In episode 12 of In Light of The Cross, we move from Joseph at the end of Genesis into Exodus and Moses, reading the Old Testament through what Jesus accomplished at the cross.

We note Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49 that a forever-king will come from Judah, then trace Israel’s 400 years of slavery in Egypt and God raising up Moses as a prophet, deliverer, and mediator who points to Christ but is not the Messiah.

We highlight Exodus 6:6–8, where God promises to bring Israel out, free them, redeem them, take them as his people, and bring them into the land, showing salvation as freedom from oppressive powers and restoration to relationship with God.

We connect Egypt, Babylon, and Rome as symbols of forces opposing God, reflect on not “going back to Egypt,” and close with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Focus

00:51 Genesis 49 Promise

01:59 Moses as a Type

03:21 Egypt as Oppression

05:07 Moses Imperfect Mediator

05:57 Gods Covenant Response

08:18 Meaning of Salvation

11:30 Exodus Points to Jesus

12:19 Plagues Red Sea Faithfulness

14:03 Hearts Still in Egypt

15:26 Reflection and Lords Prayer

Welcome back.

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This is episode 12 of In Light of

The Cross, and it's a podcast where

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we're focusing on understanding.

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Everything, including the Old

Testament right now, in light of

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what Jesus did for us at the cross.

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Today, we're gonna pick up the story where

we left off after, Abraham and Isaac and

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Jacob and their sons, especially Joseph,

and we're gonna move into Exodus in Moses.

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let's pause as we begin.

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There's some wonderful things here,

but unless we have ears to hear as

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Jesus put it, we're not gonna get it.

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So.

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Stop and pause.

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Ask God to settle your mind

and your thoughts to receive.

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All right, we're gonna get into it here.

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And if you recall, we ended last time with

the story of Joseph at the end of Genesis.

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One thing we didn't mention was

this wondrous passage in chapter 49.

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So Genesis has 50 chapters, so

this is right before the end.

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And this passage is a, prophetic

utterance from Jacob, also called Israel.

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And he talks about each of his sons.

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And he talks about Judah and he says,

out of Judah will come, the one who

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will reign, the scepter, will be in

his hand and he will reign forevermore.

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So there's this promise again,

right from the beginning we saw in

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Genesis three, there's a promise

of the seed of the woman who will

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come and crush the serpent's head.

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And here we see again that

developed, he's gonna be a king.

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Now he will come out of the line of Judah.

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and then right after that you have 400

years where Judah and his family and all

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the Israelites, all 12 of the brothers

and their families go in to Egypt

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and they endure 400 years of slavery.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah, so I love

how you point that out, that you

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have this idea of King brought up.

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Really what we'll see throughout the Old

Testament is this continually developed

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image of who the true deliverer, savior,

king, or Messiah Christ is going to be.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right.

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Nathan Beasley: So we know he's

gonna crush the head of the serpent.

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Now we know he is gonna

be some kind of king.

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And in the story of Moses, we get another

picture of maybe some of the attributes of

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what the, what the savior is going to be.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right, exactly.

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Nathan Beasley: And what

the savior's going to do.

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Daniel Jepsen: So Moses is gonna

become one of the great, great symbols

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or pictures or types of Jesus Christ.

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Nathan Beasley: And, and of course we're

not saying that these stories aren't.

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Historical facts as well.

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Daniel Jepsen: No, they are,

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Nathan Beasley: we're saying that they,

um, in addition to that, there's a, a,

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a theological framework that we can,

we can see, because of what we read

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about Jesus who fulfills these types,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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400 years they're there in the

slavery and at the due time, God

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raises up Moses and Moses is gonna

be at the same time a prophet.

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A deliverer and a mediator.

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So again, like Christ, right?

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Nathan Beasley: Mm-hmm.

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Daniel Jepsen: So it's

interesting, this story.

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Uh, we, we know it, it's

pretty familiar with us.

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You have God's telling Moses,

I want you to deliver my people

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from the bondage of the Egyptians.

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So one of the things we see right here at

the very beginning is that this salvation.

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It's going to be a deliverance from the

enemies who are opposing God's ways and

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God's people, and that's gonna be, in

this case, the Egyptians and Pharaoh.

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But Pharaoh and the Egyptians are

also gonna symbolize the larger

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spiritual forces array against God's

plan and God's people in this world.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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And we see that then applied throughout

the rest of the scriptures, this symbol.

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Anything that, it seems like

anything that opposes God can

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be seen as a kind of Egypt.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yes.

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Nathan Beasley: And then

Babylon and then Rome.

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Like you have these pictures of

forces against God personified

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in these, in these empires,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Yeah.

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In the Old Testament, Egypt and

Babylon are the main pictures and the

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New Testament, Rome is added to that.

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And all of these are highly structured.

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Powerful forces that work against

God's plan and crush God's people.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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Particularly through the, oppressive

structures, the enslavement,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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, Nathan Beasley: It's oppressive labor

and that keeps getting upped and upped

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and upped until they are broken because

of the oppression of pharaohs, hubris.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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It's a dehumanizing kind of work.

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it's slavery and that's

what God delivers them from.

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Nathan Beasley: So they're under, the,

oppressive regime and empire of Pharaoh.

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And then from that, they get delivered

to be under the liberating and

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good, kingdom of God, so to speak.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yep.

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That's the plan.

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Nathan Beasley: So, so tell us more

of the story and how this works out.

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Daniel Jepsen: Okay.

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A couple things we wanna highlight here.

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One is that Moses is going to be a

Christ-like figure as we talked about.

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But again, he's not gonna be perfect.

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There's a key incidence in the Penit

took where it talks about how God

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tells him to do one thing, and in

his anger he does something else.

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So in this case, it was God says, speak to

this rock to bring water for the people.

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And Moses strikes it

instead and says, must I?

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bring out water to you rebels?

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in other words.

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It's a failure to trust God in his ways

because of his anger with his people.

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It seems like a small thing to us,

but apparently it was a large enough

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thing that God says because of this

you, Moses will not be able to go

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into the promised land yourself.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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Daniel Jepsen: So he is not the Messiah.

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He points to that.

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But the more interesting thing is the

way that he brings God people out.

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And there's this key passage here in

Exodus chapter six, that I think can

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really summarize what God is doing.

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And right before this, the

last couple verses of chapter

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five, set the stage for this.

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And the context of this is Moses has, has

gone to Pharaoh says, let my people go.

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And Pharaoh responds, uh,

no, you guys are just lazy.

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That's where you're saying this.

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So now you still have to make the

same amount of bricks, but we're

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not gonna give you any straw.

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And uh, and the people obviously are upset

by this because it's an impossible demand.

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And so in 5 22, Moses returned

to the Lord and said, why Lord?

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have you brought trouble on this

people Is this why you sent me?

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Ever since I went to Pharaoh

to speak in your name, he has

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brought trouble on this people.

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And you have not rescued

your people at all.

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And so God's gonna give these words of

response and the most important part

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here is in verses six through eight.

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Do you wanna read that or you want me to?

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Nathan Beasley: Sure.

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so in chapter six then it says, the Lord

said to Moses, now you'll see what I will

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do to Pharaoh because of my mighty hand.

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He will let them go

because of my mighty hand.

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He will drive them out of his country.

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God also said to Moses, I am the Lord.

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I appear to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob

as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord.

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I did not make myself fully known to them.

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I also established my covenant with

them to give them the land of Canaan

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where they resided as foreigners.

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Moreover, I have heard the

groaning of the Israelites, whom

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the Egyptians are enslaving.

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And I have remembered my covenant.

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Therefore, say to the

Israelites, I am the Lord.

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I will bring you out from under

the yoke of the Egyptians.

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I will free you from being slaves to

them, and I will redeem you with an

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outstretched arm and with mighty acts

of judgment, I will take you as my

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own people and I will be your God.

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Then you'll know that I'm the Lord

your God, who brought you out from

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under the yoke of the Egyptians.

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I will bring you to the land I

swore with uplifted hand to give

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to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

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I will give it to you as a possession.

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I am the Lord.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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There's a lot we could talk about

here, but I just want to focus

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on verses six through eight where

God tossed about his purpose.

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Moses had asked.

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Why, Lord, have you brought trouble?

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Why have you sent me hear

this, the full answer?

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I'm gonna bring you out from the yoke

of the Egyptians and I will free you.

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So the first thing he says, I'm

going to free you from being slaves.

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To them, salvation is freedom from

the, forces that are oppress us.

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And I will redeem you

with outstretched arms.

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Redemption has the idea of freeing,

but also added to that is the idea

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that there's going to have to be some.

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Price to be paid.

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And sometimes that's a monetary price.

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Sometimes it's, it's

a great activity here.

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It has the lighter idea with

these outstretched arms by

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power, I'm going to redeem you.

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And then redemption is in just to free us.

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Redemption is so that he can

take us to be his own people.

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Says verse seven, I will take you as

my own people and I will be your God.

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God's goal here is always this restoration

of our right relationship with him.

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That's always been his desire.

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God is a passionate desire

and he will see accomplished.

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Therefore, all those who want to

be in that restored relationship,

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he will make it possible.

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And then let in verse eight,

and I will bring you to the

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land I swore with uplifted hand.

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To give to Abraham, to

Isaac, and to Jacob.

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I will give it to you as a possession.

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I am the Lord.

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So God is staying faithful to his promise.

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It doesn't seem like it 'cause there's all

these decades and centuries of silence.

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But God, never waves.

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There's a timing aspect we

don't understand because he's

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playing four dimensional chess

when we're playing checkers.

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but he stays faithful to the promise.

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And he says, I will

bring you into this land.

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And in the Hebrew, by the way, the

word translated land or earth in

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our bibles is the exact same word,

so targeting back to the land.

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And I almost feel like it's, it's

like a counterpart to them being

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expelled from the land of Eden, from

the garden, from the earth there.

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And God's restoring them to that.

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So he had this idea what God is doing

is not just freeing them from slavery,

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he's freeing them to be his people.

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He says later on, you'll be a kingdom

of priests, you'll be mediators

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between myself and the rest of the

nations, and then between creation and

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Israel is gonna be the symbol of that

and the way that that's gonna happen.

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So that's what's involved here.

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Nathan Beasley: So I love that.

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You see that happen in the rest

of the Book of Exodus, right?

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Over the next 34 chapters, you see

that God's promise here made in chapter

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six is, good and it's gonna come to

fruition, that he does bring them out

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from under the yolk of the Egyptians.

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He frees them, he redeems them, he

takes them as his own, and he restores

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them to the land, not without struggle.

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Of course, there's These themes of,

uh, the tapestry of sin and brokenness

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and disobedience and all those things.

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But then you also see that God

is faithful and working in it.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And the beautiful

thing is that this story, like we

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were just saying, is not only, factual

narrative, but it points beyond itself

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to the, the broader meta-narrative

of what God is doing in the world.

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That because of the cross we see that.

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God is bringing us out from the yoke of

this broken culture and broken world,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Nathan Beasley: He's redeemed

us by the blood of Jesus.

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He's grafting us into Israel as

Gentiles and in that way we can be

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his people and he can be our God.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: All of that happens

because of Jesus and him dying for

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the sins of the world and overcoming.

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Death and sin through his resurrection.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yep.

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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We have a great God.

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Nathan Beasley: Amen.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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And so we know the rest of the story, the

plagues which by the way, if you look

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in the book of Revelation, if the final

time when God brings in His kingdom, those

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plagues and revelation are modeled on the

plagues here because of that theological

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symbolism that just as they were

delivered from Egypt by God's mighty hand.

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We'll be delivered into this new

kingdom by God's mighty hand.

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So you see that repeated.

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You see Moses parting the waters of

the Red Sea, leading the people out,

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just as Jesus as it were, leads, as

people out of the land of death and

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the land of dysfunction and brokenness.

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One final thing you kinda see is even

though the people don't get it, and

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many times grumble and are disobedient,

God stays faithful to his purpose.

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He will restore mankind's right

relationship as being in the

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image of God within the land.

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This is God's unwavering

commitment to what is good.

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Mankind will be restored in the

image of God He'll be their God,

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they'll be his people, and they will

reign in the land in the right way.

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Nathan Beasley: Just like in Eden

where they're given the task to

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fill the earth and subdue it.

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Daniel Jepsen: Exactly.

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Nathan Beasley: They, receive the land

and then the influence of God through

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his people spreads through his people.

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Right.

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Daniel Jepsen: And there's a lot

more to talk about in Exodus in

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particular, the, the temple, but maybe

we'll say that for the next time.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah, yeah.

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A lot of good stuff here.

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Yeah.

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The Book of Exodus is just so full

of so many good, uh, stories and

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theological points, and so if you

wanna read or listen to it as we go

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through, that's a good, thing to do.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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for our contemplation and reflection,

I think it would be good to

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just reflect upon how salvation.

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Is freeing us from the forces that are,

opposed to us and opposed to God's ways.

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And yet in the midst of that,

we can, if we want, still, as it

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were, have our hearts in Egypt.

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The people were brought out of

Egypt, but for many of them, they

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still have their hearts there.

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Many of them wanted to go back there.

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Paul seemed to talk something about

that when he talked about in Romans,

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especially in chapter six, shall we

sin because God has saved us by grace?

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And his answer is no.

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We were delivered from that.

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Why would we want to go back?

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So sometimes we need to think

pictorially about our choices when

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I'm doing this particular activity.

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It's almost like I'm going back to

the ways of Egypt instead of the

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ways that God has brought me into.

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Nathan Beasley: Hmm.

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Yeah, you can take the people

out of Egypt, but it's hard to

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take Egypt out of the people.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: That's the struggle.

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And so we recognize those points

where we're still functioning,

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uh, as people in Egypt.

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and we confess to them and we.

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set our desire and our intention

on living as people of God

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and not people of Pharaoh.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right?

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Yeah.

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Good, good way to put that.

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Nathan Beasley: So let's spend a minute

or two just reflecting on that question.

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Where do you see, in your own

life evidence that you are,

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participating in the broken world,

broken structure of Egypt, and just

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affirm once again, your desire.

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To, walk in the ways of the people of God.

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And, then we'll conclude with praying

the Lord's Prayer, which is kind of

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our way of all saying that together,

God, we want it to be your will and

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your kingdom, and not our own will

or our own kingdom or Pharaoh's.

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Let's pray together the Lord's Prayer.

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Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Amen.

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Daniel Jepsen: Amen.