Answers in Genesis--Fall 2016--Lesson 9: The Exodus from Egypt

All right. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Hope you guys had a good week in the Lord.

This is not only the Lord's Day, it's also communion Sunday, so it's the day that we get to partake of the Lord's supper. So that makes it extra special, exciting. And just really blessed to be with you guys this morning to study God's word. And we're gonna have a great sermon a little bit later.

Pastor Milton's gonna be preaching on Psalm 2 and so we're looking forward to that. We're also praying for our election this upcoming. Tuesday, so a lot going on. So I encourage you guys to be praying, for the election, the candidates, all the various issues.

let's go ahead and pray and we're gonna take a look at God's word. Lord, we thank you so much for just the blessing of being in a free country where we still are able to, enjoy the First Amendment and the freedom not just to worship but the freedom to express our religion in the public square. we pray that, that freedom would continue as we move into this next presidency. We, pray, Father, that you'd be with us as we study your word and just consider what you have been doing with your people for eons and, while there were many things that happened during the The time of the exodus that were very worrisome for the people of God.

We saw, we, we're gonna see that your hand was over it all and so we just pray that you guide us in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we're going to just do a little bit of review here and Our lesson is the exodus from Egypt And if anybody's seen the The movie, the Exodus. Is that the one with Russell?

No, that's Noah with Russell Crowe. There's, isn't there a movie that came out recently on the Exodus? Oh, Christian Bale, that's right. That's right.

most of those movies, I just can't stand. they, they just make me sick to my stomach. It's hard to bear them. but there are, once in a while you find a movie that does an OK job.

So let's do a little bit of review. obviously, we're continuing to, we'll be looking at the authority of God's word this morning with the assumptions that it's an errant, it's been preserved for us, it's efficient. we always want to try to apply the proper hermeneutic, not gashikta, exegesis, not Iosis. we've talked about geology and history in this class.

we talked about Egyptology not too long ago. two weeks ago, we talked about how Moses was, how God's sovereignty in Moses coming to the scene and then what was it particularly that we talked about last week? Do you remember any details from last week? Come on, you're gonna make me feel bad.

OK. Yeah, so God is holy, so he's separate from his creation. What else? Yeah, we did talk about the Passover and everything that was involved in in killing an animal and putting the blood on the posts, eating it with haste like military eating, right?

being ready to move. What else? Yup, Joe. Yeah, we talked about God's sovereignty and hardening the heart of Pharaoh and how that Pharaoh is still responsible for his actions, but God was divi he's sovereign overall.

We had this big theological term that I introduced to you guys last week. Anybody remember what that is? Nobody remembers the big theological term that I was so proud of. Yeah, it's a divine compatibility, divine compatibility.

That's just basically the, the theological idea, the philosophical idea that we believe that God's sovereignty and human responsibility are compatible, that the Bible teaches both and that while we may not be able to understand the full mystery behind the agreement between God's sovereignty and human responsibility, that In God's mind, there is no contradiction. Human beings are completely responsible for their actions. Pharaoh is completely responsible for his actions. But God is completely sovereign in control of all things.

And we talked about that even when it came to the sorcerers, right? That these guys were given. Signs, wonders that were actually used by God as part of the hardening process of Pharaoh. And All right.

So let's go ahead, let's move into this week's material. I want you guys to open up to Genesis 15. We're gonna review a couple of the promises. That were made, by God to Abraham first and then to Moses about this thing that we're calling the exodus.

It's a huge event in redemptive history. this is clearly one of the The most significant events in the Old Testament is, is the idea of, of God's people moving out of Egypt in this exodus. But let's, let's read 15 verse 13 to 16 again. And he said to Abraham, Kn certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years.

And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now, as for you, you shall go to your father's in peace. you shall be buried at a good old age, but in the 4th generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

A lot going on here. God's prophesying that they're gonna go to another land. They're gonna be afflicted, but then God's gonna judge that people, and they're gonna come out of that land with great possessions. And part of this whole thing that's going on with the people of God is partially because the sin of the Amorites is not yet complete., what God are we talking about here that's waiting 400 years for the sins of the Amorites to be complete?

Then he's gonna bring Israel back to execute his judgment upon the sins of the Amorites. Let's look at Exodus chapter 3. These are all parallel passages. We're going to be asking the question here how they are similar.

Exodus 3:19-22. But I am sure that the king of Egypt, this is God speaking, will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in its midst, and after that, he will let you go. And I will give these people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall be when you go that you shall not go out empty handed.

But every woman shall ask her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells in her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, so you shall plunder the Egyptians. Now turn to Exos 12, again, parallel passage. Verse 33 to 36. And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, and they said, We shall all be dead.

So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes, on their shoulders, their cloths. Now, the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses and they had asked from Egypt, Egyptians, articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered.

The Egyptians. So let's ask some questions of the text. Who are these promises being made to in each context? Yeah, Israelites.

So in the first passage, we're talking about Abraham. in the second passage, Moses, and then the third passage, we're actually seeing the fulfillment of it, right? And what are some common ideas in all of these passages? Joe had some.

Yeah, so Hate, they're, they're gonna be moving out in a hurry. What else? Have a lot of jewelry, Yeah, so they're gonna have a lot of possessions. That the people of Egypt are going to give to them.

They're going to ask for it and it's going to be granted to them. Anything else? Say it again. Plunder.

Yup. And how much time has passed between the promise To Abraham and the actual exodus. Yeah, so we've got 400 years. what is, what are some things that this would, tell us or teach us about God?

Yeah, Barbara, OK. So, yeah, there could be, we could see God's mercy and allowing time for the Amorites just like God allowed Nineveh time, right? What else? Yeah, Kim.

Yeah, he's faithful to his word. He made a promise and this this promise came true. So God was faithful to fulfill his, his prophecy. Melissa?

Yes, he's not always acting according to our timing. 400 years, that's a long time. Abraham's dead by the time this stuff occurs, but in God's progress of the story or history of redemption, this is working according to his time. Good.

Anything else you guys would point to? Right. So God's taken an active role. This goes back to part of what we suggested at the beginning of this course that this isn't just his historicism where things just happen.

This is God controlling history. God is moving pieces. He's in control of the details. Of history and And so if you were a Jew living in Egypt after they had already fallen into slavery.

It could be very easy to look out and just say what, what in the world is going on, right? In fact, we're gonna see Israel here in a second say to Moses, What in the world is going on? What have you done? So it's, so we, so we see God fulfilling his promise.

We also see God, he's fulfilling a covenant that he made to Abraham and we see this throughout the Old Testament is God made a promise. He made a covenant with Abraham, and he promises, and he fulfills that, that covenant. Let's go ahead and turn now to Exodus 12:31. we just, we read 33 to 36, but now we're gonna turn back a few verses.

We're going to gaze at the whole context here, 31 down to 42, we're going to read together and make some observations of the text. And then we're gonna try to put all this. Put all this together. Remind me to try to deal with the question of plunder later if I forget.

Can you guys remind me of that? I wanna, I wanna try to answer the question, why is God approving of booty? Or plunder. So let's, let's look at verse 31.

Then he called from Moses and Aaron by night and said, rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel and go serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds as you have said and be gone. And bless me also. so this is Pharaoh speaking, right?

And so he's finally saying, get out of here, but on your way out, could you please bless me as well. So he's now finally figuring out or at least acknowledging that these are men that come from the Most High God and, and they have been granted power by God. and so we read 33 to 36, so let's skip down to 37. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Sikkoth with 600,000 men on foot besides children.

A mixed multitude went up with them also and flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock. And they baked on leavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt. for it was not leavened, but they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provision for themselves. Now, the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years, and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years on the very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

So 600,000 people, I think some estimates say that with women and children that we could be talking about 3 million. People that are moving out of Egypt. that's just unfathomable. Is that right?

Unfathomable. I have trouble with that word. I don't know if any of you guys saw, did any of you guys see any of the Cubs parade? They say there were 5 million people.

That were out there, both on the parade route and then also at the grandstand. so if you, if you got any view of that cub celebration, that's about 2 million more people probably than, than the people of Israel that were moving across this desert. back in the day, we haven't done this for a while. Well, we had the, the festival of treats out here and we had a large part of our congregation was involved and lots and lots of people from the community, and that's quite a to do to put something on like that.

If you talk to. some of the people that were in leadership, Pastor Carlos, you talked to Jonathan Jones, talked to Irsa, this is no small deal. This is a big, big deal. and yet, we may have had 1000 people out here.

Maybe a, maybe a few more that came through our parking lot. imagine having to organize 3 million people and moving them out, just the, the feat that would be. way, way back in the day when Pastor Milton was, I think in his first year of being a pastor. He tells the story that they were coming up for their first Labor Day picnic.

Were any of you guys around when we did the Labor Day picnics? What was the name of the park? Shamble Park, so the, the time was getting ready for the Labor Day picnic and, the chairman of the board at that time, Pastor Milton, went up to the chairman and said, I've never done this before. What do we got to do to do this Labor Day picnic?

And the chairman of our board said, oh, nothing. Everybody just shows up and they all bring food and, we get together and we play games and we just have a great time. And so Milton was like, oh, OK. And then he went to the person that really knows the secretary.

Which at that time I think was Barbara Brown, is that right? So he goes to Barbara and he says, she she meets with him and says, hey, Pastor Milton, we need to start talking about the Labor Day picnic and Pastor Milton said, oh, it's fine. Yeah, our chairman told me that it just, it just works, it just happens. And she, to which she responded, he has no idea.

That the secretary and lots of people around the, around the edges are doing all kinds of organization, which begs the question, what, what organization happened here when everybody was just having to pick up. They weren't even able to put leaven in their bread. They were told not to put leaven for the Passover, but you've got people just being run out of the country. Yeah, they've got, gold and silver and so on and so forth.

but it doesn't seem like they had like a whole lot of time to prepare. I don't know that people got together that they formed various committees and said, hey, when the exodus happens, here's the way we're going to do this. No, these guys are just on the run and so they're totally at the Lord's, at the Lord's mercy. So why was it, just thinking back on the text we just read, why was it that the Egyptians themselves eventually wanted the Israelites to leave?

Yeah, they're just like, what, we're done. Yeah, 10 plagues, the final Passover plague. Could you guys please exit stage left? but surprisingly, the text says that the Lord had, given the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians.

What do you guys think was going on there? Why would the Egyptian people actually look upon the Jews in a favorable way? Say it again. Yeah, perhaps he's, they're seeing that, man, our, our gods, we've never seen our gods do this, but their God is really acting on their behalf.

That could be part of it. Yeah, yeah, maybe, Pharaoh, like Pharaoh was saying, hey, bless me. He's finally turning a corner. Your God must be real.

Please bless me. Yeah, Kim. Yeah Yeah, so they've lost first, they've lost their own children. Hey, take, take our stuff, maybe this will appease your God.

Yeah. Yeah, so they're worried about death. I, and I suspect too, this is just a gas. This is, I hope, I wouldn't necessarily call this Ice Jesus, but you might call it Ice Jesus.

This is just an educated guess on another possibility as to why they found favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. The Egyptians had been in slavery for quite a long time. And, did I say Egyptians? The Jews had been slaves for quite a long time.

And if you know how the slave master things works, a lot of times the people that are in power aren't always, it's not like they're going down to the areas of slavery to observe what's going on on a regular basis. They're living in their nice cushy homes, right? Benefiting from the slavery. And it's very easy.

I can imagine an Egyptian in a, let's say, let's, for lack of a better word, a middle-class Egyptian home to be benefiting from the Jewish slavery, perhaps to be completely unaware of what was really going on. with the slavery. but then the Lord raises up Moses. Moses comes to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's resisting, and now suddenly these headlines start coming in, plague after plague after plague, and then this begins to raise awareness that something must be going on if this people's God is angry with us.

What is actually happening? And even Pharaoh's daughter had a, had a sense of compassion for this baby realizing that this is one of the, the slave's babies, right? And so, I wonder, and this is just a guess, if, if over time the Egyptians began to be sensitized to what was going on in their culture and and then at the same time seeing the judgment. That was happening., back in the 1940s, there was a boy by the name of Louis Emmett Till.

Raise your hand if you've never heard of Louis Emmett Till. Yeah, every time I talk about this, I find 50% of the people have no idea who he is. It's amazing, because it's one of the most important, occurrences in American history is, in my opinion, Louis Emmett Till was just a teenage boy, from Chicago that went down to Mississippi with to visit some family, and they happened to go into a liquor store that was owned by a white family, and the story, it's, depending on who you hear it from, it's, we're not really sure exactly what happened.

Either he whistled at the white woman behind the counter or when he went to grab the change, he touched her hand, but there was some accusation that he had flirted with a white married woman.

Couple of nights later, this woman's husband and somebody else broke into his house, kidnapped him, took him to a barn. They beat him to a pulp, tied up pulp, tied him to a cotton gin, shot him in the head, threw him in the river. they eventually found his body, pulled him out. The local officials were trying to have the body buried right there in Mississippi, in order basically to hide what was going on.

the mother was able to get a court order to stop the burial, had her son brought back up to Chicago, and up in Illinois, they were trying to convince her to have a closed casket funeral. and after praying about it, she said, no, I'm not going to have a closed casket funeral. I am gonna have an open casket funeral so that everybody can see what they did to my boy. if you've ever seen the pictures, you could Google it, but it's just horrific.

this, just beautiful, good looking young man that looks like a monster after he, the, the pictures that of him being beaten and then in the river for so much time. but many, historians would argue that it was the pictures, it was the open casket funeral of Louis Emmett Till that really kickstarts the civil rights movement and begins to raise awareness, in the United States to what's really going on. it was only 100 days later that Rosa Parks is sitting in a bus and decides to sit in the front of the bus, and she said, I just could not get that boy's picture out of my mind.

And so it was being sensitized to what was going on, the, the injustice of what was going on that led to a, a shift, in our culture, and I just, I just wonder, again this might be I Jesus, but I kinda wonder if some of the Egyptians, once they began to see God's judgment coming down on their country, began to say what is going on, what, what is so terrible?, that, that God is bringing his judgment upon the people of Israel and if that didn't cause some, some of the favorability of them being disposed towards, the towards the Jews.

A couple of other things here, we have, Do we know exactly how many total, the total number of people that left Egypt? Do we know the exact number? No, but we do know how many adult males left and that number is what? 600,000, which we understand when we see terms like that.

Some people try to challenge the doctrine of inerrancy and they'll say 600,000 and then they'll compare it to some other place that says 6,000,010 or something like that, like in the Kings, but the Bible uses round numbers all the time and that's not a threat to inerrancy. It's just the way we speak, right? It's human language, we understand that. if there were 600,000.

222 people, that's not a a threat to the doctrine of an errancy. Let's see what else. Do we want to say about this text? Well, let's just keep in mind the haste.

That, was involved in this part of the exodus. Let's turn over to chapter 13 now. And we're gonna read all the way from verse 17. to about 31.

So we're gonna read a, a pretty lengthy section of scripture. And I want us to, I'm gonna make some running commentary, but I want us to get the full scope of the passage. So starting in verse 17. Then it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go.

That God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. so, we're getting a, a view via Moses's writing of what God was thinking. why did God not bring them a certain direction?

God's saying if they see warfare, they're not going to have anything to do with this exodus thing. now, they are going to see warfare eventually, but God doesn't want them to experience it yet. Verse 17. Then it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that, that God did not, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although, I'm sorry, where am I at?

19. I'm sorry. Moses. let's see.

Yeah, 19, and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under a solemn oath saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here with you. That was another prophecy. So they took their journey fromuccath and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went before them by the day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. So as to go by day and night.

He did not take away the pillar or the cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Again, this is just one of those occurrences where if I try to place myself right there in that history rather than just some Bible story that we've read a million times, I'm just like, what in the world? just imagine that we all were gonna go have a picnic across the street at Hunter Park. We plan this thing, we get out there and then it's 110 degrees on the day that we decide to have a picnic and God says, don't worry about that.

I'm going to bring a cloud, this miraculous cloud that's going to cover you. This, this is just odd. This would be just amazing to see. I, I don't, I don't know that the people of Israel would have looked at the cloud or the fire and just said, oh, here's a natural phenomenon because you've got a cloud and then there's fire.

and so there's just really, really unusual things going on here that cannot be explained by the scientific method. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, chapter 14, saying, speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth between Migdal of the sea opposite Baal, Zephron or, or Zephon. You shall camp before it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land.

The wilderness has closed them in. Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and all his army that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. So, God is actually directing them to a particular location that will draw Pharaoh out and the text seems to be indicating that God is not just allowing, but he is active first causation in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

Verse 5. Now it was told that the king of Egypt. I told the king of Egypt that the people had fled and that the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people and they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us.

So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. Now, from a practical standpoint, why would Pharaoh and his leadership Even come to such a conclusion. And we know from the divine side that God was involved in hardening his heart, but why is Pharaoh and his people saying, what in the world have we done? labor Yeah, their economy has now just been taken a huge hit.

Who's gonna wash the clothes? who's gonna mow the lawn? there is nobody around who is doing all of these labors. It's like somebody came into your home and took away your dishwasher and took away your dryer and all those wonderful appliances that we enjoy.

Your air conditioning's been ripped out. so all of these people who had previously been serving and making Egyptian life, something very comfortable, are now gone. OK. Tell me where I, my glasses are playing tricks on me.

What verse we had again? Verse 7. Also, he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over every one of them, and the Lord in the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with boldness.

So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army and overtook them, camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth and before Bael Zafan. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, because there was no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. We're gonna come back to the application aspect. Of the complaining of Israel, but just talking about the direct context.

On one level, this just seems completely unbelievable, doesn't it? That Israel has just seen 10 plagues carried out, that they've been protected from the ultimate plague of the Passover, that they've been brought out of Egypt, that there is this supernatural cloud and supernatural fire. Not only that, God had already prophesized, I'm bringing you to this particular location because I'm gonna draw Pharaoh out. I have to think that Moses would have communicated that information on some level to the people of Israel.

and yet, they're just thinking about They've already forgotten how hard their labor was. They've already forgotten the misery of serving in Egypt, and now they're beginning to complain about their current situation. So verse 13, and Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but, lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

And indeed, I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians. They shall follow them, so I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army and his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the angel of the Lord who went before the camp of Israel moved.

And went before and behind and the pillar of the cloud went from before them and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptian, Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and a darkness to the one and light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. Again, that's just amazing that we're, we're talking about two people that are encamped at night.

if I'm understanding correctly, what's being seen on one side of this, this pillar or this cloud is completely different whether you're on the Egyptian side or the Israeli side. And what's befuddling to me is that the Egyptians are just hanging out. here's this supernatural force standing before them and they're just hanging out waiting to see what's gonna happen. maybe with some knowledge that maybe eventually this thing will disappear, we don't know.

I don't know about you, but if I was one of those chariot riders, I'd be like, hey, let's head back. I'm, I'm, I'm getting a little freaked out here by the supernatural nature. Remember all of our firstborn that just died a few days, a little while ago? Let's get out of here.

but no, these guys stay encamped. Verse 21, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea into dry land. And the waters were divided, so the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

And the Egyptians pursued and went after them. Into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. Now it came to pass in the morning watch. The Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians, and he took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them with difficulty.

And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. You think? shouldn't this have been figured out the night before? then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, not so much as one of them remained, but the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea and the waters were a wall to them on the right hand and on their left.

That's another example of how Hebrew literature will go back and forth in the timeline of the narrative.

Notice this isn't like just completely linear. It's like you'll talk a little bit about the Egyptians, go back and review what happened with the Hebrews, very typical of Hebrew literature to be nonlinear in the way that the narrative is being told. verse 30, so the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashores, so they were drowned and then later probably the waves threw their bodies up on the seashore.

Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant, Moses. Pretty. Amazing stuff. notice, how many people, how many of the Egyptians survived?

None. Well, wait a second. I thought Pharaoh was on the other side there yelling, come. Wasn't he, wasn't he on the other side yelling over at Moses?

Oh, that was the movie. OK, sorry. OK, so even for everybody that went down, right, gets swallowed up. by the water.

yeah, just amazing, amazing stuff. What caused Pharaoh to pursue The Israelites. Why in the world would he be on one side of the supernatural wall, then the wall is left lifted up. He's looking out at a sea that has been parted.

I just want to remind you that that does not fit within the scientific method that you have water being parted. Why in the world would Pharaoh and his armies Run right into this. Parted sea area. Cynthia had something?

Yeah, there goes all of our resources. There goes my wallet, my bank account. The whole economy of our culture is disappearing through the ocean. We must go get them back.

Right. Yeah, so yeah, he's, he's acknowledged as a human god. That's true, Stan. Yeah, maybe they're thinking they made it, so we should make it.

God hardens heart. Yeah Right. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, hatred, hatred does make us do very irrational things.

Let's ask a couple, let's look at a couple of things and I want to wrap this up with some applications. Turn to Proverbs 21:1. Proverbs 21. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord.

Like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes. You read a proverb like that after reading this text and Man, it's not just, I don't, I, I personally, this is my opinion, you might disagree with this. Although what I'm about ready to say does agree with Cornerstone's doctrinal statement. I just have a tough time with the idea that, that God didn't cause, he just allowed Pharaoh to, he set the situation up where Pharaoh would just use his own will, totally outside of God's influence.

God just allowed it. no, it seems time and time again, God is taking credit for it. He's saying, I hardened his heart. I brought him into the situation so that I would destroy Pharaoh and his army so that I would get glory.

And so that raises the question that Paul raises in Romans 9. In fact, let's go ahead and turn there real quick., turn to Romans 9. Because this, this is a, this is a challenging question. Let's, let's read Romans 9 starting at verse 14.

Where Paul, he's, he's going through a lot of this question, answer, like, he's asking rhetorical questions and then asking the reader to give what should be the obvious answer. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Answer?

Certainly not. for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Notice that it's not of him who wills.

It's not just about human volition and it's not just about human strength than him who runs, but it's of God who shows mercy. He says, let me, let me give you another example, verse 17, for the scripture says, To Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills, on whom he wills, he hardens. Verse 19.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will? You understand that question? How can God, no, go ahead. God Place judgment on And he Yeah, exactly.

How can God judge Pharaoh if God's the one that caused Pharaoh to or moved upon Pharaoh to make certain actions? Yeah, Robert. Yeah OK, so, so Robert's reply is, and this is a very common reply, is that you have several different references to Pharaoh hardening his own heart and then God hardens Pharaoh's heart in response to his own hardening. And that's, that's a very common reply.

The problem is, is God prophesized that he's going to harden Pharaoh's heart in advance. Yeah, Yeah, so he, so God is active in the hardening process and Paul is making in this context, he's making the point that God says, I have raised you up for this very purpose and I have mercy on whom I will and I harden who I will and the person he hardened in this context is Pharaoh, which raises the rhetorical question. Why can God find fault with anybody? If he's in the business of hardening hearts.

And Our response is, is to basically say, well, God just allows or he responds to our will. That's one argument, or God, is that not what you're saying? Right. the Right.

Right. OK, good. where I thought you were going, this is what some people say is they'll say that God only responded to Pharaoh hardening his heart first. And so I'm sorry I misunderstood, but that's, that's a common response.

And what we're trying to do when we say that is we're trying to get God off the hook. We're saying God didn't really, he wasn't the first cause, he's just responsive to the human will. The problem is in this particular passage here in Romans. Our theology, if we understand what happened in history and if we understand Paul's argument, it must raise the rhetorical question, why does he find fault for who has resisted his will?

If we really understand what's going on, it raises that logical question, well, then why does God judge anybody? And notice Paul's response. There's lots of things he could have said, but what does Paul actually say? And he says in verse 20 But indeed, oh man, who are you to reply against God?

Well, the thing formed, say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay and so on. It's mysterious, but one of the things that I've heard Pastor Milton say on a number of occasions is this. Does your theology get you to a place where you raise the questions of Romans 9?

Where you're like, wait a second here. If this, if what we're saying, if I think what you're saying is true, then why does God find fault with anybody? If your theology raises that question, bingo, you're in a good place. Now, answering that question is a different tale because we're dealing with the creator, creator-c creature distinction and those, and these are challenging questions to answer.

There's no doubt about it. People have been trying to figure this stuff out for thousands of years. But if your theology never even gets there because you've so tried to philosophize it beforehand, then Then, then we're in trouble. It's the same thing with like Romans 6.

Grace is so radical. That it raises the questions of Romans 6 that, well, if that's true, then why don't we just sin that grace may abound. Right? If you never get to that question, you haven't understood how radical grace is.

But that question must be raised if you really understand the gospel. And then Paul gives an answer to that question, but the point is, is the question must get raised if you really understand, if your theology. is tracking with what Paul's arguing. There's a couple of other questions here.

Let's go to Gary and then Dan. Divine compatibility basically argues that God is the first cause of all things. He causes whatsoever, whatever, whatsoever comes to pass is his sovereign decree of will, but that does not violate human volition from the standpoint of making us not culpable for our actions. What, what, where people get, where it really gets tricky is when you start talking about the will of God, is there's various aspects of God's will.

There's what we would call his will of decree or divine sovereign, there's different terms for it, where it's basically he brings to pass everything that occurs. But then you have his moral will and it's the way that you can illustrate this is, is it, I can ask the question, is it God's will that I should murder you all today? Is that God's will? No.

The Bible is very clear that it's not his will that I should murder. There's commands against murder and so it's not God's will that I should kill anybody. But the fact is, is murder does happen, killing happens, wars happen. And so when you're talking about God's divine decree of will, God is in control of all things that happen in human history, and yet he holds people responsible for their actions.

In his moral will, he makes commands and he says, this is my command to you, thou shalt not commit adultery, but David committed adultery. And yet there were things that happened on the other side of David's sin that fit within God's divine decree. And people, this is where people get really, really crazy, messed up is because they wanna try to, they wanna try to blend God's moral will with his divine decreative will. the other way that you could ask it is this, did Pharaoh sin?

And. Was, did he sin in, in repressing and denying the request of Moses and Aaron? Was he sinning and saying, no, I will not let the people go? Was he sinning in blaspheming God, the God of Moses?

Was that a sin? Clearly. But had God decreed that, that, that he would harden Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the people go. Yes.

And the, the most, the most incredible example is the cross. Was the cross of Jesus Christ Plan B? Was there ever a time within the mind of God that Jesus Christ was not decreed to die on the cross for our sins? No, there was never, it was never Plan B.

There was never a time where God said, huh, what should we do now? I know we'll send Jesus to die on the cross. But soldiers that nailed nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, were they sinning? Yes, they were.

They sinned in putting Jesus Christ on the cross. When Jesus had thorns thrust upon his skull, when he was spit upon, when he was slapped, was that, were those sins? Yes, but he was bruised for our iniquities. And so right within the cross, you see this mystery of God's divine decree.

There was no Plan B. The cross was always Plan A, and yet it implicated human beings that were judged for their actions and their involvement in the cross. And so the cross brings both the salvation of those who believe, but it also put on display the sin of humankind. and my response to these types of questions is basically Deuteronomy 29:29.

The things revealed to us belong to us and our children that we may obey them, but secret things belong to the Lord. There are, there are things within the will of God that are secret and because he's God and we're not, we could never accomplish the things that he accomplishes. And so we see this within the tale or the history of, Pharaoh in his pursuit, yup. Yeah Yeah, Yeah, I think, I think we can make that case from other contexts.

I think definitely we can make the case of, especially when it comes to original sin, we can say things like, oh, God holds the whole human race responsible for this one sin, but, he also holds Christians responsible for the righteousness of Christ, which we've never accomplished on our own. In this context though, his burden seems to be different. Like if you, if you read the, the paragraph 19 down. When he raises the question, why does he still find fault, his answer is, who are you?

His answer is the creator-creature distinction. He basically says, but indeed, oh man, who are you to reply against God? Well, the thing formed, say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have the power of the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor, another for dishonor?

So, in the previous context, he said, for this very purpose, I have raised you up. In other words, he raised Pharaoh up to bring honor to himself by judging Pharaoh. And then he, he further exacerbates the problem in verse 22 when he says, What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in context. That, that, that ties directly back to Pharaoh, that Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, i.e.

us, i.e. Israel that escaped the exodus, which he had prepared beforehand for glory. So you're seeing God's divine elective decree that there are those that have been raised up for destruction in God's divine decree, and i.e. Pharaoh.

And then there are those that have been raised up for glory, i.e. his people, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only but also the Gentiles. So now Paul's talking about the elect. So he's talking about elect Jews and Gentiles that have been raised up to receive God's mercy.

So he's not talking about humankind in all of humankind. is culpable for judgment and all of humankind could receive mercy. He's talking about particular vessels according to his divine decree that have been raised up for different purposes, which to us is just It just blows all the circuits. In fact, it contradicts, it, it, it contradicts a very core philosophical commitment of Westerners and that is absolute free will.

In the Western philosophy, one of, if, one of the things, the the, they say that the last thing, if you wanna ask about the water, don't ask the fish. if you wanna ask Westerners about their culture, don't ask the Westerners. we swim in the doctrine of absolute free will and we don't, we, we assume it all the time and so when we read a passage like this, this just makes us cringe. because it violates everything that we've been raised with.

Yeah, Dan. Yeah By nature Yeah. We Right. Yeah, so it's an affront to us when God plays God.

I think there was one more, actually 2 more and then come over here to Alison. Yeah, Judy. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's a challenge If we, if we try to put ourselves in the place of God, if we try to say, make God out to be human, then it sounds completely unjust, unjust.

And if, if I were to try to accomplish what God can accomplish as God, it would be completely unjust. But God is so far above us and we are so far different from Him. That's the concept of holiness. There's such a difference.

That God can accomplish all His holy will without violating human responsibility to where we are completely culpable and responsible for our actions. So what, if you ask the question was, was Pharaoh, held completely accountable for his actions, the Bible says, yes. If the, when you ask the question, was God in complete control of the heart, the raising up and the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the Bible says, yes. When you ask the question, how can that possibly be?

The Bible says, God is bigger than us. There's a creator creature divide. We couldn't do that, but God can. Yeah, Barbara.

Yeah, if I understand what Barbara is saying, it's like our minds before the fall, we would see God's actions and affirm his actions. But since the fall, we, we do have a conflict, right? Our, our minds aren't, are being formed and sanctified, but we still have this conflict where we don't always think God's thoughts after him. Look at the revelation saints.

When you look at the saints who are glorified and already in heaven, they're looking down and looking at God's justice on the earth and they're like, praise God. And they're, they're glorifying and singing to God for both His mercy and His justice, that is happening on the planet. And so that, I think from a human perspective that gives us a little bit of flavor. but then also we'll have to end with this.

Just look at the way Israel responds afterwards, after the death and destruction of Egypt, they sing praises to the Lord for bringing his justice upon the Egyptians. And so, and this is really the, this is the gospel in a microcosm. The gospel in the microcosm is that we all were enslaved in the kingdom of darkness and, and there are real enemies in this world. There is the devil, there are his demons, and there are his minions in human form, and it's hard for us to know who's who, but God knows who's who and he's calling his people out of bondage into freedom.

And that does not come easily. It has been accomplished through the redemption of the Passover that we see in Christ, but as we are being moved by God out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness does not like that. The kingdom of darkness will pursue us just like Pharaoh pursued Egypt, but we have a God that is all powerful that while we may be pursued and while we in the side of glory may complain at times about our circumstance, God still looks down upon us and one of the ways he expresses his love for his people is he pours out his justice on our pursuers.

And, and so we will see that the horse and his chariot will be thrown into the, into the sea and, and the devil will be vanquished.

He will be destroyed. In fact, one of my favorite passages. In all of the Bible is 2 Timothy chapter 1, where the Thessalonians are just getting hammered. When we talk about hammered, we're talking about in all likelihood, they've lost family members who have been killed, they've lost livelihoods, they're being hammered for their faith, and what encouragement does Paul give to them?

He says, hey, don't worry, Jesus Christ is coming back and with flaming fire, he will take vengeance upon his enemies and all those who do not obey the gospel. In other words, be encouraged because God takes care of his kids and those who pick on his kids, he will pick on them. Now, the thing that's challenging for us is we have to leave all justice to God because we don't know who his kids are and who his kids aren't. We're called to love all of our enemies, but God looks down and he knows who the enemies are and who the enemies aren't, and he will come and he brings justice to the enemies.

I'll give you one last story and then we gotta close. Just one practical way I saw this work out, the whole God taking his vengeance out on the enemies. Down in Mexico, one of the missionaries that I got to know several years ago, he was heading to a particular village that was, controlled by Roman Catholic priests that did not want any outside missionaries anywhere in the vicinity, and they had plotted to kill this particular missionary that was supposed to come in on such and such a day.

But the missionary had a, a terrible health issue that ended up where he had to have a tracheotomy and he was never able to get to this village.

But on the night that he was supposed to arrive in the village, some drug dealers came through at the exact same time and this, the village had planned to, what do you call it, to ambush them. And they had their machetes, if you guys know anything about Indian, Mexicans up in the mountains with their machetes. And so they were all ready for this missionary to come through. It was completely dark.

These guys jumped out and just hacked these people to pieces and didn't realize till morning that they had got the wrong people and it was actually drug dealers. And, and so the Lord protected him, in this case, the Lord protected. Him and then, and then he ended up showing up back in the village about 56 months later. Actually, I got the story mixed up.

They had so completely chopped up the, the drug dealers, they thought they had gotten the, the right guys and so when the missionary showed up about 6 months later, they thought they were seeing a ghost. Like, that he was, he comes walking bounding into the village and, and then they wanted to hear the gospel and and many of them got saved. I'm, I, I don't know why I'm forgetting the name of the guy. He's on the tip of my tongue, but just the Lord watching out for his own and also the Lord executing justice upon wicked people that are coming in and trying to bring drugs up into this, this part of the, the world.

We know that God is, is the one that can do that. Let's go ahead and pray and, and I'll, be up here for questions afterwards. Lord, we just thank you when we look at this microcosm of the gospel. What an amazing thing it is.

that you, took your people out of bondage just like you brought us out of bondage. you protect your people from their pursuers, from their enemies. Lord, we pray that you protect us from sin, protect us from the world, protect us from the devil, and we leave all justice to you. We are not smart enough to, to discern who all the enemies are and who are those that will actually come to know you.

And so we leave justice in your hands, but at the same time as your word tells us, we cry out to you., to execute your justice. And, we thank you, Lord, that we received your mercy. we pray, Father, that you would use us to bring the gospel to people throughout the world. but we look forward to the day that you will take the devil and, his minions.

You will take the anti-Christ and you will cast them into the lake of fire, and we will worship you forever for it. We pray, Father, you be with Pastor Milton as he preaches. We thank you for your great love for us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.