Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 19.

Class Outline:

 

 

Friday August 3, 2018

 

Title: Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 19.

 

 

 

The great redemptive act of the Old Testament occurs when God redeems Israel from Egypt. He was qualified, willing, and able.

 

Releasing Israel from slavery in Egypt, making them an independent nation with God Almighty as their King, giving them a Law to guide their hearts in God’s ways, and giving them a wonderful and productive land are all precursors or types of the Redemption that God would give to all mankind through the cross of Christ.

 

EXO 3:6 He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

 

EXO 3:7 And the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

 

The Lord had also given heed to the cry of slavery under sin and death, man’s real taskmasters. God planned the redemption, He used a man like Moses, the Man that God Himself would become, He paid for our redemption with blood, as Israel put on their doorposts, and He made the whole of salvation effectual through His own administration, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

EXO 3:8 So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

 

God used a person, Moses, to bring redemption to His people. In this Moses becomes a type of our Lord. But, Moses is a representative of the Lord who is flawed. Jesus is the only Perfect Redeemer.

 

God uses men and women in all generations to fulfil His will and every one of them are flawed. How do they do it? How do they overcome? They depend on the grace of God.

 

A note here: When God sends you with your own ministry of reconciliation, bringing the redemption of Jesus Christ to others in the world, you may balk at the calling because of your own flaws and fears. Moses was the same. Remember this when you feel nervous, shy, or fearful in your ministry to others.

 

EXO 4:10 Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

 

EXO 4:11 And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

 

EXO 4:12 "Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say."

 

EXO 4:13 But he said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever Thou wilt."

 

Moses still balks. He reveals the main reason for his apprehension; He simply doesn’t want to go. In vs. 13, Moses literally says, “Please send someone else.” He is afraid perhaps. The Lord’s anger burns against him, but in grace, God gives Moses a companion who is eloquent, his brother Aaron, yet Moses will find his courage.

 

After Moses demanded that Pharaoh let the people go three days journey into the wilderness to worship Yavah, Pharaoh increased Israel’s labor by making them gather the straw for brick making by themselves. The people were worked harder and beaten by the taskmasters more often.

 

EXO 5:22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, "O Lord, why hast Thou brought harm to this people? Why didst Thou ever send me?

 

EXO 5:23 "Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done harm to this people; and Thou hast not delivered Thy people at all."

 

There are two questions and God doesn’t answer either of them. The second question: “Why did you ever send me?” It is amazing that we can actually conclude that God must have made an error somewhere along the way. God doesn’t answer us when we ask this either. He doesn’t have to, for eventually we will see why.

 

When Moses is at the head of the column leaving Egypt with all Israel behind him and when he opens and closes the Red Sea, he will know why God sent him. 

 

The first question: “Why have You brought harm to Israel?” God doesn’t answer this question. Moses will come to know the answer after, when in the wilderness the people will reject God’s manna after seeing so many proofs of God’s power and mercy, and long to go back to Egypt where they ate fishes, leeks, and onions. In the wilderness the people will forget this oppression and desire to return.

 

EXO 6:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land."

 

EXO 6:2 God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord;

 

EXO 6:3 and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord [Yavah], I did not make Myself known to them.

 

EXO 6:4 And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.

 

EXO 6:5 And furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.

 

EXO 6:6 Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the Lord [Yavah], and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

 

The difference in the names is significant. However, there is some difficulty here, for God does identify Himself to Abraham as Yavah in Gen 15 in saying “I am Yavah who brought you out of Ur to give you this land.”

 

The name Yavah was used before Moses, meaning that people spoke the name. So, it cannot mean that God would first reveal this name to Moses. There are several explanations for this by expositors, and the one I like the best is that the name was used by Adam and Eve and others onward, but now through Moses, the real meaning of the name would be exposed.

 

Yavah was used by Eve and by Abraham, etc., but the meaning of the name would become apparent in the redemption of Israel and the gift of the PL.  

 

It is like a child calling his father, “father,” before he comes to know what a father really is or should be. As the child grows and he sees his father teach him, protect him, discipline him, love him, he comes to understand the meaning behind the title or name.

 

This makes sense here. The Patriarchs knew God as Shaddai = all-sufficient, all-mighty, in other words they could see the outworking of its meaning, but they had yet to come to know God as the Eternal One who is without bounds or limits in all He can do, yet is merciful, loving, gracious, compassionate, and perfect to save.

 

God confirmed His covenant with Abraham as El Shaddai.

 

GEN 17:1-2

“I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me, and be blameless.

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you,

And I will multiply you exceedingly.”

 

All-sufficient or all-mighty is the meaning (we think). God is revealing Himself as the One who can make things happen, giving Abraham a son through Sarah, establishing his family in the numbers of millions.

 

But through the Exodus, giving them salvation in freedom from slavery, blessing them as a nation, giving them a law and a land and in that law, showing them the price of salvation through the Levitical priesthood and their sacrifices in animal blood, God would reveal what Yavah really means. “I am who I am” - I always do what I am. I am self-existence and possessing unfettered liberty, and I will redeem Israel in grace, mercy, and love.

 

And the crux of this is that the I Am fully knows that Israel is going to reject Him in the wilderness and they will die in the wilderness. He knows that they are going to break His law. He knows that they are going to worship the idols of the foreigners and not remove all the Canaanites from the land, but will actually intermarry with them, even divorcing their wives and taking foreign girls. And yet, God will deliver the nation and teach them the way and the price of redemption.

 

El Shaddai = All Mighty promised Abraham (GEN 17:1).

Yavah = eternal One with boundless choices will redeem Israel.

 

Fulfilled: HEB 9:14

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

All Mighty, the power of God, gave Abraham and Sarah a child at such an old age. The power of God delivered Jacob from Laban and Esau and delivered his son Joseph from an Egyptian prison.