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GOOD NEWS FROM THE REDEEMER
May 12, 2001 RADIO MESSAGE #371
Christ in Exodus #64
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Israel arrived at Mount Sinai three months after departing Egypt (Exodus 19:1ff). Christ reminded them of what He had done for them (vv.3f), and entered into a covenant with them (vv.5ff). We here will consider that what Christ did for Israel was typical of what He has done for His church.
I. "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians." In liberating Israel from Egypt, Christ soundly defeated the enemy of His people in the ten plagues (7:14-12:30) and in the Red Sea (ch.14).
Likewise, Christ has defeated the church's enemy in the liberation of His people. But unlike the enemy of Israel, which was a physical entity, the church's foe is Satan, a spiritual entity. Satan's defeat by Christ is described in Revelation 20:1-4: "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished." This "angel" is Christ (as also in Exodus 3:2; Isaiah 63:9; Malachi 3:1), the possessor of the keys of all authority (Revelation 1:18; 3:7). Christ's "coming down from heaven" was at His first advent, when "the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). During the days of His earthly ministry, Christ bound Satan (Matthew 12:28f; Luke 11:20-22), declared Satan had fallen from heaven (Luke 10:17f), and declared He had cast Satan out so that His elect from all nations might escape their deception and come to Himself (John 12:31-33).
II. "You have seen ... how I bore you on eagles' wings." The eagle is a fitting symbol for Christ. It is the king of birds; He is the "King of kings" (Revelation 19:16). It is the strongest of birds; He is "The Almighty" (Revelation 1:8). It is able to soar higher than other birds; He excels all other persons (Hebrews 1:8f). It bears its young on its wings when teaching them to fly; He did the same for Israel (Deuteronomy 32:10-12): "He [i.e. Christ] found him [i.e. Israel] in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness [i.e. Egypt]; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him."
Likewise, Christ has borne the church on the wings of an eagle. In the account described in Revelation 12, the church is the "woman clothed with the sun" (v.1) who "bore a male Child who was to rule all nations" – this child being Christ (v.6). Her Child defeated her enemy (vv.7-12). The defeated enemy nevertheless endeavored to persecute her (v.13). "But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent" (v.14; see also Isaiah 40:31).
III. "You have seen ... how I ... brought you to Myself." As Israel was brought to Christ at Sinai in order to worship Him (in fulfillment of 3:12), so has the church been brought to Zion in order to worship Him (Isaiah 35:10; 51:11). But as Zion is a far better place to worship Christ than was Sinai (Hebrews 12:18-24), so are its blessings far superior.
That is, the church has found in Christ at Zion blessings which Israel never experienced at Sinai. These include: