Reference

Exodus 5:1-6:13

Sermon Outline:

  1. The Battle to Cling to God's Good Promises
  2. To His Enemies, God's Promises make His People Stink
  3. The Weight of Glory Produced by the Suffering of God's People
  4. God Will be Known as the God Who Both Makes and Keeps Impossible Covenant Promises

Discussion Questions:

  • In 4:31 God's people are relieved, delighted, thankful and trusting.  Using your own words, describe their spirit in 6:9.
  • God's people received a precious promise in chapter 4.  How did this affect how Pharaoh's thought of them?
  • How does God's enemy attempt to pull the eyes of God's people off His promises (5:9)?  Read the parable in Matthew 13:18-23.  How can you see this playing out in Egypt?  What are the other attacks used to pull our eyes off of God's promises?  How can you see this playing out in your life, and how can your brothers and sisters in Christ help you with that?
  • Why would God want it to be clear that it was because of His kindness that Israel is freed and not the kindness of Pharaoh?
  • Scripture is the complete revelation of God.  Within Scripture, we see a progressive revelation which ends in and is complete in Christ. None of the new revelation contradicts the old, but adds to and clarifies it.  What is the difference between how God revealed Himself to the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and how He reveals Himself at this time to Israel in Egypt? (6:2-3)
  • Why is it important that God first revealed Himself as the God who makes covenant promises and then reveals Himself as the God who keeps covenant promises?
  • There was a time between when God gives His promises about rescue from slavery and when those promises are realized.  How can looking at that time help us to cling to the promises purchased by Jesus' blood that we've not yet realized?
  • What does this event show us about why God would ordain times of suffering for the people who hold to His promise?
  • How might suffering produce a weight of glory that surpasses the suffering?  How was that true for Israel in Egypt?  How will that be true for the Church when history is complete?  How might that be true for you when you meet the Lord face to face?