Where are these people going-fathers, mothers, little children, with their flocks as well? They are leaving the land of their former bondage, and are on their way to their Canaan, their true homeland.
Pharaoh, the cruel king of Egypt, had made slaves out of the children of Israel; they sighed and cried and groaned under their bondage. God looked down upon His poor people, and in His love and compassion He sent them a deliverer.
God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go, but Pharaoh refused. “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” he said. Then God sent terrible judgments upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Blow after blow fell in quick succession, but Pharaoh only hardened his heart and would not let the people go.
Egypt was almost destroyed. Then in the last solemn judgment all the firstborn in the land of Egypt died, but the children of Israel, those who had taken shelter under the blood of the Passover lamb, were spared.
That night there was a great cry throughout the land of Egypt. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and told them to leave his people at once and go and serve the Lord as they had wanted to do. They were to take all their flocks and herds and be gone. Pharaoh even asked Moses to bless him also.
The Egyptians pressed the children of Israel to leave their land in haste for they said, “We be all dead men.”
Before leaving, the children of Israel did as Moses told them, and demanded of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing. The Lord gave them favor in their sight, and they carried away the riches of Egypt. But this was what really belonged to them because the Egyptians had never paid them for all the work they had done while they held them in slavery.
So they started on their journey, a very large company, six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, and they had with them also their flocks and herds.
Oh how happy they were to be free from the tyrant, Pharaoh, and Egypt’s bondage. And Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, who keeps poor sinners under his power and makes them slaves in this world. The children of Israel were helpless, and their case was hopeless if God had not intervened, but He sent them a deliverer.
God has sent us a deliverer, even Jesus, His beloved Son, who in HIS death and resurrection has triumphed over the power of Satan and broken the bands of sin and death for all who believe in Him. Those who trust Him are saved, set free to follow Him, their great Leader, across this desert world to their home in that heavenly land above.
ML-03/05/1978