Let my people go

Exodus 3:16-22; 11/2/2025; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

Introduction

In these seven verses, there are many valuable lessons. However, today I will focus more on the theme “Let My People Go.”  I hope that through these seven verses, God will help us build a relationship of faith with God.   Let’s look at the first point:

Go and tell Pharaoh

Here, God is building up Moses—helping him gain the faith and courage to face Pharaoh.  And in fact, facing Pharaoh’s nature is like facing one’s own weakness.  First, God says, “I have surely seen your affliction!”  God’s remembrance of His people, and His need to remind and emphasize it, reveals humanity’s tendency toward ingratitude. The Israelites had lived in Egypt for over four hundred years; perhaps they had already forgotten who God was.  The seafood and richness of the Nile, the grand architecture and refined culture of Egypt might have made the Israelites feel, “What a great nation we are!”  Egypt’s chariots and warhorses gave everyone living there—including the Israelites—a shared “Egyptian dream.”  But God said, “I have also seen how the Egyptians are oppressing you.”  Every time Pharaoh tore down synagogues, destroyed rabbis, or tortured the elders—God saw it all.  David, too, once wondered: How could they dare to mock before the army of the living God?  Can God be treated with contempt?

Secondly, God says, “I will surely bring you up.”  God not only sees but also declares, “I will bring you out of the misery of Egypt!”  Hearing such good news, the Israelites might have felt overjoyed—thinking, “Wonderful! Now we can finally relax!”  Isn’t that right?  The God of our ancestors is going to lead us out of this dreadful place—  no more endless brick-making or bitter labor!  But as they listened further, something seemed off.  Yes, it is “a land flowing with milk and honey,” yet it is already inhabited by others.  Moreover, God Himself calls it  “the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.”  Wait—so we’re supposed to go and take someone else’s land?  How could that be? What should we do about this?  Indeed, that is exactly what God said. So—what now?

Finally, you must go and meet Pharaoh.  The “land flowing with milk and honey” is still a distant hope, while the immediate concern is facing Pharaoh himself.  When Moses heard this, he must have thought, “What?  You want me to go see Pharaoh? How could I?”  I had left Egypt forty years earlier— by now, the reigning Pharaoh might be my brother or one of my brother’s descendants. “Do You mean for me to compete for the throne?  But the Lord said to Moses, “Don’t misunderstand.  ”You are not going to seize an earthly throne. You are to say this to Pharaoh:” “‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’”  For Moses, who had already been away from Pharaoh’s palace for forty years, how many waves of emotion and worries must have stirred within his heart?  Let’s look at the second point:

To go through trials and twists

Why didn’t God just tell Pharaoh all at once that His will was for the Israelites to return to Canaan—the promised land given to His chosen people?  It’s because human beings cannot grasp a divine plan that exceeds their understanding.  God reveals His will progressively, step by step.  First, He spoke of a three-day journey.  This “three-day journey” symbolizes God’s visible purpose.  The very path Moses had walked forty years earlier—God now called him to walk again, as a reminder that He had always been present: accompanying, guiding, and sustaining him.  Even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death, there was no need to fear evil.  The staff and rod in Moses’ hand once guided his flock; likewise, the staff and rod in the hand of the Lord comfort His people.  The greatest threat faced by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was also overcome after three days—when He rose from the dead.  Moses declared that the most important calling in the life of God’s people is to worship Him!  The psalmist says,  “Sing to the Lord a new song; let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”  Moses’ mission was to lead the Israelites to praise God.  What about you?

Secondly, Pharaoh’s hostility.  Those who belong to God will play the harp, beat the tambourine, and dance in praise to Him!  But those who belong to Satan, who are against Christ, who live for the world and for the old self—of course, they have no interest in praising God.  In fact, they will do everything they can to oppose it.  To Pharaoh, the idea of going to worship a God he did not know seemed meaningless.  “Why should that matter?”  He might have thought. “Aren’t my pyramids of far greater value?  Isn’t our Egyptian Dream the very picture of unity and strength—many people working together to accomplish great things?  “You people from those small and insignificant nations of Canaan—don’t you need our great Pharaoh to show you the right direction?  You’re fortunate to have come to our mighty nation!  Shouldn’t you be shouting long live the king, admiring, and envying the splendor of our powerful empire?”

Finally, God will perform miraculous signs.  These antiChrist Pharaohs and dictators have no understanding that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh, came into the world, gave His life on the cross, and even rose and ascended!  What God did in Egypt was just a foretaste of His power. God had already warned Moses that Pharaoh would resist in every possible way—he would do everything to prevent God’s people from worshiping Him.  For thousands of years, the tactics of anti-Christ forces have remained the same: tearing down crosses, destroying churches, imprisoning God’s servants, and blocking God’s children from worship.  So, what about you?  Are you willing to come and worship Him?  If your answer is truly yes, then let us use everything we have to sing praises to Him—because He is worthy!  Let’s look at the third point:

Finding favor in the eyes of people

The growth of Jesus Christ—Scripture says He “found favor with God and man.”   This is also our expectation and goal, isn’t it?  First, God enables you to find favor in the eyes of people.  If someone seeks human praise or cares only about others’ opinions,  that is the fall into humanism.  But if it comes from God, enabling you to find favor in people’s eyes, that is God’s work.  Here, God revealed and declared to Moses: “I will make you find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians!”  This is the highest level of interpersonal relationships.  Without God’s will, trying to please others on your own—through flattery or pandering—ultimately leads to moral failure and personal downfall.  The opposite extreme is being prickly, always difficult, never able to get along with others.  The most beautiful interpersonal relationship is when God causes us to find favor in people’s eyes.  In fact, this should be a regular part of our prayers and petitions.

Secondly, they would not leave empty-handed.  God not only caused the Israelites to find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, but He also ensured that they “would not go away empty-handed.”  Think about it—after living in Egypt for over four hundred years, leaving the land would have been a bleak scene if they departed with nothing.   Now, God instructed the Israelites to ask the Egyptians for “gold, silver, and clothing—to clothe your children.”  Why the gold and silver?  By Exodus 35, it becomes clear: these materials were needed to construct the Tabernacle and make the priests’ garments. They required various items: gold, silver, copper, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, goat hair, dyed ram skins, seal skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, anointing oil and fragrant spices, onyx stones, and other gems to be set in the ephod and breastpiece.

Finally, they would take the Egyptians’ wealth.  One of the most notable words here is “plunder” (or “spoil”).  The original Hebrew is more neutral in meaning—something like “transfer” or “transport.”  However, in Chinese and English translations, the word is rendered more strongly: in Chinese as “seize”, and in English as “spoil,” implying war booty taken after victory on the battlefield.  I believe this translation reflects the overall context of the Exodus: When the Israelites left Egypt, it was as if they had fought a righteous battle for the Lord and emerged victorious.  I also believe God is faithful, just, and merciful.  The Israelites had suffered oppression in Egypt for over four hundred years, and it is reasonable that, upon departure, they would take gold, silver, and clothing from the Egyptians to build the Tabernacle and sustain themselves in the wilderness. This act aligns with both justice and divine provision.

Conclusion

Alright, praise the Lord!  God’s demand of Pharaoh was not high—He simply asked Pharaoh to let His people go.  From any perspective, this was entirely within God’s authority and entirely reasonable.  Of course, Pharaoh, who did not know God, perceived himself as an enemy of God!  They even believed that God’s people must obey them.  “Want to worship your God?  Then you must join our system and submit to the authority of anti-Christ powers!”  Satan’s tactics have seemingly never changed: to seize God’s authority and to devour God’s people.

Let us pray together…

 

16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,

17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.

21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,

22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”