The Three Signs

Transcript

so yeah tonight we want to look at those three signs that uh Butch just read from uh Exodus chapter 4 when Moses was at the burning bush you know the god revealed his memorial name to Moses but he also gave him in the story continues that event continues into chapter four when God gives him these three signs and tonight I want to look at how these three signs I I think point back to three

lies uh

the a lot of I say majority of what I share tonight uh is not like original to me I have to uh give credit to a Jewish rabbi by the name of uh David Foreman who has a podcast that actually brought out a lot of these things uh and thinking about how lies really are HID are hidden here in this text and actually pointed to uh when you dig into it it brought out uh some some cool things to help really understand how the genocide really that that the Egyptians were carrying out start with with with lies and the current events and seeing like the horrible things that people were doing in

in Israel uh you know a week and a half ago and and you know the horrible things that continue in war it it kind of got me thinking about like how could people do the things they're doing to children and and it really comes down to these lies these lies are what allowed the Egyptians to do horrible things to children

and to to to be able to without feeling guilty you know cast children into the into the Nile River uh and kill them that kind of you know heus acts come because ofc because of these lies that are at the source and God with these three signs is really addressing these lies and uh so when I saw the news it kind of made me think back this this podcast I think I heard like a year and a half ago um but the the lessons were pretty power ful so um I thought I would share those with you guys tonight um so we we had those three lies that Butch uh read for us the lie or sorry the three signs sorry the staff uh that becomes a serpent uh the hand that becomes leprous and

the and then the Nile that become or sorry the the the water of the Nile that becomes Blood on the dry ground so those are the three signs and the first question is like why why did these signs why did God give these signs to Moses so in the context as we said remember this is when when God was speaking to to Moses at the burning bush and he Reveals His name God gives a message to bring to pharaoh and to Israel uh in verses

16 of chapter three God says go and gather the Elders of Israel together and say to them the Lord the god of your fathers the god of Abraham the god of Isaac the god of Jacob has appeared to me saying I have observed you and what has been done in Egypt and I promise that I will bring you up out of the Affliction of Egypt to the land the land of the Canaanites uh perizzites and so on and up to the je jebusites so God's promising Deliverance for his people so this is the the context

and uh that word that's that's there in the ESV I have observed you uh is I think translated in the King James is sure visit maybe surely visit

you I did you know some research into this word and one uh lexicon mentions that uh out of all the the verb in the Hebrew language this one which actually occurs over 300 times is the most probably this given translator is the most difficulty um it's just a it's a really hard word to to to pin down somewhat uh and

the the the word the way the way that foreman translated it was to say that it means to remember with intent to redeem and uh that I think is powerful ful powerful way that it's that capturing the meaning of that word uh in the ne translation which has excellent notes they they have a note about this word that says pakad the Hebrew word there has traditionally been rendered to visit but this only partially communicates the point of the word when God visited someone it meant that he intervened in their lives to change their circumstance or their Destiny when he visited the amalekites he destroyed them when he visited Sarah same word he provided the long awaited child in Genesis 21 verse one it it refers to God's active involvement in human Affairs for blessing or for cursing so here it could mean that God had begun to act to deliver the Israelites from bondage and to give them the blessing of the Covenant the form is joined here with the infinitive absolutive there's a grammatical term that just means the doubling of the words that we have like you will surely die or you will um in Genesis 3 being the most famous example of that so it underscores the certainty I've indeed visited you some translate it to remember others say watch over the ESV had uh observed

you these do not capture the idea of intervention to bless as and often with the idea of Vengeance or judgment on the oppressors if God were to visit what the Egyptians did he would stop the oppression and also bring retribution for it end quote so there's a richness to this message that we we we miss and and the difficulty that translators have of capturing the meaning of this word um so this is why God was giving them giving him the signs he's he's he's going to well it's coming sorry in the next let's look at one more verse and we'll understand why God was giving Moses the

signs it says and chapter 4 verse one then Moses answered but behold they will not believe me or listen to my voice for they they will say the Lord did not appear to you so God's telling Moses go and and tell him that I've I've observed you I've uh I've seen what you're going through I intend to redeem you I intend to bring

justice but Moses was fearing that the people wouldn't wouldn't believe him so the signs that that God gave Moses were God's response to this assertion that they won't believe me so that's why there were signs but why these particular signs why these

three so ask yourself if if some traveling preacher were coming through and he did these three particular magic tricks to convince you to believe that he was sent from God would they be enough to convince you to follow

him or you know if you were God think about you have the ability to give Moses way more oppressive signs than these to ensure the people are convinced right so it's not

about it's not about just the the miraculousness of the signs it's about something that they

communicate um I mean just to drive home the point think about some of the signs have overlap like in chapter five Moses Pharaoh's magicians uh cast their staffs and they turn into snakes and they they poured water and had it turned into blood um so

you know God could have picked something more dramatic and he could have picked something that the regular magicians of Pharaoh's Court couldn't do but yet he chose these particular signs so on one sense you might think they're not quite impressive enough um and yet when Moses meets the elders at the end of chapter four they believe uh we read in chapter 4: 29 then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the Elders of the people of Israel Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their Affliction they bowed their heads and

worshiped

so these the signs did their job they convinced the people

uh but I don't think it's just because of the fact that they were Miracles I think it was that there must have been something in those signs um that that communicated an important message to the Israelites so let's put to help us answer the question why these signs let's put on the top here I'm putting re putting again God's message that he's saying that Moses had to bring to the Elders that I have observed you so put that with the result from chapter 4 together uh oops I shouldn't have put that all on build but anyway of so there's the linkage first of all there's the linkage um that God said I've observed you that

I've uh seen with the intent to and I'm remembering with the intent to redeem what happened to you that's that word pakad and the belief of the of the people is expressed with the same Hebrew word but in English we get a different translated word um where it says visited the people of Israel the people believed they heard that the Lord had visited the people that was that same word okay that so there's that linkage that there's it has to one connection is it has to do with this what God is doing here he's he's telling them he he's remembering with the intent to redeem

them uh so it's not just

believing in God as an intellectual way the signs are about what this what this what they they're about communicating to the people that God really knows what they've been suffering and what they've been going through it was meant it meant that he was intervening in their lives to change both their circumstances and their destiny he was remembering them

and what was done to them with the intent to redeem both so it wasn't just I've observed you uh I will come and and and miraculously uh change your destiny but it's I'm remembering what has been done to you and and uh and then the the people saw that he visited the people of Israel them and he had seen their Affliction so there's this connection it's not just what he was going to do in in promising to to uh rescue them from their current Affliction but he was going to redeem the past um the past why was the past so important why did it have to go back to the

past is because the suffering in Egypt wasn't just about the suffering in slavery but it was also about the lies when when people are victimized and lied about or lied to it's especially harmful the combination of those two Redemption involves addressing the lies what happened to the victims is

acknowledged and it's made clear that it was real that's part of the Redemption process the three signs convince the

Israelites because they those signs addressed the lies so how did these signs communicate this to the

Israelites why

um well to try to answer that question we want to try to look for the meanings of the signs well the first or sorry the third sign was the most obvious according to what God was telling he said okay you know do the first sign and if they don't believe then do the second sign and if they still don't believe then do the first first sign and they're definitely going to with the with the implication they're definitely going to believe after the third sign so there's something about the third sign that would have helped them get it first or most obviously and then as they reflected on the earlier signs they would understand as well I think is the idea that's being um hidden or being revealed to us so let's think about it what is it about that first sign the

um the water going

onto the ground what's the meaning of that

sign to have to understand that I think we have a hint if we look forward to the first

plague because the first plague mirrors this this first sign uh somewhat or the third sign I'm sorry the the first plague mirrors the third

sign when the Nile turned to blood

and if we think about the two of them they are so pouring out the water of the Nile and and it's revealed as blood and the Nile itself turning to blood and what is that pointing to what is God revealing I think God is revealing the worst thing that the Israelites had endured when the genocide went to the point of like casting those boys baby boys into the Nile why did the they were killing the baby boys why did Pharaoh have them use the Nile to do it if you think about it the point was to to kind of cover up the crime to cover up their sin the victims would be hidden we read in in uh chapter 1 verse 22 that when Pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile but you shall let every daughter live

so he was having them throw those victims the baby boys into the Nile because it was hiding the uh the crime

and a medieval uh Jewish scholar by the name of ROM uh suggested that the all his people in this verse wasn't just the servants like his all his hired you know Serv or or something like that but it was all the people of the nation were being called to commit these heus acts um and they would so in his imagination he's thinking through you know what could that have been like he's thinking in the middle of the night Egyptians should go could go in and take a a Hebrew boy throw them in the Nile and then you know the the if if the the Jewish victims are like you what they've done to us bring in the authorities where's the where's the evidence there's no evidence nothing happened here so it's it's a a lie that's being used to cover up the the violence that was done to the Israelites and and and as this is happening it's does it does bad things to your mind to be victimized and lied about and having the the truth covered up really by Nature the denial is hiding the truth of the reality that their children were murdered until the Nile turns to blood they

realize it's clear they there weren't crazy the Egyptians were really killing their children the Nile is not hiding it anymore and God is showing he's making it clear for all to see God says I see your suffering I know what they did to you Egyptians now have a choice could they could own up to it Pharaoh could say

yeah oh I get what the message is um I really wrong you guys um he could let the Israelites go but instead the process continues because he hardened his heart so that's I think what the first sign is is pointing to the lie that you know nothing's really happened to your your baby boys

it there's no evidence okay that that's that's made clear when the Nile reveals that it was it was filled with the blood of innocent children so what about the second

sign uh what could that leprous hand be pointing to part of the hint is that only one other person in the Torah was ever afflicted by Le with

Leprosy and that was that was of course Miriam and when Aaron described it uh uh this is what we read in Numbers Chapter 12 um when the cloud removed from over the tent behold Miriam was leprous like snow and Aaron turned toward Miriam and behold she was leprous and Aaron said to Moses oh my Lord do not punish us because we have done foolishly and we have sinned let her not be as one

dead so Aaron makes a connection to the

leprosy and death

and he continues it's not just any particular death he says who uh whose flesh has eaten away when he comes out of his mother's

womb what's Aaron describing he's describing a stillborn

baby the Torah links leprosy with the white colorless skin of a baby born

stillborn so come back to the the second sign if we consider that Moses hand was kind of a a fake leprosy because a moment later he puts it in his cloak and pulls out it again and it's and it's and it's

restored what could that be referring to in the Israelite suffering back in Exodus 1 did Israel ever experience a lie related to stillborns or fake

stillborns well

um so in Exodus 1:15 I think we have the connection then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of whom was named shiah and the other named Pua when you serve as Midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool if it's a son you shall kill him but if it's a daughter he shall

live so uh um another Hebrew commentator Jewish commentator from the M medeval time said named even Ezra commented that Pharaoh was asking the midwives to secretly kill the male children as they came out of the womb and then you know present the child and say I'm sorry um you've given birth to a stillborn child this was what what Pharaoh was asking those midwives to do it was to be a fake stillborn

which

um which was to that was that was Pharaoh's plan but it didn't work obviously because the heroic resistance of shifra and Pua who who risk their lives to to disobey Pharaoh's

um Pharaoh's command and and and tell a lie to try to protect the lies of these

children that that that heroic thing brother uh

um H I'm not going to remember

um anyway a dear brother whom whom you all know I'm just I can see his face but my brain is forgetting uh made a point once in a series of classes that God is like never names the pharaoh's name in Genesis one or throughout the whole thing but he names these midwives here for and Pua they're they're being elevated and named and honored and and Pharaoh is not is being Dishonored by not by his name not even been mentioned so just a a small point there um which I thought was powerful um so Pharaoh's uh lie that he was asking them to make about the about these stillborns about these children who call them stillborn um his his plan was foiled by the by the faith and heroism of these two midwives um so that forced pharaoh to go to the Nile as his murder method instead which which we looked at already God is saying in the second sign he knew those lies too that that Pharaoh was was commanding The Midwives to do so what about the third

sign uh what could that be representing the the what could the staff turning into a snake and then coming back to uh becoming a staff again what could that be pointing

to well a clue is in the the third sign this third sign uh or sorry back back to the third sign the water turning into blood was the um first plague the second sign going back one step was referring to before the plagues with the with a lie that Pharaoh wanted the midwives to tell so if you follow the pattern going back um so this um sorry not the third sign sign the first sign here would go back to even

earlier and I think

that that that earlier time had to be before the Midwife part of the story and one chapter 1 vers1 15 is told we have to look earlier that would be I think in chapter 1 verse 7 when the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with

them so when we read that um there's there's there's a lot there the

the we can see how there's Echoes back to Genesis one this being fruitful and multiply this is what was happening they they started out as 70 people who went down to Egypt uh and now they've become this vast multitude God has blessed them but looking at the p Mage carefully you can look at it from more than one

perspective and in in some of the the the vocabulary there's actually a looking at it from from Pharaoh's perspective and and and that continues as you read further in in in chapter one it seems like the Egyptian perspective of this multiplying um is also in one of the words here that goes back to Genesis 1 the word that's translated increased greatly

uh is the word in Genesis 1 for the swarming creatures used for the sea creatures in chapter 1 verse 20 um when God said let the let the waters swarm or team with swarms of living creatures it's describing a population explosion uh like some of the other vocabulary in in in here in chapter one of Exodus is is is using but that word is often used in a negative context later in Exodus that's this is the word that's used for the teeming frogs of the second plague which Pharaoh you saw as a rightly you saw as as a as a horrible thing they were they were taking over everything this teeming swarm of creepy crawly things um that kind of terminology this word kind of has that kind of terminology to it from from the so from the Egyptian perspective the people were like these swarm of

of uh horrible pests uh the the incredible Faith fruitfulness of the Israelites was like the threat of an army of swarming creatures that were invading somebody's home this picture here is a picture of uh locusts this is a a little a photo of locusts in in North Africa um I forget which country but in North Africa just filling the sky um there's just so many countless uh swarms of of of locust and this happens I remember um just a few years back this happened in Kenya where we lived um after we had come back home I remember hearing about how how that horrible thing had happened there um thinking back to our time in Kenya we had an experience that was kind of like this overwhelming swarm taking over our home when uh this swarm of bees just filled our home they they decided to take over our home and we we all got out as quick as we could and um except for actually Aaliyah had to stay but that's another story um but she was under an an insect net a mosquito net to protect her from from the bees but

anyway I kind of know what that feels like to to have this swarm taking over your home and that's how Pharaoh was looking at the Israelites he was thinking of this of of the Swarm that was growing exceedingly strong which was kind of taking over his house and that's why Pharaoh says um in verse 9 behold the people of Israel are too many and too Mighty for us so we have to deal wisely with

them so that sense of threat that pharoh had really just came from his imagination um and as a result he acted on that that sense of fear of threat and oppressed the Israelites but the more they were oppressed we we know that God blessed them and the more they multiplied the more they spread abroad and it says in verse 12 of Exodus 1 that the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel this that that word there has a sense of recoiling and horror from these teeming swarming multitudes of Hebrews that they saw as a threat the swarm of creepy crawly things that had taken over their

home this was really the beginning of a propaganda CA campaign that Pharaoh was using uh against the Jews to convince his people to become accompli to genocide culminating in the throwing of the of the uh baby boys into the Nile the first idea is that the people were a threat or could easily become a threat the second idea was that they were more cunning and so we have to outsmart

them and that's that's really gets at the a way of avoiding your people from listening to the cries of the of the victims because you know a cry from people for help you know would tear at the heartstrings of of most

people when when they're dying um but if you convince your people that this could be a trick don't give in to that then then they go through they can more easily go through with the atrocious acts against these human beings fellow human beings um for was saying you can't trust these people they're too smart they're too cunning and the third idea which is captured in in this word for um becoming a swarm really is that the that they're less than human they're imposters they're subhuman This creepy crawly language uh fits with that purpose to to view the Israelites as less than human like like insects and and it's it's a strategy that's been us used in and many a horrible atrocity that's been carried out against other peoples the Nazis referred to the Jews as unmention and a subhuman uh or as rats or

um

as lice cockroaches foxes vultures Etc

um there there was a a book that um was uh I saw a little article about called less than human how we how we um dehumanize enslave and exterminate others that's so it's about viewing others as less than human that's really the the start of of of genocide the hutus in Rwanda referred to the tsis as cockroaches um they're not human exterminate them and the people could do atrocious things because they view these people as less than human so Pharaoh is preparing his people to do horrible things against the Jews as well in the same

way

um to feel you know disgust repugnance and Dread uh for these people um when they saw them when they saw the Swarms so you know that that kind of thing kind of when I was asking like how in the world could people do the things that were being done um in Israel lately and Gaza it makes me you know think back to this lesson that I saw that it actually we can see it here in Exodus as

well so Pharaoh saw the Jews as a threat as cunning as subhuman and you think about if God were to try to C capture those lies in a word in a symbol what would he

choose well the serpent is something that captures all three of those uh for people who are familiar with the biblical text so that's why that that third sign would have spoken to the Israelites the snake or so the staff is cast down and becomes a snake and the snake is like think back to Genesis 3 it's like an impostor human uh you know it as part of the curse it had to go um on its U on its belly which seems to indicate that before that maybe it had legs and could walk and so it walks and it talks like a human uh it seems to have human-like intelligence and yet it's not quite human and so The Serpent and the serpent of Genesis 3 was more cunning and crafty than any beast of the field so you can think of why it would be that that Pharaoh would use or sorry what God would use this symbol to represent the way that Pharaoh viewed the children of Israel the lie that these were subhuman people the snake perfect per per perfectly captures uh what the Egyptians thought of the Israelites as an impostor as a threat as subhuman which which would make it easier to justify mistreatment and and heinous acts of

violence so why the the thinking about that that symbol the sign a little bit more uh in detail it was a staff then it became a snake and then Moses picks it up and it becomes a staff again what's with that is there something hidden in that those chain of

events well the word staff the Hebrew word mate is a word that's more often translated as

tribe

interesting staff and tribe are the same word in Hebrew now I think part of the reason for that is like a staff is something you can lean upon you can trust uh that can support you and help you in your walk well that's what a tribe can do as well your people your people are there to support you and and and help lift you up when you're going through

difficulties so the staff is a perfect symbol of of a of a people of a tribe that were cast down to the ground and treated as snakes and then is treated as as subhuman but then Moses reached for the serpent well actually first think about his his uh response when when when it first happened Moses like was like ah and he he he ran from it he was he was repulsed with fear just like the Egyptians were repulsed with fear by the by the teeming numbers of Israelites so God was exposing the LIE this wasn't really a snake this was a staff this these people this tribe of Israel were not really subhuman they were they were people they were a tribe and God's like exposing the lie because when Moses picks it up by the tail

um now think about that you wouldn't if you're trying to catch a snake you don't grab a snake by the tail because they just Arc around and like bite you you you grab it right behind the head so that it can't get you but God told them to pick it up by the tail which is not something you would do to a snake but this wasn't really a snake this it was just a fake snake it was an illusion and the illusion evaporates when he picks up the snake because it becomes a again God in this s in this sign in is in this first sign was telling the Israelites I understand how you've been treated and I understand the lie that's been perpetrated against you that's the root of the killing the enslavement the mistreatment the lies that culminated in the blood of the Nile started with this lie and God said I understand this I understand what you how you've been lied

about so when you see this you see how those three signs show God's empathetic compassionate understanding for his people that he understands what had been happening to him the lies that were behind the Egyptians

mistreatment and this helps the people believe they believe that God knows and understands the secret things that were being done to them and so now we can understand why um they

they responded with belief and and and and and praise and thanksgiving to

God ah I forgot my slides forgive me um so we answered why it was a staff uh it was a tribe cast to The Ground God exposes the LIE it really was H A Tribe and so

when Moses grabbed by the by the tail um he was demonstrating that this wasn't really a snake this was a staff so the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and had seen their Affliction they bowed their heads and they worshiped they give thanks to

God

so so what we've seen so far we've seen the three signs the snake Lep's hand the water to blood and we've seen how all three point back to lie this the the snake points back to the subhuman LIE the lepers hand points back to a still the stillborn lie the water to blood points back to children that were not killed but the

reality uh was made evident that God saw the blood that was in the Nile he saw the blood that was there hidden in that water and he revealed it to the Israelites first with the sign that Moses brought to the elders but we also saw that help to help us understand it that it pointed forward to the first plague it pointed forward to the whole Nile turning to blood so the signs don't just point backward to the lies they also point forward to the exposing of the lie and the Redemption that comes with

truth

and when the truth is revealed again thinking of another you know just horrible um acts of of of human

mistreatment the power of truth could be seen another thing in history um the the Truth and Reconciliation committee or or commission I think it was called in South Africa after apartheid came to an end the there was wisdom in in actually setting up this opportunity to to bring things that had been hidden that horrible things that had been done were brought to light and that was so important to help the victims in the nation he heal and start to bring healing to the rift uh between the White and the black of South

Africa um so it makes sense here when God is revealing the truth when when he made the whole M the whole Nile turned to blood and revealed made it clear for all to see that there is blood of innocent children in those Waters God was bringing the truth to light and that was the beginning of the uh the Redemption

process so it it magnified the symbol and brought the truth to

light now could the first and second signs also portend to a future uh Redemption and uh revealing of the truth well do we hear Echoes of the first signs later the leprous

hand that we went back to the the LIE of the

of the the babies that you know Pharaoh was saying kill the babies and pretend their firstborns that was the the LIE of the leper's hand so if you think about what that points forward to that would point forward to death of children in the 10th plague but you know there's things some things that don't seem to connect you know we have children dying but is that all there is I mean the Egyptians firstborn didn't get leprosy and they weren't really dying at Birth they were firstborn but some were you know older and some were kids but it was just the firstborn in every house died um but they weren't really dying at Birth uh so is there is there more evidence that we could say that the second sign really points forward to the the 10th plague well there's a vocabulary a couple vocabulary hints as well that really I think confirm this the in Exodus 11 verse one the Lord said to Moses yet one more

plague uh one plague more I will bring upon pharaoh and upon Egypt that word plague believe it or not is only used once in Exodus the other nine acts of judgment upon Egypt weren't named as neim the the the Hebrew word Nea is this is the word here used for the plague um if you look at um on in my computer program I I pulled up that word in a bar chart and you can see in Exodus it only appears one time I don't know if my cursor will show up on the screen I'm not gonna try um but there's a little blip in EX in Genesis and there's a little blip in in Exodus when uh the 10th plague happened what we call the 10th

plague no no place else but look at that big spike in Leviticus what's that all about what was happening there um so and that comes from all of these verses in Leviticus 13 and 14 and don't worry we're not going to read them all I know you can't even probably see them unless you really squint at your screen um but let's let's zoom in on a couple what's what's Exodus Leviticus 13- 14 all about well it's all about leprosy a plague of leprosy a plague in the skin of Flesh a plague

is turned white um and the plague in sight deeper than the Skin So plague of leprosy over and over again licus 13:14 are all about leprosy so God is in his in his word is connecting the 10th plague with Leprosy which then connects us back to that second sign and there's more hints um the Egyptian firstborn die in a womb of Swords there there it's just described that there wasn't a house in which the child didn't die and those houses are really portrayed as wombs containing children because think about how the Israelite children or the Israelite homes were on this Passover night there was

blood of the Lamb on the doorposts and on the top of the door and when the word came that it's

time the people came through that Bloody opening to leave Egypt that's a picture of a birth and look at Exodus 4:22 think about what God Said ahead of time th you shall say to Pharaoh thus says the Lord Israel is my firstborn son and I will say to you let my son go that he may serve me if you refuse to let him go well let's pause there so God is likening his people as being born on Passover uh well yeah later it would be clear that this was happening on Passover as they emerge from the womb of their homes through the through that opening that Bloody opening they're being born as a

people um so so he said to so God said to Moses uh relaying God's words to Pharaoh says if you refuse to let him go behold I will kill your firstborn

son this was being fulfilled in the 10th plague a nation was being born it was birth um but at the same time that's happening with Israel in the Egyptian homes there's others that don't successfully live leave their homes they don't leave the womb alive they were like children in a womb that were stillborn

and and the morning parents carry out their dead firstborn through that opening of the

doorway as a they have a stillborn child in their hands or a stillborn it could be you know an older person but it still captures that image of a still of of a stillborn so now the lies of Pharaoh's plan in this in the 10th plague are reflecting back upon him and upon his people when the firstborn are becoming the stillborn

so what about the first sign okay that first

sign there's a what's the Redemption what did that point forward to so it pointed back to the lies of the serpent so what would that point forward to well if you think about the timing the third third sign went with the first plague going backwards the second sign went forward to the 10th plague so going back to the first sign should bring us forwards to something after the 10th plague well there's a language hint as well um sorry that should say 43 Exodus 4:3 in describing the sign God said throw it on the ground and Moses threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it the Hebrew there is really ran from the face of the snake um literally and there's only one other place that uses that word for run and that word from the face and that's in Exodus 14 when the Israelites cross the Red Sea after the 10th plague the Egyptians their chariot wheels are clogging and the Egyptians said let us flee from before Israel that's the same words it's it's the I mean it's it's conjugated differently because it's it's they're saying it to each other let us flee but it's the same Ro same verb that's used of Moses fleeing from before the snake and it's from before the face literally of Israel instead of um from the face of the snake so there's a

connection Israel the face of Israel and the face of the snake so if this if you take that hint then you can see that or the the C cross going across the Red Sea is this vast line of people that are the snake that Moses or sorry Pharaoh called him a snake and now they literally looked like a snake and and Pharaoh was wanting and the Egyptians want to flee from before the face because God was fighting on their side um you know think about when when uh Moses said catch them by the tail or catch cat the serpent by the tail here Pharaoh the Egyptians have one last opportunity they could grab hold and and treat Israel as as not subhuman but real humans who have been victims that they were the aggressors towards and and they have a chance to to repent one more time um but but they don't do it and the the last uh link is uh the the belief idea God said in four in Exodus 4:4 you know catch it by the tail and it will become a that they may believe that the Israelites May believe that the Lord the god of your fathers the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob has appeared to you well that belief word doesn't happen

again um other than when they did sorry in chapter F uh four they believe uh at the end of the at the end of the signs when the signs were actually carried out before the before the elders but we don't see it again through all the the signs of the 10 plagues it doesn't say that Israelites believed it's not again mentioned until now when they're crossing the Red Sea and that snake you know the word snake is not there there's a staff but there's no snake there but if you think of a picture it you know I don't think the Israelites would have taken a straight shot straight across the Red Sea because under the under the water on the ocean floor the or the sea floor there's going to be obstacles and things that they're going to have to twist and turn around and if you imagine this big mass of people going back and forth or sorry going forward but kind of winding back and forth it would look very much like like uh like the way that a snake looks upon the ground you look at one spot on the curve curving of the snake's body and it's like it doesn't move side to side it doesn't move I say laterally from the L length of the snake's body it only is like moving forward and but yet it looks like it's kind of standing still I mean in the uh the Proverbs it talks about you know the mysterious way of the serpent on the rock that that that the way that looks you can imagine that that's the way the the snaking tribe of Israel would have looked but they weren't really a snake it just appeared that way they were really a and God was redeeming them and the people believed they believed in the Lord and they believed in Moses who sent who who God sent them um and it's just this beautiful picture of God redeeming his people so those

lies God saw he knew the lies that the people were uh that were told about his people and he knew their suffering and when he was going to rescue them he didn't just pull them out um but God provided the acknowledgment that the things that they were suffering were

um he knew the truth and he made an effort to make that truth visible clearly to people that were witnessing these events as well um God was redeeming his people and redeeming them from the lies as well and that just shows the power and the Wonder and the compassion of our

God and it made me think about you know like so many things we can see scripture points forward to Jesus think about Jesus he suffered at the hands of liars as well they saw him as a threat just like the Egyptians saw Israel as a threat um we have the connection out of Egypt I called my son it's brought for in the gospels as quoting as referring to Jesus we have that parallel and and these people the the the ruling people with power in the Jewish culture they saw Jesus as a threat they saw him as an impostor not one of them he was something less than them in their eyes um there's so many there's so many Echoes and and mirrorings back to what we what we just saw in Exodus and when

God saw Jes uh suffering when God made sure and in in the scriptures we see that God was revealing Truth for all to see when the ruling Jews were trying to have Jesus put to death you know what was there on on above Jesus on the cross in three languages so it would be clearly declared to all to see this is Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jew Jews there was a declaration this is this is the king there was a declaration by pilate this man has done nothing deserving of death the truth was being

proclaimed and revealed even as Jesus went to suffer for

us and a deeper meaning to that came to me as I was you know pondering these things yesterday I never saw I mean I always thought of is a Judicial thing like okay he's done nothing deserving the death penalty but think about the the Declaration there he's done nothing deserving of death well all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and have sinned and the wages of sin is death but Jesus did nothing deserving of death in his whole life he was sinless God's proclaiming that he's he's putting down the lies the lies of of the Pharisees and and the ruling Jews and and saying this is my beloved Son uh he he says he makes it clear the Roman Centurion

declares this surely was the son of God all this truth is being proclaimed to to combat the lies that were spoken about Jesus um it's just really really cool to to see the echo uh forward and and there's The Echoes of course of how Jesus redeems us and what it what it can tell us about why we can trust in God and and grow closer to God knowing that he's a God who cares you know think about the lies the lies of the serpent uh of sin we are in bondage to sin

because those lies that told us the wrong way to go those lies that um that say you will not surely die um God's God brings the consequences of sin to light when Jesus died on the cross he died because of our sins it's not okay to listen to the voice of the serpent we need to we need to to fight our human nature our sin and and put it aside and instead turn to God's ways um Jesus is is drawing us out away from those lies and and setting us on a path to life he's G he's giving us a new life um and and you know those lies also say to us you're you're not really worthy you're you're you're

um you know God wouldn't want you God wouldn't care about saving you those are lies that we can tell ourselves when we fall and we sin and we you know we realize we really screwed up but Jesus when he suffered for us was telling us the truth that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that we could be set free from our Egypt our bondage to sin to a new life to become his people once you were not a people but now you are a

people um sin tried to kill us at our birth within the house but the Blood on the doorpost the blood of our lamb allowed us to be born again to a new life so when we see the sign

the signs of the Prophet like unto Moses him shall we hear we see that we have a great God who knows and sees our pain and our suffering and we believe we see the signs point what they pointed to and brought to the fullness of light and that that we see the revealing of truth that sin tried to conceal the sin the signs are declaring the truth about Sin that and that we have a God who brings truth Truth and Reconciliation and Redemption to his people and the destruction of sin and we believe and rejoice

greatly thank

you