3-16-25 - We Were Slaves To Pharaoh In Egypt

So this morning we're gonna be continuing our study in the book of Deuteronomy chapter six. We've come to the last section of of this chapter. And in this chapter it deals with a question that your children ask parents about God's law. The children need to be taught God's law. They're coming in asking what does this mean?

But the interesting thing is the answer that Moses gives. It's not the answer you would expect. They ask the question, what do all these things mean? And the answer is not, well son, they mean this and that and the other. It's not a technical exposition or explanation of the answer.

It's a it's a heartfelt answer of faith. And so as we study this passage, my hope is that God will help each of us to remember our own bondage to sin before we knew him, as well as his deliverance from it. So that we're able to persevere in the faith and to teach our kids and others as well-to-do the same. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy chapter six verses 20 through 25. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true.

When your son asks you in time to come saying, what do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean, which the Lord our God commanded you? And you shall say to your son, we were slaves to pharaoh in Egypt. And the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, pharaoh, and all his household. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers.

So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God with all our good way for our good always and for our survival as it is today. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God just as he commanded us. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

You who are parents, who have raised children, do their questions bother you? Does the breadth of their questions bother you? Does the does the constancy of their questions bother you? What do they ask you about? They ask you about everything.

Don't they? Ask you about everything. They ask you about grass and they ask you about sun and they ask you about clovers and ask you about cars and they ask you about the bible and all kinds of things. They ask you where babies come from. Ask all kinds of questions and they ask their questions at inopportune times.

They ask questions that make us uncomfortable. They ask questions that we don't know the answers to. They ask us questions. Now, as much work as it is for our children to ask us questions or rather for us to have to answer those questions or figure out the answer to those questions or how best to explain it to our children of varying ages. What I want you to understand from all of those questions they ask you and from this question that is posed here in this text is that it's your job as a parent to introduce your child to the whole world, Physical and spiritual that God's created.

That's your job. It's not somebody else's job to teach them those things nor are they supposed to be ignorant of those things. It's your job as a parent, as a as a first order. There are other people who can come alongside you and support you in that work and supplement, your teaching. But it is your job to teach your kids these things and you're gonna be teaching them these things for the rest of your life.

It changes as they get older, the questions they ask, the things that they're curious about, the the concerns or reservations that they have or the fears or challenges that they face. That all changes as they get older. It doesn't stop when they graduate high school or graduate college or get married or have children of their own. They'll still have questions. In this passage, it says that the children, the sons, meaning sons and daughters, are asking their parents about God's laws.

What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean? What they mean, which the lord our god commanded you? This is this question is based on the child's observation of the way the home works and the priorities of the home work. Have your kids ever asked you, why do we do this? Why do we pray before we eat?

Why do we pass the dishes to the right clockwise? Maybe you pass them the other way and they've asked you that. Maybe they ask you why we have to brush their teeth. Maybe they ask why devotions are so long. Or maybe they ask you why we haven't had devotions in a week.

Your kids are observant in your home. They're watching what's going on. They're seeing what your family's priorities are and they make judgments. Some of them are correct. Some of them are wrong.

They're also asking questions. Have your kids ever asked you about, a scriptural question you didn't know the answer to? Sometimes, yeah. I know because when you don't know the answer, you send them to me. Go ask pastor Dave.

But sometimes I I don't know. Sometimes I I have I I can answer the question. Sometimes I can't. I remember one of my kids asking me a question about electricity one time. This years ago, it was one of my older boys, but they were little.

And I'm like, I am not the person to explain this to you. Go ask mister Hess, because he's a chemist and he can explain it to you. And he gave them a college level answer. But they were in like third grade, you know. So I was like, oh, here we go.

We have to learn how to answer these kids questions. They have questions. They're good questions. They're far ranging questions. These questions about our family's priorities and commitments to following and obeying the Lord.

These are the most important questions that we have to be able to answer. I will tell you that when that this question supposes a few things are true of the child. One, that they're old enough and mature enough to observe or understand what they're being taught. This is not primarily aimed at what your your two and three and four and five year old kids are asking you. They'll ask you questions, but those you're probably comfortable and, well suited to answer.

It's when they get older that they start to ask questions and you're like, oh, well. Why don't we talk some more about that? Until they reach the time when they're able to ask you thoughtful questions, your job is to be exposing them to and teaching them God's law. And what you'll realize when you have little children and you're teaching them about God and about Jesus Christ, it's very very strange to have a little child go, I don't believe that. They have no concept of believing or not believing or or thinking a thought other than what they've been taught.

But you realize at this point that question that's being asked is not being asked by a young child who's inclined to say, whatever you say mommy or daddy. But they're not looking and going, why is it that we do this or can't do that? What's that about? They're gonna ask these questions in this context after they've gone into the promised land. After they've been commanded to to eradicate and get rid of all of the Canaanites, but they don't.

And so they're going to be living in this this world that's mixed, that's that's got conflict, that's very different. They're going to have their God and they're going to be required to serve their God in very particular ways. And yet the people that they're around in their society are doing very different things. And that's going to cause them if they're paying attention, it's going to cause them to have questions. And that is where these questions come from.

Dad, mom, why do we do this? As I was reading this, I was thinking about it. I was wondering if this question was meant to be a sincere question. What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean that the lord our god commanded you? Or is it a question of mistrust and disdain?

What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean? Why do we have to do these things? You can conceive of kids asking the same question in both ways and they do. I think that it most that this instruction here is most likely a sincere question. But even if it is asked with disdain, Moses teaches us that this question is going to come and that we need to be ready as parents to give an answer.

First Peter three fifteen, Peter tells us to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Yet with gentleness and reverence. Did it ever occur to us that it may be our own children who ask us to give a defense? Why do we do the things we do? They are curious.

I'll tell you that if it's better for your kid to be curious than to be blindly willing to follow. They can't live their whole life that way. And if they're just willing to do what they're told and go along to get along, the real danger is the question of who will they follow and what will they what will they follow them into. Kids as they grow up are a lot of work. The training, the care, the provision, the discipline, all of that's a lot of work.

But you do have to always keep in mind that you're not raising children, you're raising adults. Not that they're adults already, but that they will become adults one day and it's your job as a parent to prepare them to go into this world and to serve Jesus Christ without you there. To put the bumpers up, to to wrap wrap them in bubble wrap, to keep them from getting hurt physically, emotionally or spiritually. That's your job. It's an overwhelming job.

It's very difficult. And then when they question us and wonder why we do things, it's easy for parents to get onto their back foot and to think, why are you asking me this question? It's just what we do. But God is gracious and he actually tells us how to answer the question. Sometimes he says, this is a question and he doesn't answer.

But here, he's very clear and he says, then you'll just you shall say to your son this. And we're gonna come to that in just a minute. The fact is your children are going to ask you questions about why you do the things you do. And you actually have to be ready as a parent to answer them. Now you children, you ought to be asking your parents questions.

Okay? I just told your parents that it's not okay for them to dismiss your questions. It's also not okay for you to be uninterested in learning from your parents. I want you to understand something about your parents. They know you and they love you and they are responsible for you more than anyone else in this world.

They are the primary ones that God has placed in your life to teach you. And if you despise them or if you reject their counsel or if you think you know better than them, you're a fool. And I'm not saying that because our parents are all right. They're not right. You're a parent.

You're an idiot. I'm an idiot. We don't know the answers. We screw stuff up. I often say to my wife or my kids like, listen, this is the decision I'm making.

In five years, we may look back and go, that was stupid. But here's the thing. Somebody's gotta make a decision and God's ordered the world in such a way that that responsibility falls to me as the father and to my wife as the mother. It's my job to lead these the my family and and for us together to lead our children. And we don't do it all right.

And that is no excuse, you children. Hear me. That's no excuse for you not to listen to your parents. Because when you don't listen to your parents, what you're saying is that God who gave you to them made a mistake. That he could have given you better parents to teach you, to protect you, to instruct you, to guide you, to provide for you.

And you don't wanna be found arguing against God and his dispensations and his decisions. He put you in your family with fallen parents to teach you why we serve God. And so you ought to ask them those questions. Before you ask your friends, before you ask the Internet, before you look for a book, you have to ask your parents. They are your first resource.

That's one of the things this passage teaches us. Alright? Last thing I'll say with regard to this question is that it's not always obvious why we do the things we do. And I'll even go further and say, it's not always obvious to us why we do the things we do. Many of us as parents are content to do what we've been told to do because we don't have the the the horsepower, the mental energy or capacity to to dig into it.

We're just intimidated by it. And so we go, will somebody just tell me what to do? I want you to understand that that's part of the process but that's not the whole process. It's part being told what to do is part of living your life. Okay?

God tells us what to do. Our parents tell us what to do. Our bosses tell us what to do. Our government tells us what to do. We have lots of people to tell us what to do.

What's necessary is that as you hear what you're supposed to do that you come to an understanding of why. And you as parents or we as adults are not ever going to be done learning the why we do what we do. And it may well be that your children questioning you about why you do the things you do will be the means by which God teaches you why you do what you do. As your kids get older, they're gonna want to go do stuff. This is just an example.

They're gonna want to go do stuff on Sundays. Okay? They're gonna wanna go to the Indy five hundred, or Colts game, or birthday party, or or something. And you're the parent gonna be like, okay, but we have church. And your kids are gonna ask you, maybe sincerely, maybe with frustration, it's just one week.

What are you supposed to say? What most of us will say is, this is a decision and it's final. But what we have to ask ourselves is, why? Why is it a decision and why is it final? And we could multiply examples of the kind of questions that your kids are going to ask you as they grow up.

And you as a parent are gonna have to figure out why it is that they are allowed to do this and not allowed to do that. And where because that is where your Christian faith meets the road of life. That's where the rubber meets the road. Why do we do the things we do when there's a cost to do them? Whether that cost is monetary or time or relational.

Why do we do this when there's a cost associated with it? That's what your kids are asking you. And the answer to that question is not always apparent even to us. We just do it. It's not a complete answer.

It's just the start of an answer. If God has commanded you to do something and if you're convinced that and convicted that God requires something of you, then you ought not to be ashamed to say so. Even though your children might not appreciate it in the moment. I'll tell you parents something about your children. They're naive.

Their world is small. And they don't understand the cost of the decisions that they're making as as at certainly as toddlers and adolescents and teenagers. They don't understand it yet. And I'm not saying that to denigrate them and to say that they're stupid or foolish or or that that's sinful. But I mean to say to them, they're not your peer.

Which means that if you're doing your job, there will be many things you do that they don't understand or agree with yet and it's not because what you're doing is wrong, it's because they don't have perspective yet. And it's your job as a parent not to bend to their desires because they might be frustrated with you for a moment. And if you do acquiesce to their desires in this situation or the other, you ought to know why. This is the work of parenting and them asking you questions. That's the first point.

These conversations have to be going on in your homes. You kids have to be asking your parents questions. And when your parents get all flustered and tell you to stop it, don't let them get away with it. And I'm not telling you to fight and argue with them. I'm saying, realize that being a parent's hard even though you don't have first hand experience with it, come back and say, dad, mom, I I love you and I trust you and I'd like to know what you think about this.

Help them be faithful in their service to God and to you. So that's the question. What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean? What do they mean? I don't understand.

This is the answer. Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt And the Lord brought us up from Egypt with a mighty hand. Now that is not the answer I'd expect. I think the question of of can you explain to me the law of God to be a very overwhelming and intimidating question? But what is the answer?

The first part of the answer, there's more to it. But what is the first answer here? He says, we were slaves in Egypt. And it's like, what does that have to do with the meaning of the law? The answer is not a technical one.

At least not at first. It's a personal one. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that God's work of deliverance and redemption in your life as a parent is unimportant to the training of your children. It's very important that you be able to explain to your children who you were and who you are and how you became what you are. I realize some of you that may make more sense to than others.

Especially if you didn't grow up in the church. It may be clearer to you what life was like before you knew Jesus, and then what life was like after you knew Jesus. But I realize some of you that have grown up in the church have a similar experience, but that not everyone does. Some of you may sit here and be thinking, I haven't had that sort of road to Damascus conversion like Paul. And that's okay.

Here, listen. I didn't grow up that way. And if you didn't have to go through hell like I did, God was being merciful to you. Okay? But God works with us all in different ways.

However you came to faith in Jesus Christ, whatever you were saved out of, you should be able to say so. Here's who I was and what I was like. Here's what ordered my life. This is what I loved. And it wasn't God.

Now some of us will say that that was women and some of us will say that that was heroin and some of us will say that that was money. And some of us will that will say that was the approval of of my my of of my parents and some of us will say that it was getting good grades. Listen, what has God delivered you from? What were you in bondage to? That's the beginning of the answer.

Dad, what do all these commandments mean? I was a slave in Egypt and god brought me out of it. You can answer that question. What I find though, is that parents don't want to talk about their past. They don't want to talk about their sins with their kids.

Whether those sins are are present, like I just sinned against you and and I should acknowledge that and confess that and ask your forgiveness. Parents don't like to do that. They have to be pushed to apologize to their kids, to acknowledge their faults because they feel like, well then they don't have to listen to me. If I say that I'm wrong, then now I don't have to listen to me anymore. It's not how it works.

It's counterintuitive. It works the other way. But when it comes to the sins of our past, the gross sins, We want what we want as parents is to protect our kids from those sins. The problem is we think that the way to protect them from those sins is to never tell them about it. To just say, don't do that.

Son, don't do that. Daughter, don't do that. No. No. No.

No. No. But we never tell them why. The why is in our head. It's very clear in our head because I did it.

Because I walked so much further down that line, you have no idea what kind of hell is coming. We don't want to tell them that or that we have done it. The passage tells us that the answer at least at the beginning is that we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. We were in bondage. Now, I realize to my knowledge, none of you were actually have actually ever been physical slaves of another nation or held against your will in a prison.

But scripture describes those who who don't know and love Jesus Christ as being slaves to sin. And so that's the the the the analogy here, the picture that we need to bring into focus. Is that while they were physical slaves in a physical place for a period of time and God delivered them out of it, we are slaves to our sins apart from Christ. It's like we have chains around us. Shackled in our hearts where we can't get free of it before we're in Christ.

As much as we can acknowledge the foolishness of it, the destruction of it, the goodness of of the other, we can't in ourselves get free of it. That's what it means to be a slave. And every one of you has been a slave or is still a slave. But nobody wants to talk about that. Because we don't want to spoil our kids innocence.

But I'm in here to tell you, your kids are going to be exposed to things far before you're willing or aware of what it is in the society that we live in. And if your answer to that is to build taller walls, you're not preparing them for the rest of the world because they're not going to submit to living inside those tall walls the rest of their life. Because they have lusts and desires in their own hearts. In fact, the same ones that are in your heart. And you won't be protecting them if you don't interpret to them the world.

And what kind of temptations they're going to face and that you have faced them and that you have fallen to them? Now, am I saying that you should tell them every little little gritty nasty detail of your sins? No, I'm not. I'm saying this is the difficulty of parenting is you have a responsibility to protect your kids to to, protect their their their physical safety, their spiritual safety, their innocence, their propriety, their modesty, and yet you have to introduce them to this corrupt world. And your experience in it.

And so, Lord, help us to know how to talk to our kids about these things. But it is your job. And the first answer given here in this passage is, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Now what is in that context, what did that mean? Well, what it meant was, remember this is happening, this this interaction between Moses and the people is happening at the end of the forty years.

Okay? So many of the people here speaking were either children when they were out of Egypt or, were not born yet. Meaning, they didn't experience this deliverance. Their parents did. And their fathers, many of them died and are not here now because of their rebellion.

Because they were unwilling to go into the land initially. And so these are first generation, you know, first or second generation, captives who've been set free. They they they it wasn't them necessarily who was delivered from Egypt, but it was their parents. It was still in their memory. They're all standing there hearing that in time as your kids grow up, you're gonna have to answer these questions and they're going, yeah.

That's what happened to my dad. They were there. He was there and he's not here now. It would have been very personal for them. We were slaves.

We as a people, we were slaves. And the Lord brought us up from Egypt with a mighty hand. You have to talk to your children about that sort of bondage in your life. But not only that sort of bondage, you have to talk about the second half of the answer right here, which is and the Lord brought us up from Egypt with a mighty hand. Don't take the glory away from God.

Don't take the glory away from God. If you were a slave to sin and you have been set free from that sin, I mean to tell you, you better not think it was you who did it. It was not you who did it. And it's not you who keeps you from going back to it. You remember what the Egypt what the Israelites wanted to do, what they grumbled and complained about.

As soon as they got out, they wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to the to to to the to the slavery and to the bondage because at least there was meat in the pots there. It was terribly wicked of them. Terribly terribly wicked of them. And that was given to us as an example and sort of a a a a a a a a lens to see ourselves through.

Even when God delivers us out of things, our corrupt and sinful flesh wants to go back to it. And God in his mercy didn't allow them to go back to it. He didn't say, fine. If you wanna go back to slave, go back to slavery. No.

He was merciful to his people in bringing them out and keeping them out and judging those who had oppressed them and judging them for their unwillingness to trust him, the fact is God had promised them a good land. And he had to bring them out of their bondage to give them their good land. You see, many times what we want is for God to take our our corruptions and just kind of wash them away, but not really change our circumstances. That's not how it works. That's not how it works.

They couldn't be free in Egypt. They could only be free on the other side of the Red Sea, on the other side of the Jordan. They couldn't have what God had promised to them while they were still slaves. You can't have the blessings of God if you're enslaved to sin. They're not for you.

You have to be changed first. You have to be brought out of your sins. Sometimes kicking and screaming and fearfully, you have to be brought out of them, delivered from them as the text says. The Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. What's that referring to?

That's referring to all of the plagues. Great and distressing signs, turning the water into blood, sending the locusts, and ultimately killing the firstborns, plating the Red Sea, consuming the Egyptians in the Red Sea. Great and distressful signs. They were in fear of their lives and God delivered them through and consumed their enemies. That's great and distressful.

And God was merciful to them. You see, I think that we want to live in a world where we can serve God where there's not danger. Where there's not risks, where everything is neat and tidy and orderly and predictable and controllable and safe. That is how slaves think. You hear me?

That's how slaves think. They're willing to have all of their freedoms taken away so that things will be predictable. Even if the things that are predictable are miserable. To be free, you have to have faith. To be free, you have to trust God.

Because you're going to find that on the other side of the Red Sea, there's trouble. There's troubles with no food. There's troubles with no water. There's troubles with a holy God shaking the earth and thundering his law from Mount Sinai. There's troubles in Canaan with all of the giants and all of the well fortified cities.

There's troubles. They abound. So is God with you in those troubles or is he not? Do you believe he's with you or do you say no no no no. He I can only trust that he's with me as long as all the troubles are far away.

That's right. The way that they were supposed to reason was that god has done great and wonderful signs. He's judged the Egyptians, filled our coffers with all of their wealth, and delivered us from them in health and and safety, though it didn't feel safe. They were in fear of death and yet they were safe. And you will feel that in your life.

There will be times where you feel like there's nowhere to turn, backed up against the Red Sea. What's going to happen? The inevitable is going to happen and then God will be merciful to you. And what's what's necessary is that when you feel like your back's up against the wall and there's no choice, that in that very moment you trust that God is still God and will give you all the things he's promised to you. Even if those things don't finally come to to, to fruition until the life to come, God will not abandon you.

That was the central failure of the Israelites is they were always believing that God would abandon them or forsaken them. That he had brought them out to punish them. He had brought them out to make them miserable. When in fact he brought them out, says this text, so that he could send them into the land that he'd sworn to their fathers. They thought that that wilderness and life in the wilderness was how it would be forever.

Have you had seasons like that? Maybe some of you have already had seasons like that. You will have seasons like that. What you cling to in that moment will either be a comfort to you or a pain and a misery to you. You ought to cling to God in those moments.

And you ought to cling to God in those moments until he delivers you from those time moments. And you'll say, I can't anymore. I can't anymore. You're right. You couldn't a long time ago.

But God, whose power is made perfect in weakness, his strength, it never ends. And his mercies to us don't ever falter. So we have weak faith. We have need of perseverance. We have need of remembering God's mercies to us.

Last week twenty five years ago, we have need of remembering his faithfulness. That's what we need. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers. You have to see that God is moving you through this life. He's moving you from a place of death toward a place of life.

Okay? In his throne room, when we're justified, we go from death to life like that. But in this life, in our experience of it, we don't experience it like that. We experience life. Spiritual life coming alive and then we experience a struggle, a fight, a difficulty until we die.

Not until you get married. Not until you get have kids. Not till your kids get out of the house. Not till you die. Retirement doesn't make it easier.

Bunch of money doesn't make it easier. Kids who believe don't make it easier. You're in a fight. Okay? You're in a fight.

He is moving you from Egypt to glory. And your whole life is that journey. Okay? We don't get vacations from it. Though God is merciful and does often give us seasons of reprieve.

And we ought to praise God for that and realize we haven't yet arrived. That so long as we are alive, so long as we're here, our troubles are not over. Even if they're, even if they're subsided for a moment, our troubles are not over. But one day they will be over. And our place and our priority and our hope is to look forward to that day and to seek after that day and to not lose sight of it.

And the reason we hope and trust in that day is because of what he's already done. Look what he's brought you out of. Okay? When you're on a long road trip, do you ever like when you're in the middle of Kansas, It's a boring boring state to drive across. It just goes on and on and on.

Corn fields and bean fields and corn fields and bean fields. And nothing else. Nothing to look at unless you like looking at corn and beans. Do you ever get your phone out and go, how far away is the Colorado state line? And you think, oh, it's still four hours away.

This happened Kansas isn't the only state. This happens when you drive through Florida. This happens when you drive through Texas. There's states, these are just big, you know, just big long drive for hours and you haven't gone anywhere. Feels like.

But you'll notice that if you pull your phone out and you look and you say, okay, four more hours to the state line. Okay, four more hours. And then later, you pull up your phone and you look again. Okay, three hours. Now does it look like anything changed?

No. It's still just corn as far as you can see. Just food everywhere in abundance. But you despise it. You're just like, when's it gonna be over?

When are the mountains coming? And yet your phone tells you a different story. Your map tells you a different story. You are making progress towards your destination. Doesn't feel like it in the moment.

Feel like you're going in circles. But you are making progress because God is moving you from one place to another. The thing is many of us would rather just be able to take an airplane because that's the fastest means of transportation that we know. If we could just, like, climb into a little, you know, closet and just get there, It'd be nice. I mean, it'd be it'd be really nice if it could be that quick and painless.

If we could just go from from Egypt to glory without any troubles in between. But what you have to realize is that God is at work in those troubles preparing you for the place that you're headed. Okay? You're not ready to enter there yet. None of us are ready to enter heaven yet.

And so God is still at work in us preparing us by driving us across the long plains of Kansas. I don't know if any of you love Kansas. I've made that drive enough and it's I like when you can see the mountains. Colorado, you know, the first third of Colorado is like Kansas. Nobody, unless you've driven it, knows that.

But you don't notice. You think the state line matters and it doesn't. You have to get further into Colorado before you see the mountains. The glory. God is changing you.

And in the process of changing your locations, he's changing who you are. And there's a lot he needs to change, isn't there? Isn't there a lot he needs to change in you? So don't despise the process. Don't despise it.

Submit to it in faith. Because he didn't just bring them out of Egypt to cut them free. He brought them out of Egypt so they could go into the promised land. And their lives all along the way, not just their lives, but their children's lives and their grandchildren's lives and their great great great great grandchildren's lives were fraught with that work. K?

Your kids, when you die, are going to have work to do that you didn't get done. And your grandchildren are gonna have work to do that your children didn't get done. And so on and so on and so on until we as individuals, and finally, as we corporately reach the end. This ought to be our perspective. Don't despise the process of being brought out of Egypt and prepared for the promised land.

Don't take for granted the mercies that God gives to you along the way. Don't despise or resent the burdens that attend you along the way. Don't give in to fear of the responsibilities that they will require of you along the way. Remember that God has taken us out of slavery to set us free. Remember that the real danger is that you don't know yet how to live as a free man or a free woman.

Don't look over your shoulder like Lot's wife. You see, there's lots of examples in scripture of this longing to go back to destruction. You will either end up in Egypt or you will either end up in Canaan. You will end up in one of those two places. And one of them is death.

And the other is life. Which way are you going? That's the question. What are you pursuing? Where do you want to live?

And will you submit to the miles of life to get there? That, says Moses, is the answer to the question, what do these judgments mean? Look what God did for us in delivering us, in preparing us, in going before us to give us these good things yet we haven't received yet. That's what they mean. Because he's done all of these things for us, so the text says, the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes.

Look what he did first. Look what he did first. You do realize the Israelites would have remained in Egypt perpetually if God hadn't delivered them. I mean, they were growing in numbers such that the Egyptians were afraid of them and were were they were fearful that the that the the Israelites, the Hebrews were going to grow in such a population that they would revolt. So, that's why they put them to forced labor and took away their straw and beat them and did all these things.

They they realized the Egyptians thought there's a danger coming in this this enslaved people. But I mean to tell you, they weren't getting out of Egypt unless God delivered them from Egypt. Look at what happens to Egypt. Do you not think that God could keep Israel in Egypt if he wanted to? Oh, he could have kept them in Egypt.

And so God acted first. He proactively brought them out. They didn't do it. They didn't initiate it. They didn't sustain it.

God did it. And that's why he calls us to observe all of his statutes and his commandments and his judgments. We tends to think that his his commands and his requirements are of us are given to us without context or without action on his behalf first. But this text teaches us that's not true. He acted first in delivering them from slaverage and then commanded them to obey.

But if we forget that what he's delivered us from, then his commands come to us completely differently. They just come to us as as a miserly old mean father who just requires unreasonable things of us. Never mind that he gave us life. We were entitled to that after all. Or so we think.

And so notice in Moses' answer here, first he says, God acted in bringing us out of Egypt. And then he took us to the mountain and commanded us. And so when God requires things of us, he is requiring a response to his initiative. Right? The Apostle John tells us, we love why?

Because he first loved us. We're to obey him because he first set us free. And if he's made us, and if he's delivered us, is it not right also for him to command us? So if we forget our deliverance, his burden his commands will become a burden to us. They'll become miserable to us.

And it'll makes things like Psalm one nineteen very strange. Your law, oh lord. Your law, oh lord. It's it's a delight to me. It's sweet to me.

It's life to me. Why would David say that? And not just in Psalm one nineteen. Why did David love God's law? Why was he why was he inclined toward it?

He's inclined toward it because of what God had done for him already. You've saved me and given me a kingdom and a people. I'll do what you say. I really want to talk about what it means for it to be righteousness to us, but I'm out of time. So I'll suffice it to say, at the end of the passage it says, this all of this obedience, this this observance, it says then, it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all of this commandment before the Lord our God.

What I want you to realize is this is not saying that they were going to earn their salvation or their or their their good things. You have to go back and ask the question for a minute. Were they capable of doing what God said? Remember in a few weeks ago in the sermon with the the great Shema, it says, you should love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You should and and I asked you, I said, isn't that a burdensome command?

Love with all of yourself. Do you love anything with all of yourself except yourself? But to love the Lord your God with all, like, it's it's an unattainable standard. You don't have the strength to do it. And here it says, it'll be righteousness to us if we do it.

And it's like, it's frustrating. What do you mean? Here's what he means. You have to remember Paul's words always that the law is our tutor unto Christ. Okay.

We need righteousness. We need righteousness. We need righteousness before God in his in his throne when he sits on his judgment seat. And we need righteousness in this life. And we don't have it in ourselves to get hold of it.

And so any righteousness that we have is given to us or worked in us by the power of God. And so if it will be righteousness to us, if they were to do and desire to do the things that God has commanded of them, it will have been God's work in them that made them able. And when they failed, as you and I fail, it will be the forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ that procures for them that righteousness that they need. And you never outgrow that. If you want righteousness, you'll get it from Jesus.

And you'll get it from the Holy Spirit working in your life. You won't get it from your own strength or your own experience or your own smarts. If you children get wisdom and righteousness from your parents, it'll be because God gave their words life to you and made you believe them. And that's the mercy of our God is that he helps us to believe the things that he said and to seek after them. Let's pray.