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Bondage, Affliction and Deliverance
“And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of My People which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
Exodus 3:7-8
The Book of Exodus has got to be one of my favorite Books in the entirety of the Word of God. I thoroughly enjoy reading it, as I do the entire Word of God, but there is something special about this particular Book. To quote one writer’s perspective on the great Book of Exodus, “As the subject of Genesis is man’s ruin, so that of Exodus is man’s Redemption.” The Hebrew title for the Book is “These are the names”. This accords with the subject of the Book, for Redemption is an individual matter. The Book teaches that this Redemption can only be effected by the Blood, the Blood of the Lamb, the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“It opens with Israel as a helpless slave in the power of the enemy, and doomed by him to destruction; it closes with Israel redeemed, enriched, and free. The method of this deliverance was the death of the Paschal Lamb. The Book, therefore, teaches that where there is no blood—the Blood of Christ—there is no Salvation” (Williams).
BONDAGE
The children of Israel had been in Egypt for 215 years. Due to a severe famine that plagued the land, Joseph, raised up by God to be the second most powerful man in all of Egypt and, in fact, all of the world of that day, had placed his family in the land of Goshen, 70 souls in totality. This was done for their safekeeping. As the years went on, the people began to multiply and grew to approximately 2 to 3 million in number.
After the death of Joseph, the Bible says, “there arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph,” and saw the number of people and feared a revolt. He immediately concocted plans to destroy the people of God. He instantly enslaved them and ruled over them harshly, with Egyptian taskmasters looming over them constantly. But even though Satan had a plan, God had a bigger Plan.
Satan’s plan was not meant to weaken the people of Israel, but to stop the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. For if his plan would have succeeded, then there would have been no David, and if there was no David, then there would have been no Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, it is Satan’s plan to keep every Child of God in bondage, and it doesn’t matter to him what kind it is. He wants to weaken us by keeping us from looking exclusively to the Cross of Christ, and unto something else, mainly self. So, the question must be asked as to why the Lord allowed affliction to come upon His People?
AFFLICTION
Israel had been living comfortably in Egypt, but they were never of Egypt; in other words, many were born and raised in Egypt, but they were never Egyptians, they were Israelites. Had they remained comfortable in Egypt, they would not have ever wanted to leave. The same can be said of us today. The Children of Israel, while in Egypt, were perfect examples of the condition of the natural man who is a slave to sin and a captive of Satan, as this Seventh Verse of this Third Chapter portrays. But also, it is a type of the Believer as well, for if the Believer does not understand God’s Prescribed Order of Victory, which is through the Cross, then they too will find themselves controlled and dominated by the sin nature.
As a Believer, we are in this world, Egypt being a type of the world, but definitely not of this world, and the world is not in us. But this is the problem of today’s modern Church, and has been for the last 30 or so years. It has taken the stance that the preaching of old is “going out of style,” and must now use the methods of the world to win the world. My answer to that is, “How Stupid!” How can the world win the world for Christ? Simply it can’t. Christ said that “if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Mat. 15:14). The Cross is what got the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and it’s the Cross that gets us out of the domination of the world.
As the Children of Israel suffered through this affliction, they began to cry unto the Lord for help. Once again, if the Lord had not allowed the affliction to come upon His Children, then they would have never wanted to leave Egypt. It’s not the Will of God for His People to stay in Egypt, where the taskmaster of sin is cruel and hard. But it is ever His Will that His People go to a land, and good and large land, overflowing with milk and honey, where there is Victory and more abundant life.
MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH
As the Children of Israel were crying unto the Lord, the Lord appeared unto Moses in the form of a burning bush. Now, the cool thing about this is that the flame of fire in the lowly desert bush was an emblem of the Deity and Humanity of Christ. The “fire” pertained to Deity, and the bush pertained to His Humanity. But yet the “fire” did not consume the “bush.” In other words, His Deity did not override His Humanity. He was 100 per cent God, but 100 per cent man.
This is also a beautiful example of how the Holy Spirit functions in the heart and life of the Believer. While the Holy Spirit is doing what needs to be done, irrespective of how hard it may be, there is no danger of the “bush,” i.e. the Believer, being consumed. But the moment that we try to do the work by our own flesh, we will soon experience burnout.
The Lord told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” Dear reader, you may be suffering right now, for sin is a cruel taskmaster, and you have been crying unto the Lord, but it seems that your words are not getting through, I want you to know that the Lord has seen your affliction, and He knows exactly where you are. He has heard your cry, and He knows your sorrows. Don’t ever think that the Lord has forgotten you, for His Word says, “He will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
DELIVERANCE
But not only has He seen your affliction, heard your cry, and knows your sorrows, He said, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” Hallelujah! He has delivered us out of this present evil world by way of the Cross, for this is exactly what He was referring to. The only way that the Believing sinner, as well as the Believer, can be delivered from sin is through the shed Blood of Jesus Christ.
Moses told the people to take an innocent lamb, slit its throat, and let the hot blood pour out into a basin, and place it over the doorpost of their house. And when the Death Angel passed through the land of Egypt that night, if He saw the blood over the doorpost, He would pass over them. The blood applied to the doorposts meant that their Faith was in the Paschal Lamb, and because the lamb had taken the fatal blow, the house was spared. Because Christ took upon Himself the fatal blow, the moment we exhibit Faith in Christ and what He has done, we are spared.
That night, nearly three and one half million people walked out of Egypt free, and loaded down with silver and gold. In his Commentary on Exodus, my grandfather said it best, “the Lord took care that the hard-earned wages of the Israelites should be at last paid, and that the people should be provided for their journey; consequently, they departed laden with the wealth of Egypt. Even though He may tarry long, God, to be sure, will take care of His People.”
Through the pages of this Book, we find God’s answer for the Christian who is bound by the taskmasters of sin. They have tried relentlessly to find Peace, Victory, and the more abundant life that was afforded to them by Christ, but to no avail. The answer can only be the Blood of Jesus Christ. That, and that alone, is the only way we can have Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Christ must ever be our Focus, with the Cross being our Object of Faith. The moment we do this, the Holy Spirit, Who is our Power Source, can effectively Work in our lives to bring about the desired result, Victory.
Pastor Gabriel Swaggart