God of Freedom and Deliverance

God of Freedom and Deliverance
Exodus 3:7~10

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Yesterday was the 70th Korean Independence Day, on which day Korean people restored the national rights from the Japanese Empire. 70 years ago, Japan attacked not only the Eastern Asia countries such as Korea, China, Philippines, and Thailand, but also Russia, bringing Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and the Pacific War, in the ambition of conquering whole the world by force.Japan even attacked Hawaii during the Pacific War, revealing their ambition of conquering even the USA.

The cruel things Japan has done to conquer South-Eastern Asia, North-Eastern Asia, and even USA is known to everyone. To meet their ambition to conquer the world, they forced numerous foreign youths to participate in the battles.
Also, to provide the supply, they forced people to work at the mine, treating them just as slaves or jailed criminals. Even more, at Nanjing, China, Japanese Military Unit 731 committed the very cruel and evil work by having experiment with alive people in the purpose of medicine development.

That’s not it. Japan registered Hanesuco Island as a UNESCO World Heritage. But that is where some of the Koreans labored forcefully. Shamelessly, to hide such a historical fact and to put on a mask, Japan is registering the island as a UNESCO World Heritage.That’s not it yet. Japan forced young girls to be sexual slaves for their soldiers. Also, they made Sap’sal-gae, a genuine Korean dog species, distinct by killing numerous of them.

Japan even once destroyed one entire village using the bio weapons they had developed. That’s not it. After conquering Korea, to destroy its history and soul, Japan ordered for Koreans to change their name in Japanese way.
It was to change the name forcefully into Japanese way, so that Korean family names might be disappear. Also every morning, Japan forced people to worship the Japanese emperor as Tenno, which means ‘heavenly emperor,’ at the Japanese shrine. The christians were persecuted more than others by them.

When Japan lied that Japanese emperor was the god of the heaven, Christians at that time said that Japanese king was a mere man like us, not God.Japan started persecuting Korean churches as they denied Tenno being god. At Jae’am-ri, Hwa’seong, Gyeong’gi-do 경기도 화성 제암리, there is a church named Jae’am-ri church. One day, Japanese soldiers ordered all the christians attending that church to gather. Then, they nailed the door from the outside so that anyone inside couldn’t open the door. Then, they fired gun to the people. Furthermore, they even set fire on the church with the people inside.

The christians who didn’t worship Tenno at the Japanese Shrine were sent to the jail. And then, Japan tortured them, persecuted their family, and even killed them in secret.Losing the nation and the power, people of Korea lived day by day in such a great pain. They lost all of their freedom and right.Without freedom, they had no choice but to live just like slaves; even worse than the slaves. The pain of losing one’s nation is the greatest difficulty of all.

Spending the whole night crying, Koreans had such a painful days. Let’s look at the verse 7 from today’s scripture. Let’s read it together.The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. (Ex. 3:7)
Amen.

It was 430 years after the people of Israel started living in Egypt. They moved into Egypt when Joseph was a prime minister. As they became many in numbers and gained strength, Egyptians started to be afraid of them.
Although Joseph saved the people and the nation of Egypt when there was great famine, they forgot everything as the time goes by.Rather, they couldn’t bear with the Israelites who became so much strong. Egypt sent Israelites into forced labor. We can see enormously huge buildings at Egypt, such as pyramids and sphinxes. They are so large that they are still among the 10 largest building of the world.

Thutmose II, who was a Pharaoh at the time of building the huge pyramids and sphinxes, constructed them using the people of Israel. At that time, there was actually no machines for construction like today.The pyramids are so huge; one of them is 277m tall and 545m wide. There are even 2 millions and 300 thousands to 2 millions and 500 thousands of stones, which sums up into 2,500 kg, to build a pyramid in average. Thinking of moving, building, and measuring those stones, it must be a such a hard labor to build a pyramid.

Today’s scripture is showing the pain of that forced labor. In Egypt, they were living even worse than the slaves, without any rights, powers, and freedom as human. They spent everyday in pain. The pain was so big that we can see them crying out and praying to God.Church! This morning, let’s think of this Scripture, having God, who has the sovereign authority over everything, in our mind.

The Bible says that it was 430 or 400 years ago that the people of Israel settled at the Egypt. The place they lived before was the land of Canaan. Joseph, who was living well at Canaan, was sold to Egypt as a slave because of the jealousy of his brothers toward him. There he was jailed without any sin. However, God put Joseph in the position of the Prime Minister of Egypt.

Furthermore, God put the land of Canaan in famine, calling them to Egypt, and made them dwell there for 400 years. When they first came of Egypt, they lived at the land of Goshen, which was one of the best land in Egypt. But now, after 400 years, things were completely changed.Here we need to think about one thing. God called Abraham, made him to leave Ur of Chaldea and go to the land He showed to Abraham. Abraham obeyed Him, left the Ur of Chaldea, and departed to Canaan.

God then blessed Abraham, and then Isaac, and the Jacob. When we look at their lives, we can find out that God has blessed them so that they might live in prosperity. They lived happily. They were free, and there was nothing they lacked of.But what has happened at the time of Joseph was completely different from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 400 years after Joseph, it was so much painful that they even doubt whether God’s promise was true or not.

Here we need to think about one thing. God called Abraham, and promised him, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Then I will make your name great. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

We can see that Israel now is not in blessing, but in such a great pain. Listen to their prayer. They were in so much great pain that they were even about to blame God.Haven’t you ever be put in painful situation just like Israelites in Egypt as you live trusting in Jesus by the grace of God? If you are in that kind of situation, how would you think of your life?
I want to find the answer in today’s scripture. First, let’s look at Genesis 15:1216 together.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
Amen.

This scripture is the record of God promising to Abraham, the grandfather of Jacob, before the people of Israel enter Egypt. God said, in the fourth generation their decadents shall return. Let’s look at the verse 16.
“In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here,… “ Amen.

Although Israelites were living painful life at Egypt, God had told to Israel the plan of 400 years before. And we can see that exactly after 400 years from then, God is achieving that promise.
Praise the Lord!

Look at the verse 13. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there." Amen. God knew the pain that the people of Israel would suffer. He knew that they were going to be in the difficulty. But that was absolutely in God’s plan and the divine providence.

Let’s look at Exodus 3:7 from today’s Scripture. 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” Amen.
It is written that the Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my peoples, I have heard them crying out, and I am concerned about their suffering.”

Why? That was because God already had planned it 400 years ago. Praise the Lord! Church. We say that we are the one who plan and make our life.However, when we look at our lives in the divine providence of the absolute authority, we can realize that God chose us before the Creation, sent us to this Earth at the right moment, achieving His will though us, revealing His goodness through us, makes Himself joyful and glorious through us, and will call us at the set moment.

Praise the Lord! That fact is that God knew the pain of the Israelites. Beloved Church. Is there anybody who are in such a great hardship in your life as the Israelites had?Then, I hope you to acknowledge that the each step and each breath of you are under God. God knows all of your pain. God is listening to your cry. God knows all of those anxiety, pain, tear, sorrow, hardship, hunger, and difficulty. What does it mean that God knows it and are listening to it? It means that it is under God’s plan. It means that it is the will of God.

It means that there is something God wants to do through your life. It means that God wants to make His glorious history through your life. It means that God wants to use you as a holy tool by which He will achieve His story. It means that God wants to use you as the gateway of the redemptive history, the tool of the God’s providence, and the achievement of His authority.

Even though there are lots of people, God chose some even before the Creation of the world, and has sent them at the right moment that God had already decided beforehand; and you are one of them. Praise the Lord! Church! It is such a pain to go through the difficulty before you. I know that your hardship is great. I believe that there are difficulty in your environment and economical state.

But Church! Step one more step, open your spiritual eyes, and see the Lord. See that glorious history of redemption that God will achieve through you. Think of that amazing righteous hand of God. Praise the Lord!
Look at the Genesis 15:14. Then why did God made people of Israel suffer in Egypt? Let’s look at it together.
14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. Amen. It was for God to judge Egypt and show that God is God of justice. Let’s look at today’s scripture. Let’s see Exodus 3:9.

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Amen.
God is righteous. The meaning of God being righteous is that God is a good and righteous judge who won’t judge people without any sin.

But look at Egypt. What did Egyptians do? It is written that God had seen how the Egyptians were oppressing people. The fact that there is a wrong doer and the wrong things he has done is now revealed clearly to everybody. It is that God knows the fact that people of Israel are appealing to God in pain.

Praise the Lord! Church! Do you think that your life is painful? Than cry out. Come before the Lord earnestly. God does not ignore our cry. God is not someone who just listen our sorrow and go away.
When we cry out to God, He listens to it, answer us, and let us know what God wants to do in us through the pain. God make known to the people who cry out in pain His great and mysterious providence. Praise the Lord!

God said He would judge the sin of the Amorites. God said that He would judge the sin of the Egypt. Not a few people are being narrow-minded by understand today’s scripture only in that sense. But it is clear that we should look at it with wider and biblical perspective, seeing it with the greater perspective in God’s promise.
God’s promise cannot be changed. If we understand today’s scripture only as God judging Egypt, it does not go with God’s faithfulness, goodness, mercy, and compassion.

God sent 10 disasters to Egypt. God revealed Himself as God of justice by sending the progressive disaster of the blood, frogs, gnats, fly, death of the livestocks, boil, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the first sons.
But the Bible says that God’s purpose is not judgement. Let’s read the Gospel of John 3:17 together. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Amen.
God is revealing the God of justice judging Egypt through the 10 disasters. But in the deeper level, it was by God’s righteous purpose to protect, save, and guide people of Israel out of the land of Egypt so that they might serve and praise God.

Church. Genesis 15:14 is also showing the reason in detail why God allowed the people of Israel to be in pain by Egyptians. Let’s read it together.
13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

Amen.
The purpose that God made Israelites to live in Egypt for 400 years — the reason that God allowed them pain was not just for the pain. And also, it was not just for the judgement over Egypt.
It is that the pain God allowed to Israel was to bless them. God’s greater purpose was for Israelites to know that gods they were serving were just idols by judging Egypt through the 10 disasters, so that they might serve the Lord.

The 10 disasters over Egypt was more of God loving Israel His people than God judging Egypt. It was the process of faithfully achieving the promise He had with Abraham that the people will be blessed through him.
Beloved church! Now open your eyes widely. And look at the faithful God who is achieving His promise with Abraham, which was before Isaac, before Jacob, and before Joseph.

Look at the people of Korea. Although they were in pain for 36 years under the Japanese ruling, don’t look at the pain only. God loved them, and made them, who were in pain, greater that other peoples of the world.
Church! There has been no time that Korea was better than now economically. Now, a million and 800 thousands of foreigners are living in Korea, thanks to Korea. Such a thing has never happened after Korea started trading with other nations.

Korea has always been attacked by China and Mongolia. Japan gloatingly desire to take over Korea. The time of pain was not short. But think again. Was it only pain? Was it only sorrow? No, it was not.
We can see the providence of God that blessed this nation and this people, just as He achieved His will toward the people of Israel. I pray in Jesus name for you to have Sunday of the 70th Independence Day with that precious enlightenment.