Servant Preparation
God’s commitment to the deliverance of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage is based upon something more than His wonderful compassion upon an oppressed race, even when the oppressed people are His people. God had purposed worldwide redemption through His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, prior to the creation.[1] The Hebrew people were a people with a divinely planned destiny. They were to be the channel of God’s redemptive purposes for the whole world.
In Genesis 12 the LORD chose Abram, having determined that it would be through Abram’s descendants that the Seed promise[2] would be fulfilled. Abram became Abraham,[3] and was supernaturally enabled to father Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel.[4] It was, of course, the descendants of Israel who were enslaved in Egypt as the book of Exodus opens.
Since God’s eternal, worldwide redemptive purposes are directly linked to this enslaved people, we may well ask ourselves the question, “How was God preparing this nation to become His servant in the fulfillment of those redemptive purposes?” The book of Exodus helps to provide clear answers to this question.
The LORD was preparing Israel to be His servant in worldwide redemption when He permitted them to become enslaved in Egypt. This would forever keep before them the wonderful truth that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob delights in delivering men from bitter hard bondage. And, while the bitter hard bondage of Egyptian slavery was intolerable, it pales into insignificance beside the terrible slavery of sin. God was going to bring Israel out of Egyptian bondage. They could do nothing about their plight, but God’s purposes will stand. God was manifestly preparing His enslaved people to become His servant people through the bondage placed upon them.
As well might the monarch of Egypt have sought to stem, with his puny hand, the ocean’s tide, as to prevent the increase of those who were the subjects of Jehovah’s everlasting purpose. Hence, although “they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens,” yet, “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.”
Faith alone could recognize in those oppressed slaves, toiling in the brick-kilns of Egypt, the heirs of salvation, and the objects of heaven’s peculiar interest and favor.[5]
This is just the beginning. God’s preparation of Israel to serve Him redemptively is wonderfully delineated throughout the entire book of Exodus. There are lessons to glean from God’s special preparation of the man, Moses. His life clearly divides into three 40-year periods. The first might be seen as the years of Divine Protection. The last may be viewed as the years of Divine Power. But the middle portion of Moses’ life may clearly be seen as the years of Divine Preparation. During those years the LORD prepared Moses in many ways. I am confident that this Divine preparation of Moses lays the foundations for God’s preparation of His people for redemptive service throughout all dispensations. Following are a number of suggestions regarding how God prepared Moses for redemptive service.
God brought Moses into contact with all the learning and education of the Egyptians.
God humbled Moses by having him exiled from Egypt after Moses killed the Egyptian.
God further humbled Moses by making him a keeper of sheep.
God gave Moses a non-Hebrew wife.
God met Moses at the burning bush.
God gave Moses a revelation of Himself.
God identified His eternal redemptive purposes.
God commissioned Moses to go to Pharaoh.
God overruled all of Moses’ objections.
God brought Moses back into fellowship with his brother, Aaron.