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Deliverance from Egypt

By R. J. Rushdoony
March 19, 2007

California Farmer 262:3 (Feb. 2, 1985), p. 21.

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the message, “Let my people go,” He added, “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand” (Exod. 3:19). Why then did God order Moses to deliver the message?

The confrontation served two purposes. First, it hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He became all the more determined to resist Moses and His God, and he punished Israel for God’s demands. Thus, things very definitely took a turn for the worse. Only God’s judgment broke down Pharaoh’s resistance.

Second, Pharaoh, in punishing Israel, compelled the Israelites finally to stand with Moses. The people were cowardly and ready to continue in their slavery, but step-by-step they were driven to stand with Moses.

The Lord’s dealings with us are often the same. Before He delivers us, He increases the problems and the evils in order to make us more fully aware of the moral problem, and to drive us to make a stand.

Thus, God’s intervention, before it brought deliverance, brought greater problems. The Israelites at first turned against Moses, not Pharaoh, as though Moses were their oppressor (Exod. 5:20–21). They were unwilling to believe that freedom does not come easily. Step by step, the Lord prepared them for their departure from Egypt.

The people grew enough to leave the land of Egypt, but Egypt remained in their hearts. For this reason, God left them to die in the wilderness and took their children into the Promised Land.

Before the Lord can deliver you to your Promised Land, He must remove Egypt from your heart also. Are you too wedded to Egypt to lay hold of God’s promises?


Topics: Old Testament History, Pentateuch

R. J. Rushdoony

Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.

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