NT Connect: Jude 5
Weekly Reading: Exodus 6-10
Jesus Saved a People out of Egypt
The exit (or Exodus) of God’s people from slavery in Egypt is one of the best rescue stories in history! For 400 years, the Hebrew people groaned under their oppression and longed for relief. An exit. A rescue. A Rescuer.
Imagine what that would have been like to live as one of God’s chosen people during this time. All you have ever known is slavery. Your days are spent making brick after brick (sometimes without all the necessary resources like straw), trying to keep your head down and survive one more day. All you’ve ever known is slavery, and it was no different for your parents or grandparents. The prospect of a better future for your children is grim at best. So you groan and cry out to the Lord, praying he is still there, hoping he will care and respond. Exodus 2:14 says, “The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.”
God heard the cries of his people. In fact, he had been hearing their cries and prayers all along and now he was ready to respond and rescue them. This week in Exodus 6-10, we read about God’s dramatic rescue of his people through a series of plagues. God used blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts and darkness to get Pharaoh’s attention. Next week, we’ll read the rest of the story about a final plague, the Passover and the main event for which this book of the Bible was named.
In the meantime, we need to see how the events of this book point forward to Jesus Christ and paint a beautiful picture of the Gospel and God’s dramatic rescue of his people today. Jude 5 says “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” Through Moses and the nation of Israel, God was painting a picture of what Christ would do for us on the cross many years later.
Much like the Hebrew people, each of us is in a desperate situation. Hopeless. Helpless. Unable to rescue ourselves. In John 8:34, Jesus said that “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” While the Hebrew people were in physical bondage, ours is spiritual bondage. Our slavery to sin has separated us from the Lord and we are spiritually dead (see Ephesians 2:1-10). Just like the nation of Israel needed a rescuer to free them from bondage, we need a Rescuer to save us today. Jesus was the Rescuer back in the days of Exodus, and he is still our rescuer now. Colossians 1:13-14 says: “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”
Take some time this week to thank Jesus for being your Ultimate Rescuer.
Jamie Willis