God Keeps His Promises: The Lesson of Exodus

Introduction

After the fall, humanity spirals downward: Cain kills Abel, God sends the flood, men build the tower of Babel. Three great rebellions, three great judgments, and we already understand that humanity cannot fix the world on its own. That's where God speaks differently. He doesn't judge, he promises. He chooses Abraham, commits to blessing his descendants and, through them, all the families of the earth. Four hundred years later, these promises seem forgotten. Israel is enslaved in Egypt. And yet it is precisely there that God will show that he keeps his word. This message gives you two things: clarity on how God's plan works, and confidence that God can carry out this plan.

Message Outline

1. Humanity cannot save itself

• Three rebellions in nine pages of the Bible: Eden, the flood, Babel. Each time, God brings judgment, and each time, things start to degenerate again.
• Human reason and education allow for real progress (it is God who gives us this reason), but they are not enough. In the 1930s, Germany was one of the most cultured countries in the world, and that did not prevent the Holocaust.
• Today, some place their hopes in technology, AI, transhumanism. There will be real advances. But as early as page 9 of the Bible, we see that without God, humanity cannot recreate the very good world intended at the start.
• If the solution cannot come from humanity itself, where can we find hope for a broken world?

2. God speaks and promises (Genesis 12 and 17)

• God has just judged humanity three times. And right after Babel, he promises blessing to Abraham. This declares his love for the world.
• These are promises from God: spoken by the same voice that created the universe. It is God who commits himself, who says "I will do it, I will take care of it, I will bless."
• Four promises answer point by point the brokenness of Eden: life continuing through a great nation (Genesis 12:2), blessing restored for Abraham and all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3), a renewed relationship (Genesis 17:7), a place given, the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:8).
• These promises are the beginning of a solution, not yet the complete solution. The line is dotted: God still has to keep them. But they declare that there is hope, even when the world is degenerating.

3. God proves he keeps his promises (Exodus)

• Four hundred years after Abraham, his descendants are slaves in Egypt. They are not in the promised land, they are not living under the blessing, and they have even forgotten who God is. The promises seem forgotten.
• Exodus is the first draft of the script for how God will save the world. Like a manuscript sent to the editor, it's not the final version, but you can already see the author and what he is trying to accomplish.
• God redeems his people (Exodus 3:7-8). What jumps out in Exodus is the total passivity of the Israelites: they do nothing but complain. God acts first, without anyone deserving it. That is what we call grace.
• God redeems from two things: the horrific situation in Egypt, but also his own judgment. The Passover lamb dies in place of the firstborn, and its blood on the door turns away death. Since the fall, all of humanity needs to be saved from the curse of the world, but also from God's judgment against its rebellion.
• God reveals himself (Exodus 9:15-16). He confronts Pharaoh, the most powerful man of his time, to show that he is incomparable and unbeatable. He wins the contest 10 to 0. This is where God reveals his name, the LORD, literally "I am." If you want to know who I am, watch me act.
• God enters into relationship (Exodus 19:4-6). Exodus is not a war movie, it's a romance. God courts his people. He frees the one he has chosen, and he asks her: now that you know me, will you marry me? Then he moves in with her in the tabernacle, a tent designed to recall the garden of Eden.

4. The law of Moses and the problem of sin (Leviticus 26)

• Since Abraham, God has barely spoken about sin. He promised, then he delivered, unconditionally. One might think he closed his eyes to human rebellion. But if he closes his eyes, is he still good?
• At Sinai, God adds a condition: "if you obey my voice and keep my covenant" (Exodus 19:5). As in a marriage, the relationship requires faithfulness.
• Leviticus 26 puts the contract in black and white. If Israel obeys, the rewards exceed even what was promised to Abraham: military victory, prosperity, God's presence in the midst of the people (Leviticus 26:3-13). If Israel disobeys, everything collapses: terror, wasting away, defeat, scattering (Leviticus 26:14-22).
• God has not forgotten the problem of human rebellion. He is not going to just pass over it in silence. He did not save Israel so that the people would go on behaving like Adam.
• But is giving rules to follow enough to change the heart? What follows begins badly: Moses is still up on Sinai, speaking with God, and Israel is already making an idol. The ink on the contract isn't even dry.
• The law of Moses is a first attempt to deal with the problem of rebellion. Part of the prototype that will need to be corrected. The first five books of the Bible end on a big question mark: how do you resolve the tension between God's promises and the hardness of the human heart?

Key Takeaways

• Humanity cannot fix the world by itself. Technology, education, and reason are real gifts from God, but they do not solve human rebellion.
• Hope for a broken world rests solely on God's promises. These promises are spoken by the same voice that created the universe.
• In Exodus, God proves he can keep his promises, however improbable they may seem. He redeems, he reveals himself, he enters into relationship.
• Exodus is a love story before it is a war story. God courts his people to invite them into an exclusive relationship.
• God has not forgotten sin. We need to be saved both from the curse of the world and from God's judgment. A substitute, the lamb, must take our place.

Personal Application

1. Where do you place your hope when life seems uncertain or worrying? In human progress, or in God's promises?
2. What does it change for you to know that God has committed himself to saving the world, and has shown himself fully capable of keeping that commitment?
3. The image of a God who fights to set you free and asks you to love him in return, does that match the image you have of him?
4. Facing your own inability to change, are you ready to acknowledge that the solution will not come from you but from God, who is faithful?
5. Take a moment this week to reread Genesis 12:1-3 and Exodus 19:4-6. What do you say to God in response to his promises?

Scriptures Referenced

• Genesis 12:1-3 · The call and promises to Abraham
• Genesis 17:7-8 · The everlasting covenant and the promise of the land
• Exodus 1:1-14 · Abraham's descendants enslaved in Egypt
• Exodus 3:7-8 · I have come down to deliver my people
• Exodus 9:15-16 · To show you my power
• Exodus 19:4-6 · You will be my treasured possession
• Leviticus 26:3-22 · Blessings of obedience, curses of disobedience

Further reading

• Understanding the Bible: Difficult Passages
• Pastor, Elder, Deacon: What Are the Differences?
• Bible Reading Mistakes: How to Avoid Them at the Start

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did God wait 400 years before saving Israel from Egypt?

The Bible does not detail all the reasons, but Exodus shows that this apparent silence did not stop God from acting. When he frees his people, he does it in a way that reveals who he is and proves that his promises are not empty words. The 400 years of waiting did not make God any less faithful; they prepared a deliverance that marked the people's history forever.

Is the book of Exodus a war movie or a love story?

Both, but above all a love story. God fights against Pharaoh like a hero running to free the one he has chosen. But he doesn't free her just to set her down in a quiet place: he frees her to ask her, "will you marry me?" Exodus 19:4-6 lays out the terms of this covenant: "you will be my treasured possession among all the peoples." The tabernacle that follows is the visible sign that God moves in with his people, like a husband with his wife.

Is being pessimistic about human nature a lack of faith?

There is a healthy pessimism to have about ourselves. Seeing that we cannot stop sinning on our own, that we cannot get ourselves out of it by our own strength, is coming to grips with who we are. And it is precisely this realism that forces us to look to God, who is faithful and powerful to keep his promises. So there is a form of pessimism about ourselves that leads to faith in God, and that we need to pass through.