Introduction:
It could be said that the church exists as a love training center. The church exists to teach God’s people what to love, how to love those things, how much to love those things.
Including love of nation.
It is good to love your spouse. Your children. Your job.
It is good to love the Chiefs. Chik fil A. Etc…
So long as those loves are properly ordered according to God’s word.
It is good to love your nation. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be loved. Your spouse, children and football team aren’t perfect either.
I was rereading the book of Empires of Dirt this week. I think around chapter 5, I found a statement that made me want to stand up and clap:
“We are constantly and regularly subjected to a false alternative. Either we must believe that America is the last best hope for mankind, or we must be muttering ingrates who don’t recognize or appreciate any of the advantages of living here.
America is emphatically not the last best hope for mankind. What perfect nonsense. Jesus is savior. He is the last savior, he is the best savior; he is the blessed hope.
But America is emphatically not a dingy little tawdry place to live in, either. It is a great nation and has accomplished many great things–as other great nations have before us as yet others will after us.”
Martin Luther once wrote, "Ministerial work is to make saints out of sinners, living souls out of the dead, children of God out of servants of the Devil.”
Ministerial work is to turn both national idolators and national ingrates into Christ-loving patriots who have a properly ordered love of God and country.
And our particular location in Exodus lends itself to this aim. For two reasons:
Firstly, we are invited to look back and see how the Exodus story has been interwoven into our national history. Secondly, we are able to see what role Exodus must play in our future – if we are to have one.
So those are the two points we’ll examine today.
The Exodus in America’s Past
The Exodus in America’s Future
The Exodus in America’s Past
Our national story is interwoven with the Exodus story.
There are three phases of American history where Exodus became really the central story:
The Pilgrims: 1620
“When they embarked on the Mayflower in 1620, they described themselves as the chosen people fleeing their pharaoh, King James. On the Atlantic, their leader, William Bradford, proclaimed their journey to be as vital as ‘Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt.’ And when they arrived in Cape Cod, they thanked God for letting them pass through their fiery Red Sea.” – Bruce Feiler, How the Story of Moses Shaped America
William Bradford:
Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean and were ready to perish in the wilderness, but they cried to the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity…. Yes, let them who have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He has delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men.
Indeed Bradford became popularly known as “Moses” and Plymouth as “Little Israel.”
In his book, The Bible and Civilization, Gabriel Sivan writes:
“No Christian community in history identified more with the People of the Book than did the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed their own lives to be a literal reenactment of the biblical drama of the Hebrew nation.”
The Patriots: 1776
More than a century and a half after the Pilgrims’ arrival, the American colonies went to war against their British colonial masters in a struggle for independence, and the revolutionaries were also very much stirred by the story of the Israelites.
In his pamphlet Common Sense, which was published in January 1776 and had a galvanizing effect on American public opinion, Thomas Paine described King George III as the “sullen tempered pharaoh of England.”
On July 4, 1776, the declaration of independence was ratified but before dismissing, the Continental Congress conducted one final piece of business. The following resolution was passed:
“Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.”
August 14, 1776 letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams recounted some of the debate. Benjamin Franklin, Adams wrote, suggested “Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharoah, in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters,” and the following motto, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Thomas Jefferson imagined Americans as “the children of Israel in the wilderness…led by a pillar of fire by night,” alongside representations of early Britons “whose political principles and form of government” the United States assumed. Adams concentrated on Hercules, the mythical figure of strength, “resting on his club,” gazing towards a figure of virtue, and impervious to sloth and vice.
Jefferson was so taken by that phrase that he had it developed into his own seal.
The Slaves: 1775-1870
Now simultaneous to this, going back to right around the same period of time, slaves in the south began using the Exodus as a metaphor describing their own plight. This kind of rhetoric was used by both the slaves and the abolitionists going all the way up through the civil war.
One of the most famous songs amongst the slaves:
The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go
If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go
Oh! go down, Moses
Away down to Egypt's land
And tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go
II. The Exodus in America’s Future
Here we are in 2024.
164 years from the Civil War
248 years from the Declaration of Independence
400 years from the Mayflower.
What relevance should the Exodus story play in our national identity? Can we return to the well one more time and use this story to guide our next step as a nation? I think so. But only if we apply it internally.
Let me explain what I mean.
John Adams wrote:
“...we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The most pressing and I would argue most patriotic application of the Exodus story would also be the one most supported by the New Testament – namely the spiritual one. The one in which people enslaved to various sins and vices are set free to worship God.
I do believe the Exodus story may be used politically, collectively, externally. But it must be used spiritually, individually, and internally.
As one commentator puts it, “The book is not about liberation in general or about political and religious freedom in particular, but about deliverance from bad servitude to good servitude. The Israelites served Pharaoh but were called by God to serve him instead.”
The main problem with liberation theology is not that it expects the will of God to manifest in politics, systems of power, etc… That’s not the problem with liberation theology. The problem with liberation theology is that it relocates sin, out of the soul and into political systems. The problem is always “out there.” It never helps a people deal with the problem “in here.”
I know there are still great injustices out in the world – various political Pharaohs to oppose – many in our own government. But before we can do any of that we’ve got to lay hold of internal freedom.
So let’s walk through that. Look at Exodus 6:6-8
Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ”
As mentioned last week, we have seven “I Will” statements from God.
The first two have to do with liberation:
I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians
I will deliver you from slavery to them
The third has to do with redemption:
I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment
The fourth and fifth “I will” has to do with adoption:
I will take you to be my people
I will be your God
The final two statements have to do with possession:
I will bring you into the land
I will give it to you for a possession
There are obvious gospel connections to all of this.
We are liberated from sin and satan.
With the precious blood of Christ, we are redeemed from the guilt we incurred through our sinning.
We are adopted into the family of God.
We are given possession of the kingdom which cannot be shaken. A kingdom which is not of this world but is absolutely for this world.
We won’t have time to explore all of this. But I want to be sure to cover the concept of liberation.
Here we are discussing liberation in its deepest sense. All other expressions of liberation are mere echos or implications of this fundamental liberation.
Pharaoh = Satan
Egyptian bondage = slavery to sin and Satan
The Bible teaches that slavery to Satan is:
Natural – this the default state of the human soul (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Invisible - it isn’t something you see (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Vocational - you work for him (2 Timothy 2:6)
Unfruitful - you get only death in return for your efforts (Romans 6:20-21)
Formidable - there’s nothing you can do about it (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Natural
The bible teaches us that all people, by virtue of their own choice to sin, are caught up in slavery to Satan.
Thomas Watson writes,
See into what a wretched deplorable condition we had brought ourselves by sin. We had sinned ourselves into slavery, so that we needed Christ to purchase our redemption: But by sin we are in a worse slavery, slaves to Satan, a merciless tyrant, who sports in the damnation of souls. In this condition we were when Christ came to redeem us.
The New Testament talks about Satan capturing people to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:6
Invisible
The bondage is perceptual in nature. Their hearts, minds, and souls are blinded both to the realities of their enslavement and the means of their freedom.
2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
In Egypt, the people recognized their slavery. But in this greater spiritual slavery, the recognition of enslavement is often hidden from the slave. His mind is blinded. He does not see his enslavement. He is in Plato’s cave.
We live in a time with increased sensitivity toward corrupt systems of power. Everywhere we look, we see strong evidence that the game has been rigged. The great irony is that so many of the people who see this externally fail to see an even worse oppression at work internally.
Vocational
And Ephesians 2 tells us that in this state of being, individuals, no matter how well meaning, no matter how legitimate their external grievance – are actually pawns of the devil. Unless you have been liberated from his kingdom, you work for him.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” – Ephesians 2:1-3
Unfruitful
Romans 6:20 says of those who are slaves to sin and satan
“what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”
So that even actions we think are good tend to lead to either pride or other unforeseen problems.
And this is one of the reasons why America’s future depends on recovering the spiritual meaning of Exodus. No form of government is immune from being hijacked by Satanic schemes.
Listen to how Screwtape puts it…
“And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods?”
Formidable
This situation is incredibly dire. In the first chapter of Exodus, Pharaoh sets out to deal shrewdly with the Hebrew people. He was indeed a formidable opponent. And Satan is even more so.
Previously God told Moses that Pharaoh will not let you go unless compelled by a strong hand. This is even more true of this deeper enslavement.
2 Timothy 2:24 talks about people captured by Satan to do his will.
How does one get free?
This is why Christ came.
“The Son of God … was made man to share the same state and nature as us.… He put on our nature in order to submit Himself to the state of death.… He has freed us from a diabolical tyranny.… The devil himself has been laid low as to be of no more account, as if he did not exist.” – Calvin
He came to deliver “...us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” – Colossians 1:13-14
So this is the role Exodus must play in the immediate future of America. Too many of its citizens remain in bondage to the devil. What kind of external freedom can we expect to manifest when the majority of our citizenry is in bondage to the devil?
We must double down on gospel sharing. We must proclaim freedom to the captives.
God told Moses to tell the people: “‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.”
God tells us to tell our neighbors: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)
And of course you think, they won’t listen! Well that’s not what Jesus said. In John 16:7-11 he says,
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Illustration: I think of our friend Brandon. I won’t use his last name because he’s in a position of some prominence and I didn’t ask permission to talk about this. I just thought about him this morning. He and his fiance attended Providence for a while until he was moved for his job. But Brandon was a political conservative who had a front row seat to some of Antifa’s hijinks back in the summer of 2020. Suddenly Brandon realized he was on the front lines of a spiritual war. He saw the fundamentally religious nature of the militant left. And he also realized that while he was politically on the right side – he was spiritually lost, without God, dead in his sins and trespasses. He asked a Christian friend on his team, “what must I do to be saved?” And he put his faith in Jesus as the true liberator of the soul. Brandon’s a Christian now – experiencing the fruit of God’s fundamental liberation.
Freedom Comes from Freed Men
The final thing to notice is that God used a free man to pronounce freedom.
Moses had freedom the others did not. He had escaped Pharaoh’s tyranny previously, and God miraculously kept him free throughout his interaction with Pharaoh.
This is of course most fully represented in Christ. But there is also something here for us.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. – 1 Peter 2:16
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:20-23
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. – Ephesians 5:11
Live a free men proclaiming freedom to a world enslaved to Satan. Obviously the devil doesn’t want you to do this. So you can expect opposition, temptation, distraction.
But rebellion against this tyrant is indeed obedience to God.
Communion
Consider Luke 4 for a moment. It begins with Jesus being sent out into the wilderness to do combat with the devil. There he is offered enslavement at a cost. All of this can be yours if you worship me. Jesus overcomes the devil.
In the next verse we see, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” (Luke 4:14-15)
And in the next section, we are told what he taught in those synagogues,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This whole work amounts to an undoing of Satan.
They are poor because they are oppressed by the devil.
They need liberty because they are captured by the devil to do his will.
They need recovery of sight because the God of this world has blinded them.