These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. (Exodus 1:1-7)
Intro: Why Exodus
It is the 8th of May in the two thousand twenty-second year of our Lord – why in the world are we beginning the second book of Moses called Exodus? After all, don’t we know that all The Science, all the historians and Egyptologists, and all the archaeological research and excavation proves that the Exodus and all the events in this book are nothing more than historical fiction?? Don’t we know that certainly Moses didn’t write this book since he is nothing more than a mythological figure? What possible relevance or purpose could we have by going through the book of Exodus today? Why Exodus?
Well, when we live in a time when the spirit of Pharaoh lives on in the gods of this age which hold many believers in bondage to The Science (™) of the secular humanists, it is high time we have another showdown with Pharaoh, like Moses. When all the court historians lie through their teeth about Moses and Exodus out of nothing more than pure hatred for the Word of God, we need to free those Christians who are still taking orders from their historical tyrant overlords. Let us throw down with the Words of the true and living God and watch the slithering lies of the humanists be devoured whole. When the gods of this age mock and ridicule the reliability and truthfulness of the Word of God in the book Exodus and the regimevangelicals have nothing to say in its defense, then that is precisely the time when we need to preach the book of Exodus as the authoritative and inerrant Word of God that it is.
Preaching through the book of Exodus will be spiritual warfare, just as it was between Moses and the court magicians. We will be facing down tyrants within and without. And by God’s grace, the Spirit of God will so desire to free those of us in bondage to sin, that cruel taskmaster, that we might go and worship and truly live unto God as free men and women in Christ.
In other words, we will find that the book of Exodus is absolutely applicable to our lives. There is so much application to be had from this ancient book of Holy Writ that we very much need in our day today and for our everyday lives.
Why Exodus? Because it is the Word of God and as the Word of God, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The book of Exodus is not something modern Christians can unhitch from and leave on the book shelf to collect dust with the rest of our Old Testaments simply because all the regime scientists and historians are against us. It is the Word of God and the New Testament tells us that it is profitable for us, to equip us, and make us complete. Why Exodus? So that we may profit, much like the Hebrews when they plundered the Egyptians.
But the treasure that we will plunder and profit is not mere principles and tips for better living. The ultimate treasure that we will profit is the Lord Jesus Christ, as Colossians 2 says, in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” So if we gain all the wisdom and knowledge of Exodus and the Egyptians and the ancient Hebrews. And if we gain all the correct historical chronology and archaeological evidence for the events of Exodus, but have not Christ, then we haven’t plundered the Egyptians, we have become one. The spirit of Egypt is wisdom, knowledge, and riches without Christ, in rebellion to Christ. But only in Christ are the riches of wisdom and knowledge found.
You see, the book of Exodus is preeminently about Christ. Matthew Henry suggests, “There are more types of Christ in this book than perhaps any other book of the Old Testament.” Christ is everywhere to be found on the pages of Exodus from the pen of Moses, for of Moses, Jesus said, “he wrote about me.” This means that Exodus is about Jesus Christ. And yet many modern an evangelical have left these pages unturned, having given it over to the ridicule of Hollywood filmmakers. But Christ is no more in bondage to secular humanist gods of this age than He is in bondage to Egypt. And just as Christ left Egypt’s fighting men in a literal wake of salty water, so He will do to the gods of this age, as He leads His people out and into freedom. Afterall, as the book of Jude says, it was “Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt [and] afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” The one who saved His people and destroyed one of the most powerful empires that has ever existed is alive today. He is still saving His people and He is still destroying those who do not believe His Word. So I am looking forward to seeing Christ together by the help and power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, all over the pages of Exodus.
One final reason I’ll give you as to why Exodus is because the Exodus is one of the most important events in all of the Bible, and indeed in all of history. It is referenced all throughout Scripture, Old and New Testament. This means it has incredible significance, that we would do well to know. Even a number of the Psalms refer back to the events of Exodus, so knowing the importance of what we are singing cannot be understated.
Patterns of Exodus
And even before Exodus in the Bible, in Genesis there are patterns of Exodus and it is indeed spoken directly of before it happened. In Genesis 12 there is a famine, so Abram journey’s to Egypt during the famine. He tells the Egyptians that his wife Sarai is his sister because she was beautiful and what happens? Well, the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues. And Abram and Sarai are sent away. Sound familiar? In Genesis 26 Isaac settles in the land of Gerar and during that time God blesses Isaac and Isaac becomes very rich and wealthy and multiplies greatly so that he is more mighty than those who were already there in the land and so they sent Isaac out from them because he was mightier than they. Or think about the whole story of Jacob and Laban. Laban basically enslaved Jacob for years, but during all the time that Jacob worked for Laban, God was blessing Jacob and making him greatly wealthy, and basically by the time Jacob leaves, much of Laban’s wealth had been transferred to Jacob. So there is a plundering and an exodus. Then Laban tries to go back out after Jacob, like Pharaoh. And just like Laban’s household gods were sat upon being underneath Rachel, being disgraced and defeated, so the gods of Egypt were disgraced and defeated being thrown underneath the waters of the sea. So as the reader is going through Genesis, these patterns, which are story arcs that God likes to tell, are preparing the reader for the Exodus.
Promise to Abraham
Not only are there patterns of Exodus before Exodus, being a story that God likes to tell, but it is also directly foretold in God’s promises to Abraham.
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. (Genesis 15:13-14)
So note, especially as we consider the first seven verses of Exodus, that this promise was yet before Abram had any children.
Joseph’s Faith
Genesis ends and Exodus begins with Joseph’s generational legacy on the forefront. We know the story from Genesis how God raised up Joseph to save Egypt and the world during the great famine and how the Egyptians loved him. Many, I believe, even converting. Even though there was this great blessing in Egypt on Joseph’s life, his dying words are a reflection of his faith in the promises of God beyond Egypt and the blessing that he had experienced. In verse 24-25 of Genesis 50, Joseph is prophesying the Exodus by recounting God’s promises to their father Abraham. His brothers and sons are around him and he tells them that God will bring them up out of this land as He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “Up out” – that’s exodus language, death and resurrection language. Verse 25, he says, “God will surely visit you,” and he makes them swear, “you shall carry up my bones from up.” “Carry up from here” – that’s exodus language, death and resurrection language.
Joseph died in faith, believing the promises of God and believing in death and resurrection. And Joseph passed this spiritual legacy on to his sons and children as we see his discipleship in teaching and preaching to those around him in his death, and his catechizing his sons by making them say “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” And then we see that his faith was passed down with the fruitfulness of the people of Israel in Exodus 1:7.
What a great moment of thought and application for us. It’s obvious – generational thinking and discipleship. But to note that the hope is that our descendants after us will not just keep up the status quo, but that they would be more fruitful and that they would grow and increase and become far more strong than we who are before them. Joseph went down into Egypt a slave and came out a great nation. What sort of thinking and working and planning and educating do you need to do, that your children may be more fruitful than you? Maybe you don’t have physical children, but you have a church family. You have spiritual children, spiritual little brothers and sisters. How can you live and disciple in view of the future of your people in view of the promises of God to put all enemies under His feet?
The Creating of a Nation
Exodus is about the people of Israel being made into a great nation. Genesis was about God taking a man with no children and making him a family. Now in Exodus that family is made into a great nation. So in Exodus God multiplies them, grows them, and strengthens them. They defeat a great empire. And they are given laws and established as a nation. All as God’s continuing work of fulfilling his promises to bring us the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. Now in the New Covenant it’s not about any ethnic purity or any particular plot of land or people. It is the whole earth, it is all the peoples and nations of the earth that are given to Christ. Exodus goes from a family to a nation. But in the New Covenant we are going from a nation to every nation.
Fruitfulness of Israel
The beginning of Exodus here in verse 7 looks a lot like progress from what was commanded in the beginning of Genesis. This should remind us of the dominion mandate to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. So here in Exodus 1:7 it is clear that God is blessing the sons of Israel. They are being faithful and working hard and being productive and God is blessing them. Their population was rapidly increasing so that the land was filled with them. To think that they came into Egypt with all the descendants of Jacob being seventy persons, as verse 5 says, and then multiplying and increasing so that they fill the land, in a small amount of time, just a few generations, is great blessing from God. Later on in Exodus it tells us that at the time of the Exodus there were 600,000 men, which means it would’ve been well over 2 million people. This would’ve happened in 430 years. Galatians 3:17 says it was 430 from God’s promise to Abraham until the law came, which was Sinai. So the time they were actually in Egypt and multiplying would’ve been about 215 years.
So all that to say that God greatly blessed and multiplied the Hebrew people in Egypt. 70 descendants of Jacob to 600,000 is incredible population growth in that time.
Now, we should note that 70 is also a very symbolic number in the Bible. Genesis 10, the table of nations, 70 of them. 70 bulls for the atonement of the nations in the Old Covenant. There were 70 elders of the Sanhedrin. Jesus sends out the 70. So I think Moses is showing us the official transition to Israel as a nation, and as a representative of the nations, they were supposed to be the model of what the nations should look on and turn to the One True God. In this way they were also sort of supposed to be the messenger nation to all the other nations.
These things point us to Christ, for Jesus is True Israel, and Jesus is the representative of the nations and to the nations. He is the true atonement for sin for the world. So in Exodus Israel is being created into the ultimate type, the ultimate shadow, of Christ, the true Israel to come.
Furthermore, the 70 descendants of Jacob would not have included their entire households which would’ve been part of the covenant people. We know Abraham was a wealthy man and had 300 fighting men in his household. So in that time, the households of these men would’ve been very great, with fighting men, with servants, and maidservants, and that type of thing. So the original group of Israel from Jacob’s descendants would’ve been probably thousands. But the point remains the same regardless, that during this time in Egypt, they were greatly blessed by God and greatly grew and multiplied. This is one of God’s favorite themes and story arcs. To take a mustard seed and make it a great tree.
But what makes the fruitfulness of Israel so incredible here is that it happened so rapidly. The larger households help us to understand how it happened. But also, I believe another element of this is that during the time of Joseph and those who knew him, I believe there were many conversions – Egyptians converting to Joseph’s God and receiving the covenant sign. We won’t look at it now but there is reason to believe that the Pharaoh who brought up Joseph was converted. Certainly some of the Hebrew men would’ve taken Egyptian wives, we know for sure that at least Joseph did.
So I think one of the things we can glean from this is that there are a number of different ways to be fruitful. The obvious thing is for married people to have lots of children and raise them to know Christ. And we will certainly talk more about having lots of babies in the face of a culture of death in the coming weeks, as you know what happens next in Exodus.
But barrenness is a real thing for godly and righteous people. And the fact that even in the Old Covenant, conversions were a thing, shows us fruitfulness can happen in many ways. We mentioned it earlier, thinking of leaving a legacy for your Church family, your spiritual little siblings and spiritual children and grandchildren. It can be through conversions in evangelistic efforts. It is a different kind of fruitfulness but it is no less a real fruitfulness. And it is vital for those who God has blessed with many children to be sure and not rest in the fact that God has given you many children. It is vital that those in such a position put forth great effort to disciple their children to know the Lord and to be fruitful, productive, and godly people for the kingdom of God. It doesn’t just automatically happen on its own.
So all that to say that God likes to bless and give fruit in different ways. Some with many physical children. Some with many spiritual children. Some with the fruit of industry, authority, and influence. Some with all of it. So God certainly blessed the Hebrews with many physical children, and also, I believe, a number of conversions for a short time.
Fruitfulness is a Gift and a Blessing
When we talk about being fruitful, we need to be careful to recognize that, strictly speaking, fruitfulness is a gift and a blessing from God. We cannot make the fruit grow. Certainly we want to be fruitful people in that we are doing our duty, working hard, being productive, and responsible with what God has given us. But we can’t control the outcomes. When we plant our gardens, we can’t control the produce that comes from that. We just work to the best of our knowledge and ability, pray that God would bless it, and entrust it to Him. This is what we need to recognize – fruitfulness is a gift from God. It is all of grace.
Many times we can fall into the trap of thinking that if a person is doing this or that the right way, then we will see this particular fruit. Or people will say that about churches. If a church is being faithful then they will be growing and diverse, etc. etc. But that’s not necessarily true. Humans cannot control fruit. We are simply responsible to obey. God gives and blesses the fruit, and sometimes He doesn’t. Sometimes He puts you into slavery under tyrants. That happens. So we shouldn’t measure faithfulness by fruit, but by whether the Word of God is obeyed or not. And we should always return praise and thankfulness to God for blessing us with every ounce of fruitfulness that we receive. Fruitfulness is a gift received, not a wage earned.
Verse 6 & 7 Typifies Jesus and His Church in Acts
I love that verse 6 and 7 are together here. Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation die. “BUT” the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. Here we see that fruitfulness comes from death. This is a story of death and resurrection. Really we’re picking up where John left off with the death and burial of Jesus in a garden where He resurrected. Joseph and all that generation die and then up from that there is exceedingly great fruit and growth. For a seed to bring forth fruit, it first has to die – it has to be put into the ground.
This principle is true in our lives in many ways. Fruitfulness comes from death. Our sin, our flesh, our old man has to die. Sin must be mortified that we might live unto God. We put off that we may put on. We have to give in order to receive. We have to sow that we may reap. Maybe you have problems in your marriage or with a parent or some other relationship, because there is sin in your life that is affecting it, or bitterness. You have to kill that, it has to die, your self has to die. But if we die with Christ and are buried with Christ, we shall also be raised with Christ.
Considering verse 6 and 7 in the context of the Exodus, I believe this typifies the death of Jesus and the growth of His New Testament Church. Jesus died, He resurrected, He went away by ascending to Heaven, but then what happened? The Holy Spirit came which began to give life to all the seed in the ground, and thousands in one day were converted and filled with the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts Christianity spread like wildfire. The people of God were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. And then what happened? They got so strong, the Jews in Jerusalem started persecuting them. The apostate Jews became the Egyptians. They were threatened with the growth of the people of God so they persecuted them. And then what happened? When the Christians in Jerusalem saw the signs that Jesus told them about, they fled Jerusalem, or they had an Exodus out of Jerusalem, as Christ came and destroyed in judgment that wicked city.
And now we, as their offspring, find ourselves traveling throughout the land conquering all of it for the kingdom of God. Taking even every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. You see Christ did not die in vain, just as Joseph did not. Jesus died that His people, His offspring, His Church might bear great fruit, that the Church would be fruitful and increase greatly; that it would multiply and grow exceedingly strong, so that the land would be filled with her.
May God be pleased to continue to make it so in us.
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