John Bevere - The Real Reason God Took Israel Out of Egypt
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Now, how come Moses and Israel are so different? Why is that? Well, in order to understand why they’re so different, you must go back to when he delivered them out of Egypt. So let’s backtrack a couple of years. When Moses delivers them out, all the plagues happen and he brings them out of Egypt. Now, the question I always ask people is: when Moses delivers Israel out of Egypt, where is he bringing them to? Where’s their destination? Come on, shout it! The promised land! No! What does he say to Pharaoh five times? Thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they might worship the Lord in the wilderness. Why does Moses want to bring them out of Egypt into the promised land before first bringing them to the Promiser?
If he brings them out of Egypt into the promised land before first bringing them to the Promiser, they’ll make the promised land into a place of idolatry, and that’s what we did as a church in America. We have preached more of what Jesus will do for us rather than who he is. And you know what we’ve done? We have spawned disciples that are seeking God for what he can do for them, not because of who he is. That’s like a woman marrying a man because he has a lot of money. She loves him, but she loves him for the wrong reasons.
See, I find an amazing contrast. I look at Moses, and I look at Israel. Israel has stripes on their backs; they have labored all their lives to build somebody else’s inheritance. I mean, they have no inheritance at all. They have slaved to build Egypt. Their children have been put to death; they live in the slums; they eat the leftovers; they wear the leftovers. Yet they come out of Egypt, and they are constantly saying, let’s go back to Egypt! It was better for us in Egypt than it is in this desert! But I look at Moses. He had the elaborate lifestyle that I just described to you. He comes out of Egypt, and he never, ever, ever once said, I want to go back to Egypt; it was better for me back in Egypt. Why? Because he had one encounter with the Promiser—one encounter with his presence. That’s why he wants to take them out of Egypt and bring them straight to Mount Sinai, because Sinai is where the bush was.
That’s where he met God. He’s like, I want you to meet who I’ve met. So he brings them out to the mountain; that’s where they go. And now, listen carefully to me: God knows Moses, and Moses knows the people, but God and the people haven’t met yet. So who’s going to facilitate the meeting? Moses! So God comes down, and he preps the meeting. Everybody say, «preps the meeting!» And look, look, look what God says. He says this: Moses! He’s talking to Moses about this meeting coming up. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you—now look at the words—brought you to myself. The entire reason that God delivered them out of Egypt was to bring them to himself.