You Are Free to GO!

Listen to today’s passage – Exodus 10 – 12

Follow along on Blue Letter Bible – Exodus 12

Second Milers also read – Luke 1 – 2; Proverbs 23; Psalms 111 – 115

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Isaiah 40:31

Read the “0123 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by Charles Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from today’s passage in Exodus – “Do I Have Your Attention” and “What Can Wash Away My Sin?“

“And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.” – (Exodus 10:3)

“31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” (Exodus 12:31–32)

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:” – (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage…. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:1, 13)

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” – (Mark 16:15)

In Exodus 12, true freedom came only through the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. Today, that Lamb is Christ—His blood sets us eternally free from sin’s bondage, and commissions us to go and tell others.

Moses made the demand to Pharaoh that the people of God must be let go, but notice that the reason that God wanted them free was so that they could serve their Lord. Why is it that free people so often neglect the freedom that they have been given by God to use in the service of the King of Kings? We live in America, and here we are free to preach the Bible openly to whoever will listen, but for the most part we keep silent. Peter wrote that we are to use our freedom as the servants of God:

“As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” (1 Peter 2:16)

Our Constitution in America guarantees the right of religious freedom:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States)

Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of freedom. Patrick Henry is famous for stating:

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry understood physical and political liberty; how much more should we cherish and use the spiritual liberty Christ has purchased for us with His own blood?”

Take full advantage of the freedom that you have been granted by God and use it to spread the good news of salvation to the people around you. It is my fear that the day is coming soon that this liberty that we enjoy today may be taken away, and then we will want to serve God, but we will be banned from doing so. Spurgeon said:

“Liberty is the birthright of every believer; but it is a birthright which must be guarded, or it will be lost.” – Charles Spurgeon

Jesus said:

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

We have been made free by the Lord. Let’s use that freedom to serve the Lord and send His Gospel to the world. 

  • Assemble now with God’s people.
  • Serve the Lord with gladness.
  • Testify of His goodness and glory.
  • Win souls – share the gospel with your family, neighbors and co-workers.
  • Invite someone to church this Sunday.
  • Support a missionary.
  • Street preach if the Lord leads.

Do it now, while you are still free to do so! Whatever your hand finds to do—do it with all your might, for the King’s business requires haste.

 


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Did Pharaoh Have a Choice?

Listen to today’s passage – Exodus 7 – 9

Follow along on Blue Letter Bible – Exodus 7 

Second Milers also read – Mark 15 – 16; Proverbs 22; Psalms 106 – 110

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Proverbs 27:15

Read the “0122 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by Charles Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from this passage – “Sin Stinks“

The Biblical Tension

“And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.” (Exodus 3:19)

“And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.“ (Exodus 7:3)

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.“ (Romans 9:14-18)

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29)

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Common Views in the Debate

I have listed a lot of verses above that are important for our discussion this morning regarding whether or not Pharaoh had a choice when he refused to let the children of Israel leave the land of Egypt. There are many more verses that could be used by either side of the argument, but I will use these just to start the discussion. It is my firm belief that Pharaoh acted according to his own free will when his heart was hardened, whether or not the Scripture states that it was hardened by God, or that he himself hardened his heart. Theologians on the other side of this argument would almost have us to believe that Pharaoh’s personal desire was to convert to Judaism (or volunteer to be the Sunday school superintendent), but God forced him against his will to oppose Moses and the Nation of Israel. Please do not misunderstand, I am not saying that God did not work in Pharaoh’s heart in order to achieve His goal of glorifying Himself in the sight of both His people and in the eyes of the Egyptians. However, God had a very willing participant. Pharaoh had already rejected God:

“And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2)

My Take: Pharaoh’s Initial Rejection + God’s Foreknowledge

I firmly believe that God wants all men to be saved, and he desires all men to serve and glorify Him, but He also has given man the free will to make his own choice about that. God did not create a bunch of robots that do exactly what He wants at all times. It wasn’t God that caused Satan to rebel against Him, and it wasn’t God’s manipulation that forced Adam and Eve’s choice either. Does God know who will be saved? Absolutely! But, He doesn’t make that choice for them. Pharaoh had already made his mind up about God and His people, Israel, and God knew that there was nothing that would change Pharaoh’s will about that. So, God used Pharaoh to help Him achieve His (God’s) goal. God is big enough and sovereign enough to use both the saved and the lost (and the myriad of free-will choices that they make) to achieve His purposes.

God’s Sovereignty and Our Responsibility Today

God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He has chosen to have mercy on “whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord.” In my view, this makes God infinitely bigger and more powerful. He runs His creation, and will achieve all of His purposes, even though the people He created are acting according to their own will. He is absolutely awesome!

I’ve counseled people who felt their hearts were too hard for God to reach—yet Scripture shows us that God both hardens and softens hearts, and He invites every person to call on Him today. 

If you have not yet received the forgiveness of your sins through God’s graze and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, do not put it off another day. God wants you to be saved. Check out the “Are You Saved” page at the top of this blog. Reach out to us if you have any questions. We would love to help you meet the Savior who shed His blood for your sins.

What do you think—did Pharaoh ever really have a chance to say yes? How does this affect the way you share the gospel with resistant people?


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Back in His Mother’s Arms: The Miraculous Rescue of Baby Moses

Today’s Passage – Exodus 1 – 3 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Mark 11 – 12; Proverbs 20; Psalms 96 – 100)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Psalm 121

Read the “0120 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from this passage – “Growing Through Affliction,“ and “The Call of God.“

“1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. 7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.” (Exod 2:1–10)

Have you ever looked back on events in your life and realized that God was working in them to orchestrate His divine plan? Even those painful, scary, and troubling times were used by the Lord to bring you to where He has you now. The story of Moses’ early life in Exodus 2:1–10 is one of the clearest pictures in Scripture of God’s hidden, sovereign care over one of His children and ultimately over His entire plan of redemption for Israel’s from their bondage in Egypt.

A Quick Recap of the Story:
  • A Levite couple has a son during the period when Pharaoh decreed to kill all Hebrew baby boys.
  • The mother hides him for three months, then places him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile.
  • Miriam, his sister, watches from a distance.
  • Pharaoh’s own daughter comes to bathe, discovers the basket, recognizes the baby as a Hebrew, and yet takes pity on him.
  • Miriam boldly offers to find a Hebrew nurse; the princess agrees, and the baby is returned to his own mother to nurse—paid wages by Pharaoh’s daughter—until he is old enough to be adopted into the palace.
  • The child is named Moses (“drawn out”), because he was drawn out of the water.
  • God not only spares this child’s life but orchestrates circumstances so that Moses is protected, provided for, and—even more remarkably—raised for a season in the arms of his own mother.
Thoughts from the Passage
  • God works behind the scenes, often through ordinary human actions. The mother’s act of faith—building the basket and placing her son in the Nile—was an act of both obedience and heartbreak. She could not have scripted what happened next. Yet God was already moving the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter, directing her steps to that exact spot at that exact time. Even the heart of a pagan princess is turned by God’s quiet providence.

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” (Prov 21:1)

  • God preserves the deliverer in the very household of the oppressor. The irony is thick: the one who will one day lead Israel out of Egypt is raised in the court of the one trying to destroy Israel. God places Moses under the protection of the enemy’s own roof—and even has the enemy pay Moses’ mother to care for him and nurture him in those crucial very early years when his character is being formed. This is divine humor and divine sovereignty at work.
  • God honors a mother’s love and faith. Jochebed (named later in Exodus 6:20) gets her son back for the crucial early years. She is able to nurse him, teach him, sing to him, pray over him—all while being compensated through the Egyptian government’s payroll. Those formative years in a Hebrew home, not an Egyptian nursery, shaped Moses’ identity in ways that would later surface when he chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” (Heb 11:25).
  • This small story points to the larger story of redemption. A helpless child is hidden from a wicked king’s murderous decree, and adopted into a royal family. Sound familiar? Centuries later, another wicked king (Herod) tries to kill Hebrew babies; another child is hidden and rescued; and this true Deliverer survives to save His people. Moses’ preservation foreshadows Christ’s.
Application:
  • Where in your own life have you seen God’s protection in ways you didn’t recognize until later?
  • When have you had to release something precious into God’s hands (like Jochebed releasing the basket), trusting Him to care for it better than you could? Jochebed had to release her son into God’s hands (literally). What precious thing might God be calling you to entrust fully to Him?
  • Pharaoh’s own daughter became the instrument of deliverance. How has God used unlikely people or circumstances in your life to show His care?
Closing Thought for Reflection:

God is never hurried, never late, and never limited by circumstances – He is sovereign over them. The same God who watched over a helpless baby in a basket is watching over His children now, weaving even the darkest threads into a tapestry of deliverance. Romans 8:28 tells us:”

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)

This passage is a beautiful reminder that no child (and no situation or problem) is ever outside His sovereign, loving care.

Share your thoughts – Leave a comment!


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