Do We Know Him?
Exodus 5.1-6.13
Good morning, it's a pleasure to be with you this morning, and thank you for keeping this text open in front of you.
I confess to being an expert on plans that don't go as planned. A few years ago, my wife and I had the idea of going camping.
Everything went perfectly until the first meal. First problem - I couldn't get the camping gas to work. Our tinned food was eaten cold. Second problem - I had thought of the electric pump to inflate the mattress. I hadn't thought about the fact that once inflated, the mattress wouldn't fit into the tent. Third problem - it was extremely cold for May, so much so that we had to abandon the tent and sleep in the car, except that our only blanket was full of cat hair ... to which we're both allergic.
If I were to suggest camping together now, I think you'd find it hard to take the plan seriously.
Which brings us to our question this morning - what do we do when God's plan of salvation seems about as successful as my camping weekend?
What's the answer when you don't find God's plan of salvation credible?
Let's be honest.
There are plenty of reasons to doubt its credibility! First of all, our lives often don't look very saved! Does believing in Jesus improve anything? Often it doesn’t seem to!
I'm thinking of someone who had quite a complicated life for the first thirty years of her life, including her family. She gave her life to Jesus. What happened next? In a way, things got worse. Her family did not appreciate this choice.
My dear wife converted at the age of 19. Not long afterwards, she discovered that she had a chronic illness. Difficulties, illnesses and personal tragedies don't stop when you believe in Jesus. Sometimes they increase.
Our lives don't always seem very saved.
But that's not all. We're surrounded by people who don't believe at all in God's plan of salvation! For many of our contemporaries, the idea of putting their hopes in things they can't see makes no sense.
In a month's time, Connexion will be organising a week of evangelism. Don't be surprised if many of the people we talk to find it hard to take God's salvation seriously.
Finally, even to us who believe, sometimes God's plan of salvation can seem ... a bit 'huge' ... in the wrong sense of the word!
A bit big.
We expect the resurrection, eternal life and a new earth when nothing we see with our own eyes seems to confirm this expectation.
Can we believe it?
What is the answer when God's plan of salvation doesn't seem credible?
The book of Exodus - this is the book to which generations of God's people systematically returned ... when God's salvation seemed hard to believe.
When they were beaten by their enemies, slaughtered because of their sin, exiled because of their disobedience, the book they returned to was Exodus.
This morning we will see that the difficulty of taking God's salvation seriously is nothing new.
Exodus 5 and 6 describe a situation where we struggle with this very problem. We'll see that the answer lies in knowing who the Lord, our God, really is.
1. The appearance of God's failure
First of all ... there are times when God's plan of salvation not only seems hard to believe; it looks like a failure!
Let's imagine you were the author of Exodus. You've just described one of the most famous moments in the Bible. God has revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush, told him to bring the people out, and even given him a few super-stylish miracles to show that it's not a hoax.
Moses went back to the Israelite leaders, presented them with all this and - Exodus 4.31:
"The people believed. They heard that the Lord cared for the Israelites, that he had seen their suffering, and they fell down and worshipped."
Now write the rest!
Here's what I would have written:
Moses stood before Pharaoh and said, "The Lord has appeared to us. He wants you to set us free. Here are a few miracles so that you will believe me".
Pharaoh replied: "OK".
That's the dream. The reality is that the plan seems to be going even worse than my failed camping weekend.
Pharaoh refuses and worse:
Exodus 5 verse 6:
"The same day, Pharaoh gave the following order to the people's inspectors and commissioners: "You will no longer give straw to the people to make bricks as you did before. They will collect straw themselves. You will, however, require them to make the same quantity of bricks as they did before, but you will not do away with any of it. For they are lazy. That's why they cry out: 'Let's go and offer sacrifices to our God!
First failure. They can't leave, and now their situation is even worse than before. Thank you, Moses. And that's not all. The Israelites can no longer fill their quota of bricks. Their leaders were beaten by the Egyptians. They go to see Pharaoh to complain.
Verse 15
"The Israelites' commissioners went to complain to Pharaoh, saying, 'Why do you treat your servants like this? Your servants are not given straw and we are told, 'Make bricks!' And behold, your servants are beaten as if your people were guilty." Pharaoh replied, "You are lazy, nothing but lazy. That's why you say, 'Let's go offer sacrifices to the Lord!" Now go to work."
Second failure. The Israelite leaders are humiliated. Thanks again to Moses.
So they approach Moses and Aaron at the exit. Verse 21:
"May the Lord look upon you and be your judge! Because of you, Pharaoh and his servants have nothing but disgust for us; you have put a sword in their hands to slaughter us."
Third failure. The people no longer believe in Moses' plan ... and Moses is not far from no longer believing in God's plan.
Verse 22
Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has been harming this people, and you have not delivered your people at all."
"Lord, why have you harmed us?"
Have you ever prayed that?
"Lord, why have you hurt me?"
At Easter a few years ago, Anne-Sophie and I wanted to take the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with other parents from our daughters' school. We thought everyone needed some good news. It was during the lockdown. We sent out a message on WhatsApp to several people to get them thinking about the meaning of Easter.
The reaction was hostile and humiliating.
Why, Lord? Is this your plan? We just wanted to obey you.
A group of teenagers wanted to set up a high school Bible group. They could have met informally, but instead they asked the headmaster for permission. It was forbidden to meet in the school.
I imagine we can all think of times when we've asked ourselves: "Lord, why did you hurt us?
In Exodus 5, the hardest thing to swallow is that the one who doesn't care about God seems to win! Pharaoh seems to win out over God.
Just as in many places even today, those who oppose God's salvation also seem to have the upper hand.
Sometimes God seems to have failed and his plan seems really hard to believe.
In a way, that's reassuring. Even in the Bible, we struggled with this. Nothing new under the sun!
But it does raise a question.
In the previous chapters, God warns Moses that things would happen this way. He's not caught off guard.
But then ... why . Why does God deliberately let the situation get so bad before it gets better? Why doesn't the plan work the first time?
It seems to me that it's to put his finger on a problem that he wants to solve.
The problem of ignorance
What these failure-like situations reveal is what we know - or don't know - about God.
These situations, which we all encounter, where it seems that God has not been there, expose our convictions.
This is what we discover in Exodus 5.
No one knows the Lord. Not yet.
Verse 2
"Pharaoh replied [to Moses' request]: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his commands and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.""
Behind his cruelty and arrogance is ignorance of the LORD. It's not that he doesn't know that the Israelites have a god. All the peoples of the time had gods. The Egyptians had many. It's rather that he doesn't see why he should submit to the Lord.
I have a neighbour who is a policeman and I met him before I knew he was a policeman. I used to see a police car parked outside my window, so I started to worry, and then I found out that my neighbour was a policeman.
Before I found out, if he'd asked me to move my car, for example, I might not have felt obliged to do it.
But now that I know, it's different.
Perhaps the same goes for the pharaoh. He surely knows that the Israelites worship a god. He just doesn't see why he, the most powerful man in the world, should obey it.
Pharaoh doesn't know the Lord, but neither do the Israelites. Again, it's not that they didn't believe in his existence. Just before, they had heard that God was looking after them, they had fallen down and worshipped him. They had believed in God. They sang hymns.
But when the going gets tough, their reaction proves that they don't really know him yet. Not like they should.
And that's not all. Even Moses doesn't really know the Lord.
He spoke with him. He has heard his words, but in the face of Pharaoh's attitude, which God had warned him about, he too shows that he doesn't really know the Lord.
"Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak on your behalf, he has been doing evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all."
Can we see what the author is up to?
Behind the difficulties in believing in his plan, behind the frustration, anger or bitterness, there is a more fundamental problem.
The problem of not knowing God. Nobody knows him as well as they should.
In September I'll be married to Anne-Sophie for 15 years. In 15 years you have time to get an idea of a person's character.
Let's imagine that this week I start going through her messages and emails. When she leaves the house, I follow her. When she goes to work I call her colleagues to check she's there.
I decide not to trust her.
What does that say about me? That I don't know my wife! If I really knew her, I'd know that I had nothing to worry about.
It's the same thing in this passage. This difficulty in taking God's plan of salvation seriously reveals an ignorance of who God is.
When we talk about ignorance, we're not just talking about a lack of information.
It is an ignorance like that of the people in this passage. They know that the Eternal exists. But to the extent that they don't take him seriously, don't fear him and don't trust him ... they show that they don't know who the Eternal One is.
This is always revealed when life doesn't go according to plan or when we struggle to trust God.
What we believe - or don't believe - about who he is.
Pain is often the true test of what we believe.
For example, if like me you've ever worried about money, you know what those moments reveal about our belief, or lack of belief, that God is a father who cares for his children.
I think of a missionary friend during the pandemic who, as he watched the economy plummet, was very worried about his financial support and confided in me that he doubted God's goodness.
My wife's health problems over the last few years have forced us to ask ourselves the same question. Who is the Lord? Who is he really?
It's easy to think that what keeps us going in times of trial is some kind of superhuman inner strength, as if faith were some kind of superpower.
The Bible says otherwise. The source of perseverance and faith is authentic knowledge of God. That's why in this passage God deliberately puts the Israelites in the deep end. To teach a lesson that they were going to have to learn and that we too have to learn.
When the world falls apart, when God's plan takes an unexpected turn, the fundamental question is: do you know me?
Do you know the Lord?
It's the most decisive question a human being can ask himself.
By default, we are like the Israelites. We all evolve with a greater or lesser ignorance of God.
That's why this passage shows us not only the problem of ignorance of God but also the need for God's revelation.
The need for God's revelation
The answer to doubt, the answer to discouragement, the answer when God's plan doesn't seem credible, is ... to know who the Lord, our God, is.
In a way, it's like any other relationship. Why do I trust my wife, why do I love her, why am I happy to walk alongside her even when life is difficult?
Because I know her! I know who she is! What I have seen of her identity confirms that she is trustworthy.
That's why in chapter 6 God speaks to Moses again, hammering home 4 times: "I am the LORD."
He insists on his identity.
And look at verse 6 of chapter 6
"Therefore say to the Israelites: 'I am the Lord, I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from their slavery and I will redeem you with power and with great acts of judgement. I will take you to be my people, I will be your God, and you will know that I am the Lord, your God, who will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians.
The weight given to a name depends very much on the exploits of the person in question.
Ten years ago, the name 'Mbappe' didn't mean much to most people. If I said of a footballer, 'that's the next Mbappe', people wouldn't have understood. But now that we've seen his exploits in two World Cups, we know who we're dealing with when we hear the name Mbappe. It's not that he didn't exist ten years ago. It's rather that he 'revealed' himself to the world through his exploits on the pitch.
I apologise for the football illustration.
It's a bit like what God announces he's going to do for his name 'the Eternal'.
He is going to reveal by his exploits in what reverence, in what honour, in what wonder his name is to be held. Who the Eternal One is.
This explains a verse that may seem a little odd. Exodus 6 verse 3
"I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the Almighty God, but I did not fully make myself known to them by my name, the LORD."
This verse can be perplexing.
When we read the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Genesis, we find the name the Eternal. So how can we understand God telling Moses that he had not revealed his name to them?
The explanation, which I find the most likely, is that it is only now, when God finally delivers his people, that we will really understand his identity, as with Mbappé and his exploits on the football pitch.
God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Promises that can be summed up in 4 words beginning with the letter P: a large people, a land to live in, a special relationship, and that all the peoples of the world would be blessed through them.
But Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not see these promises fulfilled in their lifetime. It is only now, when he fulfils what he promised, that we will finally understand his identity.
The plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea that we will see in the next few weeks, all serve to make the Eternal One known. In particular, it will serve to show that the Lord is a God who commits himself, who saves and who fights for his own.
As we saw last Sunday, in the original language, the name God means "I am" or "I will be". It is a name that implies that God is absolutely incomparable and absolutely autonomous. He is transcendent and immanent.
You can't put him in a box, you can't really compare him to anything else, and he does whatever he wants!
But this God chose freely, by pure grace, to identify himself with the world ... by saving ... and by keeping his commitment to his people.
Kylian Mbappe could have chosen to make himself known to the world in any way he wanted. He could have become a baker, a singer, a pétanque player - anything he wanted ... but he chose football.
God could have made himself known to the world in any way he wanted - "I will be who I will be" - but he chose to do it by saving ... according to his promise.
"You will know that I am the Lord your God ... when ... I free you from the burdens laid upon you by the Egyptians".
He wants this to be clear in our minds.
The name Eternal is not synonymous with empty words but with promises kept! That's how God wants to be known! As the Eternal One - the great "I am" the God who has put his identity on the line by committing himself to save.
Let's draw some implications.
The crux of the matter, the difference between perseverance and panic, between trust and cracking, comes down to one very simple question.
Do you know your God? Do you know the Lord? Have you grasped the fact that he is the God who commits, who saves and who fights for his people?
Exodus tells a story of love. God comes to find a people to offer them liberation ... with a view ... to a relationship! A relationship in which we love him, know that he loves us, trust him and live for him.
None of this is possible if we don't know him. But if we do know him, it changes everything.
This knowledge doesn't come from navel-gazing. It doesn't come by asking ourselves: um, I wonder what he's like as a god? Is he a bearded man sitting in the clouds or does he look like an elephant? I don't really know. No! Nor does it come from contemplating our feelings. 'God can't love me very much today because I don't feel very loved.’
To know God, we have to look at what he has revealed to us, through his objective actions in history, as described in the Bible.
He did this through the Exodus.
Ultimately, he did it through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, which reveal to us the full extent of his commitment to save.
So what is the answer when we struggle to believe in God's plan of salvation? Quite simply ... it's to know who the God behind the plan is!
This is the cure for doubt, discouragement and despair. A right knowledge of the Lord.
It requires us to make a choice: Between observation on the one hand: what the world tells us, what our emotions tell us, what our eyes tell us ... Or revelation on the other hand - the demonstration in history of God's identity.
Observation is often discouraging ... we see the failures, we see the difficulties and so on. But revelation shows us the God behind the plan! It radically changes the way we approach trials.
We can experience them either as signs that God's plan is not credible or as opportunities to remember who our God is.
You lose your job. That hurts, of course. And it presents you with a choice. Do you see it as a sign that God has let you down - that's the observation? Or do you choose revelation and remember that he is committed to providing for your needs, and that he is sending you this trial to work on that conviction?
Another example - illness. Nobody wants to suffer in their body. Statistically, illness will affect many of us. If this is what God sends us, we can welcome it with bitterness or we can remember who he is. A God who has pledged always to carry us, and, whether he heals us now or not, who will give us a glorious body in the new creation.
This is an area where Anne-Sophie and I have come to realise over the last few years just how much we have to do to get to know God better. Little players whom God has invited to get to know him better by this means.
A final example. We are discouraged in our evangelism. We try to talk about Jesus, and he gets thrown back in our faces. We can get discouraged, or we can remember who our God is and that he is committed to bringing many people into his kingdom. No matter how much rejection we get, God WILL draw people to himself.
In fact, think about what you're worried about right now. Now ask yourself what it's like to know the Lord as the God who commits, saves and fights for his own even in difficult situations.
Perhaps there are gaps in our knowledge of God ... and so this is an opportunity to grow. For some of us, what God wants for us is not to give us an easy life, but to know him.
Do we know him?
So many times in the Bible, God's people found themselves in situations where God's plan seemed anything but credible. Everything seemed to be falling apart. No reason for hope.
Each time, the solution consisted of six words: you will know that I am the Lord ...
Église Connexion... Do we know the Lord?