The God Who Delivers

I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians.   Exodus 3:7-8

Faced with an oppressive Egyptian regime, the defenseless Hebrews cried out to God. What else could they do? They were completely powerless.

The great question raised in the book of Exodus is whether the living God can do anything to rescue his suffering people. And if he is capable of doing something, does he care enough to act? We still ask the same questions of God when we see suffering around us today: Can he do something? Does he care enough to act? God gives us the answer in the judgment that he brings on Egypt.

The people could be saved from oppression only if Pharaoh repented of his evil or if the evil was destroyed. God spoke to Pharaoh through Moses, telling him to let the people go, but the Egyptian leader refused. Then God spoke through a plague, but Pharaoh still refused. More plagues followed. Every time Pharaoh defied God, the cost of his defiance grew—for himself and for the people he led.

The reason God brings judgment is that he will not allow evil to stand. God made that plain on the day sin entered the world. If you do not understand that God will destroy all evil, you will fail to understand the Bible’s message. The modern world does not feel the need for a Savior because it does not believe in a God who will bring judgment.

When God wanted to deliver his people from the tyranny of the Egyptians, he sent a man named Moses with a litany of plagues. When he wanted to deliver his people from the tyranny of sin, he sent his Son to take on human flesh. If you ever doubt God’s determination to destroy evil, look to the cross, where the Son of God experienced all the plagues of hell so that you never would.

For further reading, see Romans 5