'Appreciating God's Love'
A) Preserving the Israeli Race
Gen 15:13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
God isolated Abraham from the Gentiles by his monotheism and circumcision. God sent the small group of only 70 Israelites into Egypt to preserve their race. Otherwise this race would disappear by intermarriages with the stronger and numerous Canaanites.
Gen 34:15-16 But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
Preserving their Monotheism
Gen 46:33-34 So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, 'What is your occupation?' that you shall say, 'Your servants' occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."
Shepherds were not allowed to eat, sleep nor worship in the same place as the Egyptians. In Egypt, God preserved the Israeli race from intermarriage and monotheism from Egyptian idolatry.
His Ways are Higher Than Ours
Isa 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
So far we can see clearly how God always carefully and lovingly prepare the future for His children. Unless you can truly appreciate and grateful for His great love for His children, which is beyond our understanding, you will not trust Him enough to lighten and remove your worries, sorrows and burdens.
B) Israelites were Saved by Faith
Exo 12:21-23 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Pick out and *take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb*. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you."
The Israelites believed God. They walked out their faith in doing what the Lord had commanded them. They killed the Passover lamb and put the blood upon the lintel and doorposts. Then they ate the lamb and stayed indoor until the next morning.
Believers were saved but the eldest sons of unbelievers were killed that night.
Exo 12:28-29 Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Similarly, whoever believes Jesus and the gospel of grace, will be saved when he confesses his belief with his mouth.
C) Act 7:36 He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Though the Israelites saw so many signs and wonders of their deliverance from Egypt and the Red Sea, they were still rebellious. So God gave them the Mosaic law to follow.
The Mosaic Law
Lev 26:46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
God gave the Mosaic law to the Israelites on tablets, so that they don't have to depend on their own judgment of what is right or wrong.
God is love and He is merciful. Whenever the Israelites could not keep His words or sin, their sincere repentance will be sufficient to obtain His forgiveness.
Lev 26:40-42 'But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.
Similarly, our Lord Jesus will forgive our sins at our confession and repentance.
