Let's turn to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus 1, meaning we're going to begin a study in Exodus. Now, one of the things that excited me as I began to study the commentators, just looking at this book. Well, one of the things that I read from every one of the commentators was they noted that this book, more than any other, seems to be quoted, I know Deuteronomy has a lot of quotes, but this This book is quoted very often by both the Old and New Testament writers, so much so that they say this book, perhaps more than any other in their opinion, gives us greater and more numerous types, pictures, and shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ and that delights the heart of his people to know that we're going to see our Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to hear of our Savior and all who believe Moses will rejoice in that.

Our Lord said if you believed Moses you would have believed me for Moses wrote of me and so this book is is said to more than any other speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we see the Lord in every chapter. of Moses' writings and all the scriptures. We see pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, some other things that are wondrous to consider here is how the Holy Spirit has assembled these books, the order in which he's put them here by the writing of Moses, leading Moses. Genesis, being first, gives us a history of the creation of the world. And then we have Exodus, a history of the creation of God's people. I had a picture in type of the Lord's new creation, his work in the true Israel of God. First, we're given the creation of the world in history, and then comes this book which follows that, giving us a picture of the world being redeemed, being redeemed. by the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then another point, another way in seeing this is that Genesis is the beginning, right, the coming in to the world, man's entrance into the world. Exodus speaks of the exit, man's leaving this world, Egypt being a picture of the world, the fallen world. And so we see here that from the time of our beginning, from the time we're born, we begin to die and prepare to exit this world, to go out from it. These are pictures that are understood here in this book.

And so Egypt is a type of the fallen world wherein the people of God are born into slavery and bondage to this fallen, sinful world and bondage to death. We're treated cruelly by the rulers of this world, the persecutors against the people God and we're unable to free ourselves to set ourselves free from that bondage but there is one who is able to set us free that is the Lord Jesus Christ right he leads us out he takes us out of it and We see here the promises of God, which were made to Abraham back in Genesis, being fulfilled unto Abraham. One promise to Abraham was that his seed would increase. The seed of Abraham would increase. And we'll see that, how that the seed of Abraham increases greatly in Egypt.

And then we see, the Lord told him, how that his seed would suffer. And they will suffer. And then we see a picture of how, as the Lord promised him, the Lord will deliver his seed. He'll deliver his seed out of their oppression and bondage. And so all these fulfilled promises will give us a more beautiful picture of the church's deliverance from her bondage to sin and death. This is all picturing the redemption of God's people. They're being brought out of the trappings and the enslavement of this world. So we see this grand picture of the new creation. born not of man, but born entirely out of the work of God, of the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see a people preserved of God according to promise, according to his purpose, to glorify his name. And we see a people led by his spirit through the wilderness, until that time when we are brought into the promised land. which we'll see in a picture of Moses there.

But not, he'll lead them, but Moses won't bring them into the promised land, right? Moses there, picture in the law, dies, right? And they die to Moses, and who leads them into the promised land? Joshua, Joshua, Yeshua, right? A picture, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who leads his people into the promised land.

And so in this first chapter here, we're going to look at the increase of Israel's family from its very small beginnings to its increase in Egypt. And that increase inspires the jealousy of Egypt's king called Pharaoh. And he begins to persecute them so that they're tried and go through tribulations. all for the purposes of causing them to be separate from this world, to cry out, to see and feel and know the bondage and the corruption of this world so that they cry out to the Lord, save me, Lord have mercy upon us, deliver us from this cruel bondage. And the Lord then delivers them out of it. He establishes a people for his name.

This first chapter here begins with an accounting, an accounting of a small number of souls in the family of God which came into Egypt under the care and direction of Joseph, Joseph, Jacob's son Joseph. And we're told, let's read the first five verses, these are the names of the children of Israel, right, the children of Israel. which came into Egypt, every man and his household came with Jacob, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already."

So, these are the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, and we're told the precise number of souls in Jacob there, the precise number that made up the stock of Israel out of which that nation grew. A precise number. It's a picture of God knowing the very souls whom he chose, the elect of God, whom he chose in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. There's a people of God that he has chosen. That's what's being pictured here.

It's a peculiar number. The number is 70. And we're to understand that from this people, the nation of Israel was born. And Israel, again, is a type of the church. The church is not a type of Israel. Israel is a type of the church, the people of God, a spiritual nation which would be born, born of the seed of promise. And we, brethren, like Isaac was, are the children of promise, the children of promise, the people of God. And so this is a spiritual body being typified by this literal people here.

And it's a peculiar number, 70. And I say that because if you look back in Genesis chapter 10, we're not going to go there now, but read Genesis 10 and count the names. That's where Noah came out of the ark. and all the people that were born from Noah. And if you count the names, including Noah's name, 70 people. Don't get confused by the city names, but there are 70 names listed. And Moses tells us in Genesis 10.32, these are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations, and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. And so out of all those descendants of Noah, which came from the seed of Adam, the corrupt seed of Adam, this world was populated. The whole world, all the nations of the earth, were populated out of the loins of Noah, out of the corrupt seed of Adam.

And so now we come here in Exodus, and there's a nation of 70 persons. 70 persons, picturing that spiritual seed out of whom all the peoples of God would come forth. A picture of that spiritual body in Christ, the seed of promise. And these would be a peculiar people, a peculiar people separated by God unto God to glorify his name in all the earth.

Of these people, we're told in Deuteronomy 26, verses 18 and 19, the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments, and to make thee high above all nations, which he hath made in praise and in name and in honor, and that thou mayest be in holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken.

And so these 70 here, these people that come forth from Jacob, from Jacob's loins here, they're a type of God's people who now by Christ we obey God's commandment. What commandment? to believe on him whom the Father hath sent to save his people from their sins." We obey the command of God. We hear and obey the voice of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that by our Lord Jesus Christ, we are the holy people of God. were his people.

Listen to the description that Peter uses to describe the church. 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and, holy nation, a peculiar people. that ye should show forth the praises, the faith of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God." He's writing to a people who were not the people of God, but now are. Now are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

And so here's a picture, in these 70 people, a picture of the chosen elect of God, whom he redeems out of this fallen, corrupt, ruined, sinful world in bondage to sin and death. This is a beautiful picture. It says, Paul writes, as in Adam, all die. all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." And so, in Adam, all that body died. In Noah, from that 70, all men died, being born of the corrupt seed of Adam.

But in Israel, right, Israel are the called of God, the children of promise, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, who call upon the name of God and worship Him in spirit and in truth. A people unlike all the people of the world. And all the world is very religious. They do many religious things and traditions and practices, and yet they do it ignorantly, not knowing the God that they think they're calling upon.

But we, with understanding by the grace and power of God, through the giving of his spirit, call upon him. Obey God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what separates us. That's how he manifests his people, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the next verse, verse six, tells us, and Joseph died. All right, Joseph died. There's something peculiar, right, when it says that Israel came into Egypt, but they went in with Jacob, right, with Jacob, Jacob being that supplanter there, and Joseph, who is a picture of Christ also, he died. And when he died, all his brethren and all that generation died with him. And so this is a, as you'll see, is a critical event that leads to what? The increase of God's people. Suddenly there's an increase in God's people. They go in very small, a very small number, only 70 souls go into Egypt. And there, after Joseph's death, all of a sudden there's an increase, there's an explosion in the number of people. And so the deaths of Joseph and the patriarchs give us another picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And the founding of his church with the 12 apostles, right? And the establishing of the church there, it shows us another picture of Christ. It shows us him.

First, the people of God were brought into this fallen, sinful world, born in sin and ruin through one man, through one man, Adam. And here in this book, it's pictured in Jacob, that name Jacob, which means supplanter. And he's a fallen, sinful man. He's a trickster. He's a conniver. He's scheming all the time. That's how we came into this world, born of Adam, Adam's corrupt seed.

But just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so by one man we shall be brought out, delivered from that bondage. Even the Lord Jesus Christ pictured here in Joseph, verse one, saying, These are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt. Every man in his household came with Jacob. Jacob, that's our birth there in Jacob, fallen Jacob. And in here, we see Joseph typifying the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed for our salvation, for our life, to give us life and make us fruitful in him.

So we come. to verse six, saying Joseph died, and here's a type of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people, and what happened? When he died, there was an increase. When he died and rose again, there was an increase of fruitfulness in the house of God. John 12, 24, our Lord says, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

And so our Lord was taken by the hands of wicked men, According to that determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, to die as the substitute of his people, to atone for our sins, to satisfy the debt that we owe to God of perfect righteousness, and to reconcile us to God all in grace, not in works. Just as Israel didn't purchase their way by their own works out of Egypt, so it is that we don't work our way and purchase our way out of our bondage. It's all in grace. Just as God delivers them in grace out of Egypt, so our Lord delivers us in grace.

I'm gonna quote Romans 3, verses 23 through 26, or read it, where it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that God might be just and justifier of them which believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ, that God would be just to forgive us of our sins, to do it justly and perfectly, all above board, not winking at our sin and pretending we didn't sin, all on the level because of Christ and what he did, what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us when he was crucified for our sins.

And then another picture comes from Romans 6, 6 through 8. When it speaks of Joseph dying, and all the patriarchs, and all that generation, right? Romans 6, 6 shows us this very thing with our Lord, where Paul writes, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. When Christ went to the cross, we were brought to that cross in him, in him, so that we died with our Lord in him to the law. We died having satisfied God perfectly in perfect righteousness and all things that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

When Christ died, he destroyed the works of the devil. He dismantles them in us. He destroys that work. He removes the blindness, and the darkness, and the deadness, and the coldness, and the ignorance, and gives us light and life in the Lord Jesus Christ, which looks to Him. In the inner man, all that inner man can do, born of Christ, is belief. He cannot sin, as John said. He cannot sin. The inner man cannot sin. This flesh is corrupt and vile. All it does do is sin. And yet Christ triumphs gloriously over all his enemies.

For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. That we no longer stand in Adam and in Adam's inheritance. were translated out of that kingdom of darkness. And the inheritance that is in that flesh, that death, were translated out of that into the kingdom of God's dear son, to stand in him and in his inheritance, in his family.

And so once Joseph died, this led to the increase of the people of God, they began to increase there. And they began, we begin to see the beginnings of this new creation, a new people, a new creation born of God. When our Lord died, all his generation died in him on that cross that we might live forevermore in him. So though in Adam we're born dead in trespasses and sins, in bondage, unable to free ourselves, yet in Christ we are born again to serve God in liberty. in faith, in love, in joy, not under a yoke of bondage and fear, but in peace and in joy and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ who has saved us mightily.

And so look at this fruitfulness back in Exodus 1 verse 7. right after he died, and the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them." And so, here again, we see Christ, His fruitfulness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed man written of in Psalm 1, 1. In Psalm chapter 1, verse 3, he's that blessed man, the tree, planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. And his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

You that love the Lord, it's because of the prospering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because of his fruitfulness wrought in you. We praise him for what he's done and wrought in us in serving God and knowing him. Now, having done that, having done this work, we see a picture here of how the Lord proves his word of promise to us, how he brings to pass that promise spoken of in the garden in Genesis 3.15, where the Lord says, I will put enmity between thee, the serpent, and the woman, my bride, my church, and between thy seed and her seed. And so this is what comes to pass now in this chapter here. It begins to describe the persecution. It begins to show that fourth here, after Joseph's death, and the people begin to increase mightily, verse 8 through 10. Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. All right, what a picture of The old man, what a picture of the devil and the powers of this world, which know not our spiritual Joseph, that do not worship and serve the true and living God willingly, willingly. All men are his, and he controls the heart. He's sovereign overall, but they hate and despise him.

And they knew not Joseph, and he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel, and not the people of Jacob, but the people of Israel, are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when there falleth out any war, and there is a war, spiritual warfare here, spiritual warfare, They join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

And so here's a picture of what the fleshly response looks like to God's work, to God's people, to God triumphing gloriously and increasing his people. What happens? It provokes the flesh. The world's response is a response of fleshliness, of enmity, of persecution, of carnality. These are a picture of the works of the flesh, which Paul said should not be named among you, brethren, not named among you. He said these are the works of the flesh which are manifest, and he gave many examples including hatred, emulations, which means jealousies, and emulations, wrath, envying, murders. These are not the fruit of the spirit, but the works of the flesh.

And there's no enmity described in the people here. There was no enmity spoken of in their hearts against Egypt there. But the king of the land hated them and persecuted them nonetheless. There was no love that thinketh no evil against them. No, he thought evil against them. There's no fruit of the spirit. We see a picture here in Pharaoh here of the spirit of the age, the spirit of the world, the way of the world, and that hatred and persecution.

And so I say this so that you see the ugliness of the flesh, what the flesh looks like, which opposes the truth of God and opposes the Christ of God and opposes the spirit of God that saves God's people to the uttermost in grace, in a spiritual work, And God has purposed it to be so. God has purposed it to be so, to manifest it in this way. Paul saying, yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. In Christ, in faith unto Christ, they shall suffer persecution.

And here's how that persecution manifested, verse 11 and 12. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were grieved because of the children of Israel." They were grieved, they were troubled by that spiritual seed promised of God. That spiritual seed.

So that here's that spiritual picture set forth with Pharaoh burdening the people, binding them, troubling them, doing cruel things to them. And it pictures what we're born into in the flesh under the burden of Satan. So that he, before we know the Lord, when we're still learning what sinners, what trouble we're in, We're burdened by Satan, who troubles us so that we're afraid to die. We're working, and striving, and spending, and laboring, and working under that yoke of bondage, afraid to die, wondering, have I done enough? Have I done enough? Can I die now? And do I have any assurance of going to heaven? And you never do, because you're laboring under that yoke. And because you're not hearing, you're not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know him yet until that day of grace when he makes you hear his voice. But the Lord does this. He brings this. He brings his persecution. He prevents you from being successful under the law so that you see, I can't do it. It's for your good. It's for our deliverance that we would stop trusting the flesh and look to Christ, whom the Father has sent. to save us from our sins. It's to separate us from the love of this world. It's to separate us from the way of this world and to deliver us from the power of Satan. To take us away from that power of the devil through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 13 and 14. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, to hunt them, to chase them, to force them, to ride them. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field. Works. Just as we saw when they built the Tower of Babel, they baked bricks, something that had never been done before. They took hay and slime and they made bricks and built up great works to the glory of man until the Lord dispersed them. But here they're making them do those same things in all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor, with rigor.

And so that we see here through these trials and afflictions the Lord's accomplishing for his people a far more glorious salvation. We're not saved by rigor. We're not saved by laboring forcibly under the law. It reminds me of when Esau and Jacob saw for the first time, when Jacob returned from Laban, and Esau met him and said, all right, we're going to drive you guys back to my place. We're going to drive you guys. And Jacob said, no, no, you're not going to drive us with rigor. You're not going to force us and march us quickly, because we have little sheep and we have little people, and they're going to die in the way. They're going to kill them. It's going to be too hard. They're not going to survive it. And so Jacob wouldn't have anything to do with it.

But here, it's a picture of laboring hard under the law. all right, to make a name for yourselves under the law. And the Lord does this. He says in Psalm 105, verse 25, turned their heart, the heart of the Egyptians, to hate his people to deal subtly with his servants. God did this. God had a purpose in it. He allows that persecution to rise up against his people because through that persecution he separates out his people. Unless we should be comfortable and secure and happy in this world. Just as Israel would have been happy to stay in Goshen had everything been good. But the Lord is separating out his people through this persecution so that it becomes evident who is God's seed. God's seed. They cried, they groaned unto the Lord to save them, so that without those trials, they wouldn't have done it. They wouldn't have done it.

So we're seeing here, this is where we're gonna stop, but it's all according to purpose that our Lord does this, so that we see his hand of wisdom, of goodness, of righteousness in calling us out, all right? To see and know that all things work together for good according to God's purpose, God's purpose of grace. So that's the beginning there, brethren. Amen.