Exodus 5:1-21 – “Who Do You Belong To?”
I.) Intro.
Much of the land of Israel is in dispute as to who it belongs to. As a matter of fact, while we were over there, the issue of ownership was hotly being debated. It is said that ownership or possession is 9/10 of the law. God had told Moses that Israel belonged to Him (4:22), yet Pharaoh also was claiming ownership (5:1). Now, whom do you think Israel herself would claim she belonged to? The songwriter Bob Dylan in his famous lyrics writes, “You’re gonna have to serve someone, it might be the devil or it might be God, but you are gonna have to serve someone.” Who in their right mind would want to serve the devil? The answer might surprise you and me.
Folks, there is a battle raging inside every believer. Paul describes it from personal experience in Rom. 7:20-24: “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Last week we saw Moses move in faith back to the greatest place of failure, and whenever a person does this, they can be sure of one thing: opposition! The areas of our lives—our thoughts, actions, emotions, and wills—are being fought for as to whom they belong. God says they are His and wants to set you free so that you can worship Him. The devil says they belong to him, and he wants to enslave you to himself. You have a choice in this as well: Who do you say they belong to?
II.) Vs. 1-9 The Battle Begins
Vs. 1 Notice the word “Afterward.” Moses and Aaron came to request the release of the Israelites *afterward*. So? Well, look again at the progression. In chapter 4:31, they told the leadership what God had told them, and look at their response: “They heard, they believed, and they worshiped.” That’s just like us, isn’t it? I mean, we are coming to church, and all of a sudden, we hear the word of the Lord, we believe it, I mean it becomes real to us, and then we rejoice. Now most of us stop right there and think, “It’s over, man. I’ve got it. Everything is going to be smooth sailing in my life from here on out.” Those of you who have been Christians for a time realize that this feeling of pure hope is going to face reality very soon. So, what’s wrong, Pastor, with a little hope? Nothing at all, but you need to realize that mere enthusiasm without action is just hype.
Now, notice it is right on the heels of this that they boldly go before the most powerful leader in the world to ask for the freedom of the Israelites. You talk about riding a high wave of emotion. Can you imagine how strange this all must have been for Moses? I mean, 40 some odd years ago, he walked those same halls of the palace not as a leader of the slaves but instead as the heir apparent to the throne. Was there a swagger to his step as he approached Pharaoh?
Moses’ request was the one that God had instructed him to ask for in chapter 3:18: “Three days out, one day to worship, then three days back.” Sounds like a week’s vacation, doesn’t it? I mean, this is not an unreasonable request for 400 years of forced labor—just give me a week’s vacation and we’ll call it even!
So, does this story relate to you and me? Well, it’s like this: We come to know Jesus, and man, we are on a spiritual high; we are just bubbling over. Yet there are some areas in our lives that have enslaved us. So, we go and start to deal with them. “I’m just going to do this every so often now, man—not like I used to. I’m a Christian now.” Reasonable request, but then it happens: BAM! You fall right back into what you were doing before your new relationship with Jesus. Has this happened to you yet? Well, it has many times with me.
Moses makes this very simple request, “Let My people go!” Now Moses is going to say these same words seven times here in Exodus to Pharaoh, and they have become a battle cry to all people when they seek freedom. Yet in every case here in Exodus, they refer not to physical freedom but rather to spiritual freedom. Moses’ cry to set God’s people free has as its goal the liberation of God’s people spiritually. Oh, they were in bondage physically, but the request of Moses from the Lord was concerned with their right to worship whom they chose.
Vs. 2 So, why would Pharaoh not allow them to go worship whom they wanted? Well, perhaps he was afraid that they would not return, but I think there is a more plausible truth. Each Pharaoh was thought to be the child of Ra, the sun god. So, he was sat next to the idol in the temple and worshiped right along with Ra. Pharaoh was anything but a public servant—all the public lived to serve him. His power and authority were supreme. In fact, there is an inscription by the Pharaoh on a temple in Egypt that reads, “I am that which was, and is, and shall always be, and no man has lifted my veil.”
So, what’s your point? Simply this: The freedom of any man has to do with whom they worship, not where they worship. If they are free to worship the true and living God, then no matter where they are and what you do to them, they shall never be enslaved to anyone. Look throughout history, and you will find this to be true. In John 8:36, Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
It is my opinion that Pharaoh realized this truth. Thus, his response: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” To understand Pharaoh’s statement is to understand the plagues that God sends upon the Egyptians. Every one of these plagues goes against one of the gods of Egypt. So, you see through the plagues, God is showing Pharaoh that He is God, and Pharaoh is not. Pharaoh goes on to say that even if he knew the Lord, he would not let them go. It does not matter to Pharaoh who God is—it only matters to him who he is.
Vs. 3 Moses here even tries to persuade Pharaoh that it is in his best economic interest to let them go to worship the true God, lest He judge Pharaoh’s slave labor. But this does not convince him. Folks, you cannot compromise or reason with the god of this world or the things that enslave you—it does no good.
Pastor, I’m confused as to how all this relates to me. Well, let me put it plainly: Egypt is a symbol of the world system. Now this system is one that, before we were Christians, we all lived our lives in accordance with (Eph. 2:2-3). Then, like the Israelites, we hear the word, believe, and worship. We come to know Jesus personally, but we are still in the old world system. So, we now are Christians living in a world that is worshiping a different god. And we start trying to worship the true God, and what happens? Well, there is opposition from two things:
- Vs. 2 First, there is a god of this world, Pharaoh, who tells us through TV, friends, family, and other things that he does not know this God that we want to worship, and even if he did, he is not going to let us go.
- Vs. 4 Then, we have the pressure from the flesh, which was enslaved to the things of the world, to which the god of this world (Pharaoh) is only too happy to remind us and command us to get back to our old way of life.
Vs. 5-9 First, I want you to see that the god of this world has a great fear in seeing anyone set free to worship the true God. He will do everything in his power to see that you remain enslaved by the things of this world. This being true, then the opposite must also be true. What? Well, if the god of this world does not want you to go this way, then this means that what he is keeping you from will set you free!
Notice carefully how the god of this world (Pharaoh) handles the Israelites’ attempt to be free spiritually to worship the true God. Now this is important to you and me because he uses the same tactics today. So, you should be able to recognize these and know that they are from the god of this world:
- Vs. 5 He uses time, specifically idle time. His complaint to Moses is this: “Look, if they have enough time to worship the true God, then they have enough time to be enslaved to me, the god of this world.” So, that is what the god of this world does: “Look, church is on Sunday—that’s enough. You want to worship? I’ll let you worship the things of your flesh all you want, and you know how pleasurable they are, remember?”
- Vs. 6-7 Here we see, again in the realm of time, that the god of this world makes unrealistic demands on us. He will fill you with so much stuff to do that it becomes impossible to keep up. You ever feel that way? Then here comes a masterstroke: The bricks of life aren’t holding together; they are crumbling apart, yet the demand has not decreased. So, we start wondering if this Christian thing is working at all. We’re trying, but we just keep falling behind. Before, when we were not Christians, we were enslaved, but it was not as bad as it is now, we think. Yes, there were demands on us, but there was not the church thing, reading the Bible, and prayer. “Why, I don’t have time for those things. I’ll just let those slide and watch some TV instead; there’s that good R-rated movie I’ve been hearing about.”
- Vs. 8 Now that he has you starting to compromise and fail, he brings in guilt. “You’re just lazy—that’s why you can’t keep one foot in the world and one in the church and keep going.” “Why, everybody else can still play in the world and be a good Christian.” Right here, we begin to wonder if this church, God thing is all worth it. I mean, it’s just not fun—something has to go.
- Vs. 9 Here we see the final ploy of the god of this world, and it’s twofold:
- Give them more work, that they may labor under it. Simply put, crank up the heat. Gone now is any remembrance of that time when you heard the word, believed, and worshiped. The god of this world wants you to forget that time. Why? Because if you remember it, you will remember that what you heard, believed, and worshiped set you free from what now again enslaves you. Did you hear what I just said? It’s important that you realize that you are already free and that the god of this world has been slowly dragging you back into bondage to the things of the world.
- Lastly, once he gets you to forget the truth of being set free, he then tells you that all you heard in the past was “false words.” You see, the god of this world knows that the key to keeping you enslaved has to do with hearing the word of God. So, he has got you so busy, so guilted down with failure, that you start medicating yourself with the things that enslaved you in the beginning. Your belief poses a threat because if other enslaved people see it, they will want to be free too. So, the god of this world attacks you, gets you to compromise, to be consumed with the things of the world to the point where you no longer hear the word of God. He knows that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So, the god of this world has two options:
1.) Hinder the speaker. This can come in many ways, but the most effective today is to get the speaker to think that the Bible just is not applicable to the struggles of the listener. “Why, you cannot say the things of the Bible because it just does not fit their struggle.” Give them 20-minute messages full of pithy sayings and pop psychology. Be full of charisma and entertainment. The effect is that the listener never hears the word of God!
2.) Hinder the listener. And we have already discussed how this works—just through the use of time.
The strategy works brilliantly. Moses tells them that the Lord has come to set them free from the bondage of the world. They hear, believe, and worship God because of this truth, only to find out that the god of this world makes life more difficult, which makes the word of truth look like a lie. The hopeful truth of God’s word, when put next to the painful, constricting slavery of this life, makes it look as if the Bible was nothing but a collection of false words. So, the god of this world then further distracts us back into the things of the world, which further makes it seem as if the Bible is what is causing our struggle. What was once hope now seems like nonsense. Through affliction, the god of this world has been telling us, “Don’t listen to the word. Don’t read it, don’t believe it, don’t trust it. Just get rid of it. Don’t believe God—He does not exist. He does not love you, for He only takes away the fun things in life. You belong to me!”
III.) Vs. 10-14 Get Back to Work
Vs. 10-13 Here we read that Pharaoh’s taskmasters implement his plan. The result was that unrealistic demands were impossible to meet as they were now searching the land to find straw to make bricks. Now I can’t help but see the church today laboring under the god of this world, running away from the Bible to all sorts of worldly straw. Do you get the picture in our own Christian experience? We hear the word, believe it, and worship. Life is about hope, and it is all looking up. Then, soon afterward, life takes some turns, and the situations and circumstances get a lot worse. It does not make sense to us—we have just experienced, for the first time, the truth of God’s love for us and the fact that God has a plan for our lives, and everything we are facing screams at us the opposite. As far as we are concerned, the pain of life speaks louder than God’s word.
Vs. 14 The outcome of this is the leadership is beaten down. Do you see that? Attack the leaders, and the people will crumble. It almost seems as though they are mocking, does it not? “Why, can’t you keep it up, Pastor? Why is the church so ineffective in the world?” “Your Bible just does not fit the strains of life today; the folks were better off before they came to know the Lord.”
Now, I want to let you all in on the truth that the greatest challenges come right before the greatest victory. You see, we know the rest of the story, don’t we? We know that God is going to reveal who He is to the god of this world and that He is going to deliver His people just like He said. So, remember that in your own life. Folks, it is easy to have joy when things are easy, but true maturity is when we still have joy when we are in the midst of the battle. Many Christians make this same mistake—they have some stress, so they run away from the word of God right to the god of this world, and he gives them more bondage.
IV.) Vs. 15-21 Can’t Things Just Stay the Same?
Vs. 15 Now when we are faced with such contradictions with the word of God and our situations, what do we do? Well, we get angry. And what do we do with our anger? Well, we look for someone to blame.
So, that is what the Israelites do—they blame Pharaoh. Now, I want you to see a powerful truth here that can go overlooked. Who do they say they belong to? Remember I said at the outset that God was claiming that they were His children, and the god of this world claimed that they were his slaves.
1.) First, notice that there is a big difference between being someone’s child and being someone’s slave, but apparently not from the perspective of the Israelites. Why is that? Well, I think that, like us, we have spent more time as a slave to the god of this world than we have been a child of God.
2.) Since this is true, they are far more prone to believe the lie of the god of this world than they are to trust the trust God.
Folks, the way we see ourselves will have everything to do with how you will handle the contradiction between the truth of God’s word and the situation of the god of this world. Why? Well, if like these Israelites, you still see yourself as a slave to the god of this world, then you will react like them, as a victim. But if you see yourself as a child of God, then you will recognize that God created the Pharaoh. And since that is true, then He has a plan that we may not fully comprehend, but we know that we are the apple of His eye, therefore it will work in a way that glorifies our Father.
Vs. 16-18 Pharaoh’s response is that, “If you are my servants, then you serve me, and if you have time to talk about worshiping some other god, then you have too much time on your hands.” Do you get what Pharaoh is saying? He is saying, “If you are acting as if you are mine, then you are mine.”
Pastor, I don’t get it. Here is the bottom line: Whom do you belong to? In 1 Kings 18:21, we are told of Elijah’s words to the Israelites after he defeated the prophets of Baal. Elijah said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.” Whom do you belong to? Is it the Lord God? Then follow Him! Do you realize that the god of this world has no power over you other than the power you let him have? What if you say to him, “I’m worshiping the true and living God no matter what.” Well, then he would come against us! Yes, so what?
Go with me now to another story of three young Israelites who faced the same decision. In Dan. 3:16-18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Vs. 19-21 When they come out of their meeting, there are Moses and Aaron, and now they are mad at them and God. They are living under the tyranny of the immediate and have lost perspective on whose hand they belong to.
I know of no more miserable person in all the world than a Christian who is confused as to who’s they are. Struggling with life in the world, trying to live by the principles of the Bible. So, why does God allow us to go through this? Allow me to finish with this: God allows us to go through this so we finally get fed up with sin and allow Him to deliver us. Paul delivers this powerful truth to the church at Rome (6:2-7). Sin can be all too comfortable that even as Christians, we don’t want to leave its false security. So, God allows the devil to put us in bondage to the point that we will want out. So, the sword that you may think is going to destroy you may very well be the one that is used to deliver you! Thank God that we have become a stench to the god of this world.