NUMBER FIVE (5-7)
(Message by Tanny Keng)
0. Introduction
a) The number 5 is mentioned 318 times in the Bible. 5 is the number of GRACE. It is interesting to note what other mention(s) for 5 can be found in the Bible.
1. What was God's 5 part demand of Pharaoh?
a) God's demand to Pharaoh was five-fold in its nature, because it was the expression of His grace in this deliverance of His people. It brought out, therefore, 5 distinct objections from Pharaoh. God's demand sprang purely from His own spontaneous grace. Nothing necessitated it; neither Israel's misery nor Israel's merit called it forth.
i) "God heard their groaning, and God remembered HIS covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them" (Exodus 2:24,25).
b) It was not their covenant with God, as with Israel afterwards at Sinai; but it was God's covenant which HE had made with their fathers. All was of grace. Hence, God's demand to Pharaoh (in Exodus 5:1) was stamped by the five great facts which it embraced:
i) God and His Word. - "Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel." To this was opposed the objection of Pharaoh (verse 2), "Who is God that I should obey His voice?"
ii) God's People. - "Let my people go." To this Pharaoh objected (10:9-11), "Who are they that shall go?" Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old, and with our sons and with our daughters, etc." "Not so; go now, ye that are men" (10:11), was Pharaoh's reply. In other words, God's people consist of His redeemed; and the enemy will be quite content for parents to go and serve God in the wilderness, provided they will leave their little ones behind in Egypt!
iii) God's Demand. - "Let my people go." No, said Pharaoh; "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land" (8:25). And many think today that they can worship in Egypt, but "Moses said, It is not meet so to do" (8:26).
iv) God's Feast. - "That they may hold a feast unto me." Pharaoh's objection was (10:24), "Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed." How subtle was the opposition! But how perfect was Moses' reply (10:26), "We know not with what we must serve the LORD until we come thither." We cannot know God's will for us until we are on God's ground. Light for the second step will not be given until we have used the light given for the first.
v) God's Separation. - "In the wilderness." When Pharaoh objected to their going at all, and wished them to serve God "in the land," Moses insisted on a separation of "three days' journey into the wilderness" (8:27). There must be a divinely perfect separation of the redeemed from Egypt and all its belongings.
c) But now Pharaoh's objection is more subtle. He said (8:28), "I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away!" Oh! how many yield to this temptation, and are always within easy reach of the world. Living within the borderland, they are always open to the enemy's enticements, and always in danger of his snares.
d) Behold, here, then, the perfection of grace, manifested in the demand of God for those "whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy" (Psalm 107:2). Each of its five-fold parts was stoutly resisted by the enemy, but the grace of God is invincible.
The End ...
0. Introductiona) The number 5 is mentioned 318 times in the Bible. 5 is the number of GRACE. It is interesting to note what other mention(s) for 5 can be found in the Bible.
1. What was God's 5 part demand of Pharaoh?
a) God's demand to Pharaoh was five-fold in its nature, because it was the expression of His grace in this deliverance of His people. It brought out, therefore, 5 distinct objections from Pharaoh. God's demand sprang purely from His own spontaneous grace. Nothing necessitated it; neither Israel's misery nor Israel's merit called it forth.
i) "God heard their groaning, and God remembered HIS covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them" (Exodus 2:24,25).
b) It was not their covenant with God, as with Israel afterwards at Sinai; but it was God's covenant which HE had made with their fathers. All was of grace. Hence, God's demand to Pharaoh (in Exodus 5:1) was stamped by the five great facts which it embraced:
i) God and His Word. - "Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel." To this was opposed the objection of Pharaoh (verse 2), "Who is God that I should obey His voice?"
ii) God's People. - "Let my people go." To this Pharaoh objected (10:9-11), "Who are they that shall go?" Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old, and with our sons and with our daughters, etc." "Not so; go now, ye that are men" (10:11), was Pharaoh's reply. In other words, God's people consist of His redeemed; and the enemy will be quite content for parents to go and serve God in the wilderness, provided they will leave their little ones behind in Egypt!
iii) God's Demand. - "Let my people go." No, said Pharaoh; "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land" (8:25). And many think today that they can worship in Egypt, but "Moses said, It is not meet so to do" (8:26).
iv) God's Feast. - "That they may hold a feast unto me." Pharaoh's objection was (10:24), "Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed." How subtle was the opposition! But how perfect was Moses' reply (10:26), "We know not with what we must serve the LORD until we come thither." We cannot know God's will for us until we are on God's ground. Light for the second step will not be given until we have used the light given for the first.
v) God's Separation. - "In the wilderness." When Pharaoh objected to their going at all, and wished them to serve God "in the land," Moses insisted on a separation of "three days' journey into the wilderness" (8:27). There must be a divinely perfect separation of the redeemed from Egypt and all its belongings.
c) But now Pharaoh's objection is more subtle. He said (8:28), "I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away!" Oh! how many yield to this temptation, and are always within easy reach of the world. Living within the borderland, they are always open to the enemy's enticements, and always in danger of his snares.
d) Behold, here, then, the perfection of grace, manifested in the demand of God for those "whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy" (Psalm 107:2). Each of its five-fold parts was stoutly resisted by the enemy, but the grace of God is invincible.
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