Exodus – Let my People Go

“Let my People Go” – Sermon by Caleb Campbell, Desert Springs Bible Church, July 10,
2022

If you’ve no experience with Bible churches — a note on sermons at Desert Springs Bible Church: These are more like Bible explorations than sermons in some other churches, where the preacher encourages his/her flock to think or act in certain ways. Rather, pastors at DSBC identify a portion of scripture that they’re going to explore with the congregation, give insights on the text, and ask folks to think about what they’ve heard and draw their own
conclusions. The pastor puts a portion of scripture on the screen, reads it and asks people to notice interesting things. The scripture text being displayed on the monitor is here shown in quotes and bold type with italics. The pastor reads it aloud.

Good morning, church family. Today we’re continuing on in a study in the Book of Exodus. We’re going to be in Exodus Chapter 5 today, and I want to invite you, if you have a Bible, to turn there. If you don’t have a Bible, maybe you got a hand out on the way in. We’ve got the text printed out there. And for those of you joining us online, if you don’t have a Bible readily available, just go open up a new browser and go to bible.com. And again, we’ll be in Exodus Chapter 5 today.
Today we’re going to explore Exodus 5 for a little together, and then I’m going to bring up my friend Abby Keto, who’s going to share a bit about her experience, and even what she’s seeing in this text and how it’s lived out in her in and through the ministry. She’s a part of a team in Uganda, so I’m excited for that today.
So grab your Bibles and turn to Exodus Chapter 5. If you’ve never read the Bible before, that’s totally fine. I want to invite you to follow along, and I just want to tell you guys up front as you’re reading along through Exodus, there’s a ton of weird stuff. And that’s OK. We’re just going to let it be. One of the one of our firm convictions as a church family — one of our core values is that we aren’t here to answer all the questions. Our role as leadership is to equip you to discern your own convictions by the power of the Holy Spirit. Part of discerning your own convictions is engaging in texts like Exodus 6, wrestling through it on your own, but more importantly, talking about it with your church family.
Can I let you guys on a little insider secret? OK, I’m a preacher. I love preaching, and one of the reasons I love preaching is because it’s a monologue, right? I could just give you my ideas, and then you’re stuck there receiving them, and I’d love that, right? Don’t get me wrong, but and I’m going to tell you this, and I’m afraid that this is going to undermine my own authority. The best way to engage in Scripture is actually not through listening to a 30-minute monologue, but it’s actually wrestling around with the text with your church family for the next 100 years. It’s wrestling through it, trying to figure out “What do you see?” Or “I don’t see it the same way you do. Let’s figure that out together.” So that’s your homework. We’re going to do a little introduction to Exodus 5 today, and there’s going to be a lot of weird stuff. And then I want to encourage you to maybe take some people from your church family out to lunch, or to dinner, or coffee sometime and just say, “Hey, what did you think about what we heard in Exodus 5?” And to help you in that, we’ve got these bookmarks with just some Bible-study questions. So, if you’ve never done Bible study together with other people, that’s awesome. In fact, I love studying the Bible with people who have never done it before, because it means you haven’t been spoiled yet with bad interpretation models, right? OK, I’m looking at some of you and you’re like “Well, is he talking about me?” Yes, I am. The bookmarks are available on the tables in the back and also out in the lobby, and they’ve just got some questions there for you. Please feel free to take those and use those. I keep mine right here in my Bible, and lo and behold, it’s in Exodus 5, which is where we’re at today. That was the best segue I’ve done all month.
OK, so here’s what we’re going to do. Just for a little bit, we’re going to read portions of Exodus 5, and I just want to invite you in and maybe notice some things. And then I’m going to bring up Abby, and she’s going to share some of her perspectives, as well.
So this is Exodus 5. In Exodus one, we saw that the people of God — the Hebrews, the Israelites –were enslaved in Egypt. So they’re crying out to their God, whose name — what’s interesting is they don’t really even know God’s name. They’re just kind of crying out to some sort of like ambiguous God, it seems. And then what the text says is that God hears their cries, that the cries go up to God. And then what’s interesting is that God comes down, and God says to Moses that he’s going to deliver the people. God hears the cries, and he’s going to deliver the people.
Moses is like, “Cool.” And then a surprise happens. God says to Moses, “You’re going to go,” and Moses is like “What?” Right, and so God calls Moses to go. And Moses is like “They’re not going to believe me. I’m not equipped for this job. How am I going to go?” And so you see God working on Moses and also Aaron. He’s going to work through Moses and Aaron to redeem his people.
By the time we get to five Chapter 5, Moses has been wrestling with God around his calling. God placed the calling in Moses. He wants to use Moses to meet this need. God is going to do the work of redemption through this human actor, Moses. And Moses fights with him a bunch, argues with him and eventually Moses is like “Alright, I’m going to do this.” And then we get Moses going with Aaron to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. Watch this. You guys ready? I know that you’re all on the edge of your seat. So wait and see what happens next. OK, here we go.
“Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.’” (Verse 1)
Notice that they refer to the Lord God. This is, that’s if your translation does it. If you had the Hebrew translation, it would just say Yahweh, which is the name of “God I am” or” I am doing in your midst” or “I am always doing or always among you.” That’s that we talked about that last week. Check that out on our website if you want to. So it’s the proper name. But here’s the deal. Pharaoh likely does not call this people group Israel. So far, they’ve been referred to as the Hebrew people. Pharaoh doesn’t know who this God is, right? He knows a bunch of gods, but he’s never heard of this God. So notice what Moses does. He kind of has a little blunder here. Now, watch this. This is crazy.
This is what the Lord God of Israel says. Let my people go so that they may hold a festival for me in the wilderness.” Is that what God said to say now? What’s interesting, if you go back, just rewind the tape, God actually didn’t say this — at least not verbatim. So notice Moses and Aaron. They parade into Pharaoh’s office and say “This is what the God of Israel says. Yahweh says, let my people go.” Very strong, right there. There’s no courtesy here. There’s no actually humility here. They go in and they make demands, which is actually different than what Yahweh told him do. What Yahweh told Moses to go to Pharaoh — you guys go look it up, it’s just in the previous text — he says go to Pharaoh and say please.
Moses maybe seems like he’s drunk on his own power. In this moment he’s feeling real sure of himself, and he goes in there and he makes a demand. This is different than how God actually told him to approach Pharaoh. Now notice what Pharaoh does next. Oh, first, just a quick application, for me at, least. Just because God called me to do something doesn’t give me the right to use my own methods and means to pursue that calling. The ends do not justify the means. OK, let’s get going.
“But Pharoah responded, ‘Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.’” (Verse 2)
Why is he not letting them go? Because they’re making him a ton of money. It would be absolutely in Pharaoh’s economic worst interest to let these people go. Because they’re an economic machine, right? He has put them under slavery. They are highly productive people, and they’re producing a great deal of wealth for Pharaoh. So of course, why would he let him go like that? If you’re a Pharaoh, would you let them go? No, this is an economic engine for him. Of course, he’s not going to let them go.
“They answered, ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plague or sword.’” (Verse 3)
Now notice they change their posture. Notice they change it up a little bit. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip.” OK, now we’re lowering the bar – “into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, Yahweh our God, or else he may strike us with plague or sword.” That’s interesting, so he now says, you, Pharaoh, have to let us go, or God is going to kill us. Depleting your revenue generating machine? Do you see it? Yeah, this is really interesting. OK, this is something maybe we should kind of wrestle with this for the next few decades.
“The king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Go to your labor!’ Pharaoh also said, ‘Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from their labor.’” (Verses 4-5)
What is he saying to Moses and Aaron? “You lazy bums. You get back to work.” Notice Pharaoh postures himself as their boss right there. Check this out. Pharaoh also said look, the people of the land are so numerous and you would stop them from their labor. I mean, he’s incredulous. He’s like “I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this.”
“That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foreman, ‘Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves. But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers – that is why they are crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.’” (Verses 6-9)
Pharaoh is listening to Aaron and Moses, and Pharaoh’s answer is put them under harsher labor. “These people are starting to get nasty with me. They’re starting to talk back to me. They’re starting to question me.” So what does Pharaoh do? He increases their labor. He puts pressure onto them, right? Isn’t this like standard despot playbook? This is how dictators work, right? I mean, this isn’t anything strange, is it? This is one of the most common things in the world.
“So the overseers and foremen of the people went out and said to them, ‘This is what Pharaoh says: I am not giving you the straw. Go and get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’” (Verses 10-11)
Maybe this would be the equivalent of like “Hey, you guys are building a bunch of concrete buildings. I’m no longer going to give you the ready-made concrete. You’re going to have to go make the concrete yourself.” ‘
So this is a building-supply situation, but it’s not a supply chain problem. Pharaoh’s intentionally making their work harder. He increases the pain by expecting the same production but decreasing the resources that he gives to these people.
“So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The overseers insisted, ‘Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when the straw was provided.’ Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, ‘Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?’” (Verses 12-14)
Do you see this is a set up? Pharaoh setting them up to fail here as kind of like a punishment for the audacity of Moses and Aaron saying, “Let us go worship for three days in the wilderness.” Do you see it? So do you see here that Pharaoh is in direct conflict with Yahweh ?
Right, Pharaoh is posturing himself. Notice what Yahweh says. He always says, “I want the people to go.” And Pharaoh says, in direct contradiction, “No, no, no. I want these people to stay.” God Yahweh says, “I want these people to be let free so that they can worship me.” And Pharaoh says, “No, no no. I’m going to hold them captive so they can serve me.” Do you see the conflict here? It’s Pharaoh and Yahweh. Let’s keep going.
“So the Israelite foremen went in and cried for help to Pharaoh: ‘Why are you treating your servants this way? No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us – Make bricks! Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.’ But he said, ‘You are slackers. Slackers! That is why you are saying, let us go sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks.’” (Verses 15-18)
OK, notice this. What did they do? What’s the text say? To whom are they crying out? To whom are they not crying out? You see, earlier in the text, we see that they cried out to God, and God heard them. The cries went up, and God came down. He heard their cries, and then he enacted a redemptive work. But the Israelites have no patience for that. They’ve got no patience for Yahweh. They’re not going to wait for Yahweh, so where do they go to cry out? Pharaoh. Do you see? There are two places we can send our cries. There are two places we can look to for our help — the powers of this world or the power of God. Do you see it?
They’re crying out to whom? Pharaoh. Pharaoh, why are you treating your servants this way? They see this as a set up, but he, Pharaoh said you are slackers.
The Israelite foreman saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.” Do you see that keep coming up? I mean, this pain is predominant in their life. When they left Pharaoh, they confronted whom? They did not go out and cry to God. Where did they go? They went to Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them. OK, watch this.
“When they left Pharaoh, the confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them. ‘May the Lord take note of you and judge,’ they said to them, ‘Because you have made us reek to Pharaoh and his officials — putting a sword in their hand to kill us!’ So Moses went back to the Lord and asked, ‘Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? And why did you ever send me? Ever since I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has caused trouble for this people, and you haven’t rescued your people at all.’ ” (Verses 20-23)
So here God places a calling in Moses’ life. Moses kinda drops the ball a little bit, but he’s also trying to be faithful to God’s calling, right? He starts to use his own means, but then he corrects and he uses the means that Yahweh told. But then the king of this world, Pharaoh, actually responds negatively to God’s redemptive work in the moment. So Moses meets resistance, and the Israelite people, whose cries had gone up and to whom God hadn’t come down, they’re tired of waiting. They feel like the world is collapsing underneath them. And they wonder, “Is God hearing our cries?” There’s so much confusion in their life that they actually accuse the person that God called. They accuse Moses and Aaron, the ones whom God called to do this redemptive work. They accuse them of putting swords in Pharaoh’s hands to slay them. They are calling good evil.
Sometimes when we answer God’s call in our life, we get resistance even from the people we’re trying to help. This ever happened to y’all? Like in good faith, you’re trying to minister to or serve somebody, and they actually respond negatively. Ever happen to y’all? Yeah, so other people’s response to living out our calling is not a justification or a negation of our calling. It’s just their response to our living into our calling in the moment.
OK, here we go. So Moses goes back to where? He’s getting resistance from Pharaoh, and he’s getting resistance from who else? The people. So who do you turn to then? Alright, well. So Moses went back to the Lord that asked,” Lord, why have you caused …” Notice? The blame is being shot in all different directions here, isn’t it?
Now this is the sin of Adam. Remember when Adam gets busted for eating the fruit in the garden, and he blames the woman. Moses is just doing what he learned from his father, Adam, right? Moses goes back to the Lord, “Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people?” Notice –whose people? Not Moses’ people. He isn’t ready to associate with these people. “Why did you ever send me?” You guys ever felt like that before? “Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
How many pray like this? “God, you’re not owning up to what you said you were going to do. You’re causing more problems here.” Do you see that Moses has no problem arguing with God? Right, he’s in his calling. He’s meeting resistance. He goes back to God and says, “Why have you put me here? What are you even doing here? You said you were going to deliver these people. But I haven’t seen deliverance yet.” Some of us know what that feels like.
And this is where the chapter breaks. I don’t like this chapter break right here. The chapter breaks — and, by the way, chapter breaks were added in by some dude like 1000 years ago. They’re not divinely inspired, so don’t worry about the chapter break. Check this out in Chapter 6 verse one.
“But the Lord replied to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh; because of a strong hand he will let them go, and because of a strong hand he will drive them from this land.’” (Chapter 6, Verse 1)
Whose hand is he talking about? Moses’ hand? No. Aaron’s hand? No. Whose? It’s the hand of the Lord. Notice that Pharaoh uses his hand to do what? And Yahweh is using his hand to do what? If you’ll pardon me, to disarm the destroyer.
And so even though the Israelites, even Moses, no one in this text sees God working. And yet, what? What is God doing? He’s at work, right? There’s this song we say, “Even though we can’t see it, you’re working, you’re working.” So, God is about, and this sets the stage this. Check this out.
In verse one of chapter 6, the Lord replied to Moses. Now you will see a pivot point in the Book of Exodus. From this moment on you see God working and boy, does he work. He is going to work with a mighty hand, and you’re going to see it in like full, vivid effect.
But I just wanted to pause here in this text. Let’s not get just too quickly to the rest of this story, because for many of us we sit in a space where we feel like we’re stepping into God’s calling, we feel like we’re doing what God has called us to do or following God in difficult circumstances. But it’s just done. We’re getting so much resistance it just doesn’t feel like God’s at work. And so we’re going to just pause there in the text and I’m going to invite Abby Keto to come up. I think that her perspective on this actually is going to be really helpful for us.
One of the things that we believe here at Desert Springs is that God is constantly a work, not only in our church family, but in every church family here in Phoenix and around the world. And we love partnering with other organizations and churches. We love partnering with other churches and organizations like Abby and her husband David in Uganda, because it’s not a matter of charity for us as a church. It’s a matter of equity and reciprocity that there are gifts that we’re giving to each other within the global church, and one of the many we get to receive from the Church and Union is the perspective that Abby is going to share with us today.