh did, that they should not go too far away. Then he dropped again down on the negotiating list, and he said, well, only the men can go. And then the fourth position was, well, the people can go, but leave your flocks behind. And of course, if they left any flocks he had, that was their possessions gone, their prosperity gone, and they couldn't afford to do that. So Pharaoh is negotiating. and all the time he is resisting God, his heart is hardening. Some people have stumbled over the statement that we have in the Word of God here that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. It must be remembered that it is also declared that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And the action of God in hardening Pharaoh's heart had not come before, but followed Pharaoh's own action of hardening his own heart. Pharaoh hardened, hardened, and hardened his heart. And God said, that's okay. If that's the way you want it, I'll complete the process for you. Then we come to that splendid event, the Passover. It came against a backdrop plague number 10. But the Passover marked the institution of the feast. We can't think or talk too much about it in terms of its importance, because here is the greatest crisis in the Hebrew nation, but this Passover also typifies the greatest fact in the history of the world. Redemption through the blood of Christ, who is our Passover Paschal Lamb. It was commanded that all the males of the chosen people should appear before the Lord three times a year in a place chosen by Him. Three times per year, one was at the Feast of Passover, second at the Feast of Pentecost, third at the Feast of Tabernacles, and out of these three feasts, the first and the third, the Passover and the Tabernacles, are the most important. They're the focal points of the Jewish year. One is held in the spring, that is Passover, to celebrate Israel's redemption. The other, that of Tabernacles, is held in the autumn to commemorate their preservation. There were actually seven great Passover feasts that we have on biblical record, observed in Jewish history. You have the references for them there. Exodus 12, the first one. Numbers 9, the 2nd, then Joshua 5, 2nd Chronicles 30, and then 35, Ezra chapter 6, and then Matthew chapter 26. And that was when our Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus at Passover time, was crucified for us. Now we're on to page 10. Journey from Egypt to Sinai. It took Israel two months. to get out of the land of Egypt and make their way through to the Sinai. That's comprised of a number of stages, first of all to the Red Sea, then through the Red Sea, that was the first big test of Israel's faith and they panicked, and then from the Red Sea, that is the third major stage in that journey. The passage through the Red Sea is an interesting one, to say the least. The common fallacy is that the distance between those watery walls of the Red Sea was actually quite small. And if you look at your children's picture story books, you've got just a little corridor of dry land between the water, those watery walls, and the children of Israel are crushing and packing and squeezing their way through as they go across the Red Sea. Now, let's think of the figures we brought up right at the beginning. 600,000 fighting men on foot. plus women and children. Children and a half, maybe to 3 million people coming up out of Egypt, passing through the Red Sea. Exodus 12, verse 33. Now this, if we were to take the people of Israel and put them into rows, and talk about 2 million, that's a small figure, 2 million. If each row had 15 people abreast, there would have been about 133,333 rows. If the rows of people were spread out three feet apart, so that one didn't tramp on the heels of the other in front, then the length of the column going through the red seam, 15 across, would have been 400,000 feet, which is 75 miles, for me, the distance from where I live in Londonderry down to Belfast. Therefore, by the time the tail end of the column got out of the land of Egypt and through the Red Sea, the head of the column would already have been in the land of Canaan. It didn't happen that way, of course. He didn't go out. Fifteen abreast. There must have been far, far more. if they were to get across that Red Sea in a very short period of time, so therefore the dividing of the waters, the crossing of the Red Sea, was a far greater miracle than most people imagine it has been suggested. The Red Sea was opened up just up by a little corridor, but by about a mile wide, allowing the people to go through quickly. An earthquake was not responsible. A tidal wheel was not responsible. The opening of the Red Sea was a stupendous miracle. The ground on which they walked was solid, not muddy, but frozen. Exodus 14, 21 and 22, verses 29 to 31 as well. Now this same miracle, which spelled deliverance for the people of Israel, crushed the pride of the Egyptian army. It resulted in the people of Israel fearing the Lord, believing in the Lord, expressing confidence in Moses, Exodus 14 verse 31, and also there was a joyous song that rose. You can imagine, here we have the first main praise service in the Bible, after the Exodus from Egypt and the safe passage through the Red Sea. There is a celebration of victory. And in Exodus 15 we have a song, Miriam's song, that's a fine example of ancient Semitic poetry. Why did God take them along this route? Why was there this two-month march? What is God doing for his people here? Well, he's revealing, in fact, a six-fold revelation of his purpose. He is showing them, showing the evidence of his power and his purpose in this six-part way, in redemption by means of the Passover. Showing His power in guidance by means of the fiery and the cloudy pillar. His power in salvation by means of the passage through the Red Sea. In provision by means of the supply of manna and the water and the quill. He is showing His power and purpose in victory by means of the overthrow of the nation of Amalek in Exodus 17. Showing again His power in government when He brings 70 rulers, appoints them to help Moses in the discharge of Moses' duty. And a study of this whole section will reveal Christ as our redemption, as our guide, as our salvation, as our provider, as our victor and as our governor. Deliverance. That is the first major section. The others will be significantly shorter and we will go through them a lot more quickly. We have the second section here in the Exodus era and it is the law. Page 11. Middle of the page. The law. God's commandments. Mount Sinai and we're at Exodus 19 through to Exodus chapter 40. The Hebrew people now begin to take on a national identity as Israel. From the Red Sea they travel south to the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula and they camp at Mount Sinai. There they receive God's commandment Ten commandments written on tables of stone by the finger of God. Moses also receives a full revelation of the law that will be governing Israel's national life as well as her spiritual connection to God. God promises there at Sinai, I will bless this nation abundantly when it obeys me, but I will curse her soundly and roundly when she disobeys. So at this encampment At Sinai, there is the revelation of the Lord, Exodus 19, 3 to 25. There is the constitution of the nation, Exodus 20 through to Leviticus 27. There is preparation for the journey, Numbers 1 through to chapter 10 and to verse 10. And those 58 chapters, from Exodus chapter 19 to Numbers chapter 10, those 58 chapters are occupied with a single year's history. It is the most momentous year in the history of Israel and of the world. And during this time, the righteous character, the holy requirements of God are revealed. God brings a revelation to them and He does it in four parts. Part A, the formulation of the law, Exodus 20, verse 1 through to chapter 24, verse 18. We have the Ten Commandments given, first of all, and we have already mentioned those. The first four of the Ten Commandments are concerned with man's relationship to God, how we should behave before Him. The remaining six, the second table of the Law, govern man's relationship with his fellow men. And that's how Jesus summarised it in Matthew 22, verses 37-40. These commandments reveal divine righteousness on the one hand, human depravity on the other hand. Spell out what God in His holiness requires of man and what man, because of his sin, is not able to give and not able to do. So we have as the first part of the formulation of the law, the Ten Commandments. We have as the second part, God's law code for Israel in Exodus 20 verse 22 through to Exodus 23 and to verse 33. This section is known as the Book of the Covenant. It's the oldest record we have of Jewish law. We have judgments here, case laws. We have statutes that are straightforward commands as to how they should regulate their lives as a people and nation. This whole code that God gives them rests on His authority. They're given by Him. They're not the dictates of a king. There is one law for everyone. no matter what man's status in life might be. Regulations are designed here to protect the weak and the helpless, the slaves, the orphans, the widows, the foreigners are all mentioned and protected. Then we have a high view of human life that is given. So we've got the death penalty, for example. We've other fixed penalties, one crime, one punishment. And if our nation were to run with some of these laws today, well, it would be an outcry from all the liberal groups but there would be a closer adherence to good government within the country. And we can divide this law code into three parts. The civil part, Exodus 21 verse 1 through to 23 verse 13. The ceremonial code, Exodus 23, 14 to 19. The constitutional code for the nation, Exodus 23 verses 30 to 33. While it's true Many of these little laws that were given in these days have now passed into oblivion, don't any longer apply. It is also true that propping up the local and the temporary laws designed for Israel were broad, eternal principles that apply as much to us as did to them. Of course, when we think about the law, we think of Jesus Christ. He was the fulfillment of the law. The requirements were made known to the people of Israel. They could not keep them. Here is the standard. They always fell short. And so that law became not a father that they could love, but a schoolmaster that stood over them, that instructed them, that prodded them along unto Christ. Christ comes to fulfill the law that they could not fulfill. That law was hidden in His heart. He perfectly set forth and fulfilled the will of God. He was the end or the realization of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Where we cannot fulfill the law, Christ fulfills it perfectly for us. So under this section, the law, We have the formulation of the law, we have B, the institution of the tabernacle, and you've got a little picture there in the middle of page 13 of the tabernacle, not the best one, but one of the best that I could find, and it will serve the purpose that, combined with the little diagram over the page, you'll need especially good eyes to be able to make out So under the institution of the tabernacle we've got details about the name of the tabernacle, the origin of the tabernacle as well, how it came about. Moses didn't suddenly decide, ah I would like this, here's the dimensions, here's the materials, just as God gave all of the details to Noah. when Noah was building the ark. Here's the wood you make it of. Here are the dimensions that you make it to. So, when God comes to Moses, He gives him the pattern. Exodus 25 and 9. After the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. So God gives him the design. Gives him the plan. It is a complete revelation. The form of the tabernacle, page 14. We've got the structure. the size of the court and the tabernacle, comprising the holy place and the most holy of the holiest of all, the tent over the tabernacle, the covering over the tent, all of these details God gives. Then we have the furniture in the court. First thing you would meet as you would go in through the main entrance will be the brazen altar. Why? Because that's the place of the sacrifice. That's the place where you pass from death unto life because the animal is dying for you. That's how we enter into the pathway of faith ourselves. By means of the altar, regeneration. Then there is the laver after that. You'll see this huge circular bowl filled with water for cleansing, for washing, for purification. Then you might go further into the holy place. You'll see the golden lampstand, illumination, the table of showbread for provision, the altar of incense for intercession. Our prayers are ascending through the priest unto God in heaven. And then, that holiest of all, where only the high priest can go, and that, that, once per year. We have the ark in there, representation. We have the mercy seat in the cherubim, and that is consecration. This structure, the tabernacle, was positioned in the middle of the camp. It was the personal, the social, the political, the religious centre of the people. Every part of the tabernacle furniture, as indeed the entire tabernacle, is a profound, spiritual picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And John, when he is presenting Jesus, here is how he describes Him. In John 1, verse 14, He became flesh. He says of Jesus, and dwelt, and the word is tabernacled among us. Jesus is our tabernacle, and he's pictured here in this Old Testament tabernacle. Then we have the history of the tabernacle as well noted here. It made its first appearance at Sinai whenever the instructions were given to Moses repeated eight times. They were carried out a fortnight short of twelve months from the time that Israel left Egypt. We have the tabernacle going along with Israel as they go on the wilderness journey and its Put up here, then it's taken down. Put up there, taken down. Put up somewhere else, it accompanies them. When the inhabitants of Canaan were subdued, the promised land to which they were going, the tabernacle was brought in with them. Pitched in Shiloh, Joshua 18, verse 1. It's still in Shiloh, in 1 Samuel chapter 1, 450 years later, but its days are drawing to a close. In the days of Samuel, the Israelites took the ark, Out of the tabernacle, tried to use it as a kind of a lucky charm in a fight against the Philistines. It never returned to the tabernacle, that ark. Less than 90 years later, when Solomon constructed the temple, this tent of meeting, this tabernacle between God and Israel disappeared altogether. It had served its purpose for almost 500 years. The significance of the tabernacle, It stood for a double-sided truth. The fact of God's approach to man. God is coming down in His Shekinah glory, meeting with man. And man's approach to God. This is the way by which we approach. By the altar, through the laver, in by the golden lampstand, at the table of showbread, at the altar of incense. The path of man's approach unto God through Jesus, through His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. We have again the ordination of the priesthood. That was another fact term that came into play whenever they were around at Mount Sinai and the law was being given. The formulation of the law we have, the institution of the tabernacle, the ordination of the priesthood in Exodus 28 through to verse 13. And really what is happening here, we have a background of sin. The people are sinners. They need somebody to represent them to God, somebody better than they are, and so they have priests. And of course, that's just a picture of Christ again. He is, Hebrews 4, our great high priest. Right through the book of Hebrews, Christ is displayed as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He didn't die off like these men in the tribe of Levi. Our priest, Jesus Christ, lives forever to intercede and offer on our behalf. the ordination of the priesthood, then we have Dean, the prescription of the offerings that we read of in Leviticus chapter 1 through to Leviticus chapter 7. This whole book of Leviticus could be summarized as 1. The way to God by sacrifice and 2. The walk with God by sanctification. The book emphasizes the need to walk before God in a holy fashion. The need for man to experience cleansing. And it shows us here with these sacrifices. The book of Leviticus goes into the sacrifices in great detail. We have the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering. These sacrifices are mentioned and they are all pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus. We sing the hymn as we look back through the ages. Where the kings and prophets trod, we may see their altars reeking with the sacrifice and blood, but those tithes were only pointing to the Paschal Lamb of God, Hallelujah, I'm depending on the blood. We summarize the rest of the contents of the book of Leviticus here, chapter 8 through 10, consecration of Aaron and his sons, that's as priests. Chapters 11-15 Laws for Daily Life, Purity and Impurity. Chapter 16 The Great Day of Atonement, that we tie in with Hebrews 9 and 10 for that New Testament treatment of the Day of Atonement. Chapter 17 Other Regulations about Sacrifice. Chapters 18-20 Ethical Laws, Moral Laws. 21-22 Rules for the Priests. Chapter 23 of Leviticus, the Set Feast. The Sabbath, the Passover, the Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, that's Pentecost, the Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles are of Booths. Chapter 24 of Leviticus, the Lamp, the Showbread, the Sin of Blasphemy. Chapter 25, the Seventh and the Fiftieth Years, two big celebrations, the Sabbath and the Jubilee. Then chapter 26, Promise and Warning, Blessing and Cursing, chapter set 27, Vows and Tithes. Come to section number 3, And we are at Kadesh, Balea. So section 1 was the exodus. Coming up out of the land of Egypt. How great a change there is. Deliberate. freedom from slavery in Egypt. Then section number 2, the giving of the law, God's commandments at Mount Sinai. Section number 3, they're at Kadesh Barneil, a little town. And it's a place of rebellion against God. A place of rebellion against God. We read of it in Numbers 10 through to Numbers 14. Israel leaves Mount Sinai. They now move north. And you'll be able to trace this in a later map. They move north to an oasis which is Kedish Barneum. It's the southern gateway, if you like, into the Promised Land. From this place, twelve spies are sent into the Promised Land, one spy per each tribe of Israel. The land at the time is inhabited by Canaanites. They won't like the Israelites coming into their land. There will be a fight. The spies return and there's good news, there's bad news. The good news is the land is beautiful, the land is bountiful. It does flow with milk and honey. The bad news is there are giants there. There are hostile armies scattered through the land. And the KM spies report that land is indomitable. There is no way that we can take it. The people are far too strong. And they say that in spite of the fact that God had promised he would give them victory over any opposing force, but we have two good spies with a good report, Joshua and Caleb, and they tell the people, believe God, go into the land, we can take it, God is with us, we will overcome. And the people believe Joshua and Caleb? No, they don't. They go for the majority report, the ten spies, and they refuse to follow Moses. into the land. And so this place, where they are at this time, where they receive the report from the spies, Cedish Barneum, becomes a place of rebellion against God. Now at this point, when the spies were going out, everything was in place. God had equipped them. They were all ready for an assault upon the tribes of Canaan. And they were ready to take possession of the land. But when they rebel, God sends them out on a circuit. wandering in the wilderness. We talk about the 40 years wandering. Well, they've already come some part of that 40 years by now. They go for a further 38 or 38 and a half years wandering around. This terrible act of unbelief caused, as Dr. W.G. Scroggie said, caused the tides of their history to run back for a whole generation. And for a life period suspended the purposes of God for them. Over this 40 year period you could write wasted years. It came down to this. When the reports from the spies came in, the essential difference was this. Two of them, while not appreciating the enemy, appreciated the Lord. But ten of them depreciated the Lord and appreciated only the enemy. Two of them looked at their difficulties through God, said, we can conquer them. But ten of them looked at God through their difficulties, couldn't see God, in fact, and wrongly perceived God could not do anything such as the distance. God is withered in power. And this nation, it is so determined not to go forward at this great day of opportunity. They are so stirred up against Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb that we read in Numbers 14 and 10, all the congregation bade stone them with stones. In the center of this vile activity, the glory of God appears, judgment falls. God says, I will raise up a nation greater and mightier than you are. Numbers chapter 14 and verse 12. Moses steps in, intercedes for the people, implores the Lord, show your greatness, Lord, in the area of pardon rather than punishing this people. While the Lord hears him to some degree, he does not disown Israel, but he tells Moses exactly what he intends to do. This people of Israel have seen His glory. But they'd go on to tempt him ten times. He rings out the death knell for that entire generation and says every one of them from twenty years old and upwards every single last one of them will not put one foot inside the promised land. Numbers 14, 21 to 24, and we read a while further in the chapter, the men responsible for the evil report, the ten spies, they died immediately. Numbers 14, 36 to 37. Now, had you been with Israel, wandering now for 38 and a half years, you'd have been attending funerals every single day. It was an unbroken funeral procession. We've said the numbered men amounted to 600,000. Total number of days spent in the wilderness, 38 and a half years, 14,508 deaths. An average of 42 to 43 men would die each day. Every hour, three or four men would die. So the next 38 and a half years in the wilderness would be a constant funeral dirge. The people of Israel, when they went back to the desert here, their marching ended and the wandering began. Now we have a final section and we'll cram that in, in a couple of minutes. We have 40 years of wandering. That's the consequences of their rebelling against God, we read of it. Numbers 20 through to Numbers 36. The only record we have here is a bare list of place names where Israel stopped. They came here, stopped for a while, moved on. Came there, stopped for a while, moved on. Just place name after place name after place name as they wandered. Their experiences during these tortuous years underlines this truth. Time that we spend outside of the circle of the will of God will find no place in His calendar. He doesn't report it as a good thing. Underlines the fact that a disobedient life is a wasted life. You'll notice on page 20 there that we have the title back to Ceres Barnea. Not a man of those who left Egypt at 20 years of age and above was left living by the end of the wanderings in the wilderness. Only two survived out of that age bracket, 20 and above, Caleb and Joshua. And so by the time that Israel, after 38 and a half years of wandering here, get back to Teresh Barnea, back to the place where they rebelled against God, back to the place where they left off the place of blessing, when they get back, only Caleb and Joshua are there and a new generation of all of those who were below 20. They have grown up over that 38 and a half years. This new generation has now come through. And after those 38 and a half years where their fathers had sinned on this very spot, this new generation is determined. We are pushing into the land this time. We are not making the mistake our fathers made. And so we come through into the book of Deuteronomy. We have an outline there at the bottom of page 20. The book of Deuteronomy supplies us with a review of the wilderness wanderings, a repetition of the divine law, that law must be stated again, a revelation of God's future dealings with his people, a record of the closing scenes of Moses' life. Two keys will open the book of Deuteronomy. Number one key is remember. Number two key is obey. Remember. and obey. Remember what happened in the past? Now obey in the present and in the future. Significantly, we don't find a mention of the love of God in the first four books of Moses, Genesis through to Numbers. It's only in this book, Deuteronomy, that we view the 40 years of Israel's history from the time that they exited Egypt to their approach into the land of Canaan It is only here that God's love is grandly displayed and graciously declared. The final part of this book speaks prophetically about the future history of Israel. Details are given and of course, as we can expect, God fulfilled these details, these promises, these prophecies to the letter showing His love. emphasising His grace to a persistently rebellious people. Thank God He is still the same today and He works in love even in our lives.