Matt Chandler - Wrung Out

Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We’re going to look at Exodus chapter 5. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a hardback black one somewhere around you; I just want you to grab one so that you can have it. We’re going to look at all of chapter 5, and I just want to point out a couple of things. I’m not sure how long this will be; it might be short. We don’t know—let’s just give it a go.

When we last looked at our story in Exodus, what we saw is that Moses showed up to the people of Israel and presented the three signs that God had given him. Now, remember, signs aren’t parlor tricks but rather acts of God outside of the natural order that are meant to point to something beyond themselves. So, it’s not like God is just trying to show off; God is trying to communicate. There was the staff that turned into a snake, the leprosy, and the Nile that was turned to blood.

If you recall back to the story, Moses shows up in Egypt and gathers the elders and leaders among the Hebrews. He tells them exactly what God said: «Here I am, God has sent me to you. I AM has sent me here; the Lord has sent me here, and here are the signs.» The people understood the signs because the last thing you and I read together was that when they had heard that God had heard their cries and was there to answer those cries, they fell on their faces and worshipped.

Now, I don’t want you to move too quickly past that moment because it’s significant. Here’s what I mean by that: for over 400 years, this group of men and women had been oppressed, crushed, murdered, raped, used, abused, treated as subhuman. They had pleaded and cried out that God would hear, save, and deliver, and then Moses shows up—the guy who had started that rebellion 40 years ago, who had run away in fear, is now back, but now he has signs. Right? The serpent—yes, I control the sign of Egyptian power—and my leprosy, this thing that the Egyptians have no power over, no ability to conquer; yes, I’ll conquer it like that. And then finally, the Nile, the very source of their wealth and ability to rule the world, is in my hand. So, he shows them the signs, and you can only imagine the type of rejoicing that would have occurred now that God has heard.

Now, if you’re human—which I believe is a hundred percent—you might have a dog in your purse or something like that. I’ll get to that in January when we do the live sermon, but for now, just keep Bootsy quiet during the sermon. Ultimately, since we’re all human, here’s what we know: the second we smell hope, our minds and hearts just run wild with it. Here we go; good news is here!

Then, Exodus chapter 5. This is such an important chapter for us as human beings. Verse 1 of chapter 5: afterward, Moses and Aaron went 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, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.»

Then they said, «The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go 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.» 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—by the way, those are Hebrews, not Egyptians—saying, «You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves, but the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall still impose on them; you shall by no means reduce it, for these people are idle. Therefore, they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to these lying words.»

So, the taskmasters and foremen of the people went out and said to the people, «Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you straw. Go and get your own straw for yourselves, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.» So, the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. Then the taskmasters were urgent, saying, «Complete your work, your daily tasks each day, as when there was straw.»

The foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, «Why have you not done all your tasks of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?» 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…