July 30

“So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”  —EXODUS 3:8

The deliverance of the Hebrew people from bondage out of Egypt is the most frequently told story throughout all of Scripture. The reason is because it is full of typology, which is pictures and foreshadowing of the Messiah who was to come.

Egypt is portrayed as slavery to sin; the Passover Lamb is Jesus Christ, and crossing the Red Sea is a picture of baptism. Going into the sea symbolizes death to the old life, and coming out on the other side depicts resurrection to new life. When the people needed water, God told Moses to take his staff and strike the rock at Horeb. Water came out of the rock, and Paul says, “That rock was Christ”  (1 Corinthians 10:4). Canaan, the land they were going to, is portrayed in Hebrews as ‘resting in the fullness  of God’.

The journey from Egypt to Canaan should have taken eleven days, but it took forty years. Like the Israelites, we often get stuck in our Christian lives and make little progress, if any. To know what God has in mind for us, we need to look at the purpose of the Exodus. God did not deliver Israel because He wanted to get the taskmasters off their backs. When they came out of the Red Sea, He did not wipe His brow, and say, “Phew! Mission accomplished!” Getting out of Egypt was not an end itself.

God’s purpose in delivering the Israelites was in order to bring them into Canaan, where they would fulfill the covenant God made with their forefathers. It was to re-establish the original purpose for which He had set Israel apart, in which they would become a blessing to the world. Many times in the wilderness, God reminded them of His purpose. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God” (Leviticus 25:38).

The reason God delivered His people from bondage is the same reason He delivers us from sin. It is not that we may be forgiven, cleansed and one day go to heaven. These are wonderful aspects of the Gospel, but the purpose is as Paul says in Ephesians 3:17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Entering the land of Canaan is a beautiful portrayal of our resting in the sufficiency of Christ. It is a land rich in resources where we live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and come to know and experience God. The goal of the Gospel is not to get us out of hell and into heaven, but to get God out of heaven and into people.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for your wonderful plan of indwelling us, and giving us the sufficiency of Christ for all we need. 

TO REFLECT UPON: Have I entered into the land of Canaan or am I stuck in the wilderness?