RESPONDING TO UNMET EXPECTATIONS Exodus 4:27-6:1
FOUR KEY OBSERVATIONS: 1. Their Worship 2. Their Oppression 3. Their Response 4. God s Promise
1. THEIR WORSHIP
EXODUS 4:27-28 Now the LORD had said to Aaron, Go and meet Moses in the wilderness. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him to do.
EXODUS 4:27 Now the LORD had said to Aaron, Go and meet Moses in the wilderness. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
EXODUS 4:29-31 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron repeated everything the LORD had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people. The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had paid attention to them and that He had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
What caused the people to believe?
EXODUS 4:30-31 Aaron repeated everything the LORD had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people. The people believed.
ROMANS 1:20 For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal and diving nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
JAMES 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe and they shudder.
God is looking for belief that results in worship and obedience.
EXODUS 4:31 The people believed, and when they heard that the LORD had paid attention to them and that He had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
2. THEIR OPPRESSION
EXODUS 5:1-2 Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival for Me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh responded, Who is Yahweh that I should obey Him by letting Israel go? I do not know anything about Yahweh, and besides, I will not let Israel go.
EXODUS 5:3-4 Then 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 Yahweh our God, or else He may strike us with plague or sword. The king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Get to your work!
EXODUS 5:5 Pharaoh also said, Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from working.
EXODUS 5:6-7 That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foremen: Don t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves.
EXODUS 5:8-9 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.
EXODUS 5:9 Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.
We have to fight the urge to excuse ourselves from the battle or hold ourselves to a different standard.
3. THEIR RESPONSE
EXODUS 5:10-12 So the overseers and foremen of the people went out and said to them, This is what Pharaoh says: I am not giving you straw. Go get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload. So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
EXODUS 5:13-14 The overseers insisted, Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when 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?
EXODUS 5:15-17 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.
EXODUS 5:18-19 Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks. The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.
EXODUS 5:20-21 When they left Pharaoh, they 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 in front of Pharaoh and his officials putting a sword in their hand to kill us!
EXODUS 5:22-23 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 delivered Your people at all.
2 CORINTHIANS 11:24-27 5 times I received 39 lashes from the Jews. 3 times I was beaten with rods by the Romans. Once I was stoned by my enemies. 3 times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I have faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers,
2 CORINTHIANS 11:24-27 dangers from my own people, dangers from the gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea and dangers among false brothers; labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and lacking clothing.
4. GOD S PROMISE
What was God s reply to Moses?
EXODUS 6:1 But the LORD replied to Moses, Now you are going to see what I will do to Pharaoh: he will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of his land because of My strong hand.
God gave Moses a promise for future deliverance, and it gave him hope to persevere now.
JOHN 16:32-33 Look: An hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.
MATTHEW 6:19-20 Don t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don t break in and steal.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION 1. Expect following Jesus to be difficult
PRACTICAL APPLICATION 1. Expect following Jesus to be difficult 2. Have firm faith in God s promise for the future