Exodus 3:18-22 And they shall listen to your voice: and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him… Exodus 3:18-22. I. THE REMOVAL OF MOSES' FEAR. His mission will be successful. 1. He will win the people's trust for God. They will not refuse to hear. 2. Their elders will accompany him into Pharaoh's presence: his request will become the people's. 3. The Lord will lead them out laden with the spoils of Egypt. Going on God's errand there is no possibility of failure. The fears which rise as we measure the greatness of the task and our own strength vanish when we look up into the face of God. II. OPPOSITION WILL BE MET WITH, BUT IT WILL ONLY HEIGHTEN GOD'S TRIUMPH. "I am sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go... and I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders." 1. We are not to expect that we shall sail over an unruffled sea, and that labour for Christ will be a continuously triumphal progress. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." 2. It is the occasion of the revealing of God's mighty power. Trial is God's school for deepening and purifying trust in himself. The triumph of Christianity in the first ages a consecration of the Church and a proof to the world of the Divine origin of our faith. III. THE PLAN GOD FOLLOWS IN EFFECTING HIS PEOPLE'S DELIVERANCE. 1. A small demand is made: permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness. Great promises are given to the Church, but it does not now demand that the silver and the gold should be yielded for the service of God, and that the mighty should come down from their thrones and give them to his saints. It asks only for liberty to serve God and to declare his will. 2. The world's refusal brings down God's judgments; and then comes the glory and the enrichment of the sons of God. - U Parallel Verses KJV: And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. |
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