"And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. ...
All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts." [Exodus chapters 4-12 excerpts]
I have been reading through the Bible, kind of taking my time, over the past year. I'm now in Exodus the 12th chapter. What hits me right between my spiritual eyes in this particular portion of the book of Exodus is that God is going to have His way. He has His purpose He will work in this world, and that purpose is to make His name known.
Whether His name is made known to His own beloved people, or those who are His enemies, God wants His name known throughout the Earth. And, He will have His purpose fulfilled, which He certainly did, as an example for us, by bringing His people, Israel, out from under the bondage of a tyrant like Pharaoh, and setting them free.
And so the purpose of God in our day is?
Well, of course it's to do the same, make His name known and famous, only now He does this through His Church, and with the preaching of the Gospel; the good news of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world, and has forgiveness of sin for all who repent and trust in this Gospel.
"“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
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