Over in Psalm 135, 13, he says this,
"'Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever, and thy
memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.'" Now, that
name is the name that's here.
I am who I am, the self-existing
One.
The important thing, I think, for us to
see, this is the name that is the
name that speaks of the fact that God
is, that God exists.
Or, let me read Isaiah 50, verse 4,
"'The Lord God hath given me the tongue
of the learned, that I should know how
to speak a word in season to him
that is weary.
He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine
ear to hear as the learned.'" The Lord
God, the self-existing One, the One that
is the Creator, the One who is the
Savior.
And this is the One that I believe
is none other for us today than the
Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what He's to tell the children
of Israel.
Now, notice verse 15, "'And God said more
over unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel, The Lord God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath
sent me unto you.' This is my name
forever.
This is my memorial unto all generations.
That is the God that appeared unto Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob.
This is the procedure that He is to
use.
Verse 16, "'Go and gather the elders of
Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared
unto me, saying, I have surely visited you,
and seen that which is done to you
in Egypt.
And I have said, I will bring you
up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto
the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
Hivites, Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey.
And they shall hearken to my voice, and
thou shalt come, thou and the elders of
Israel, unto the king of Egypt.
And ye shall say unto him, The Lord
God of the Hebrews hath met with us,
and now let us go.
We beseech thee, three days' journey into the
wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord
our God.
For I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go, no, not
by a mighty hand.
I'll stretch out my hand, I'll smite Egypt
with all my wonders, which I'll do in
the midst thereof, and after that he'll let
you go.'" The thing is here that God
is giving to Moses the agenda.
This is the procedure.
He's to go first and call the elders
of the children of Israel and to let
them know God is calling and that he's
come down now to deliver them.
Then with the elders, he's to go first
to Pharaoh and he's to break it gently
to him.
He doesn't say, We're going out now all
the way back into the land of Canaan.
We're leaving you for good.
But we just want to go three days
out in the wilderness to make a sacrifice
unto our God.
Now, he says, Pharaoh won't let you do
that.
Then he says, That will open up the
campaign that I'll carry on against the gods
of Egypt.
And after that campaign, though I will show
mighty wonders, he'll still not let you go.
But finally, I will bring one that will
cause him to let you go.
And God says, And this is the way
it's going to be.
When we get to the plagues of Egypt,
we'll see it actually was a battle of
the gods.
I think this is one of the most
remarkable things.
But we have so many wonderful things coming
up here in this book of Exodus.
So let me move on.
Now, after that, God says he'll let you
go.
Verse 21, And I'll give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians.
It shall come to pass that when ye
go ye shall not go empty, but every
woman shall borrow of her neighbor.
Now, notice that word borrow.
It's not steal.
Actually, what it means is to take back
wages.
You see, they were slaves.
They were not being paid.
And now God says, You're going to collect
your back wages.
And that's what they're to do.
And of her that sojourneth in her house,
jewels of silver, jewels of gold, raiment.
And ye shall put them upon your sons
and your daughters, and ye shall spoil the
Egyptians.
Just think of it.
There were several hundred years of slavery.
And God says, You're going to collect back
wages for all of that.
And I'm going to send you out of
the land of Egypt.