Delivered

I love all the pictures we have in the Old Testament. When I was growing up, it seemed, that the entire Old Testament was just stories for kids. I don't recall sermons preached from the Old Testament. The thinking was that we are New Testament believers that have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), we aren't under the law (Romans 6:14), so what use is the Old Testament to us? (Now my memory could be skewed, but that is what my perception was.) This is, however, entirely false. The Old Testament is chocked full of wonderful stories with so many layers of depth--many, if not all, explaining truths in the New Testament. So, as I said, I LOVE those illustrations that are in the Old Testament.

I was explaining a concept to my son today, so I used an Old Testament illustration. (On a side note, if you have kids, one of the best things you can do for yourself, is teach them the Bible. Light bulbs will go off in your head. It is a wonderful thing, how it works.)

If you recall, in the story of the Exodus, the Israelites were in slavery to the Pharoah. Moses was sent by God to deliver them. God did numerous signs and wonders in the process. After the 10th plague, God led them out of Egypt and out of their slavery to Pharoah.

We can analyze the significance of the details.

Slavery in Egypt = slavery to sin--this is a picture of us before we come to a saving knowledge of Christ

Coming out of Egypt = getting saved

Now there are pictures of two types of Christians after the Exodus.

1) A Wilderness Wanderer - this is someone that is saved, but they don't walk in victory, don't have peace and joy, they go around the mountains in their life over and over and over.

2) A Promised Land Dweller - this is also a Christian, but they walk in victory. They don't go around the mountains in their life, they fight their battles with God on their side. They enjoy peace and joy.

Something significant stuck out to me this morning, that I had never thought about before. At what point did the Israelites "get saved"? I noticed two important events.

1) The Passover--The Israelites were commanded to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in order to be "passed over" by the death angel. So they were saved from death by the blood. We are saved from death (the penalty of sin) by the blood of Christ. This is a once, for all, atonement. See Hebrews 7:26-27, 9:11-12, & 10:9-10.

2) The Crossing of the Red Sea--The Israelites left the same night of the Passover. They traveled until they were trapped by mountains and sea. Pharoah came after them to get them back. God did a miracle by parting the waters of the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to cross over on dry land. The Pharoah and his army chased after them, but God let the waters cover them, drowning them, assuring the safety of the Israelites. So this is the point when the Israelites were truly free from their slavery. It happened through water. We are delivered from our slavery to sin by the water of the Word. See Ephesians 5:24 We must wash in this water as often as we can.

Something else to note, that I find very interesting, is that once the Israelites were out of Egypt, God never sent them back (that would be a picture of losing salvation). There were lots of people that disobeyed and there were consequences, but no record of anyone going back to Egypt, either voluntarily, or by command of God. Neither do we "lose" our salvation when we sin. We can lose our inheritance, like the Israelites. The majority of them didn't get to go into the Promised Land (their inheritance). They didn't have faith, they didn't obey. In fact, Moses was one of them that forfeited the inheritance, he did not get to enter the Promised Land.

I am fighting to keep this a short blog. There are so many things in this I want to develop, but I will leave it at this. I encourage you to read the story in Exodus, in light of these things I have brought out. There are even more analogies I could draw. Can you find them? You may also do a word study on reward and/or inheritance. Do you want to be a Wilderness Wanderer or a Promised Land Dweller? Read the story of Joshua and Caleb, in Numbers 13 and 14, to see what it takes to be a Promised Land Dweller.