I'll just say that again. It's
Exodus chapter 12 and verse 33. And the Egyptians were urgent
upon the people, that is the children of Israel, that they
might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we be
all dead men. And the people took their dough
before it was leavened, and their kneading troughs, being bound
up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of
Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they borrowed of
the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And the Lord gave the people
favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such
things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Succoth, about
six hundred thousand on foot that were men beside children. and a mixed multitude went up
also with them, and flocks and herds, even very much cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes
of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt. For it was
not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could
not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. Now the sojourning of the children
of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years, and it came to
pass at the end of the 430 years, even the selfsame day it came
to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land
of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed
unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord
to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading also. Well, following the 10th plague
and the death of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, the Egyptians
wanted to be rid of the children of Israel as quickly as possible. The verse that we read there,
our opening verse, says that the Egyptians were urgent. They were urgent upon the people
that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they
said, we be all dead men. So they were looking at the bodies
of the firstborn that had died throughout the land of Egypt. And there was an anxiety that
they needed to be rid of these Hebrews, these children of Israel,
out of the land as quickly as possible. And this made all the
people, it made the whole nation of Egypt rose up with this feeling. But I think perhaps it's more
likely that it was the leaders of the Egyptians, and perhaps
even particularly amongst the leaders, those that were especially
Pharaoh's servants. And I say that because Pharaoh
having now agreed that the children of Israel could leave, I suspect
that it's Pharaoh's servants that plead with them to be gone
quickly. perhaps fearing that Pharaoh
would change his mind again, having changed his mind so many
times before, and that this time God would slay the whole nation. So this is the situation that
we find ourselves in. The children of Israel are being
ushered out of Egypt with great urgency. And we're told how Moses
and Aaron and the children of Israel did indeed leave the country. And this was them coming out
of the land of Egypt. A little reference there to 430
years. And I've seen a few places where that 430 years is spoken
of as the duration of the time that the children of Israel were
in Egypt. It's not actually the case. The
duration of the time that the children of Israel were in Egypt
was probably just around 200 to 210 years. That 430 years
is from the time when the promises of these events were given to
Abraham. So slightly longer there in the
number of years mentioned than the actual time that the children
of Israel, well almost double, that the children of Israel were
in Egypt. But now they were leaving. After
these 200 or so years, the children of Israel were leaving the land
of Egypt. And we're told several things
about the way in which they left. The first thing we're told is
this, that they left quickly. They didn't have time to prepare
any meals or leaven their bread. So they simply collected the
dough from their kneading troughs, they wrapped it in their robes,
threw it over their shoulder and walked out the door, never
to come back to Egypt. And we're also told that as they
carried their bread and their clothes, this unleavened bread
and their clothes, that they left during the day. They left during the day, and
I think that's so that we realise that the Egyptians could see
them go. They didn't sneak away in the
night or when it was dark. They left in the day and they
all left on one single day. That seems also to be the thrust
of this message before us. And the third thing that we learn
about the way in which they left was that they left in an orderly
manner. Moses tells us a little bit later
in these verses that they left in their armies, in their armies,
which seems to suggest an ordered way. Each tribe gathered and
they marched out of Egypt together in an organized way. They took
their children, they took their flocks and their cattle. And
Moses tells us that there were 600,000 men. Now, the suggestion is that
that means there would be 600,000 men of military age or fighting men. And if that's the case, we're
not simply talking about there being 600,000 people, we're talking
about there being 600,000 military aged men, probably from
20 and above. and there would be children and
there would be the women folk as well. So it could mean that
number of 600,000 could mean upwards of 2 million people. on the move on a single day. It's a huge number and we should
be aware of the size and the significance of this movement
of people that was taking place all these years ago. And something else is interesting
here. In Psalm 105, David the Psalmist tells us there that
all these people, as I say, the 600, perhaps as many as 2 million,
there was not one feeble person among their tribes. That's what
David says. Not one feeble person amongst
their tribes. Although they were starting this
long walk out of Egypt into the wilderness to the promised land,
The Lord had given them all the health and the strength to do
that, despite all the troubles God gave them. fitness for their
travels. And from the 70 souls that had
gone down into Egypt at the time of Jacob and his sons and Joseph
being there, God had increased the people to this huge number,
perhaps 2 million in these 200 years. And another thing that we're
told about this journey is that they were joined in that journey
by a mixed multitude. And I think this is interesting
too. It means that as well as the
children of Israel in their tribes, that there were people of other
nations, perhaps there were other slaves or foreigners that were
living in Egypt at that time, or residents of Egypt that maybe
had married into the tribes of the children of Israel, or Egyptians
themselves who realised that God was with these people, and
that God was doing these people good, and looked around the devastation
of Egypt and thought, I'm going with these people whom God is
blessing. I'm going to come back to that
in a moment. Here's a final thing that I just want to mention at
this stage. They didn't leave empty. The people who left at
this time, here we see another marvellous part of their history.
God made the Egyptians willing to give their riches to the children
of Israel. And again, back to Psalm 105,
which is a little bit of a history of this event. We're told that
God brought them forth also with silver and gold. So God brought
them forth. And in Exodus 12, 36, we read,
and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as they required, and
they spoiled the Egyptians. This had been part of God's promise
from when he first told Moses about the plagues and about Israel's
liberty. Not only would the Egyptians
lose their natural resources of water and crops and cattle,
even their children, They'd be so eager to see the children
of Israel leave their land that they would give up their gold
and their silver and their raiment too. And it had been promised
to Abraham all those 430 years before. In Genesis 15 verse 14
we read, And also that nation whom they shall serve will I
judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance. So these are the ways in which
the children of Israel left Egypt on this day. And I just want
to draw a couple of applications and mention a couple of things
with this in this respect. First thing is this. the open,
the fact that they did it during the day and they did it when
everyone could see them, and the organised way that the Scriptures
tell us the children of Israel left Egypt, is, I think, to show
us that God was in control of every step and stage of the way. And nothing was secret, and nothing
was hidden, and nothing was devious. The whole nation rose up in one
day to march out of the country in their armies. And the Egyptians
who had held them in slavery for so long and had refused to
let them go for so long were pleased to see them go. They pleaded with them to go
as quickly and as urgently as possible. And this was the effect
of God's judgment on Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And I think
that there is a little lesson here for all who trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm sure that Pharaoh and the
Egyptians considered this time in the life of their nation to
be very chaotic and very confused, a dangerous time, an uncertain
time. And rightly so, because the Lord's
judgment had brought chaos and trouble upon the Egyptian nation. And yet for all that chaos and
trouble, in every dealing with his people, the Lord was gracious
and the Lord was a merciful provider. He was a caring guardian. And our lesson from that is that
if we trust the Lord, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, let
us not become disturbed by the troubles that we see, in the
lives of the people around about us, in the lives of the people
of this world and in the evil systems that are under God's
curse. Their confusion is part of God's
judgment and His care is our portion. Proverbs chapter 12
and verse 21 says, there shall no evil happen to the just, that
is those who are justified by the blood of Christ, but the
wicked shall be filled with mischief. Here's another thing that I want
to draw your attention to. It's a question, really, a question
that probably you're wondering about, because I certainly wondered
about it. Was the borrowing, or was not
the borrowing, of the Egyptians' gold and silver wrong if there
was no intention of giving it back? I think that's a good question. And I think in my own head that
I'm of the view that, well, yes, that wasn't right that they should
do that. There was a certain dishonesty about that. But actually, I would be wrong
in thinking that. Because to understand what was
happening here, we need to see it in its proper context. And
we need to remember that this was God's will. And of course,
if it's God's will, it must be right. That's why we believe
that the Bible is true, that the directions of the Bible are
true for us, because this is God's written will. This is God's
will to us in this world. This is what we live our lives
according to. And it was God's will that this
should happen. He had prophesied it for many,
many years. He had anticipated it. He prepared the Egyptians for
it. and he told his people that this
is what was going to happen. It was his doing. Remember what
we read? He brought them forth also with
silver and gold. And there's a moral defence,
I think, for this also, because these riches had been wrongfully
gained through the servitude and the slavery of the children
of Israel. From the time of Joseph, when
the Egyptians had nothing, they gave everything that they had
in order to buy grain, in order to preserve their lives, the
people of Egypt had nothing. Egypt had been blessed because
of Israel, but they had dealt deceitfully with Israel. Remember, even Pharaoh threw
their babies into the River Nile. And now God was bringing retribution. And with that retribution came
a redistribution of the wealth of the Egyptians. God was fighting
for his people against Pharaoh and God defeated Pharaoh. And
these were the spoils of war. And one last thing that I want
to mention to you, just as we bring our thoughts to an end,
is this. The mixed multitude is a very interesting part of
this account as well. The mixed multitude is a reference
to the fact that there was a group of people who were not the children
of Israel who left Egypt at the same time with the children of
Israel. And they're called a mixed multitude
because there was a lot of them and they were from different
nationalities. They were not the children of
Israel by birth, but they were added to the people of God when
they chose to follow and obey the will of God. And I think
that this is a wonderful picture of the gospel and it's a wonderful
picture of the way that the Gentiles were brought into the church. by the preaching of the gospel
by the apostles, by the apostle Paul and Peter and John and the
other apostles when they went out preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It's a picture of the gathering
in of all the nations into this mixed multitude. The Gentiles
were brought into the church by gospel obedience of faith. And that reminds us, I think,
that our salvation is not by our birth. We're not a believer
because we're brought up in a Christian home, or we're not a believer
because somebody that we know is a believer. We're a believer because we personally
trust in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's way of salvation. Salvation's not by our birth
or our nation or our family, but by trusting Christ. And when
the Lord brings us to faith in Christ, We wish, we desire to
follow Him and to obey Him and to live our lives to His honour
and His glory. And we want to leave behind the
old life. If you like, we want to leave
behind the ways of Egypt and the old ways. And we want to
follow the Lord and go to the place that He has promised. to the promised land. And the
Lord has given us this picture of a city, a place where the
Lord's people will dwell at peace with him. And we look forward
to both entry into that fellowship of the Lord's people and ultimately
to the glories of heaven and the mansions that the Lord has
prepared for those that love him. Today, Right now, the church
is a mixed multitude. It's people of all ages, people
of all colours, people of all countries, people of all languages. But what binds them together
is this desire to follow after the Lord. Their sins are forgiven. They have been bought with a
price, the price of Christ's blood. They have been brought
into the family of God, along with those who were the true
children of Abraham by faith, the Israelites indeed. And we
might feel that because of our sin and because of our deeds
and because of our failures, that we have no hope and no right
to salvation. We're not good people like these
other people. But you see, God's opened the
door. and he shows us the way to go. He brings those others that didn't
deserve his blessings and didn't deserve his benefits into the
people of God, a mixed multitude. By the blood of Jesus Christ,
we receive the promise of eternal life, not by right, but by mercy. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today.