Berlin Immanuel Church gathered on Sunday, December 10, continuing series on the history of salvation with a sermon on Exodus. The main passage was in Exodus 6:6-8, speaking of the God’s love and commitment to his people. In verse 6, we see that salvation is God’s work delivering those who are enslaved. It’s important to see that God acts in the world we live in and brings about change in our lives. Similarly, the Lord taught us to pray ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, so salvation is not only forgiveness of our sins and hope of heaven, but experiencing God’s mighty hand working in the present.
In verse 7, we see how God intends to form a community of people who live with God as their center. God does not deliver his people so they can live any way they want but their identity as God’s people is manifested through their obedience to God’s word. Their values and lifestyle come from the word of God, they treasure the word of God in their hearts and relate to him and one another based on God’s word – Deut 26:17-18. Jesus builds his church as a living community of people who love him and follow him. Furthermore, the deliverance is not a event of past to be forgotten, but it is to be remembered – knowing that the Lord is our God means knowing what he has done for us. That knowledge becomes the source of joy, hope and strength to overcome the world – the knowledge of that our Lord died on the cross to deliver us from the slavery to our sin into the freedom and fullness of eternal life. When the glory of the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth, the land will be ‘flowing with milk and honey’ and we will see ‘Thy kingdom come’ fulfilled.
We must also look God’ motive of delivering Israel – his work was not only for the Israel but he intended the whole world to see his glory through their salvation. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says that the motive of God’s saving work is his unconditional love, but that love is not exclusive to those who are being saved, God delivers Israel also because he is committed to keep the oath he gave to Abraham to bring the blessings of God’s love to all nations on earth. The deliverance of God’s work of salvation is meant not only for Israel but also for Egypt (Exod 14:18) and the whole world – even Rahab in Jericho is saved because she heard of God’s might work and had faith (Joshua 2:9-11). May we understand that God’s intention as he works out our own salvation is that his glory continues to be revealed through our testimony, and the world around us may share in God’s blessings of love through our lives.