Exodus 5-6:13 - Dealing with Adversity by Faith

I'm going to invite you to Exodus chapter five, as where we're going to be together today. Book of Exodus chapter five. And just by way of reminders, we're going to look at not only are we going to have a shorter service, but we're going to cover a longer section than we have in all of Exodus so far. So just buckle up. That's what I'm going to tell you.

But as we look at this section, it's good for us to remember where we've been together. If you've studied the book of Exodus, you've ever read the book of Exodus, you understand the story of Exodus is a redemption story, how God redeems his people out of slavery into freedom. In fact, the book of Exodus ends with the people of Israel in and before the presence of the Lord. And this becomes this motif, this grand story that's really being told about really a relationship with God. What it's like that God takes us from this place of slavery and bondage to this place of freedom and relationship with him. So the story of the book of Exodus, though, it's a story, it's a greater spiritual story that's being told of what God desires to do for all of us in a relationship towards him.

And as God desired to bring the children of Israel from slavery to freedom, he chose an individual to represent him as his spokesperson on the earth. He desired to work through Moses, and he calls Moses after he's been in the wilderness for 40 years to go back to Egypt, where he was from, and declare to Pharaoh, let my people go! But we've seen Moses's response to that as we've looked at it from Exodus chapter 2 to 4. In that section of Exodus, Moses was reluctant, meaning Moses gave some excuses to the Lord. The first, Moses said, was that he was not prepared. He didn't feel like he was adequate for the call. The second thing that Moses said is he didn't feel like he was knowledgeable. He was capable of doing that in an understanding sense. He didn't really have that depth of that relationship with the Lord. And finally, he just got frank with God and said, I'm afraid.

But then we saw that God not only talked to Moses, declared who he was to Moses, but he also gave Moses a few signs for the children of Israel. He says, when you go back to Egypt, share this with the children of Israel, and they'll believe. And so Moses was given the sign of turning a rod into a snake. The other sign was one of a hand that was turned from leprosy, and then it was healed in the presence of the people. It was healed by the Lord. And so there's a few miraculous signs that God gave to Moses.

And when Moses did this, it tells us in Exodus chapter four, verse 31, the response of the children of Israel. It says, and the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads, and worshiped. And the people were embracing this message of deliverance that Moses was offering them. They were surrendering to it. They thought it was incredible how here they were crying out to the Lord in their suffering and in their struggle, and God not only heard them, but God cared about their plight and God was going to deliver them. And so the way Exodus four ends is with the excitement of the people.

But there's always a but. Just a few verses previous to this, in Exodus chapter four, verse 21, God also told Moses how Pharaoh would respond, and God told Moses that Pharaoh would respond with the hardness of his heart, meaning he wouldn't receive the message. And in hearing that, what Moses should have extrapolated, or at least began to understand, is even though God was going to lead them to freedom, it wasn't going to be without adversity.

And you can imagine Moses as he approaches Pharaoh. If you're familiar with this story, no doubt Pharaoh challenges him multiple times. You know what it is to have that passion for the Lord, that excitement in God, and wanting to see that same excitement experienced in the hearts of people around you when you come to that relationship with the Lord, when you find him, when you understand what it means to know Jesus and to walk with him. You want nothing more than for other people to discover this too. And yet, when you encounter people and you begin to share that zeal, that compassion, that love, that grace that God's given you, all of a sudden sometimes you find other people aren't ready to receive it either. And maybe not just receive it, but they become so reluctant that they might even become antagonists towards you in your relationship with the Lord. And then we're left to wonder, like, God, what's happening? Right.

And you could imagine Moses in the story. He comes to the children of Israel and all of a sudden they meet some opposition with Pharaoh. And the people start to get frustrated with Moses, that it's really put a target on their back in light of who Pharaoh is, and now the pressure he's going to put on their people. And Moses in this moment would in himself even start to get reluctant. If you remember Moses's questions in the beginning, he said to God about the children of Israel, he said, when I go back and I declare who you are, what am I supposed to tell them, Lord? Like, how are they going to be convinced just off my word? What is it that's going to happen? Because, God, what I'm afraid of is I'm going to take this stand and you've just abandoned me in my greatest hour of need, because I'm going against a superpower. I'm going against the leader of leaders during my time, Pharaoh. And God, I want to know that you're going to sustain me.

And it's the same for us in the brokenness of a world. There's a story by a famous heavyweight boxer known as James Tillis. He was an amateur boxer, very successful in the late 70s, early 80s. He turned to a professional boxer and he was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was known as the Fighting Cowboy. And he realized if he wanted to advance his career, he needed to go to a city that had a more prominent boxing scene available to him. So he went from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Chicago, Illinois. And when he got to Chicago, he said his ride dropped him off in front of the Sears Tower. And he stepped out of the vehicle and he set down his suitcases and he looked at the Sears Tower and all of Chicago around him, and he declared to the world that he was going to conquer it. And then he went back down to pick up a suitcase only to discover they were all gone.

And sometimes a relationship with the Lord can have that sense of feeling or experience where, you know, when you initially come to know him, there's this zeal, but then the reality of the world hits in and you start to question, you start to wonder. You know, just because you follow Christ in this world doesn't mean life is promised to get easier. In fact, sometimes obedience brings to us a greater challenge. And this is what we're going to talk about in Exodus five into six. We'll stop in verse 13 of chapter six. But how do we deal with adversity by faith?

And we're going to look at Moses's life for us to begin to understand what it means for us to move forward. And just like Moses should have expected with the hardness of Pharaoh's heart that there's going to be some challenges involved, same for us. In the brokenness of the world, there's going to be some challenges involved. So how do we move through?

Well, point number one in your notes is this: expect resistance. Expect resistance. And in parentheses off to the side, you could put Pharaoh's. We all have Pharaoh's that we encounter in our life. And what I mean by this is this is seen more on the external. Now, what happens on the external can often impact us internally. But usually before we feel the discouragement inside, we start to see the challenges on the outside. And what you do with that is important. But when you choose to follow the Lord in life, know that doesn't necessarily make life easier. So we should expect resistance.

And this is what you find in the life of Moses as he encounters Pharaoh. In fact, starting off in Exodus five, it says this. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went up and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord.

You know, this phrase in Exodus chapter five really becomes the antithesis to what Exodus is all about, right? There's this battle taking place, and you see the freedom that God wants to bring his people, those that know him. And so the whole story of Exodus is entering into that relationship with the Lord, experiencing intimacy in your walk with him. And then there's Pharaoh who doesn't know him. And so here you're seeing the challenge of one person that doesn't know God, and then the calling of the Lord that others would walk with him in that journey. And out of that challenge, we see the course, the pattern of people's lives.

So here's Pharaoh saying, I don't know what you're talking about. I know lots of gods in Egypt, but I don't know this one, and I certainly don't know him personally. And moreover, I will not let Israel go. Then they said, the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. The children of Israel saying, this is like life and death for us, that we could have this relationship with the Lord. And all they ask is simply, just let us go for three days so we can worship our God and connect with him.

And then it goes on in verse four, but the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens. The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

So the call on the Hebrew slaves was to be brickmakers for the Egyptians, right? But now the task is becoming more complicated than that. They're not supplying the straw that is necessary to fortify these bricks. And so because of this, we're really learning the kind of punishment that was used in Egypt. When a slave got out of line, there were typically two responses that a leader would have upon slaves. One is they would take their life, and the other they would overburden them in what they were going through, to the point that they would drive them to an early grave. And this is what Pharaoh is doing. He's putting the pressure on the children of Israel.

Now, I want you to know that the way Pharaoh is choosing to live his life very much becomes also a picture of what it means to understand the value of humanity apart from the Lord, and that Pharaoh is identifying the children of Israel simply as slaves. Right here he's saying, get back to your burdens in verse four. Get back to your burdens. This is all you guys are good for. You're just slaves to me. I want to use you and abuse you for what I want to gain. Because all you are are servants to my needs. And if we're not careful, and if we're being honest, there's a bit of Pharaoh in all of us. And that sometimes we fail to see the intrinsic worth given to every human being made in the image of God and will use relationships in this world like a commodity, meaning your worth is only as good as what you can produce for me.

And here's where we're seeing Pharaoh in this section of Scripture, acting out this kind of life and not knowing who this God is, using people for his own purposes to their detriment. But then you see opposite of that, how the Lord views the children of Israel. And he sent Moses to declare, let my people go. Their worth is not based on what they produce. Their worth is based on who they are and who they belong to. And there is no greater value that can be placed on us than being made in the image of God, being redeemed through the cross of Christ. God has given everything that we might know him. And so Pharaoh becomes this picture for us of understanding really what a life apart from the Lord can look like in the way that people are often taken advantage of.

And then it goes on and says this. Verse eight, but the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them. You shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, let us go and offer sacrifices to our God. Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor at it, and pay no regard to lying words.

You know, it's interesting when we say things like, we should expect resistance and that resistance comes on the outside. Right? When we follow after the Lord, we expect challenges in what we face because we live in a broken world and not everyone's going to agree with us. But here's one thought I think is critical in this section to keep in mind, not only for Moses, but also in the recognition of the challenges that you face in life. If we're not careful, we will make our objective to try to change the heart of the Pharaoh's in our life, right? We might not like the way that things are going, so we'll see it's our purpose to try to manipulate someone else's heart to perform in a different way because, well, it would make my life easier.

And this is what needs to happen. And I want you to know in this particular story, Moses has already attempted that, and he knows that doesn't produce the results he's looking for. If you remember, in the life of Moses, 40 years prior to this, there was a moment where Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, and Moses stands up for the Hebrew slave and defends him, and even kills the Egyptian soldier to do that. And Moses in his mind is thinking, oh, this is finally the moment. I'm raised in Pharaoh's household. I'm a person of authority. Of course, the Hebrew people are going to love me. I'm a part of them. But I've grown up in Pharaoh's household to the extent that they're going to see how God has used this to leverage for them, and they're just going to praise me, right? And so Moses steps in his own strength, and he tries to force the circumstance of someone else's heart to bow to his will.

But Moses spent the last 40 years being humbled in the Midian desert. And Moses has learned in those moments that the goal of the Christian life is not about manipulating hearts. And the goal of the Christian life is not about trying to force people to do certain things that we feel like they should. The goal of the Christian life is to glorify God with our life and point other people to him. Now, what people choose to do with that is up to them. But Moses, as he approaches Pharaoh, he lives his life that way. He's not coming to Pharaoh saying, Pharaoh, I need to change your heart. He's coming to Pharaoh and saying to Pharaoh, this is who God is. And we're going to glorify him. And in so doing, he gives the children of Israel, not just Pharaoh, but really everyone around, the opportunity to see the greatness of God as he desires to move among his people.

When we follow after the Lord, we should expect resistance. And number two, in that resistance, we should do this: take your discouragement to God. Take your discouragement to God.

In fact, you start to see this discouragement continue to build. If you read in Exodus five verse 15, then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants. Yet they say to us, make bricks, and behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people. But he said, you are idle, you are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.

So here it is. The pressure continues to be put on Israel. So it started in the external, right? Expect the resistance, and now it starts to become internal. And I want you to know that more than anything there is an enemy against Christianity. It's not people. People are not our enemy. God calls us to reach people, not war against people. Right? But there is a greater work, a spiritual force behind all things. And that enemy has several tactics in his tool belt to try to thwart what God desires to do in your life.

And if I just gave you a couple of things in terms of the way the enemy likes to work in us, there's a few things he likes to do. One is he likes to distract you. And really, that's a picture of what Pharaoh represents. Get your eyes off the greatness of your God and put your eyes on me. See me as that authority. And there's a few ways we can get distracted. We can get distracted by the challenges of our life. We can look so much at our problems that we fail to see the greatness of our God. So the challenges of our life can distract us.

And not only the challenges of our life, but also the pleasures of life. You know, it's when things are easy in our lives that we tend not to think about the greatness of who God is. It's often not until we face challenges that we start to say to ourselves, where's God in this? And so sometimes in the pleasures of what life is that we get distracted from who the Lord is and what that means for you and for me.

So the enemy likes to use distraction, and if he can't use distraction, he'll certainly use discouragement. And this is what's happening to the children of Israel. They're being discouraged through the pressure that's around them. And can I just tell you that when we use the discouragement or circumstances of our life to then project on who our God is, it will warp our view of our God. We need to start on a greater basis than that, that we can say we live in a broken world and sin impacts life around us, right? But just because we might walk contrary to who God is doesn't take away from the greatness of our God. So in these particular moments, distraction and discouragement are things that the enemy wants to use to try to tempt Israel away from the Lord.

But Moses teaches us something important here, and that is what it means to take our discouragement to God. Now, I want you to know in the ESV translation, which is what we use here, if you grab one of these books and in studying this passage with us, I will tell you that we're going to look at a particular verse where I'm not fond of the way the ESV translators chose to translate one word from Hebrew into English. It's not that they necessarily did it wrong, but they did it wrong. They could have picked something better. They did actually translate it correctly in terms of what the word could mean. But I think because of it, it leans into us misunderstanding this passage. And this is a very critical point in this chapter that I want all of us to understand.

Because when we face adversity, sometimes if we're being honest, we might say to ourselves, really the only reason I came to Jesus is because I wanted to make my life easier. I didn't like where things were going, and so I came to pursue God just to find my life easier. And truthfully, that's not why God tells us to follow him. You know, certainly in following after the Lord, it might make some things easier, but it also might bring challenges in other ways. We don't follow Jesus because it makes life easier. We follow Jesus because he's true, that he is the greatest hope. As Peter said in John six, where else shall we go? You have the words of life.

When Moses sees these challenges in verse 22, Moses takes this to the Lord. It says, then Moses turned to the Lord and said, O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to the people. And you have not delivered your people at all.

Now, if we're not careful in the way that we read this, especially in ESV, we would see what Moses is saying as character assassination against God, because he's making an accusation against God that what God is doing is evil. And if Moses is actually doing that, Moses has got more problems than just calling God evil. But I want you to know when you take time to understand the Hebrew word here for evil, it really brings to life what this passage is actually saying.

Now, the Hebrew word ras is a word that should be translated as evil, or most often should be translated as evil. And that is the Hebrew word that's used in terms of Pharaoh in verse 23. What Pharaoh has done is evil to the people. Pharaoh desires to break us and to kill us. He's forcing us into a labor we can't even fulfill. It's going to lead to the end of our days. What Pharaoh is doing is evil. The Hebrew word that is being used for God in terms of evil is not just ras, but it's ras with the root to this being raw, which means evil. But adding that extra expression to this Hebrew phrase, what it actually means is stress, difficulty, adversity. And here's what Moses is saying. God, you've called us on this path, but in this path, it's created this extra adversity. And ultimately Pharaoh is using it for evil. What Moses is asking God is, God, help me understand. God, why would you put me on a path that's producing extra challenges for my life? God, I need to know.

And here's why Moses would ask this question. I think Moses is asking this question because this is a similar thought that is echoed throughout all of Scripture from the beginning of Genesis, all the way to the end of the Bible. When God's people would face adversity, sometimes they would despair in that adversity, but other times they would begin to realize, wait a minute, God is bigger than my adversity. And the redemption story of the Lord has always been about God taking the struggles of life and using them for his glory. And to be honest, it's in the darkness of life that the greatness of God's light radiates even more. So God, help me understand, in the challenge that I'm facing, how you're going to possibly use this for your glory.

When you see that theme throughout Scripture, you realize that this has been the echo of God's people from the beginning. In fact, for the Apostle Paul in first Corinthians, he said it like this in verse 16, I hope to spend some time with you. So he's writing to the Corinthians saying, I want to come hang out with you guys, but in verse eight, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. So he wants to stay until this particular holiday, and here's why. Verse nine, for a wide door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. So Paul is saying there are people coming to know Jesus and there are challenges.

It's like when you think the Christian life is all about being easy, you would look at what Paul is saying and think to yourself, this guy's nuts. Like there's an open door for God's glory, but there's challenges. So obviously you should just move on, Paul. And Paul's saying, no, this is the catalyst for the greatness of God being made known in my life. It isn't about finding things that are easy. My life is about asking God in every season of life, including the challenges that I face, God, how can you use this for your glory? Because I know it's in opposition that your glory radiates the brightest.

And maybe you could think about yourself this morning and say, where am I in danger of giving up? Where do I really need to stop and just ask God? God, in the midst of this challenge, how can the brightness of your light be made known?

And Paul even says in Philippians, from prison, what has happened to me has advanced the gospel. My imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are proclaiming the gospel boldly. Paul is saying, Christians are seeing me thrown in prison. They're seeing how God is sustaining me. And rather than discourage them, this is actually empowering them for the glory of God.

Paul's letters, every one of his letters, he's written 13 in the New Testament, every one of his letters start this way: grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace, grace and peace. And most often when Paul's writing these letters, he's writing to a church that's facing persecution and adversity. From a worldly perspective, we look at that and think, Paul, are you nuts? Why are you starting off with grace and peace when we're in absolute turmoil? And he's teaching us something about what sustains us in the midst of struggle in this life, the relationship with God, grace and peace. And he always says in that order, grace and peace. And the reason for that is this: you never truly get the peace of God in your life until you first discover the grace of God over you. Right, until you find the identity that you were called to have in Christ through the cross. Jesus gave his life for you, completely forgiven, past, present, future, secure in Christ. And because of that grace just poured out, lavished on you, you have peace in your relationship with the Lord, something that sustains you in every circumstance of life.

In fact, even Jesus said it like this: I have said these things to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome. And the night Jesus was about to die, he looks at his disciples and says, I'm going to die. But here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to despair, because what looks dark right now is going to become the anthem of victory. It's through the cross of Christ that we're going to have hope. And so he's saying to the people, look, I'm saying these things to you so no one takes you off guard, but that you can have the peace, the peace that I came for, the victory in your life because of my life victorious from the grave. And he's honest with us. He says, look, in this world you're going to have trouble, but don't get distracted by this trouble externally and don't internalize it to the point it discourages you to despair, but rather come to the Lord and discover, God, how do you take the difficulty of life and let it radiate for your glory? I have overcome the world.

So that we can get to point number three. Let me give you this last one. Here's what Moses learns. Trust God's character and promises above your circumstances. God teaches Moses this. I gotta share this quickly at the end here, but trust God's promises above your circumstances.

And you see in verse nine of chapter six, the children of Israel are despairing. It says in the end they could not hear Moses. They wouldn't listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. Sometimes the adversity in life just crushes our spirits, so much so that we're looking for anything to help us move forward. But when we have hope as people, we become incredibly resilient. We can face the most adverse situations as long as we have hope.

And God says it like this. The way that you learn to have hope is through the character of God and the promises of God. And so God takes Moses to that place. God in this section gives Moses these promises. He says, I will. But he says those promises are based on his character. And we would say the same for you and for me in our life. The only reason we're able to trust in anyone is because of the character of who they are. Their promises are only as good as their character.

So God, as he gives these promises, he says, I am the Lord. In the middle, again in verse seven, he says, I am the Lord. And at the very end of these promises he says, I am the Lord. In case you forget who he is. And because of his character, because of who he is, he then gives you the seven promises. He says, I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from slavery. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people. I will be your God. And verse eight, I will bring you out of the land, and as I swore, I will give it to you for a possession.

Right in the middle of all of this, you see this phrase redeemed, right? This phrase redeemed literally means kinsman redeemer. It's to say it's someone who really buys you off a slave market or covers a debt you couldn't afford, to their own detriment, their own expense, their own cost. They take on that risk, that cost, so that you could find freedom. And God says that you would be my own. I am paying the expense, that you would be my people. And God wants us to consider the promises, his character, so that when life tries to rock us, we come back to this place that orients us to who he is.

Which leads me to this to conclude. By the way, we're going to conclude with communion. So if anyone would like a communion cup, if you didn't grab one, I'll have the ushers go ahead and walk the aisle now to hand this out to you. So just raise your hand as they walk the aisle.

But let me give you this. There is a man by the name of John Sergeant, who was an oil painter in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He was born around 1850, died around 1925. Famous oil painter. One day he painted a rose that he considered so perfect that out of all his works, he refused to sell that rose. And the reason he did is because he knew there were going to be days as a painter where he would doubt himself, he would question himself, and he wanted to use that rose as a reminder of what was possible. That rose became an anchor to him on a discouraging day, and through looking at that rose, it would reorient him to the possibilities of what could be. When he would despair without hope, that rose was his image.

Guys, can I tell you, we all need a rose. We all need that thing that we come back to, that no matter what we face, it reorients us to the circumstance we find ourselves. For Christians, that is the life of Christ, his body that was broken, his blood that was shed. That's why we partake of communion. By the way, we call it communion because it reminds us of the relationship with God, that we commune with him, that Jesus is taking care of our past sins. Jesus has given a hope and a future in him, and because of that, we can enjoy a relationship with him.

Now, if you here this morning don't know Jesus, let me just encourage you. When Jesus hung on the cross, he said, it is finished, paid in full. He redeemed you, meaning he covered every expense for your life, that you can find freedom in him. So the way we come to the Lord is not trying to perform ourselves to his love, but receive his gracious love that he already poured out for us on the cross. And we acknowledge, Lord God, I'm a sinner, but thank you for dying for me. Your body that was broken, your blood that was shed, give me new life in you. The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Jesus recorded for us in the scriptures, in the night which he was betrayed, he broke bread and gave thanks. And he said to us, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And then he gave us the promise. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he returns.

And in all the challenges you face in life, church, my hope and prayer is rather than simply run away from them or despair in them, you could see them as an opportunity for God's glory to be made known.