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Deliverance!

April 30, 2017 Speaker: Gary Series: Exodus: freed to be God's people

Scripture: Exodus 14:1–31

Freed to be God’s people: a study of Exodus
Deliverance!–outline
Exodus 14:1-31
God’s people can stand in faith that he will deliver them from their enemies

1) God directs his people into hard places where he can be glorified in delivering them, 14:1-4.
God was putting Israel in a situation in which their only hope for deliverance was in God. It seems he was using Israel as bait to trap Pharaoh. What was God’s goal in putting Israel in this situation? What situations have you experienced in which your only hope for deliverance is God?

2) The enemies of God and his people desperately try to keep them enslaved, 14:5-9.
Even though God had thoroughly defeated Pharaoh in Egypt, with his heart hardened he has the delusion that he might still be able to enslave Israel. How is Pharaoh like the devil and his pursuit of Christ’s people? What “old enemies” (sins, habits, attitudes, people who lead you into sin) have pursued to re-enslave you?

3) God’s people overcome unbelieving fear by standing firm in faith in God’s saving work, 14:10-14.
How did Moses exhort Israel to overcome their fear? What has God promised us in Christ so we can stand firm in faith when we fear what is against us (Romans 8:31-39)?

4) God calls his people to act in faith that he delivers his people through his mediator by his sovereign power, 14:15-18.
Moses had exhorted Israel to overcome their fear of the Egyptians by standing firm in faith. Why was he now crying to God? No way could Israel could defeat the Egyptian army. But they could act in faith in what God alone could do for his glory. So how do we know when do we “stand and see God’s saving work” and when do we act?

5) God is able to defeat his enemies and deliver his people by his sovereign power over all things, 14:19-29.
The cloud shines light for Israel and is darkness for the Egyptians. What is significant about this? What is amazing about what God does to make a way for Israel’s deliverance? What did God do to the best military technology of the day? How did God use Pharaoh’s and the Egyptians’ hardened hearts to destroy them?
The same waters that are protective walls for God’s people are weapons of watery destruction for their enemies. How does this picture the effect of Christ’s work on the cross on his people and his enemies?

6) When God delivers his people, they fear him and believe in him and his mediator, 14:30-31.
How does this text picture how we should respond to God’s powerful work of redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? How does 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 parallel Israel’s exodus with our being baptized into Christ? How does Revelation 15:3-4 express the ultimate end of God’s purpose for his deliverance of Israel?

More in Exodus: freed to be God's people

January 21, 2018

We have seen His glory

January 14, 2018

Changed by the presence of God

January 7, 2018

God's steadfast covenant love