YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Unlocking the Old Testament Part 8 - Exodus 1

Unlocking the Old Testament Part 8 - Exodus 1 — Transcript

by David Pawson - Official · 6,014 words · 885 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:02it's the story of how God was seeking a
0:06bride for his son each book is different
0:09from every other book I'm trying to give
0:11you the keys for you to unlock it for
0:15[Music]
0:28yourself well if you enjoy reading
0:30Escape books and I do you will love the
0:33book of Exodus it's the story of the
0:36biggest Escape in history I believe over
0:392 million slaves escape from one of the
0:42most highly fortified nations in the
0:44entire world it's a miracle in fact it
0:47was a series of Miracles so here we have
0:51this tremendous Escape
0:55story Moses actually saw more miracles
0:58than Abraham Isaac and Jacob put
1:00together it is just one string of
1:02Supernatural interventions on behalf of
1:05the people some of the Miracles sound a
1:07bit like magic as when Moses stick turns
1:10into a snake and then back into a stick
1:12again but most of these Miracles are
1:15clear manipulations of nature they
1:19certainly couldn't come under that
1:20blessed title of psychosomatic Miracles
1:24they in these instances God is actually
1:27manipulating what he's created for the
1:29good of his people now the whole event
1:31of The Exodus had a profound
1:34significance in two regards first of all
1:37it had National significance for the
1:39people we call Israel this was the
1:42beginning of their National History this
1:45was when they got their political
1:46Freedom this is when they became a
1:48Sovereign Nation in their own right and
1:52though they didn't yet have a land they
1:54were now a people a nation with a name
1:58of their own the name
2:00Israel and forever afterwards they have
2:04celebrated this event once a year they
2:07hold their Passover much as in America
2:10they celebrate July the 4th for the day
2:12of their
2:13independence but it also has spiritual
2:16significance and not just National
2:19significance because this was when they
2:21discovered that their God was The God
2:24Who made the whole
2:26universe and that therefore he could
2:28control what he had made for their sake
2:31they actually came to believe that their
2:33God was more powerful than all the gods
2:37of Egypt put together ultimately they
2:39would realize that their God was the
2:41only God that existed and Isaiah keeps
2:44emphasizing that there is no God beside
2:47me but at this stage they were to
2:49discover that their God was more
2:51powerful than every other God that he
2:54was the supreme
2:55god it's here that he has the title El
2:59Shai
3:00God
3:02Almighty but he also has a name and it
3:05is in the book of Exodus that the nation
3:07was given his personal name somehow when
3:10you know someone's name a relationship
3:13becomes more intimate and more personal
3:15that's why you're all wearing badges
3:17with your name on because that helps you
3:19to begin to relate in an intimate and
3:22person way you can peer at the badge and
3:24say hello Peter and somehow that helps
3:27and God has a name as well has many many
3:30titles and his name is Yahweh I don't
3:34even know if I'm saying it correctly
3:35because I have yet to find a Jew who
3:38will tell me how to say it they dare not
3:40even say the name in case they take it
3:42in vain so I'm hoping I'm pronouncing it
3:45right but the name Yahweh doesn't mean
3:48much to me it doesn't set my heart on
3:50fire it's it's a funny word it's not
3:53English and some time ago I was praying
3:55and I said Lord please give me an
3:58English word that will will convey the
4:00meaning of Yahweh to me and also give me
4:03the feelings it aroused in your people
4:06and immediately into my mind came the
4:08name
4:10always I thought that's a beautiful name
4:13because Yahweh is a participle of the
4:15verb to be and and to call God always
4:19communicates what that name really says
4:22and that's only his first name he has
4:24many second names always my provider
4:27always my helper always my protector
4:30always my healer always always and so
4:33that's the name I've used for God since
4:37uh but the Hebrew is Yahweh and this was
4:39when they found his name and he gave
4:42them not only his title elshadai God
4:44Almighty but his name I'm
4:48always I'm always with you I was always
4:51here I'm always the same to put it
4:54another way it's in the book of Exodus
4:56that the creator of everything became
4:59the Redeemer of a few
5:02people and it is that combination of
5:05Creator and Redeemer which we need to
5:07hold very firmly I'm afraid some
5:10Christians go to the extreme of only
5:12thinking of God as Creator and some only
5:14think of his redeeming power but they
5:17belong together the creator of the
5:19entire universe becomes the Redeemer of
5:23a bunch of
5:24slaves now this is one of five books of
5:28Moses and when you study them four of
5:31them are much the same and one is quite
5:34different just to mention that
5:36difference First Genesis stands
5:39alone because Genesis is the only one of
5:42the five books of Moses that covers
5:44events before Moses
5:47lived the other four all happened within
5:50his lifetime and clearly he wrote the
5:53other four but these were a bunch of
5:56slaves who'd been 400 years in in
5:59slavery without their own land without
6:02their own money without their
6:04own whatever and the result was they
6:07needed to be retold their
6:10Roots I don't know if you've read Alex
6:13Haley's book Roots there was a man whose
6:16ancestors were sold into slavery and
6:18taken from Africa to America and became
6:22slaves and he went back to ReDiscover
6:24his roots before his people were slaves
6:28and he discovered them in Africa it's a
6:30very thrilling story well now Moses had
6:34to write the previous history of this
6:37people for these slaves so that they
6:39knew their Roots they knew where they'd
6:41come from and so Moses clearly collected
6:45from people's memory two things
6:48genealogies their family trees and
6:51stories about their ancestors in the
6:53Book of Genesis is entirely made up of
6:56such memories and Moses collected them
6:59but with Exodus he begins his own
7:02Lifetime and Exodus Leviticus Numbers
7:06and Deuteronomy are a mixture of
7:09narrative and
7:11legislation of what happened in their
7:15history and what God said to them by way
7:18of how they should live and it's this
7:21unique combination of narrative and
7:24legislation that characterizes the four
7:26other books of Moses and the book of
7:29Exodus is typical the first half of it
7:32is narrative the second half is
7:35legislation the first half is about what
7:38God did on their behalf by the way of
7:41Miracles to get them out of slavery but
7:44the second half is about what God Said
7:47and how they were to live now that they
7:49were
7:50free the first half therefore
7:53demonstrates God's grace toward them his
7:56free favor in getting them out of their
7:59problem s and therefore the second half
8:02expects them to show their gratitude for
8:05that Grace by living this way now the
8:08reason I've emphasized that is this too
8:11many people when they read the law of
8:13Moses think that this law was their way
8:16to be Redeemed by God no no they were
8:19Redeemed by God first and then given the
8:23law to keep by way of gratitude now
8:26that's a very important point they
8:28weren't given the law first
8:30they were set free first and then they
8:33were given the law to live by and that's
8:35exactly the same in the New Testament
8:37too we are redeemed and then we're told
8:40how to live holy lives you don't become
8:43a Christian by living right first you
8:46become a Christian by getting redeemed
8:47first and liberated and then you live
8:51right so that uh Liberation comes before
8:55legislation they're set free and then
8:58they're told now don't abuse your
9:00freedom use it
9:02properly so here they are set free from
9:05Egypt but here they enter into a
9:08covenant or a marriage with God at SII
9:11and it takes the form of a wedding
9:13service God says I will and then the
9:16people have to say we will and literally
9:19they are married and it's called a
9:20marriage and what follows is called a
9:23honeymoon and then the marriage has to
9:26begin in the land in the place of God's
9:30choosing they are liberated from slavery
9:33but not so that they can do their own
9:36thing they go into the Wilderness to
9:39serve
9:40God they are set free from
9:44slavery but for service that's an
9:47important point it's the same in the New
9:49Testament for Christians we're not set
9:52free to do our own thing were set free
9:55to serve God whom to serve his perfect
9:58freedom so Redemption comes before
10:01righteousness that's the important point
10:03I want to make the book of Exodus makes
10:05that absolutely clear God redeems them
10:09first now he says live right because
10:12I've set you free so those are the two
10:15halves of the book of Exodus and then
10:18I've divided the rest of it up into 10
10:21very simple portions and given them each
10:23a title because uh I can memorize things
10:27that are simple and uh there are six
10:30sections in chapters 1 to8 and four in
10:35chapters 19 to 40 and running through
10:38them the six sections in the first half
10:40I've called multiplication and
10:43murder that covers the incredible
10:46increase in the number of Hebrew slaves
10:48over 400 years from one family to 2 and
10:52a half million that's some increase
10:54actually it would only need four
10:56children in each generation for 30
10:58Generations s and you can do it
11:01mathematically so it wasn't all that
11:03multiplication but uh they certainly
11:06became a huge number and then of course
11:09the boys were murdered by the Pharaoh
11:11we'll look at all these in detail later
11:14bull rushes and Bush you all know the
11:16story of how Moses was taken out of the
11:18bull rushes and therefore given the name
11:21Moshe which means drawn
11:24out because he was drawn out of the
11:26River Nile the baby boys of of course
11:29was thrown into the River Nile to the
11:32crocodiles but Moses was drawn out of
11:34the River
11:36Nile plague and
11:38pestilence well that centers on pharaoh
11:41and the hardness of his heart feast and
11:43firstborn that's the origin of the
11:45Passover we'll look at that in Greater
11:47detail delivered and drowned is the
11:49crossing of the Red Sea but they weren't
11:51drowned but the Egyptian Army
11:54was provided and protected talks about
11:57their Journey from Egypt to sini and
12:00some of the things that happened how God
12:03protected them and provided for them in
12:05a Wilderness where the Egyptian Army in
12:08the yam Kapur war was perishing after 3
12:10days and yet 2 and a half million people
12:13survived for 40 years again God had to
12:16do a lot of miracles in the second half
12:20we have first of all the Commandments
12:22and especially the 10 commandments and
12:26these were sealed in a covenant a
12:29marriage between God and his people and
12:32God said I will and they said we will
12:35and that bound them together forever God
12:38never goes back on a
12:40covenant and then in chapters
12:4325-31 we have the fact that God is now
12:46going to live among them and therefore
12:48he needs a place to live he needs a tent
12:52but he needs a rather different temp
12:54from theirs or they might think he's
12:56just one of them and so we have the
12:59specification of the Tabernacle and God
13:02provides Specialists people who've never
13:05made anything but bricks up till now and
13:08now they've got to work with gold and
13:12silver and wood and God had to teach
13:15them those skills and the Holy Spirit
13:19gave those skills to people who'd never
13:22made anything but bricks before that's a
13:25miracle and then comes the saddest part
13:28of Exodus
13:29the story of the golden calf when they
13:32indulged themselves and Moses had to
13:35pray most earnestly on their behalf or
13:38they'd have never got anywhere further
13:40and finally the book of Exodus finishes
13:44with the construction of the Tabernacle
13:46its erection and God takes up residence
13:50and the glory comes down on his
13:53tent in Hebrew this book is called These
13:56are the names
13:59that's because it is read every year in
14:02the synagogue as all the five books of
14:04Moses are and it's read of course on a
14:07rolled up
14:08Scroll and the first words of the scroll
14:12are these are the
14:13names and that's how they named all the
14:16five books of Moses by the first words
14:18so you could unroll them in the
14:19synagogue and get the right one but when
14:22the Old Testament was translated into
14:25Greek they gave it a different name they
14:28used two Greek words x which means out
14:33and hos which means way I don't know if
14:36huson the place down the road is
14:39connected with that or not but exodos
14:42means
14:43outway and you would have seen it in the
14:45Greek Theater where over at that door
14:47you can see the word exit that's a Latin
14:49word exit the Greek word would be
14:52exodos or way out and so this book was
14:56called the way out the exodos and it's
14:59just been slightly corrupted in English
15:01to
15:02Exodus and that's why we call it Exodus
15:04but I'm sure you realized it was the way
15:06out it sounds too like
15:09exit right well let's look at the first
15:11half of exodus in this talk chapters one
15:15to 18 there are many so-called problems
15:18in this first
15:20half it is so obvious and unnatural
15:24story this kind of thing doesn't happen
15:27every Tuesday and when you read through
15:31one thing after another makes you wonder
15:33at times did this really
15:36happen and there are plenty of people to
15:38tell us it didn't and that we're reading
15:41about Legends and myths there was a
15:43series on television not long ago which
15:46took that line and tried to tell us that
15:49there were a whole lot of Legends
15:50gathered around the beginnings of the
15:52Israelite history well is it myth or
15:55Miracle why are there these problems
15:58well if first is the first reason is
16:00that there's no secular record of these
16:05events outside of the Bible there is no
16:08Trace
16:09whatever of any of this in any Egyptian
16:13records for example now that is
16:16astonishing because they did keep pretty
16:17good records and that's one of the
16:20reasons that people say oh this must be
16:22Legend well I can think of a jolly good
16:24reason why the Egyptians didn't record
16:27this can you
16:29yes you've seen it already I'm quite
16:32sure they didn't want to record for
16:34posterity such a humiliating experience
16:37as seeing their best
16:40chariots and charioteers drowned in the
16:43Red Sea they didn't want to be
16:45humiliated so I'm not troubled by the
16:47fact that there is no other record the
16:51numbers
16:52involved create a problem for other
16:54people 2 and a half
16:57million I mean that's a huge ug GE
16:59number if they marched five AB breast I
17:02suppose the column would be about 110
17:04miles
17:05long and would
17:07take what months to pass it is an
17:11enormous
17:12number 2 and a half million men women
17:15and children to say nothing of all their
17:19animals and we're told even some
17:21Egyptians came with them that's an
17:23interesting little
17:25point so uh that's a big number to get
17:28through the desert for 40 years where
17:31there's no food or water normally so the
17:33numbers create a problem for some then
17:35there's the problem of the date of it
17:37because we have no other record outside
17:39the Bible we don't know for example
17:42which Pharaoh it
17:43was and therefore we don't know which
17:46century it was and there are two
17:48possibilities that these Scholars look
17:50at one is the 15th century BC and the
17:53other is the 13th if it was the 15th it
17:56was a pharah called tmos but if it was
17:59the 13th and to be frank that's the one
18:02I go for I believe all the evidence
18:04points to the 13th century then it would
18:07be this pharaoh and I've got a picture
18:09of him for you just to show you what an
18:12impressive character he
18:15was he even had four statues of himself
18:18made not content with one he had four
18:21this is Rah sees
18:23thei and you can just see the top of two
18:26people at the bottom of the picture to
18:27show you the side
18:29of these monuments now this is what the
18:31Israelites were up
18:32against see we often treat Pharaoh as a
18:36a little baddy he wasn't he was a very
18:39powerful Emperor and he had the most
18:42powerful military force in the ancient
18:45world a man who could cause those four
18:48statues to be erected of himself carved
18:50out of the solid Mountain he was no mean
18:53character but in God's sight he was
18:56puny and it was no problem to God to
18:59deal with that man but I believe you're
19:00looking at the likeness of the Pharaoh
19:03who was involved in the book of
19:06Exodus then there is division about the
19:09root of The
19:10Exodus and there are three possibilities
19:13we're going to have to look at again we
19:15don't know exactly which route they took
19:18and there are three alternatives to
19:20consider North middle and South and
19:23we'll have to look at those you see all
19:26these questions have made Scholars doubt
19:29whether they're reading fact or fiction
19:32or perhaps faction that modern mixture
19:35of fact and fiction which we're now
19:37accustomed to with TV historical
19:40plays well it does boil down to
19:44Faith and uh my faith says the
19:49most understandable explanation for the
19:52facts is the Book of Exodus and the
19:55facts are these first of all the exist
19:59of a Nation called
20:01Israel now nobody can dispute there is a
20:04nation called Israel in the world
20:07today where did they come from how did
20:10they get started how did they ever
20:13become a nation if they were actually a
20:16bunch of slaves we do know that from
20:18secular records that they were a bunch
20:21of
20:21slaves something dramatic is needed to
20:24explain the existence of Israel or take
20:27another fact
20:29it is a fact that every year every
20:32Jewish family celebrates the
20:35Passover now that's a fact every Jewish
20:39Family does that why do they do it
20:42you've got to have some explanation for
20:45such um a ritual that has survived
20:49for so many thousands of years well the
20:53book of Exodus provides the most
20:55reasonable explanation of that well I
20:58could go go on there are fact after fact
21:01in our modern world which have to be
21:03accepted as facts for which you've got
21:05to find an explanation and to me the
21:08book of Exodus gives the best
21:10explanation of all the facts well now
21:13let's run through the sections of this
21:15book and look at some of the points of
21:18interest I can't give you a commentary
21:20on the whole book I just want to take
21:22out of each section something that might
21:25have troubled your mind or some question
21:27that you might ask and try and give you
21:30an answer to that let's take
21:32multiplication and
21:34murder the question that I have is why
21:37did they stay so long in Egypt 400 years
21:43they went down there in the time of
21:46Joseph and Jacob if you remember because
21:49there was a famine and Egypt had bread
21:52and they simply went down there because
21:54there was more food they went
21:56voluntarily they were accepted as guests
21:59of the government they were given a
22:01jolly good fertile piece of the Nile
22:03Delta called Goan and there they were
22:07during the seven years of
22:10famine but at the end of that time why
22:13didn't they go back to their own
22:16land why did they
22:18stay and in fact they stayed so long
22:21that they outstay their
22:23welcome and that's when they were forced
22:27into forced labor so why did they
22:30stay well there's a human answer to that
22:33and a Divine answer and I'll give you
22:36both because so often there are two
22:38sides to every question the human answer
22:40is they were Jolly
22:42comfortable it was much easier to make a
22:44living in the Nile Delta than it was on
22:46the hills of Judea much easier and uh it
22:51was fertile it was the climate was
22:53warmer there was no snow in the Nile
22:56Delta there was in the hills of Judea
22:59they were just altogether more
23:00comfortable in much the same way as lot
23:05was more comfortable down in the Jordan
23:07Valley at Sodom and Gomorrah the climate
23:10was very similar to the Nile Delta and
23:13it it looks more comfortable and people
23:16like to live in a more comfortable
23:18climate where life is easier and that's
23:21why they
23:22stayed though God had never given them
23:25any land in Egypt he said I'm giving you
23:27the hills of Canaan that's where you
23:31belong but they stayed well we can't
23:35blame them because we tend to do the
23:37same thing and they didn't want to leave
23:40until it was too
23:41late amazing how many
23:44Christians find a new house before they
23:47start looking for a church or start
23:49asking how they're going to serve God
23:51there because they've seen a house that
23:53they like see well that's what they did
23:56and they stayed in Egypt too long
23:59until it was too late and they weren't
24:01free to leave and they were now and in
24:04the position of being forc labor that's
24:06the human answer and then and only then
24:11they cried out to God and say God why
24:13are you letting us be slaves in Egypt
24:16isn't it amazing how we get ourselves
24:18into problems then we start blaming God
24:20for not getting us out of them quickly
24:23it's so human but God didn't do anything
24:27about it for 400
24:29years and we've got to ask why had they
24:34gone back as soon as the famine was over
24:37there would have only been a few
24:39people and there was room for those few
24:41in
24:42Canaan but now they had stayed so long
24:45that they were a large people and there
24:48was no room for them in Canaan because
24:51there were already other people living
24:54there now God was going to kick those
24:57people out
24:59but not until they were so wicked that
25:04they didn't deserve to live
25:06there and God explains in the Book of
25:09Genesis even he explained to Abraham
25:12that your descendants will stay in Egypt
25:14a long long time until the wickedness of
25:17the Canaanites is
25:20complete and so before God could empty
25:23the land of the Canaanites for all of
25:25them now he had to wait until they
25:29became so bad that it would be an act of
25:33justice and judgment to throw them out
25:36of the promised land and let all the
25:38Hebrew slaves in so God
25:42waited until he could do that and that's
25:45the reason God gave for that 400-year
25:48Gap it's a long time to wait for God to
25:51answer your
25:52prayers you know you you pass it down
25:54the generation keep asking God and one
25:57day one day he'll get us out of here
26:00what patience you need to go on praying
26:02that four centuries but God
26:06heard and at the right time he
26:09acted well now they had gone through
26:11three oppressive decrees the first was
26:14forced labor second was to make bricks
26:16without straw do you realize what that
26:19meant if you ever lifted up two bricks
26:23one made with straw and one without the
26:26one without is about three times heavier
26:29see the more straw you put in the
26:31lighter the brick and the easier it is
26:33to carry but bricks without straw That's
26:38Heavy and the Egyptians thought that if
26:41they did this then they would they
26:43wouldn't have any energy left for
26:44leisure Mischief or sex that was the
26:47idea and so that they'd be too tired
26:50even to make love and therefore the the
26:53numbers would go down again in fact the
26:56harder the conditions they made for the
26:58Hebrew slaves the more children they
27:01had so they had to introduce a third
27:04decree and that was that all the baby
27:07boys had to be thrown in the Nile to the
27:10crocodiles the Nile of course is the
27:12source of life to Egypt there's no life
27:15apart from the Nile in Egypt but it was
27:18also the place of death for the Hebrew
27:21slaves well now that's the first section
27:25bull rushers in the bush I don't need to
27:27say much about except to point out that
27:29Moses like Joseph was brought up in
27:34court C
27:36RT and therefore was given the best
27:39education if ever you go along the
27:41temp's embankment in London look for
27:44Cleopatra's
27:46Needle there are two of them one is in
27:49Rome the other is on the temp's
27:50embankment and those two were the
27:53gateposts of the Egyptian University
27:58and when you see Cleopatra's Needle
28:00you're looking at something that Moses
28:01saw every day as a student he walked
28:05past that and had a university education
28:09this of course made him far better
28:11educated than any of the Hebrew slaves
28:13and this of course is why he was able to
28:15write the first five books of the Bible
28:18and it says he kept a careful record of
28:21everything and he collected people's
28:23memories and he put together these five
28:26books his education as an Egyptian
28:29prince was not
28:30wasted but of course all that came to a
28:33sudden end when he lost his temper with
28:35one of the Egyptian slave drivers and
28:39killed him and had to flee for his life
28:42interesting then that he actually spent
28:4440 years in the very Wilderness where
28:48later he would have to live for 40 years
28:50with the people of Israel so that again
28:53God prepared him for this I don't know
28:56if you can do this but I can look back
28:58on my pre-christian days and see God
29:01preparing me for what
29:04happened I remember going in for um
29:07speaking competitions in the young
29:09Farmers
29:10Club little dreaming that in doing that
29:14God was getting me ready for what I do
29:16now and God got Moses ready for leading
29:20his people through the Wilderness by
29:22making him spend 40 years there by
29:24himself being a Shepherd looking after a
29:27few goats or sheep but then he murdered
29:30the Egyptian
29:32god the burning bush is very interesting
29:35not so much for the
29:36bush as for Moses
29:40excuses God Called Moses out of a
29:42burning bush and said take your shoes
29:44off you're on a Holy Ground and then he
29:47said now Moses you're going to the
29:48people going to be the man to draw my
29:50people out of Egypt you were drawn out
29:52of the Nile but you're going to draw my
29:55people out of Egypt altogether and and
29:58Moses made five
30:00excuses as to why he shouldn't do it and
30:03again you might identify with one of
30:05these first he said I am
30:09insignificant who am
30:11I that anybody should take notice of me
30:14have you ever said
30:16that well God said I'll be with you who
30:20am
30:21I I'm the important one not
30:24you so he tried a second excuse he said
30:27I'm ignorant
30:29what shall I
30:30say and God said I make you a promise
30:33I'll tell you what to
30:34say so he made a third excuse he said
30:37I'm
30:38impotent I can't convince them they
30:41won't believe
30:42me and God said my power is going to be
30:45with you you're going to do
30:48Miracles then he said I'm
30:51incompetent I'm not eloquent actually I
30:54had a stemmer he said I I can't put
30:56words together did you ever say that to
30:59God and God said all right your brother
31:02Aaron will be your Prophet so that tells
31:05you what a prophet is a prophet is
31:07simply someone who's a
31:09mouthpiece so you tell your brother
31:11Aaron what to say and he will say it to
31:12Pharaoh that's all a prophet should do
31:15he should just pass on a message and the
31:18last excuse he made was I'm
31:22irrelevant send someone
31:25else here am I send him
31:30again many have answered a call from God
31:32with that send someone else please not
31:37me and that's when God promised him a
31:40partner let's move on to the plague and
31:43pestilences 10
31:46plagues the Nile to blood frogs gnats
31:50and mosquitoes flies cattle disease
31:54boils hail locusts darkness and the of
31:58the
32:00firstborn now what you notice about
32:02those 10 plagues the first thing I
32:04noticed is that God is in total control
32:07of the insect
32:10world you ever thought about
32:13that see in the Book of Jonah I remember
32:16remember telling you that the biggest
32:17Miracle there is not the whale but the
32:20worm me God tells a worm what to
32:23do a whale's
32:25easy training worms is a little harder
32:29but God can do it and God can tell
32:31mosquitoes and locusts what to do and
32:33where to go he can tell frogs what to do
32:36tremendous sense of God's control of
32:38what is created in these plagues but
32:41there's something else about these first
32:43of all do you notice their increasing
32:47intensity there's a buildup from
32:50discomfort to disease to danger to
32:55death the plagues gradually go got worse
32:59as pharaoh and the people refused to
33:01respond to These Warnings but I think
33:05what many Christian readers
33:07Miss is that this was a religious
33:11contest this was a contest between
33:15Gods because every one of those plagues
33:18was an attack on a particular God
33:22worshiped by the
33:24Egyptians and that gives the plagues a
33:26real meaning
33:28let me just run through some of the
33:29Egyptian gods there was Kum the guardian
33:31of the Nile happy the spirit of the Nile
33:36Osiris and it was believed that the
33:38bloodstream of Osiris was the Nile then
33:42there was heckit a frog likee god a god
33:45of
33:46Resurrection there was haor a mother
33:48goddess was a cow and then there were a
33:51number of sacred Bulls the god AIS was a
33:54bull and the God manev was a bull the
33:57sacred bull of
33:58heliopolis then there was a god of
34:00medicine then there was a sky goddess a
34:03goddess of Life another one Seth was a
34:06protector of crops and then there were
34:08four Sun gods and on top of all that
34:11Pharaoh was supposed to be divine as
34:13well so that can you see that these
34:16plagues were specifically directed
34:19against Egyptian
34:20gods and the message was very simple
34:23this God of the Hebrew
34:25slaves is far more powerful than all
34:27yours
34:28gods and still they didn't listen now
34:31there's a bit of a problem about
34:33Pharaoh's heart here that I need to
34:35mention it says God hardened Pharaoh's
34:40heart and some I'm afraid have made too
34:43much of this and erected a doctrine of
34:46predestination on it especially in the
34:49light of Romans 9 where Paul talks about
34:52God hardening Pharaoh's heart and you
34:54can go overboard on predestination
34:57saying it's up to God to choose whether
34:59he softens someone's hearts or hardens
35:01them it's his choice we don't know why
35:04he makes his choice but he makes a
35:05choice and he chose pharaoh and he said
35:07right I'm going to harden his heart as
35:09if it was a bingo game and I I say that
35:13reverently but that's the kind of God
35:15that sometimes is preached a God who
35:17just picks names out of a hat and
35:19decides to save some and send others to
35:21hell and Harden some and soften some
35:24that's not what the Bible teaches if you
35:26study this carefully you'll find this 10
35:30times Pharaoh's heart was
35:33hardened but the first
35:37seven Pharaoh hardened his own
35:41heart and after he hardened it seven
35:45times God says right if that's the
35:47course you're choosing I'll help you to
35:50go further down that road and three
35:52times God hardened it for him now that
35:56puts a whole different light on it to me
35:59God only hardened Pharaoh's heart after
36:02Pharaoh had deliberately and repeatedly
36:04hardened his own heart and indeed that's
36:07what God does by way of uh punishment
36:10for people he says if you go down this
36:12road all right I'll help you down this
36:14road if that's what you really want then
36:17I'll give you a push and the last book
36:19in the Bible says let him that is filthy
36:21be filthy still in other words if that's
36:24the route you've chosen God will help
36:26you down that route
36:28but there's no arbitrary Choice here
36:31Pharaoh hardens his heart first and then
36:34God hardens it for him I've just said
36:37that because so often the hardening of
36:39Pharaoh's heart has been misused to
36:42preach a kind of arbitary predestination
36:44which the Bible doesn't teach God
36:47responds to our
36:49choices and if we persistently choose
36:52the wrong way God will help us along
36:54that route to demonstrate his judgment
36:57if we refuse to be a demonstration of
36:59his Mercy then we come to the Passover
37:02the feast and the firstborn this has a
37:04direct connection with the 10th plague
37:07the 10th plague was that every firstborn
37:09boy in every Egyptian family must
37:12die but that would also happen to the
37:15Jews
37:16unless they did something about it what
37:19they had to do was to paint some blood
37:22on their
37:25doorpost now blood is is Scarlet
37:29maroon which is the hardest color to see
37:32in the
37:34dark don't know if you knew that but
37:37blood is the hardest thing to see in the
37:38dark you try it
37:41sometime but an angel would see it and
37:45the angel of death would come to Egypt
37:47that night and when he saw the blood on
37:49the doorpost in the dark no Street lamps
37:52just dark he would pass over that
37:55house now the first thing I want to say
37:58is they had to get that
38:00blood before they could put it on the
38:02doorpost they had to have
38:05some which meant that an innocent life
38:09had to be
38:10killed to get that
38:13blood and then it had to be
38:16applied if they didn't put it on the
38:18doorpost it wouldn't
38:20work so they had to obtain the blood and
38:23then apply it and they obtained it from
38:26what we call a lamb but that to me is a
38:28misleading a little cuddly white thing
38:30we think of it's a ram it's a
38:33one-year-old with horns it's a strong
38:36animal and when we call Jesus the Lamb
38:38of God it it produces the wrong reaction
38:41he is the ram of God as well as the line
38:44of Judah and they had to take a ram a
38:46fully grown Ram a one-year-old Ram is
38:49equivalent to a 30-year old
38:51man and that's what they took and they
38:54killed it to get the blood and put on
38:56the door poost then they put put the
38:57blood outside they took the body
39:01inside and they ate it after roasting
39:04it and they ate it standing up with
39:07clothes on ready to leave it a moment's
39:10notice they were going to walk for the
39:12next 40 years and they had to take
39:14emergency rations with them of
39:17unleavened bread it's all all there and
39:21they keep that Feast every year ever
39:25since and the youngest member of the
39:27family has to say what does all this
39:30mean and the oldest member of the family
39:33then
39:34says this is what God did on the night
39:39when every firstborn boy died and we
39:42were saved because of the blood of the
39:46ram
39:48[Music]
39:57[Music]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Unlocking the Old Testament Part 8 - Exodus 1 by David Pawson - Official, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 6,014 words across 885 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.