The Round Church
at St Andrew the Great
Cambridge
A Sermon Preached
on Sunday 22nd April 2001
by Mark Ashton
The trouble with English history is that 1066 is a very long time ago.
We really have no memory of being a conquered or a captive people. We take
political liberty for granted. Our political freedoms developed so slowly over
so many centuries that we don’t have the public holidays even to commemorate
significant steps along the way. We don’t have an ‘Independence Day’ in the UK
or a ‘Bastille Day’. We have to be content with ‘May Bank Holiday’. It would
sound far more romantic as ‘Magna Carta Day’ or something like that, wouldn’t
it? Similarly, we have a lack of freedom-fighting folk-heroes in our national
consciousness. Which of us here tonight, I wonder, knows much about Hereward
the Wake? – even though he led a rising against the Normans based on Ely, just
a few miles north of us. The trouble is it was the best part of 1,000 years
ago. And we’re so ambivalent about Oliver Cromwell that, even though his head
is kept by one of the colleges in our parish, it is never put on public
display.
But, for many nations, the
story of the Exodus is deeply evocative. It is a tale of liberation, of
a nation achieving independence, political freedom and autonomy. They may not
stir us in the same way, but in South America or Africa God’s words to the
Pharaoh “Let my people go,” are resonant with political and nationalistic
overtones. So the Book of Exodus has played a major part in the development in
what is known as ‘Liberation Theology’; although we may want to question
whether the Liberation Theologians have read a little too much of their own
political experience and aspirations back into the Bible text. While we here in
the UK may be further from the Israelites’ situation than we think we are, they
may think they are closer to it than they actually are.
Whenever we arrive at a new
part of the Bible, we need to pause for a moment and to take our bearings. I
was very struck once on hearing that the SAS, when they’re dropped behind enemy
lines at night, if they don’t come under enemy fire immediately, are taught to
sit still and take stock of where they are and let their night sight develop
before they move off to their objective. You and I need to get into that habit
when we arrive at a new part of the Bible. We need to stop and ask, Where are we at the moment? Where does this
come in the whole Bible story? What does it contribute to the whole Bible
revelation?
1) The Big Picture
(a) The Whole Book of Exodus.
As the second book of the
Bible it follows straight on from Genesis, which began with the Creation of the
World, the Fall of Man, the Flood – and then the story of what are known as the
patriarchs: Abraham; his son Isaac; and his son Jacob (known also as Israel),
whose twelve sons all ended their lives in Egypt where Joseph had invited them
to follow him. (If you don’t know Genesis, you may at least know Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor
Dream-Coat – which covers the story of the second part of the Book of
Genesis.)
There, over 400 years, the
children of Israel greatly increased in number and greatly declined in status,
so that they became an enslaved people working as serf-labourers, both hated
and feared by the native Egyptians. So the first climax of this Book of
Exodus is going to be the Israelites’ escape from Egypt – what is known as The Exodus: the great escape by means
of the Ten Plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea; and God’s
guidance and provision for them in the wilderness. That occupies the first 18
chapters of the book.
But then there is going to
be a second climax to the book of Exodus, at Mount Sinai. That was the place where God had first met Moses and
commissioned him to go back to Egypt and bring the people out, in order that
they should meet with their God at Mt. Sinai. When he gets back to Mt. Sinai
with the people, Moses is given the Ten Commandments (Exodus chapter 20), and
what is know as the Book of the Covenant (chapters 21-23) – a series of laws to
govern their life and behaviour. The story is told in such a way that it is
clear that Sinai was where the Exodus was always heading – mere departure from
Egypt was not enough.
But the final 16 chapters of
the book (25-40), focus on something called The Tabernacle, a symbol of the presence of God at the very centre
of His people’s daily life – and the book’s third climax. There are
elaborate instructions about the construction of the tabernacle, which was a
sort of Assemble-It-Yourself, portable Temple which they carried around with
them. And then those instructions are carried out; and the book ends with God’s
glory filling the tabernacle. In fact let’s do what is a very bad practice when
you’re reading a cheap whodunit – let’s go to the end of the book, chapter 40,
verses 34-35. Before we dive in at the beginning, let’s just go to the end
(actually it’s not a bad thing to do in Biblical books, even if it spoils
detective stories): ‘Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord
filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the
cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.’
This is the climax towards which the book has been working.
There follows a pointer
further forward still, reminding us that this is not where the story ends
either: ‘In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from
above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift they
did not set out–until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the
tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the
house of Israel during all their travels’ (Exodus 40:36-38). The
Israelites are on their travels, heading for the land of God’s promise.
So let’s summarise these
three climaxes or peaks in the Book of Exodus:
A. The Exodus –
divine redemption (1-18)
B. Mount Sinai – divine morality (19-24)
C. The Tabernacle –
divine worship (25-40)
These climaxes concern three
areas of God’s dealing with His people. (A) The Exodus was Divine Redemption,
God’s rescue of His people so that they were seen to belong not to the
Egyptians, but to Him: they were His treasured possession. (B) The revelation
of His law at Sinai displayed Divine Morality, how His people should behave.
And (C) The Tabernacle represented Divine Worship, how God would dwell right in
their midst (there’s an important lesson for us about worship wrapped up in
that) and how they should relate to such a God.
All the time the question is
being answered for the people of Israel: “What sort of God is this God? What is
He like?” Through His saving acts, through the revelation and explanation of
His name, through the law to govern His people’s lives and through the
regulations to govern His people’s worship, His character is little by little
being displayed and being made more and more evident to them. Above all He is
being seen to be a God who keeps His promise – the promise He had made to
Abraham centuries before – a three part promise: to make Abraham into a people;
to be the God of that people; and to give them a land. He is a promise-making
and a promise-keeping God.
But actually there is a
bigger picture still that we need to consider:
(b) The Even Bigger
Picture
Because at Creation, God had made man in His image and as His
representative on earth. I’ve tried to illustrate that with this diagram before
now. That’s humanity in relation to God and to the world. And humanity is God’s
image, His representative on earth – not just to look like Him, but to actually
rule and control the world for Him.
And then at the Fall, man’s
rebellion against that relationship with God, when he moved out of the position
God had given him, causes all the relationships to collapse.
The Exodus teaches us about
God’s redemption, His free unconditional election of man to return into a right
relationship with God: That’s what the Exodus is teaching us about: how God
freely rescues us and brings us back into that relationship.
Mount Sinai and the
tabernacle teach us about God’s Commission: the opportunity for humanity to
function again as God’s servant, His image and representative on earth. Do you
see the addition there? A little arrow has come back in as well. The Exodus is
about bringing us back into relationship with God; what then follows at Mt.
Sinai and with the teaching about the tabernacle shows us how we are to
act and behave in relationship with God.
The Exodus redemption was an
unconditional act of sovereign grace. But what happened at Sinai required
co-operation. In other words, that Israel was the people of God was a matter of
unqualified divine initiative – just given to them by God. But that Israel was
to function in a special way as the people of God would rest on Israel’s free
choice. God restores us. We act as restored people.
It is very important that at
the heart of Christian theology lies grace – not what we do to get back
to God. Some of us, even today, will have come here feeling that God will be
pleased if we come to church, and it will help our relationship with Him. It’s
a nonsense. The whole of the Christian faith is telling us that is not true,
and I’m sorry if that comes as a disappointment to you. It will not help your
relationship with God at all. Grace is at the heart of Christian theology:
the free gift of God to bring you and I back and restore that relationship. But
gratitude is at the heart of Christian ethics – how you and I live as
Christians (if we are Christians) is entirely governed by thankfulness to God
for what He has done in restoring the relationship.
This theology in the book of
Exodus explains why it is so central to the whole Old Testament. All that
follows will build on these central events of the Exodus: the Exodus itself;
Mount Sinai; and the Tabernacle. Indeed, the book of Exodus has a good claim to
be the very heart of the Old Testament. I’d never thought of that, before
studying it for this sermon. As we study it we’re getting at the very
foundations of Biblical Theology.
Well, Mark, you say, it’s
high time we started studying it and you stop talking to us about it. So that
is what we will now do.
(2) Setting the Scene Exodus 1
In Hebrew the book actually
begins with the word ‘And’, to indicate that it is a direct continuation from
what has just gone before, the end of the book of Genesis.
Notice from verse 7 that one
part of God’s promise to Abraham is now being fulfilled: ‘Now Joseph and all his
brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and
multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled
with them’ (Exodus 1:6,7). Abraham’s descendants are becoming a
nation. That note keeps sounding in the chapter: ‘But the more they were
oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread
the Israelites’ (v. 12) – they came to dread the sight of them; ‘So
God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more
numerous’ (v. 20). Like a Russian vine the fecundity of the nation
brooks no curtailment; but it’s not good news because this one bit of the
covenant which was being fulfilled was the cause of all their trouble. The more
they breed, the more aggressive the Egyptian response. Notice it moved through
three escalating stages:
i) Economic exploitation: ‘Then a new king, who did not
know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites
have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or
they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our
enemies, fight against us and leave the country” ’ (vv. 8-10). Possibly
what is being talked about here is not a single event, but a steadily growing
attitude in the Pharaohs. It may have happened over generations, even
centuries. ‘So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced
labour. They built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more
they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came
to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives
bitter with hard labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the
fields; in all their hard labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly’
(vv. 11-14).
Then it goes up a stage:
ii) Secret, selective genocide. The king instructs the
two midwives to kill the male children as they are born. But note verse 17: ‘The
midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told
them to do; they let the boys live’ (v. 17). It was fear of God,
notice, that drove out fear of Pharaoh. It wasn’t compassion for the baby boys
that caused them to act as they did. Reverence for human life (in issues like
abortion and euthanasia) springs out of the worship of God, not out of human
sentiment. Human feeling is a poor guide on moral issues (as an illustration of
that, consider the extraordinarily irresponsible behaviour of some Animal
Rights activists, whose stance has no philosophical undergirding beyond human
emotion). And the midwives brave reverence for human life wins God’s approval,
notice, despite their somewhat cavalier attitude to strict truthfulness in
their reply to Pharaoh (which can be read in verses 19-21).
But the pogrom only
continued. Notice that the midwives’ resistance actually made things worse.
They were still right to do it, but it led Pharaoh to:
iii) open genocide: ‘Then Pharaoh gave this order to
all his people: “Every [Hebrew] boy that is born you must throw into the
Nile, but let every girl live” ’ (v. 22). It’s a grim end to the
chapter. The people’s present condition was described back in verse 14; and the
language of verse 14 is very intense: ‘They made their lives bitter with hard
labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all
their hard labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.’ That’s their
present condition – and their future hope was being exterminated in verse 22.
But will it all change in
chapter 2?
3) Enter the Hero? Exodus 2:1-10
A boy is born, and
resourceful and believing parents act in faith. We know that from the book of
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 23: ‘By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months
after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not
afraid of the king’s edict.’ Actually, it wasn’t even much of an act of
civil disobedience when you think about it: after all, Pharaoh had only said
that the Hebrew boys were to be thrown into the Nile – he had not said that
they could not be inside waterproof baskets when they were thrown in!
Now, river banks near human
habitation would be well-frequented spots. And a superior quality basket would
be certain to be salvaged for its own sake. Placing it among the reeds would
have been a safeguard against the current, against the sunshine, and against
crocodiles. Pharaoh’s daughter had sufficient independence of spirit to
disregard her father’s edict concerning Hebrew male babies. And the strategic
positioning of Moses’ sister allowed her to time her suggestion perfectly for
Moses’ mother to end up being paid to nurse her own child – and achieve a
situation many a mother would envy.
And so we get to verse 10: ‘When
the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” It’s a high
note again. Moses is being reared as both a Jew and an Egyptian, within the
very palace of the ruler he is destined to contend with. Here is our
freedom-fighting hero surely – let the liberation movement begin, long live the
revolution! But, without stealing next week’s thunder, this is no Robin Hood or
William Tell, no Che Guevara, not even a Nelson Mandela. No, this is going to
be a very different sort of a story.
You see the people of Israel
do not win their freedom at all. They are saved, they are rescued by another:
someone who has scarcely been mentioned in the story so far. The real hero has
not yet stepped properly on to the stage. It will not be Moses, as we shall
see. And as the story unfolds it is going to look less and less like a tale of
national liberation.
So what can we carry away
from our first little dip into the book of Exodus?
Three brief comments:
1) Deliverance will be
costly. Already people are dying. Innocent blood is being shed. The Nile
crocodiles are growing fat. And many more will die before the people go free.
Deliverance will be costly. The gospel is a murder story. The liberation
of man was never cheap. I wonder if you are aware, as I am, looking back
(becoming a Christian as an adult) what it cost us to be converted. I knew it
was not cheap; I fought against it for weeks, knowing the cost to me
personally. But I had not begun to grasp at that moment the cost to God of
bringing Mark Ashton back into a relationship with Himself. Deliverance will
be costly. It may be that some of us have never pondered that thought as we
should.
2) Notice the feebleness of
God’s means. God could command armies. He could have brought down the might of
Egypt by a single natural phenomenon (the plagues are going to make that very
clear to us). The striking thing about those plagues is that God does not
actually use them in that way. Pharaoh is going to be free to resist God to the
very end. Moses will be marked out by his meekness and his sense of inadequacy,
not by the power of his abilities and his education. God uses what is weak to
overthrow the strong. And we should never despair at how feeble the Christian
message seems. Again, in my own life, looking back to those months – how feeble
Christianity seemed – so weak in arguments. Christians seemed so pathetic to
me. And yet behind it was a power that I could not withstand, that brought me
back into relationship with God in due course. You, too, may be able to
remember a similar experience in your own lives.
3) Note the fury of the
opposition to God. The least hint of God’s purpose on earth arouses the
fiercest antagonism and contradiction in humanity. Never be surprised at how
powerfully your own heart rebels against the will of God – converted and
unconverted alike. It is not out there, this opposition to God, in bad people.
It is in here, in my determination not to have this King rule over me. And,
let’s face it, that continues in our hearts after we have put Him back on the
throne. Do you think that isn’t true? Isn’t every one of us here now aware in
our hearts of something we ought to do, something right, something our
conscience is pointing us to at this moment – but which we will not
do? If that isn’t true of you, I invite you to tell me so as you leave
at the end of the service. Just tell me, “Mark, there is not a single thing on
my conscience that I ought to do tonight. I’ve done the lot.” I’d love to meet
you. You would be an enormous encouragement to me, I’m sure. I’d hate to list
all the things I know I ought to do, and my will is saying No! No, God. The will of God is never something that you and I
naturally want and long for – O, Yes!
Lovely, God please tell me that – I’ll do it straight away. No, no no. When
the will of God is expressed to us, the will of man is in rebellion against it;
and the will of woman; and the will of child. We are against it straight away.
The fury of the opposition to God – it’s not in the Pharaohs, it’s in the
Marks, and the Marys and the Sues and the Johns. And God alone has the solution
to it. It lies not in power: it lies in the weakness of the gospel message – a
Saviour who died in order that He might be your King and my King today.
There are three little
lessons to take with us. This is only a start; a tiny little dip into the book
of Exodus. I hope above all I have whetted your appetite for it and you will
come back to go with us through this book in coming Sundays.