Bible Story: Promise, Failure, Redemption

Wait, God tells the same story over and over in the Bible?

  It's the story of Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Paul, even Adam. And of course the story of Jesus. It's the story of the Passover, when God decides that he loves us more than enough to save us from our own disobedience. A sacrifice is made, so forgiveness and peace can ensue.

When people tell the Passover story, they often leave out the part that Moses was a royal.

He was raised in the Pharaoh's household like the king's own son, adopted by the queen from the rushes. His biological mother was brought into Pharaoh's house to be his nursemaid. All his life he had adopted Egyptian society and Egyptian dress - he lived in the royal palace. In what we now consider 'ancient Egypt', they documented their history very well, so we know a good bit about it.

Moses‘s father pharaoh, likely Thutmose the fourth, is the same who, in secular history, had the dream that God came to him and told him that he could be king if he cleared the sand away from the Sphinx. The tablet or stele relating this dream is still between the paws of the great sphinx.

The palace where Moses lived was right by the Nile in a place we now know as Thebes or Luxor. The Karnak complex and the Luxor Temple are still booming tourist attractions, and their splendor is evident even thousands of years later. 

This was, to God, the epitome of spiritual rebellion.
Men on earth, literally claiming to be gods. 

But this is what Moses was used to - it was the way of life in Egypt. This is what the people, even the Hebrews, were accustomed to seeing in their daily lives. This may be why they later felt they needed a statue to worship, or an icon of gold.   

Leading up to the Hebrew slaves' escape into the wilderness, Moses may have never imagined that he would be cast out by his adopted family, and then even cast out by God.  But God had saved him from drowning for one of the first redemption stories.  

In the Bible story, Moses sees an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew servant to death. He intervenes for the man’s life, and kills the man who was (legally) beating his slave. 

For this crime, Pharoah tries to kill Moses, his adopted son! But Moses flees to Midian, and gets taken in by man with seven daughters.  When Moses returns to free the Hebrew slaves, and his father refuses, God sends ravenous plagues, 10 of them. From frogs and gnats and water turning to blood, to finally to all firstborn creatures dying - animals, then humans.  

Pharaoh's firstborn son dies as well.
This is when Moses is finally allowed to leave.

We see that, later on, when God takes the Hebrews in and makes them his people - under his feet by cloud and by fire - the people are still not satisfied. They are impatient of God, they don't believe His words or follow His commandments.

Remember when Moses strikes the rock with his staff to bring water, as God told him to do? But when the water doesn’t come out immediately, Moses strikes the rock again in impatience. This disobedience is the entire reason that Moses does not see the promised land! How much more disobedient is mankind today, when most do not know the Bible or even believe that there is a sovereign God?  

In the Bible, the need for a savior is shown over and over and over. 

All of the stories of the Bible tell the story of the promises of God, our failure to follow through, and His merciful forgiveness.

By our inheritance from Adam, we fall short, and are given a way out anyway. 

God brings up somebody, or a nobody, to save us from out of the world. But even those heroes need saving.  Like Moses, Joseph, and Jonah, none of us can do it by ourselves.  He saves us from the wiles of a god-King, spiritual corruption, the antichrist, and of course, He saves us from ourselves.

We are given a way out, as Moses was when he was put in the river.  He too was saved from certain death, a first baptism.

We are all swept up by a river of sin, in a world we are told not to be a part of. Some are adopted into God’s kingdom, some refuse His forgiveness. The same stubborn people who wandered and wandered in the wilderness because they couldn’t be obedient - that’s us. 

We’ve all been prodigal, we’ve all rebelled. Some of us have committed grave sins, even to murder. But even such a sin is not unforgivable!  Remember what changed Moses' status in the royal palace? He committed a murder.  But God did not forget him or disown him. Far to the contrary, Moses became one of the most well known patriarchs in the history of the Earth.

The promise of God is longstanding, and it is still to this day being offered to everyone. That he will pass over our sins, and remember His promise. That even though we continue to fail and fall short, Christ Jesus stands up for us, offering to pay for our sins and redeem us with His righteousness.  

This biblical and historical Christ is the only Lord who offers sonship, fatherhood, and fellowship with His people.  He comes into our hearts with His spirit and leads us out of the wilderness.  

The promises of the Bible are very real, and God's forgiveness is indeed offered to everyone alive. We are entitled to just accept His free gift, but we fail even at that. This is why the idea that God gives us a way out anyway is so pervasive in the Bible. 

It's easy for us to forget that we are offered freedom from slavery, and forgiveness of our debts. That our King made it possible for us to live righteously by sending a helper, His holy spirit. It's also easy to forget that we are, as Christians, adopted into the royal family. Saved from certain death, just like Moses.