SABBATH THOUGHT 2024-03-30—REMEMBER THE EXODUS

May God bless you on His Sabbath day!

Bringing the ancient Israelites out of Egypt was a monumentally historical event. At no other time from the beginning of the world was God so intimately involved and doing such hugely miraculous works for a people. He began by establishing the infant Moses as an accepted member of the clan of the ruling Egyptian Pharaoh while, at the same time, ensuring his upbringing as an Israelite. That is quite astounding by itself because Moses was not just accepted as an Egyptian ruler, but he believed in God instead of being forced to convert to the worship of Egyptian gods. Throughout his life, God was not just involved with Moses, He was focused on him. Moses’ first forty years were spent in Egypt and he was in exile the following forty years in Midian. When God spoke with Moses at the burning bush, it began another span of forty years in which God was directly involved with both Moses and ancient Israel. During this time, God was constantly present in the lives of the Israelites and performed numerous miracles, the like of which has not been known before or since. And God wanted all those works to be REMEMBERED forever[1]:

DEUTERONOMY 24:18, 22 “But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing. … 22 “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

Even when God ‘introduced’ Himself to the ancient Israelites, it was not as Creator or God Most High but in the context of the Exodus. He said, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exod. 20:2)[2]. The rescue of ancient Israel was so significant that God commanded them to remember their exodus from Egypt every WEEK on the seventh-day Sabbath:

DEUTERONOMY 5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

On top of that, God appointed seven days each year as a memorial of being liberated as slaves from Egypt:

DEUTERONOMY 16:3, 12 “You shall eat no leavened bread with it [the Passover]; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. … 12 “And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The weekly seventh-day Sabbath and seven annual holydays are days to remember the Exodus. They are memorials of being slaves, God working with Moses from the days of his infancy to his death, the destruction of the Egyptians, the liberation of the ancient Israelites, and all the signs and wonders. Did you know that God performed at least 42 MIRACLES (not including the burning bush) over the events of the Exodus? This means that, according to the modern Gregorian calendar, there are 59 days each year dedicated to remembering all that God did to bring the enslaved ancient Israelites into the Promised Land. In other words, God wanted the Exodus to be a memorial an astounding 16% of the year! That is MORE than once a week! The Exodus is to be remembered every seven days PLUS seven days a year. There are a lot of ‘sevens’ in the memorial of the Exodus. No other events in the history of the world are given such recognition by God or even in the other holydays.

But all that is in the past, right? Today people give very little thought to the tale of the Exodus. It is certainly not mentioned in secular history books and not even taught in schools anymore. But archaeological evidence proves the ancient Egyptians were completely destroyed even though no army arose against them and the ancient Israelites conquered an entire country without firing a shot (so to speak). So why is it missing from our awareness? The really important question is what does the Exodus mean to YOU? God certainly wanted the world to forever remember what He did[3]:

DEUTERONOMY 4:9 “Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,

In addition to all the events and miracles as well as the presence of God during the Exodus, He wanted people to remember something else that was vitally important—the covenant of the Law of God:

DEUTERONOMY 4:20, 23 “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. … 23 “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you.

EXODUS 13:6-10 “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. 7 “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. 8 “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ 9 “It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt. 10 “You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

What is interesting is that the Exodus memorial was to be kept IN the Promised Land, well after it occurred so it was meant for all future generations:

DEUTERONOMY 6:10-12 “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 “houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant–when you have eaten and are full– 12 “then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

During the year, 59 days are for memorials of God bringing His people out of Egypt, establishing a covenant with them, and bringing them into a Promised Land. But there was one problem—the Promised Land was guarded by enemies of God:

EXODUS 13:3-5 And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 “On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. 5 “And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

The land was filled with many great and powerful people. These were enemies of God because of their idolatry. Before the people could take over the land, God had to destroy the inhabitants who would otherwise be too much for the Israelites to conquer:

DEUTERONOMY 7:1-2 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 “and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.

It is hard to imagine that anyone can forget the Exodus. In fact, it should be nigh on to impossible if it is a remembrance 59 days of the year. But it has happened and will continue to be forgotten for one very sad reason:

DEUTERONOMY 8:11-16a “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 “lest–when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 “and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 “when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 “who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 “who fed you in the wilderness with manna, …

Prosperity and abundance always cause people to forget afflictions, struggles, and suffering. It is the nature of mankind. But forgetting the Exodus brings the worst punishments of God:

DEUTERONOMY 4:25-27 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 “And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

DEUTERONOMY 8:17, 19-20 “then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ … 19 “Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 “As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

Events of the Exodus are POWERFUL because the REMEMBRANCE of it brings blessings—ALWAYS. Even when people forget, if they turn back to God and remember the great works of God during the Exodus, He will restore all that which was lost and MORE[4]:

DEUTERONOMY 30:1-2, 5, 9-10 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, 2 “and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, … 5 “Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. … 9 “The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 “if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Every seventh-day Sabbath plus the seven Days of Unleavened Bread are a memorial of God saving His people out of slavery; of the  great power of His miracles, signs, and wonders; of the covenant with His people; and of the destruction of the enemies who guarded the Promised Land. Is the Exodus not the story of the greatest works of God in the history of mankind?

It was also the historical precedence for a modern Exodus: A spiritual calling forth from sin and death, God’s Holy Spirit of power in His people, a New Covenant of eternal Life, and His destruction of the Enemy guarding the entrance to the Promised Land. And like the first Exodus, all of these new events began with the Passover. Knowing all this, how important is it now to remember the Exodus?

May God’s grace and peace be upon you!

Steven Greene

https://sabbathreflections.org

sabbathreflections@gmail.com