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Tonight I'm going to give you an overview of the book of Exodus and I especially want to emphasize how the book of Exodus points us to Jesus Christ as all the books in the Bible are all pointing us toward Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Acts chapter 10, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. A couple weeks ago I gave the overview of the book of Genesis which took us from the creation of the world and the formation of nations and the choosing of one man Abraham followed by Isaac and Jacob to be the progenitors of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be that chosen people that would be a light unto the Gentiles but most importantly they would be the people that would bring us the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Abraham was told that in him would all nations of the earth be blessed because of the fact that Jesus would come from that line and we talked about all the different parallels in the book of Genesis with Jesus Christ. So when we start out in the book of Exodus we're picking up exactly where Genesis leaves off where you have 70 people going down into Egypt to be there with Joseph and his wife and his two children and with Jacob and they start out just a small band of people just one family really 75 people in total. And in Exodus chapter 1 the Bible talks about how they multiplied and became a great nation. The Bible says in verse number 7 of chapter 1 there and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them. That's pretty interesting because Egypt was already a huge nation a very powerful empire and yet just these 75 people go in there and they end up multiplying so greatly and being so fruitful that the land is filled with them. And the Bible says in verse number 8 there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph and he said unto his people behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. I mean that's a pretty strong statement. Come on let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to pass that when there fall without any war they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land. So they use this fear tactic of preemptively saying well these people might be a threat to us in the future. I mean they haven't caused them any problems yet but just oh they might attack us or they might side with our enemies in the future. So let's be smart let's be wise and make sure that they don't do that. So it says in verse 11 therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities Pithom and Ramses but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved because of the children of Israel and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. So in the beginning of the book of Exodus the Bible explains to us how seventy five people who went down into Egypt grew into this mighty nation that dwelt amongst the Egyptians and they became more and mightier than them so the Egyptians began to resent them and to make their lives bitter with hard bondage to enslave them to take away their freedoms to take away their rights and to just make them work hard. Now they were in Egypt for a total of four hundred and thirty years and for four hundred of those years they were treated poorly and then they you know after the death of Joseph they were really treated bad and so for hundreds of years they're in bondage but the more they were afflicted the Bible says the more they multiplied and grew. So even in the midst of that tribulation and affliction and amongst those hard times they still grew as a nation they still waxed mighty and multiplied greatly and were very fruitful so one thing we see right away is God's people being fruitful as a blessing from God and then we see the Egyptians are clearly not multiplying. You see if both the Egyptians and the Israelites were both having kids then okay the Israelites are multiplying but since the Egyptians started with so many more people if they were both multiplying at similar rates then okay the Israelites are mighty but we're even mightier but what we see is the Israelites passing up the Egyptians in population. Now it's no coincidence that birth control that Planned Parenthood tells us if we go to Planned Baron hood's website they tell us that birth control was invented in ancient Egypt and that they've even found artifacts of ancient IUDs in Egypt and so that explains why they weren't multiplying much is because they were probably practicing some kind of birth control whereas the children of Israel are just being fruitful and multiplying and having all kinds of kids. So the whole book of Exodus takes us from chapter 1 where they start out and they become a nation and they're in bondage and they're enslaved to them basically coming out of Egypt being delivered from that slavery being delivered from that bondage and going out into the wilderness and into the wanderings in the wilderness that's where the book of Exodus takes us and that's what the name Exodus means it means that they're leaving that they're going out of Egypt that's what that word is referring to. So in chapter 1 that stage is set and then in chapter 2 we read about the birth of Moses and his early life up to age 40 now let me stop and point out some parallels between Moses and Jesus Christ because all throughout the Bible these Old Testament characters are often foreshadowing or picturing the Lord Jesus Christ and Moses is no exception first of all Moses' whole mission in life is to be the deliverer to be the savior of his people which obviously Jesus Christ saves us from our sins and he's the savior of the world just as Moses was the deliverer or savior of the Israelites. Not only that but Moses starts out his life in chapter 2 with the king of the land trying to kill him because the Israelites had become so mighty and because putting them into bondage wasn't enough they were still nervous about them so they said we want the man children to be thrown into the river we want you to murder these babies that's what they're saying to the midwives and to the Egyptians that they were to murder the Israelite children if they were male children they weren't as threatened by the women but they're afraid that the men are going to rise up and fight and defeat the Egyptians. So Moses' parents when they see that he's a man child and when they see that he's healthy he's a proper child he's a goodly child he's a boy they hide him for three months but after three months they can't hide him anymore they're afraid that he's going to be heard to be squealing or cooing or crying you know how hard it is to keep a baby quiet all the time and so they're nervous so they hid him for three months they couldn't hide him anymore so then they devise this plan where you know they put him in this basket it's called the ark you know a little ark of bull rushes they make a little boat or a little basket and they put baby Moses in there they set him adrift in the river he's found of Pharaoh's daughter she takes him to be her own son and as that basket with baby Moses was floating down the river Moses' sister Miriam was sent to watch the basket just to see what would happen to see what would become of the child and so as soon as she sees that Pharaoh's daughter takes him up and is going to raise him as her own son and and in fact it's the the heathen daughter of Pharaoh that names him Moses she says because I drew him out of the water and Miriam calls out and says well shall I call one of the Hebrew women to come nurse the child for you and Pharaoh's daughter says yeah that's a great idea and of course she calls Moses' mother so basically Moses' mother sets him adrift in the basket but then is immediately reunited with him isn't that a blessing from God so she's reunited with the child she gets to breastfeed the child and be an influence on that child in those first couple years of life obviously he you know he wouldn't have been breastfed past the age of two and so just for those first few years she's able to sing to him and talk to him and pray for him and and hold him and nurse him and then she has to turn it over to Pharaoh's daughter and so he's raised by Pharaoh's daughter and he's brought up in all of the learning and all of the knowledge of the Egyptians but when he becomes 40 years old it comes into his heart to go visit his brother and the children of Israel he realizes that he's a Hebrew he knows he's an Israelite so he goes down to see what they're going through and to partake of their sufferings in Hebrews 11 it says that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season so let's go back to the parallels with Christ number one he sent as a savior or a deliverer number two the king wanted him to be killed as a baby to be thrown in the river that's exactly how Jesus started his life because if you remember when the three wise men from the east come to visit the the young Jesus Herod seeks to destroy Jesus and he commands that all of the children in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under would be killed and Joseph's I'm sorry Jesus's mother Mary and Joseph they have to get up in the middle of the night and flee by night into Egypt with the baby Jesus in order to protect him from Herod's plan to to kill baby Jesus so just as Moses parents had to hide him from being slaughtered as a baby Jesus parents did the exact same thing so that's another parallel and of course just the fact that Jesus went down to Egypt and came out of Egypt is another parallel with Moses obviously going into Egypt and delivering the people but not only that also if you think about it when Moses left the palace where he's being raised by Pharaoh's daughter and he goes to be with his slave people and to you know choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God that also is a picture of the fact that Jesus you know he's up in heaven with the father and he's there with all the riches and splendor and glory of heaven but he left all that in order to come down to this earth what to save us so just as Moses left his position of of royalty and and his place in the palace to come and save his people that's exactly what Jesus did he came down from heaven and was born among men and lived among men so that pictures that as well but not only that Moses when he first tried to deliver his people they rejected him they didn't want him as a deliverer and that's exactly what happened with Jesus he came unto his own and his own received him not the Jews did not accept him as their Messiah or as their deliverer go to Acts chapter seven we'll come back to the book of Exodus but go to Acts chapter number seven and we'll see this is where Stephen is preaching and he preaches about Moses he refers back to the story in Exodus Acts chapter seven verse twenty three the Bible says in Acts seven twenty three and when he was full forty years old it came into his heart Moses to visit his brethren the children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian for he supposed watch this key verse for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood not of course that's a big difference between Jesus and Moses Jesus knew all along that he's going to be rejected that he's going to be crucified and so forth whereas Moses he expected them to receive his message and when he when he you know came from the palace and dwelt among them and tried to help them and tried to unify them and tried to judge them they like well who made you a ruler and a judge over us who made you a ruler will thou kill me as thou killed the Egyptian yesterday and then it says in verse twenty nine then Moses fled at that saying at this saying and was a stranger in the land of Madian also known as Midian where he begat two sons and when forty years were expired there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush look at verse thirty five this Moses whom they refused saying who made thee a ruler and a judge the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush so just like Jesus they rejected him but he was still the savior and some day he will rule over this entire world with a rod of iron every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father but this is an interesting verse too in Acts seven thirty five notice how it says they refused him saying who made thee a ruler and a judge right but then it says the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer so notice the word judge has been substituted with the word deliverer why because from their perspective they're looking at him as you're judging us but from God's perspective he's saying no no he's trying to deliver you and a lot of the people that are often accused of judging or being judgmental or you're judging us they're actually trying to deliver you people try to help you they preach against sin or they try to teach you the right way to live your life according to the Bible they try to teach you to observe all things that Christ commanded us according to the scriptures and then there they say oh well who made you a judge over me no I'm trying to be a deliverer unto you and so that's what we see with Moses and Jesus Christ both they were rejected what did they say of Jesus we will not have this man to rule over us same thing that they said about Moses flip back if you would the excess let's go to chapter six of Exodus there are a lot of other interesting parallels between Jesus and Moses also later on in the book of Exodus Moses is going to pick out 70 elders of the people that are going to come with him to Mount Sinai and eat and drink before the Lord the 70 elders right well Jesus actually took 70 men and ordained them as apostles in Luke chapter 10 verse 1 I'll read it for you in Luke 10 1 after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them to and to before his face into every city and place whether he himself would come in the Bible talks about how he gave those 70 apostles power over unclean spirits and they they had power to do signs and wonders and the same thing happens later on in the book of Numbers when Moses takes 70 men of the people and God's Spirit comes upon them and they prophesy and they are filled with the Spirit of God and so forth so just as Moses had his 70 elders and his 70 anointed ones later in Numbers 11 Jesus had 70 additional apostles we were of course familiar with the original 12 apostles but then he ordained 70 others also see there are more than just 12 apostles that's why in the book of Acts you see people being called apostles that are not of those 12 men like Barnabas are called an apostle because they are probably from that group of 70 or maybe from the group of 500 brethren that Jesus appeared to so they still qualified as an apostle but I believe it's possible that they were only the 12 and the 70 that might have been the only ones that are the apostles except of course the final apostle the apostle Paul who was one as born out of due time the Bible says he came later on so there could have been just simply 83 apostles if you look at it that way but there were definitely not just 12 because there were the 70 also so the 70 elders the 70 apostles that's another parallel between Moses and Christ also if you just think about this whole story of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt before they are finally delivered from Egypt first they go through worse times worse afflictions worse tribulation and then after the tribulation that they go through God pours out his wrath in the form of the 10 plagues on Egypt and notice that God's people are not there where he's pouring out his wrath they're in a separate location in the land of Goshen and the wrath does not affect them where they are in the land of Goshen so I'm getting ahead of myself so let me go ahead and get you to that point in the story so in chapter one we basically set the scene for the book and explain where the nation of Israel came from how did they end up in Egypt and why are they slaves there in chapter two Moses is born we see him grow up to be 40 years old and go down and see his people we see him where he finds two men that are striving with each other and one of them's right and one of them's wrong and he says to the guy who did wrong he says to him hey wherefore smitis thou thy fellow why are you hitting your fellow Israelite you know and actually I'm sorry I'm getting ahead of myself again before that he goes down there and he sees an Egyptian that's beating one of the Israelites and he ends up slaying the Egyptian he says he looks this way looks that way and kills the guy with his bare hands buries him in the sand okay that's what Moses then the next day he sees the two guys they're striving with each other and he says to the guy who did wrong wherefore smitis thou thy fellow and then he's out who made you a ruler and a judge over us right well once he figures out that killing that Egyptian was known because the guy says wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday he says whoa everybody knows about me killing that guy he thought nobody saw and by the way that's how it is a lot of times you think you're getting away with sin sometimes you're not getting away with the things you're getting away with I mean he looked this way in that way and killed the guy but yet everybody found out about it somehow we don't know how but somehow they found out so then when he hears that he realizes you know what if I get busted killing this Egyptian and I'm a Hebrew and I'm you know murdered this Egyptian and buried him in the sand I'm probably going to be killed so he ends up fleeing at that saying he ends up fleeing out of the land of Egypt and he crosses the desert in the land of Madian and he goes there he hooks up with a guy there that's that's a shepherd he's got flocks he's got great wealth he ends up marrying one of that guy's daughters and he just lives out there for forty years so think about this Moses is forty years old when he goes down and joins his people right he murders the Egyptian then he's rejected by his people they're not going to cover for him for murdering that Egyptian they're calling him too judgmental or whatever so then he ends up fleeing and then he just kind of just lives a normal life for forty years that's pretty interesting I mean imagine that from the age of forty to eighty he's just living his life he just gets married has a few kids he's just a shepherd he's just basically doing nothing with his life just living his life and then God comes to him when he's eighty years old God appears to him after forty years in the wilderness and God appears to him in the burning bush right and that takes place in chapters three and four Moses is out there doing his job and he sees that there's a bush that's burning but it's not being consumed it just keeps burning you know he sees something burning but then he looks at it later and it's still burning he looks at it again it's still burning so he says well I'm going to turn aside to see this great sight why the bush burns but yet it's not consumed so he goes to the burning bush God tells him the famous words put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where on thou standest his holy ground he takes off his shoes the Lord speaks to him and God tells him how he's going to go back to Egypt he's going to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage he's going to face Pharaoh and he doesn't want to do it I mean he's comfortable he's been living his life for forty years he wants to just keep doing what he's doing and he basically tells God just send somebody else he says Lord send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send send who you want to send and God got angry because he wanted to send him and God's anger was kindled at Moses and Moses keeps making excuses oh I'm not a good speaker he said well take Aaron with you be a silent partner you know and have let Aaron do the talking right you can go soul winning all you gotta do is be a silent partner so he told him to be Aaron's silent partner Aaron's a good speaker that's like you and you don't want to go soul winning right you need to just show up and be a silent partner amen and then Moses ends up talking anyway that's what happens you know when you're a silent partner long enough pretty soon you'll want to you'll say hey let me get the next door and he says oh they're not going to believe me so then God explains to him I'm going to give you the power to do these miracles and when they you know you're going to show them these signs you're going to show them these miracles and God already knew that Pharaoh wasn't going to believe him right away but he had a plan for getting them out of Egypt so finally God talks him into it he gets together with his brother Aaron he explains everything to Aaron he shows Aaron the signs and wonders that he's supposed to show Pharaoh you know with the rod and with his hand becoming leprous and all these things and then they go down there and they face off with Pharaoh in chapter five okay so chapter one is just the set up chapter two gives us Moses early life chapters three and four is where we see him at the burning bush chapter five he goes down there he confronts Pharaoh and Pharaoh just blows him off he just says you know who is the Lord I'll not let the people go he just refuses to let them go and Moses ends up you know talking to the Israelites and when he first talks to the Israelites they're on board with him as the deliverer because he shows them the miracles and they get all excited and that but then once Pharaoh tells Moses no he lays additional burdens on the children of Israel he says you know what in the past you were given straw to make bricks with but now I'm not going to give you any raw materials I'm not going to give you any straw you have to go out by night and gather straw and make the bricks by day and you have to make the exact same number of bricks that you used to make so they try to do it they're scattered all throughout the land of Egypt gathering straw by night trying to make the bricks by day but they can't do it it's just not humanly possible so they take all the supervisors amongst the Hebrews and they're whipping them and beating them saying fulfill your work your daily tasks and they're like what in the world this isn't even humanly possible have you ever had jobs like that where the boss gives you these jobs and time frames that are impossible and then he's beating up on you because you can't get it done so they come to Pharaoh and say whoa you know you're not treating us right here we're working hard we're doing our best it's not possible and he says well you know what you guys must have too much time on your hands if you're talking about going out of here and going out into the wilderness and worshipping your God no you're not going to get the straw and you're going to keep making the bricks and you're going to figure out a way to make that many bricks and they come out of there and they're I mean they're upset and they go to Moses and they get mad at Moses and they say you know what you've made us to stink you made us stink unto the Egyptians now they hate us but I mean think about they'd already seen the miracles they'd already heard Moses preach to them but they all lost faith in it at that point so then Moses starts to get upset about it and say God you know you haven't delivered this people at all you're making their lives worse since I've been here why did you even bring me here God and he starts to doubt it but of course God had already told Moses earlier when you first go down there he's not going to let them go but I want to show all these miracles then he's going to let him go let's pick up the story in Exodus chapter six Exodus six verse one this is after all that has happened it says in Exodus six one then the Lord said unto Moses now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh for with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land and God spake unto Moses and said unto him I'm the Lord and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them tell that to the Jehovah's Witnesses who think that God only has one name verse four and I have a stat I've also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers and I've also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I've remembered my covenant wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and then this is where God begins to plague Egypt and there's a back and forth over the course of chapters seven through eleven where God brings these ten plagues he'll bring the first plague and he'll sort of bring Pharaoh and the Egyptians to their knees but then as soon as the plague is over they again harden their heart and refuse to let the people go plague after plague I mean he's turned the water into blood for a week he sends the plague of locusts lice flies frogs boils in man and in beast you know ultimate hail and fire coming down from the sky I mean just all of these horrible plagues and then ultimately sends darkness over the face the whole land of Egypt that was so thick you could feel the darkness the Bible says and then ultimately the final plague is that he says that he will kill the firstborn child of every single family in Egypt and he said every family will be affected from Pharaoh himself that sit on the throne all the way down to the guy who's in prison you know the poorest guy in a debtors prison everybody's going to be affected every household is going to have someone dead in that family now throughout this process of God sending these horrible plagues people are constantly trying to talk sense into Pharaoh and telling him no it's now not that Egypt is destroyed what are you doing just let these people go are you out of your mind but God hardened Pharaoh's heart because Pharaoh had angered the Lord and he wanted to show his wrath on Pharaoh so he keeps on hardening his heart and God keeps sending the judgments of the plagues go to Exodus chapter twelve and by the way the plagues of Exodus are very similar to the plagues that God is going to bring in Revelation with the seven last plagues in Revelation sixteen but go to Exodus chapter twelve so Moses has gone back and forth with Pharaoh and all of these plagues have been afflicting the Egyptians God's people were spared from all of them delivered from them all they they weren't affected by them and then finally the tenth and final plague is the killing of the firstborn and God implements something called the Passover because he's going to send the death angel to kill all the firstborn in the whole land of Egypt but anyone who has the blood of the lamb applied to their door the death angel will pass over that house meaning he's not going to kill the firstborn in that house so that's why this holiday that becomes implemented on a yearly basis becomes known as the Passover because it's signifying the angel passing over those houses where the blood was applied look at verse chapter verse number three of chapter twelve speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb for a house and if the house will be too little for the lamb let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening now let's stop here and look for the parallels with Christ on the tenth day of the first month Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem in his triumphal entry what we know today as Palm Sunday when they laid down the palm branches and laid down their coats and said blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord that was the tenth day of the month Abib when Jesus did that okay that's when they were supposed to present the lamb because it says in verse three halfway through in the tenth day of this month shall they take to them every man a lamb so they pull out the lamb on the tenth day but they slay it on the fourteenth day that's when Jesus was crucified on the fourteenth day of the month EBIT Abib he was slain at even around evening time just as this one was killed look at verse six the second half and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening that's what happened with Jesus Christ the Israelites assembled the Jews assembled and what did they say crucify him and Pilate said shall I crucify your king and they said we have no king but Caesar and he said I'm free from the blood of this just man and they said his blood be on us and on our children so that's why throughout the book of Acts the apostles are constantly pinning the death of Jesus on the Jews saying you took him and you with wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory so the whole congregation see with the Passover it wasn't just that each family killed their own lamb the whole congregation would kill all the lambs so everybody would bring their lamb down to the congregation and they would all kill the lambs there and then they'd bring it back home to their house and they would eat of the meat and take the blood and put it on the door post let's look down at our Bibles there in verse number seven they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house of the houses wherein they shall eat it and if you think about it by putting the blood on the two side posts and on the door post if you kind of connect the dots it would basically like form a cross there even symbolize right there and so he says strike the blood on the door post and then it says in verse eight they shall eat it the flesh in that night roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it eat not of it raw nor sodden it all with water but roast with fire his head and his legs and with the pertinence thereof so this is symbolic of our Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us another thing the Bible tells us of the Passover is that no bone of it was to be broken they weren't supposed to break any bone of it well that's the same thing with Jesus no bone of Jesus was broken even though he was beaten and whipped and crucified when they went to break the legs of the prisoners that were hanging on the crosses they didn't break Jesus's legs instead they stabbed a spear into his side that the scripture might be fulfilled not a bone of him shall be broken so he was that Passover the fact that the Passover was roasted with fire and the Bible makes a big point don't boil it don't eat it raw it must be roast with fire is the picture of the fact that Jesus Christ was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption he was a burnt offering in that sense his soul was made that offering for sin that his soul descended into hell for three days and three nights now if you would go to first Corinthians chapter number 10 first Corinthians chapter number 10 so Moses has come back to Egypt he's 80 years old and he does all the miracles before Pharaoh he commands all the plagues where God sends all these plagues and finally the last plague comes with the death of the firstborn and this is the straw that breaks the camel's back when every family in the whole nation has someone dead because they didn't have the lamb because they didn't have the blood on the doorpost that's when Pharaoh finally says get out of here and he sends them out of Egypt and he finally lets the people go at that point so he lets the people go but after they leave he changed his mind again his heart is hardened yet again and he actually pursues after them I mean imagine the stupidity and the foolishness but when God hardens somebody's hearts I mean this is the kind of dumb stuff they do they do weird things he's a reprobate so he goes he goes out there and pursues after the children of Israel Pharaoh does with his army and they get to a point where the children of Israel have their back to the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his armies are coming and there's nowhere to go so God sends this great pillar of fire that basically separates the army of the Egyptians from the Israelites and all night long the Egyptians are not able to get to the Israelites because this this pillar of fire is in the way well God parts the Red Sea for Moses and the children of Israel across the Red Sea on dry land and when they get all the way across the other side God removes the the fiery pillar and the Egyptians pursue after the children of Israel they follow them into the Red Sea and when they're in the midst of the sea God brings the waters back in on them and drowns Pharaoh and his army and they're all washed away and even just to make sure that they would all drown as they're traveling through the Red Sea God smites the wheels of the chariots the wheels fall off so that the chariots are stuck and dragging and then the water comes in and drowns them all and kills them all that's in chapter number fourteen now look at first Corinthians chapter number ten and we get the New Testament take on this first Corinthians chapter ten verse one says moreover brethren I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and it all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ so this right here explains to us a little bit of the symbolism of what's going on the story so think about this the Passover represents Jesus Christ the Lamb of God our Passover being killed for us but when the blood is applied to the door that's what caused them to be saved not saved as in going to heaven but physically saved from the death of the firstborn if they had the blood on the doorpost God would pass over that house and not destroy it his angel would okay but it pictures spiritual salvation we are saved by the blood of the lamb being applied to the doorpost of our heart so when we have the blood applied to us we're saved right and then what's the next step after salvation baptism right and that's what's pictured in the Red Sea so first they're in Egypt they get the blood on the doorpost which pictures salvation then they cross the Red Sea which pictures baptism because that flaming pillar the pillar of fire became a cloudy pillar by day and was above them and clouds are made out of what water so the cloud was there of water and then when they walked through the Red Sea they had a wall of water on either side so they're surrounded by water on all sides because the cloud and the sea and so it was a picture or symbolic of baptism and talks about their baptized unto Moses in the cloud and then the sea he was like their spiritual pastor and that's their church in the wilderness and the Bible even says in Acts chapter 7 that Moses was with the church in the wilderness he calls that the church in the wilderness and so Moses is like a pastor of a church that has been saved and baptized right go if you would to Exodus 19 Exodus chapter 19 so after they cross the Red Sea which takes place in chapter number 14 in chapter 15 they sing a big song of deliverance and a song of rejoicing then they get to some water and the water's bitter and they start complaining so God performs a miracle and they're able to drink fresh water and then when we get to chapter 16 they don't have any food so God provides manna from heaven so that they can eat and be filled and he provided that manna for the next 40 years then we see in chapter 17 they get to the waters of Meribah and again you know God has to miraculously give them water they're complaining and so forth they get in a battle with Amalek which is a foreign country and this is the battle where whenever Moses has his hands up in the air they're winning and when he put his hands down they start losing so he has to keep his hands up the whole time and so two men Aaron and her get under him and they have to hold his arms up the whole time because he was too tired to hold his arms up so that they could keep winning and destroy the Amalekites with Joshua leading the forces into battle. So when we get to chapter 18 is where Moses reunites with his father-in-law and Jethro gives him some advice about delegating authority how he can't just rule over these millions of people by himself so he makes rulers of tens, rulers of hundreds, rulers of thousands and so forth but then when we get to chapter 19 this is where they get to Mount Sinai finally and God's ready to make his covenant with them and God's ready to give them all his laws and to give them his word and look what it says in Exodus chapter 19 verse number four you have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation these are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel now let me ask you this is God telling them you're going to be the chosen people no matter what you do it doesn't matter what you do I mean it's unconditional no he tells them you will be a holy nation you will be above all people if if you obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant the Bible tells in the book of Hebrews they continue not in this covenant he said not as the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not sayeth the Lord the Jews today are not God's chosen people because of the fact that they did not continue in that covenant and God made a new covenant and according to the new covenant you have to be in Jesus Christ to be one of the chosen people that's the new covenant the old covenant decayeth old and is ready to vanish decayeth and waxeth old and is ready to vanish away we're under the new covenant now and then it says in verse seven Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all the war all these words which the Lord commanded him and all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken will we do and Moses returned the words of the people the Lord but they didn't do that of course okay so we're up to chapter nineteen the book of Exodus has forty chapters I'm giving you an overview of the book of Exodus I'm just trying to give you the bird's eye view the big picture sometimes when you go to church and just hear little parts of the Bible preached you don't get the big picture or if you don't read your Bible cover to cover you don't get the big picture we need to be reading the Bible on our own and I'm trying to give you an outline or a framework of the book of Exodus so that you can go through and read the book of Exodus and understand what you're reading and get the big picture of what's going on in the book of Exodus you know sadly the first time I read the book of Exodus was as a result of watching the movie the Ten Commandments I watched the movie the Ten Commandments I watched the movie before I read the book now that's sad that I'd never read the book of Exodus but I hadn't you know I grew up in a Christian home but I just wasn't reading my Bible and so as a child I saw the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston and I went upstairs and I read the book of Exodus so at least that movie did one thing for me inspired me to go read the book of Exodus I went up and I read it and I was like well it's a lot different than the movie and I was showing my parents all the differences and we were you know my parents and I were talking about the differences had a real good conversation but that's what made me read the book I read the book of Exodus you know people today need to read their Bibles and not just rely on just stories or Hollywood no no we need to get in the Bible and learn the truth for ourselves so Exodus so far up to this point has been quite a story hasn't it it's part of the law of Moses you know the first five books are known as the law but Genesis was mostly a story and Exodus up to this point has mostly been a story right I mean it's a story about Moses he's born he grows up he kills somebody he leaves the country he comes back forty years later he demands that the people be let go God uses him to perform signs and wonders God sends the plagues he finally gets the children of Israel out of Egypt they cross the Red Sea they get to the base of Mount Sinai well now they're they're out of Egypt the Egyptians are no longer a threat the Egyptians are dead I mean their bodies were washed up on the beach of the Red Sea and they knew that they're safe now they get to the mountain of God this is where they're gonna worship the Lord and this is where he's gonna explain to them what he requires of them what he expects of them how they're supposed to live their lives he's gonna give them laws to live by no longer are they under the Egyptians rule they have to rule themselves now they need their own government and their own laws and their own way of life and so God is gonna give them the law to teach them how to live their lives and so when they get there one of the first things he gives them in chapter 20 is he gives them the Ten Commandments okay and you know we hopefully are pretty familiar with the Ten Commandments it's funny when you go out soul winning and you ask somebody why they think they're going to heaven and they say oh I keep the Ten Commandments and then to ask that person hey can you name the Ten Commandments now I'm not recommending saying that because that's a little bit belligerent but I have said that to people before oh really can you name the Ten Commandments how many of them can you name most people can't even name them all let alone live by them all right obviously they are thou shalt have no other gods before me thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain remember the Sabbath to keep it holy honor thy father and mother thou shalt not kill thou shall not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor and thou shalt not covet those are the Ten Commandments so he gives them those Ten Commandments and if you would turn to Exodus 20 actually I'm gonna skip that for sake of time but those are the Ten Commandments then he just gives them some very basic teachings at the end of chapter 20 about how to make an altar and when he tells them how to make an altar he says you make it out of either dirt or you make it out of a pile of rocks and he says you're not to use any tools you're not to make a tool and and and make it all sharp and clean and nice no no you make a pile of dirt or you make a pile of rocks now shortly thereafter God explains to them how to make the brazen altar for sacrifice that's going to be in the tabernacle but all throughout the Old Testament they didn't only make sacrifices at the tabernacle they could also make an altar wherever and there are lots of examples that's like Elijah when he does battle with the prophets of Baal and he builds up the altar the Lord with what just a pile of rocks and we might have seen images of this if you've seen images where they have the pile of rocks or the pile of earth and that's where they do their burnt offerings on that altar like that so he explains that to them then in chapters 21 through 23 he gives them a lot of laws about how to live their lives so obviously chapter 20 with the Ten Commandments that's telling you how to live your life don't steal don't commit adultery don't commit murder all those things then in chapters 21 through 23 he gives them more laws like that just about governing daily life how they're gonna work what they're gonna do and so forth chapter 24 he formally implements the what we know today is the Old Testament where he sprinkles them with blood of the sacrifices and enjoins them to follow God's laws then in chapters 25 through 31 he gives all the instructions regarding building the tabernacle the priests garments and all the accoutrements for worshipping him all the different sacrifices and things so this is the part of Exodus that gets a little dry for people right you know people start out reading the Bible it's like Genesis Exodus they start to kind of slow down with it so it's pretty eat look if you can't get if you can't get from Genesis 1 to Exodus 20 in your Bible reading there's you know you're doomed I mean that's the easy part right you are lazy if you can't start read listen to me if you can't start reading in Genesis 1 and at least make it through Exodus 20 you are just late just go turn on some cartoons and go rot your brain for the rest of your life because you are lazy what's wrong with you and that's the easiest part to read right Genesis 1 through Exodus 20 is a piece of cake and look if you have been saved for any length of time and you've never read that portion of Scripture shame on you time to go home tonight and turn on the desk lamp and sit down and start wherever you left off in Genesis or maybe you need to go to Genesis 1 and you need to catch up buddy and it should only take you a couple days to go through Genesis 1 through Exodus 20 because it's a pretty interesting story it's exciting the story keeps on going well I'm so thankful God didn't give us a boring book to read and then tell us to read it every day at least he gave us some good reading amen it's a great book so you know making it up to Exodus 20 doesn't take a lot of character but when you get to Exodus 21 that's where you need to start having a little bit of character okay now it's not as hard as it seems at first because some people can just get bogged down and here's what they'll do they'll get a few chapters into the tabernacle and they'll then they'll kind of just start flipping pages like is the whole rest of the book gonna be like this and it kind of looks like it is gonna be like that but there there are so many really interesting little nuggets in the second half of Exodus that really keep you interested if you'll stick with it and pay attention to what you're reading there are some some of the coolest stories in Exodus are in the second half of the book but they're just kind of nestled in between a little bit of drier reading okay so you know chapters 21 through 23 are a lot of laws about how to live your life chapter 24 he sacrifices the animals sprinkles the blood and then this is the first really rough patch is like chapters 25 through 31 is a little rough right but you know it's not it's only seven chapters people right so if you can plow through that that's where he's explaining how to build the tabernacle so there's a lot of talk about curtains and tables and you know it's it's almost like you know some of it could almost be like going to Ikea and you know your wife's trying to design rooms in the house and you're kind of just glazing over or whatever you don't care about the rings and the curtains and the knobs and the snuff dishes you know you're kind of like whatever you want honey whichever one you like anyway so it you know it's a little bit of a rough patch there but here's the thing all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrines and actually the more when you first read it that's what you feel like your furniture shopping or something you're like oh man this is hard to read but once you know the Bible more and you actually understand a lot more about God's Word those chapters become really interesting because you start seeing all the symbolism you know and you start understanding what the table represents what the candle represents what this animal represents what that animal right why these curtains are this color and that it all has meaning every ring every curtain every knob every snuff dish has a meaning once you learn it so in the beginning you got a plow through it don't skip it don't you dare skip it read every word and when you read it for the 20th time you'll like it better I promise if not you can come tell me I'm wrong if you get through excess 20 times you're like no I still don't like that part well read it anyway so once you get through so you do some heavy plowing through 25 through 31 but then you get to chapter 32 which is one of the most famous stories chapter 32 is where Moses comes down from the mount and he finds that they've been worshipping the golden calf right and he gets really mad and he takes the Ten Commandments graven with the finger of God and he smashes them and destroys them and breaks them right and then he ends up taking the golden calf grinding it into powder and then putting it in water and making them drink it talk about the colloidal silver are the colloidal gold so he has a pretty you know it's a bit there's a bit it's a really good chapter it's really interesting it's not boring at all and then in chapter 33 you know he's talking to God about it and there's a back and forth between him and the Lord's really interesting stuff then when you get to chapter 33 the tabernacle this is a very significant event chapter 33 the tabernacle is moved without the camp and it becomes known as the tabernacle of the congregation and it pictures the local church called to be separate from the world you know to be a place without the camp then in chapter 34 Moses goes back up the mount for another 40 days and 40 nights like he did the first time and he gets the Ten Commandments again on two stone to you know God was patient with him okay you broke the first two let me give you two more right so he sets him up with two new tablets and you know it's all engraven again with the Ten Commandments and this time when he comes down from the mount God shows him his glory while he's up on the mount only just from a distance just the the rear parts of God's glory and so when he comes down his face is glowing it's shining with the brightness of the Sun to where when Moses comes down with Ten Commandments they came and look at him so they're kind of like they they're having trouble being around him because it's too bright so they end up having to put a veil over his face just until he stops glowing and shining so that was pretty interesting that's a pretty cool story in chapter 34 okay there's another rough patch coming chapter is 35 through 40 basically everything that was described as needing to be done where God's telling him in chapters 25 through 31 hey this is what you're gonna do you're gonna build the tabernacle you're gonna make these clothes you're gonna make the curtains you're gonna make the tables the candlesticks the arc here's how you're gonna make the Ark of the Covenant here's what you're gonna put in there well then what happens is in chapters 35 and 40 they do all that so chapters 25 through 31 he explains how you're gonna do it and then in chapters 35 through 40 they do it so it's a little bit repetitive with a lot of the same material I was talking to a preacher friend of mine and he was because I've never done a Wednesday night chapter by chapter through Exodus yet I've done a lot of books but I haven't gotten to Exodus yet and I was talking to a preacher friend of mine who did through Exodus and he said you know the when I was going through chapters 25 and 31 he said I worked really hard to you know study and learn all the symbolism and to make it really interesting and to keep everybody's interest and what the table and the candle and on what it all means but then he said you know but then when I got to 35 through 40 I you know it's all the same stuff and I was like I've already taught all this so then he had to think of new things to teach you know you had to study even deeper and try to find something different to teach because he's like I've already done these sermons you know so it's a little bit repetitive there but then go to the very end of chapter 40 this is how the book of Exodus ends and honestly Exodus is one of the coolest books in the Old Testament it's really an interesting read like I said the first 20 chapters are a piece of cake I mean it you know if you can't enjoy the first 20 chapters then you're just dumb you're just you're just illiterate or something you know you need to you just need candy and ice cream and cartoons or something for the rest of your life you put on a beanie with a little propeller on top that's about you know if you can't read the first 20 chapters because it's pretty interesting I read it as a little kid and I thought I loved it you know it's not it's not that hard to read the second half you know you got to grow up a little bit for the second half right the second half is gonna take a little character but but he throws us those little nuggets you know the the coming down from the mouth the golden calf breaking the commandments you know the face shine there's a lot of really interesting things there to kind of break up the monotony a little bit so here's how the book of Exodus ends in chapter 40 verse 33 it describes the last bit of implementing everything God told them to do in chapters 35 through 40 so Exodus 40 verse 33 and he reared up the court round about the tabernacle in the altar and set up the hanging of the court gate so Moses finished the work Moses finished the work then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys but if the cloud were not taken up then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys so at the end of Exodus they're out of Egypt they're free the Egyptians are not a threat they've received all the commandments from God they've received his laws they know what to do and then they've also been given the system whereby they're gonna worship the Lord with the animal sacrifices the tabernacle the holy place the most holy play all those different things and the story leaves them wandering in the wilderness they're basically going through the wilderness and the cloudy pillar tells them where to go so there's a cloudy pillar that represents the the presence of God and when the cloudy pillar stays put they stay put and when the cloudy pillar moves they pack up and they all follow it millions of people and then when it stops they stop and that's where they camp so they're just completely going by faith they don't know the exact destination they don't know how long it's gonna take to get there they don't know when they're gonna get there they're following the cloudy pillar now what's eventually gonna happen is that they're gonna get there in the book of Numbers where they're supposed to go it takes them six months from Egypt to getting there and because they end up screwing things up God punishes them by making them wander for 40 years in the words it's kind of poetic justice because that's what happened to Moses right Moses ended up living in the wilderness for 40 years because they rejected him so then they rejected the Lord's guidance and they end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and then after the 40 years they go in but right now the book of Exodus just leaves them with God's laws in hand they're leaving Mount Sinai they're heading for the promised land they're following the cloudy pillar that's how the book of Exodus ends so it's just getting them out of Egypt now in Leviticus the book of Leviticus is just more laws very little story in the book there's a little bit of story but it's mainly just lots more laws because what God gave them in Exodus 21 through 23 was just just a few things it wasn't everything that they needed and what he gave them ceremonially also in chapters chapters 25 through 31 you know it was mainly about building the tabernacle he didn't give them all the sacrifices and things they need to do so Leviticus is just going into way more detail about that then numbers kind of picks up the story that we left off in Exodus and then Deuteronomy just gives more laws and more details and then in Joshua they actually go into the promised land so anyway the point of this overview tonight is a couple things number one I want you to understand what is the book of Exodus where do I find it in my Bible what am I going to read about what does it mean what is the story just on a surface level hopefully so that you'll go home and say you know what I'm gonna read the book of Exodus I hope after the last sermon a few weeks ago you went home and read Genesis if not time to catch up but go home and read Exodus but then the other purpose of the story was to show you how Jesus Christ is so evident and we didn't even go over everything in Exodus but just in the life of Moses it's all foreshadowing Jesus all the sacrifices the lamb the blood on the door posts it all points to Jesus and it's like that in every book of the Bible every single book is like that and so we see that as we go through Exodus this is no exception so we need to be studying our Bibles reading our Bibles know the Bible and our kids shouldn't have to watch a movie to figure out these stories we need to be teaching them these stories and reading them the Bible and reading the Bible ourselves and being able to expound these teachings and these stories so that our kids can grow up knowing about there are a lot of kids who go to church and they don't know the Bible they don't even know the basic stories anymore you got soul winning now you talk to people who've been in church their whole life they don't even hardly know who Moses is they don't even know these stories at all let that not be said of us or of our children let's borrow it's never word of prayer father we thank you so much for your work