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The Great Emancipator (Exodus 4:22-23; 6:1) by Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Imagine you are the rightful heir to the greatest empire on
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  earth. You have royal blood and
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  inheritance that could buy and sell continents, and a title
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  that demands absolute respect. Right, the kind of status that
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  changes everything. Yeah, but there is a massive
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  catch. You do not know it.
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  You have spent your entire life up to your neck in mud, making
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  bricks for a ruthless tyrant. Wow.
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  Yeah, that is a bleak picture. It really is.
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  Your parents made bricks, your grandparents made bricks, and as
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  far as you're concerned, you are nothing but a disposable tool in
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  someone else's machine. Which is.
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  Such a tragic mindset to be locked into.
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  Completely. So welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am your host, and today we are doing a deep dive into a really
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  fascinating historical framework.
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  Yes, and I am thrilled to be here as your resident specialist
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  to help unpack this with you. So glad to have you.
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  Today we are looking at Charles Haddon Spurgeon's analysis
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  called The Great Emancipator. It is based on the book of
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  Exodus, specifically chapters 4:00 and 6:00.
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  And we are analyzing the historical rescue of the
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  Israelites from Egyptian slavery, but we're looking at it
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  as a perfect, airtight blueprint for how spiritual rescue
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  operates for you, the individual person today.
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  Right, because we have got this impossible situation in the mud
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  and it forces us to ask a really difficult question.
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  Which is, how does a distant God step into that scenario and
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  execute a rescue when the captives are completely broken?
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  Down spot on. So we are going to break this
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  deep dive into three main phases.
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  First, the divine voice that claims ownership.
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  Then the human voice used as an instrument.
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  And finally, the divine strength that executes the rescue.
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  So let us start with that first phase, the mud, the bricks and
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  the divine claim. Yeah, that tension is what makes
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  this entire concept so compelling.
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  We are not looking at a cooperative rescue effort where
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  the slaves meet their Liberator halfway.
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  No, not at all. They are not pulling themselves
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  up by their bootstraps. Exactly.
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  We are looking at a hostile takeover by a rightful owner.
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  To really grasp this, we have to establish the stark contrast
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  between the physical reality on the ground and the reality
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  declared from above. So set the scene for us.
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  What was the physical reality for Israel and Egypt?
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  Well, the Israelites were in a sordid, horrific state.
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  They are quite literally up to their necks in clay.
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  Egyptian brick making was grueling.
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  I mean just back breaking labor under a relentless sun.
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  Brutal. They were degraded, and more
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  significantly, they were spiritless.
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  When you were subjected to generational slavery, the very
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  concept of liberty is trodden out if you you.
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  Stop dreaming of freedom. You just hope the whip does not
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  fall on you today. Spot on.
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  They had lost all thought of being anything other than
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  slaves. Yet into this scene of absolute
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  degradation, God issues an imperial edict to Pharaoh.
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  And he does not say, you know, let those poor slaves go.
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  He says Israel is my son, even my first born.
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  Right. And the audacity of that
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  specific title is staggering when you think about the
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  cultural context. I mean, in the Egyptian Empire
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  the title of first born was reserved exclusively for the
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  Prince of the Blood Royal. Yeah, it meant you were the heir
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  to the most formidable advanced civilization on the face of the
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  earth. Every single knee bowed to
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  Pharaoh's first born. It was a title of supreme
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  royalty, just untouchable status.
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  And here we have the Almighty, speaking in the language of
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  mortal men, taking that specific exalted title.
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  And applying it to people covered in muck, sweat and
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  despair. He looks at this cheerless,
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  crestfallen, dispirited group of unkempt brickmakers and calls
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  them his heir. It is wild.
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  A man is naturally proud of his son and heir when that son is
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  distinguished and successful, but this is a declaration of
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  absolute royalty over people who look completely worthless to the
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  naked eye. Yeah, they were total subversion
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  of earthly metrics, because from every visible metric, Israel
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  belonged to Pharaoh. Yeah, they were born in his
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  territory. They ate his meager rations.
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  They built his massive treasure cities.
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  Their daily existence was defined by the crack of his
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  taskmaster's whip. The text points out that they
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  were so beaten down they submitted to any exaction of the
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  tyrant. So when God says first born, he
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  is completely ignoring the visible evidence.
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  He is operating on a completely different plane of reality.
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  Because the physical state of slavery is temporary, right?
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  But the divine claim is eternal. Spun on that eternal claim
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  changes the whole equation. But wait, I have to push back
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  here. Look at the reality on the
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  ground. Pharaoh has the army.
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  Pharaoh has the infrastructure. He has the Chariots, the
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  weapons, the legal right of the land.
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  Yeah, exactly. So how does a spoken word, just
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  a verbal claim from an unseen God, suddenly override the
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  physical reality of their slavery?
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  Well, think about your analogy of the kidnapped Royal Air.
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  Right. If someone walks up to a maximum
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  security prison and just declares that prisoner is my
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  child, the warden is going to laugh and point to the steel
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  bars. Oh, absolutely.
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  From an earthly perspective, Pharaoh is entirely correct in
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  viewing them as his property and serfs.
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  So how does God's claim actually dismantle that physical reality?
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  That is the core tension Spurgeon is highlighting, and it
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  comes down to the freeness and spontaneity of grace, which is
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  rooted in foreknowledge and predestination.
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  OK, break that down for us. The spoken word overrides the
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  physical reality because God owns his people long before they
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  are even aware of it. The ownership predates the
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  slavery. Wow.
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  OK, so the claim comes before the condition.
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  Exactly. The analysis uses a striking
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  comparison. It is like an infant cast out in
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  an open field, unwashed, abandoned and left for dead.
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  Just completely helpless, right? And God passes by and says live
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  while that infant is completely unaware of his royal status.
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  So God is essentially telling Pharaoh, you might call them
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  your slaves, but they are my children.
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  They were mine before they were ever yours, yes.
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  This is a legal and spiritual ownership that precedes their
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  current suffering, and for you, the listener, this connects
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  directly to your own spiritual state.
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  That is a huge point for our listeners because you might look
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  at your own habits, your own failures, your own proverbial
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  mud and bricks. And you assume that is your
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  permanent identity. You operate under the assumption
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  that you belong to the system that enslaves you.
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  But divine Love reaches such as individuals when they are still
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  in the pit, dead in their trespasses.
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  Right. Divine ownership is not based on
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  your current cleanliness. It is declared over you while
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  you are still making bricks for the enemy.
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  OK, I need to ask a skeptical question here because we are
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  talking about a Royal Air, but let us look at the actual
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  behavior of the Israelites. Fair enough, their behavior was
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  not exactly royal. Not at all.
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  Spurgeon is very clear that they had largely forgotten Jehovah.
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  They had been in Egypt for over 4 centuries.
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  That is a massive amount of time.
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  Is multiple generations they had completely assimilated into
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  Egyptian culture. Yeah, they had adopted the
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  superstitions and the false gods of the Empire, aside from a few
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  lingering traditions like keeping the bones of Joseph
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  preserved in Goshen. The dunk of the people were
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  vicious. They were prone to supplanting
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  and infighting. They possessed absolutely zero
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  merit. So wait, if they were actively
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  worshipping false gods and had not scraped together a single
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  molehill of merit, why does God not just start over?
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  That is the logical question to ask.
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  Right. Why claim a people who do not
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  even know him who are actively participating in the idolatry of
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  the Empire? It is a crucial point because if
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  God's favor was based on their current disposition or
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  intellect, He absolutely would have started over.
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  Because they had conformed to the fashions of the culture
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  around them, participating in superstitious practices in
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  secret. Yeah, their proclivities, which
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  might have developed into virtues under different
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  circumstances, were instead perverted into massive stains on
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  their character. So what is the basis for the
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  rescue then? God is not looking at their
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  behavior in the mud pits. He is looking backward to an
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  ancient agreement. He favors them because of the
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  covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob centuries
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  earlier. Ah, OK.
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  The covenant overrides the condition.
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  Spot on. This ancient covenant is the
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  great deep out of which all the wells of salvation are filled,
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  and this draws a direct parallel to the concept of the believer's
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  covenant head, Jesus Christ. So a relationship tie
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  established in eternity cannot be broken by temporal rebellion,
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  right? Think of the concept that blood
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  is thicker than water. A father does not cease to be a
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  father simply because the son has forgotten him, run away, or
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  ruined his own life. Because the relationship
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  precedes the behavior and the relationship establishes the
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  rescue. Yes, God knows His people and
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  shows favor to them, not because they have earned it, but because
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  their names were enrolled in a legal binding agreement long
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  before they ever fell into bondage.
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  That shifts the entire paradigm. The rescue is not a reward for
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  good behavior, it is the execution of a prior legal
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  document. Which is incredibly reassuring,
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  honestly. It is once that rightful claim
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  is established through the ancient covenant, God issues the
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  demand for release and He does not ask for permission.
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  No, he does not try to negotiate terms with Pharaoh.
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  He just says let my son go. Spurgeon compares this command
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  to the original creation decree in Genesis.
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  You know, light be and light was.
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  It is an absolute, irresistible declaration.
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  Now let us unpack how this works on a legal level.
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  Yeah, let us dig into that. Spurgeon points out this
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  invisible reality. Mankind is held in subjection by
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  the law and by the Prince of the Air, which blinds eyes and stops
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  ears. But Jesus fulfills the law's
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  precept and penalty. Let us break that down, because
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  precept and penalty can sound like heavy jargon.
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  It really can. Essentially, the precept is the
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  rule you broke, and the penalty is the fine you owe for breaking
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  it. That is a great way to put it.
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  So Jesus fulfills both. He lives the perfect life to
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  fulfill the rule, and he takes the punishment to pay the fine.
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  This makes any further claim by the law entirely unjust.
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  Let us use an analogy to make the legal mechanism of this
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  crystal clear. Imagine a modern day hostage
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  situation but with A twist. OK, I am picturing it.
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  A corrupt foreign government has taken a citizen hostage,
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  claiming the citizen owes them a massive, unpayable debt.
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  They lock this person in a dark cell.
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  But then an international High Court steps in.
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  A benefactor not only pays the entire ransom in full, but the
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  international court completely revokes the corrupt government's
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  legal sovereignty. So the debt is zeroed out and
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  the captors legal authority to hold anyone is totally
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  dissolved. Yes, if that corrupt government
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  tries to keep the cell door locked.
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  They were acting lawlessly. They have no jurisdiction
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  anymore. The legal right of the captor
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  has been entirely dismantled. That is like a bank trying to
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  foreclose on a house when a third party has already paid off
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  the mortgage in full. Spot on.
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  The penalty has been endured and the precept has been fulfilled.
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  The law simply has no more jurisdiction over the captive.
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  The Prince of the Air can no longer hold them because the
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  leverage she used, the debt, has been completely cleared.
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  But all of this legal clearance means nothing if the prisoner is
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  still sitting in the dark cell. Yeah.
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  How does that paperwork, that legal transaction, translate to
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  the actual prison break? The analysis uses a very
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  specific striking image. Here picture a person locked in
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  the innermost ward of a prison. They are restricted by fearful
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  habits, surrounded by thick iron gates.
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  Exactly. They have plunged into one
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  failure after another, shutting themselves in behind layer upon
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  layer of confinement. They've given up all thought of
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  pardon. It is midnight, it is pitch
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  black and they are asleep in their chains.
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  When that divine decree goes forth, the legal reality forces
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  a physical manifestation. Those iron gates open
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  automatically. The person is woken up in the
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  midnight darkness, struck on the side and LED to liberty.
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  They almost cannot believe it is happening.
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  They think it is a vision. But the iron vans snap simply
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  because the debt that kept the lock engaged has been paid.
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  And this liberation is not just a historical event that happened
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  and Israel were a one time spiritual event for the
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  believer. It is an ongoing present reality
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  and it actually concludes in the future resurrection of the body.
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  Yes, Spurgeon highlights a fascinating promise.
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  Not a single bone, not a single hoof will be left behind in the
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  grave. Nothing that belongs to redeemed
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  man will be lost. The voice that quicken the
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  spirit will eventually resuscitate the physical body,
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  bringing complete and total liberation from every form of
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  bondage. Even death itself cannot hold
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  the individual once that imperial edict has been spoken.
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  The rescue is total, encompassing the mind, the
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  spirit, and eventually the physical body itself.
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  If you are listening to this and thinking, OK, I am free, I can
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  do whatever I want, now we need to look at what actually happens
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  next. Right, because freedom from
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  Pharaoh is not an escape into total autonomy.
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  It is actually a transfer of allegiance.
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  They are let go for a highly specific reason.
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  God's command finishes with a clear purpose that he may
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  worship me. Israel transitions from making
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  bricks to becoming Jehovah's priests.
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  They are tasked with preserving the light and the oracles of God
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  while the rest of the world sits in darkness.
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  Now some might hear this and think, so I am just trading one
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  demanding boss for another. Yeah, that is a huge pushback.
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  I was a slave in Egypt and now I am a servant in the wilderness.
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  How is this new position fundamentally different from the
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  bondage they just left? It is a natural question, but
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  the contrast between the two conditions is absolute night and
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  day. Break that contrast down for us.
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  Well, the toil in Egypt was degrading.
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  It was designed to break their spirits and diminish their
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  humanity. Pharaoh treated them as
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  disposable machinery. Their labor was extracted purely
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  to build up a tyrant's empire, and when they died, they were
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  replaced. The new calling, however, is a
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  high sacred privilege. Look at the 40 year Wilderness
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  March. It is the perfect illustration
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  of this contrast. In Egypt, they exhausted
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  themselves every day just to survive, gathering straw and
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  making quotas. Right.
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  But in the wilderness they lived upon the unseen God.
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  They were fed with manna from the sky without sowing a single
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  seed. They were provided fresh water
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  out of solid rock without building reservoirs or
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  watercourses. They were guided over shifting
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  sand without a compass, shaded by a massive cloud during the
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  blistering day and lit by a pillar of fire during the
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  freezing night. It is a transition from brutal
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  self-sufficiency to a state of radical miraculous dependence.
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  They possess nothing, yet they lacked nothing.
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  They lived upon the fat of the land while wandering in a barren
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  desert. You are leaving the enemy's
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  camp, which means enlisting in a new core.
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  You are called to present daily Thanksgivings in a contrite
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  heart. It is a shift from producing
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  bricks out of fear to living as a living sacrifice out of
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  gratitude. You're operating under a system
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  of total provision. You are no longer treated as a
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  prisoner, but as a recruit enlisted to assail the very
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  passions you once defended. Exactly the new allegiance is
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  not about extracting labor. It is about dwelling in happy
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  fellowship and receiving constant daily provision.
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  But to get them to that point, this majestic decree had to be
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  delivered to a physical king. A messenger was required to walk
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  into Pharaoh's throne room and announce the hostile takeover.
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  And the choice of messenger is utterly counterintuitive.
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  God hides his immense capability behind the feebleness of Moses.
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  Here's a man who was slow of speech, a man with a stammering
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  tongue. Sending a stuttering 80 year old
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  shepherd to confront Pharaoh, the most authoritative,
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  intimidating monarch on the globe, seemed absolutely
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  ridiculous. It invited extreme rage and
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  mockery. It makes me think of the pocket
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  handkerchief analogy Spurgeon uses, which is just brilliant.
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  Oh. That is a great one.
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  Walk us through it. He says that telling a
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  spiritually dead person to live feels as absurd as walking into
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  a graveyard, waving a silk pocket handkerchief over a tomb
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  and expecting the corpse to wake up and walk out.
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  It is completely disconnected from any logical cause and
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  effect so. Why does God use such
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  ineffective tools? Why use a stuttering shepherd?
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  Why not just split the sky open and speak directly from the
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  heavens by passing the awkwardness and the inevitable
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  rejection Moses faced? Yes, why not do that?
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  The absurdity is precisely the point.
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  The lesser the tool, the greater the glory of the Craftsman who
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  wields it. There is a brilliant historical
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  anecdote Spurgeon brings up here about Quinton Matzis, the famous
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  blacksmith and antwik. Yes, the story goes that his
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  fellow workmen were incredibly jealous of his skill, so they
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  stole all of his proper tools. They left him with nothing but a
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  heavy hammer and a simple file. Matzy's did not give up.
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  He went to work and supposedly forged a masterpiece well cover
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  using only those inadequate instruments.
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  The fact that he created something so intricate and
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  beautiful with such terrible tools amplified his reputation
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  as a master Craftsman. His skill was undeniable
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  precisely because his tools were so poor.
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  In the same way, the preacher or the witness sharing truth is
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  simply an echo of the divine voice.
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  When God speaks through a stuttering Moses, his own
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  transcendent capability is far more conspicuous than if he'd
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  spoken directly from the heavens.
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  Because if God had spoken with a voice of Thunder that shatters
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  the Cedars of Lebanon, Pharaoh would have yielded instantly
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  just from the sheer force and terror of the sound.
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  Everyone would say, well of course Pharaoh let them go.
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  He was terrified by the noise. But by masking his capability in
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  the frailty of a human stutter, the eventual victory
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  demonstrates a much deeper, more sovereign force.
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  The tool is deliberately inadequate so that the resulting
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  masterpiece can only be credited to the one holding the hammer.
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  But we really have to consider the psychological toll this took
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  on the Messenger. Moses faced massive rebuffs.
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  Pharaoh was enraged and increased the workload.
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  The Israelites themselves turned on Moses, blaming him for making
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  things worse. The initial results of his
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  obedience were terrible. That is a reality anyone sharing
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  truth has to face. If you are trying to share truth
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  today, you should expect to hit grit that will break your knife.
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  You will encounter people who look at you and say, I do not
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  know the Lord, and I will not yield.
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  You will feel like your words are bouncing off a brick wall.
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  Old human nature resists fiercely.
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  It loves its false peace. But Spurgeon encourages the
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  messenger to be steadfast. He uses the phrase mcadamize the
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  road with the rough flints of your failure.
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  What he means is take those massive rough stones of
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  rejection, crush them down, and use them to pave a solid Rd.
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  moving forward. You press forward with quiet
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  confidence. You do not need overwhelming
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  eloquence or flawless rhetoric. You are an earthen vessel.
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  Your job is simply to echo the decree.
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  And remember, even that stubborn Pharaoh who repeatedly refused
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  and hardened his heart, was eventually brought to his knees.
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  Literally begging the Israelites to depart.
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  And that brings us to what happens when the human voice
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  meets that stubborn resistance, right?
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  Divine invention backs it up, bringing severe disruption to
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  the oppressor. We are talking about the
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  plagues. Now, usually we pitch grace as
• 19:01
  something that brings immediate comfort and harmony.
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  We tell people find truth and your life will be peaceful and
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  happy. But Spurging argue something
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  radically different, he says Grace actually brings a sword.
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  It divides families. It ruins social revelry.
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  The plagues completely ruin the comfort of Egypt long before
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  they produce the freedom of Israel.
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  Why is this disruption necessary?
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  Why does conviction have to make everything taste sour?
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  Because a false peace must be shattered before true liberation
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  can occur, the old life must become physically and
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  psychologically intolerable. Think about the plagues as a
• 19:39
  metaphor for personal conviction.
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  It starts filling your world. The frogs getting into the bed
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  chamber, the flies stinging the flesh.
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  Earthly pleasures are ruined. The water you used to drink
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  becomes brackish. The bread you used to enjoy
• 19:51
  tastes sour. Think about how a single fly
• 19:54
  buzzing in your ear can completely ruin a great movie or
• 19:57
  a nice dinner. Conviction works the same way.
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  It does not necessarily change your environment right away, it
• 20:02
  changes your ability to enjoy that environment.
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  Yeah, unredeemed friends in your social circle might try to pull
• 20:07
  you back into their frivolous activities, but your presence
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  now poisons their pleasures. You cannot enjoy the revelry and
• 20:15
  your new mindset makes them incredibly uncomfortable.
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  The darkness eclipses what used to be brilliant to you.
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  Your old coping mechanisms just do not work anymore.
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  And eventually, the world begs A believer to leave.
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  Spurgeon notes that the Egyptians handed over jewels of
• 20:31
  silver and gold just to be rid of the Israelites.
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  The disruption is necessary to force a clear, decisive,
• 20:38
  permanent separation between the two camps.
• 20:40
  If Egypt had remained a comfortable place to live,
• 20:42
  Israel never would have left. They would have stayed in the
• 20:45
  mud. The plagues ensure that the old
• 20:47
  world is entirely ruined as a place of habitation for the
• 20:51
  redeemed person. You literally cannot go back
• 20:53
  because the bridges are burned and the water is bitter.
• 20:55
  And all of this chaos, all the flies and the frogs in the
• 20:58
  darkness, culminates in a stunning, silent victory for the
• 21:02
  redeemed. We look at the night of the
• 21:04
  exit. The blood of the Paschal lamb is
• 21:06
  painted on the doorpost of the Israelite homes.
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  The Angel of Death passes through, but inside those homes
• 21:12
  there is perfect safety. And as they March out, Spurgeon
• 21:15
  highlights an incredible detail from Exodus.
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  The accusers are completely silenced.
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  The text says not a dog moved his tongue.
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  All the old sins, the corruptions, the temptations
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  that used to bark at them and terrorize them, are eventually
• 21:31
  drowned in the Red Sea. Which represents Jesus's blood.
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  The brick maker lays down his heavy clay, walks out with the
• 21:38
  silver and gold of the oppressor, and the very dogs
• 21:41
  that used to chase them are entirely quiet.
• 21:43
  The blood on the doorpost is an unanswerable legal response to
• 21:47
  every critic looking for a loophole.
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  It secures total liberation in a single instant, legally
• 21:51
  absolving the captive from all prior claims.
• 21:54
  The silence of the dogs represents the complete
• 21:56
  cessation of condemnation. The law cannot bark at you.
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  Your past failures cannot bark at you.
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  The oppressor who healed you in the mud cannot bark at you.
• 22:05
  The blood has settled the dispute entirely.
• 22:07
  The case is closed. Either the ultimate mic drop in
• 22:10
  the legal courtroom of the soul, the debt is paid, the captor is
• 22:14
  silenced, and the captor walks out right through the front
• 22:16
  door. Which brings us to a final
• 22:18
  thought for you to Mull over as we wrap up this deep dive.
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  We have seen that total liberation from the enemy is
• 22:23
  secured in an instant by the blood on the doorpost.
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  It silences every single accuser.
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  Yet the very next morning, the Israelites began a 40 year March
• 22:33
  through a barren, hostile wilderness that requires
• 22:36
  absolute daily dependence on manna from heaven.
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  So consider this Why does God pair instant, unassailable legal
• 22:44
  justification with a prolonged, physically exhausting experience
• 22:48
  of daily dependence? If the legal victory is 1
• 22:51
  overnight, why does the experiential victory take a
• 22:53
  lifetime of walking through the desert?
• 22:55
  Keep that tension in mind. We'll see you next time on a
• 22:57
  formed thinking.