Expository Sermon on Exodus
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 2/8/2025
©2025 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjNk8Hle7XU&t=4491s
Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 11.
While you’re turning there, just a reminder about our read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. If you’d like to read the Bible through in 2025, and mix it up a little bit – in a good way – you can follow the chronological Bible reading plan which you can find on our website. It’s put out by the Blue Letter Bible website, and it does some careful rearranging of Bible chapters to fit the way the chronological story went. For example, during the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, you will see the parallel stories put together, and you’ll often see some of David’s Psalms inserted in the reading, which he wrote during challenges he went through.
Anyway, that’s the reading plan I’m using. On each Sabbath I preach (in most cases) I will be speaking on some chapter or passage within that week’s reading. That’s what I’m doing today.
To find this Bible reading plan, just look in your bulletin on the announcement page, where it says “Join in the Plan!,” And you will see this coming week’s reading passages, and you’ll also see where to view the entire plan. Don’t worry if it’s not January 1 – just jump in where we are.
Anyway, this week’s passages were from the center part of Exodus. It’s interesting how you might think you know a Bible story, but when you go back and read it again, you pick up nuances you didn’t know were there.
For example, I’d like to show you some truths about God which I hadn’t realized showed up so clearly in these verses. Let me tell you what I mean.
To set the stage here in Exodus 11, it’s probably somewhere around 1500 BC. God has inflicted nine plagues on the Egyptian nation. Egypt has been holding Israel in captivity, forcing them to work as slaves, for hundreds of years. God sent those plagues to get the attention of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to demonstrate how powerful Israel’s God is. But Pharaoh keeps refusing to allow the slaves to go free.
And now, as Chapter 11 begins, there’s just one plague left to administer. But God has something He wants done first.
Exodus 11:1 [NKJV]: And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
And now God gives His assignment.
Verse 2: Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.”
At that point, none of the Israelites had the book of Exodus, so they couldn’t read ahead to the chapters about building the tabernacle. These verses don’t say that God told the Israelites why He wanted these valuable articles. He just said to ask around among their neighbors for items made of silver and gold.
This is kind of an interesting request. I wonder what would happen if I went around from door to door in our Renton cul-de-sac, asking people if I could have any gold or silver they might have. They’d probably say, “I don’t think I have much, but what do you want it for?” Or just simply, “No way!”
Fortunately, God has not asked me to do this. But He did specifically ask Moses to ask the Israelites to do this. And I would like to lay down a sermon point right here. If you taking notes, here is what I think you could call Sermon Point One.
What does Exodus tell us about God?
God wants me involved.
Now if God had wanted to, He could have ignored this step. He could have brought the gold from somewhere else. Remember how in 1 Kings 10, the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon and was so impressed with him and his kingdom that she gave him a lot of expensive gifts (including gold and silver), without him having to ask for them?
But God wants His people to be involved. Notice how verse one puts it: “Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.”
God wanted everybody involved. He wanted the introverts involved. He wanted the extroverts involved.
So what do I do, now that I know this?
Tomorrow, one of our nation’s greatest sports events happens, the Super Bowl. It’s the ultimate spectator sport. A few dozen very strong, very quick athletes will be out there on the turf doing the hard and dangerous work, and thousands of people in the stands – and millions all around the country – will be watching.
I mean, the Israelites had spent the last several weeks being spectators of God’s miraculous plagues. But now He wants them to get involved. Remember the old Adventist program called “Ingathering”? Caroling at Christmas time, holding little cans to receive people’s donations? This was kind of like that.
I don’t know what it would have taken for me to actually step out into my Egyptian neighborhood and start ingathering this way, but the people followed through. And watch what happened.
Verse 3: And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
So if you were an Egyptian neighbor, if an Israelite came to your door with that request, you said, “Sure! Come on in! I’ve got a lot of good stuff, and I’ve even got a couple of Trader Joe’s bags you can carry it all in!”
Again, the Bible doesn’t say why the Egyptians parted so readily with their valuables. Was it because they were ashamed at having enslaved the Israelites as long as they had? Was it because the nine plagues so far had intimidated them?
It doesn’t say. There’s a little rhyme that has helped me from time to time: “The Bible doesn’t say, and that’s okay!”
And every one of those Egyptian neighbors could have had an excellent reason for not parting with their gold and silver. I mean, those first nine plagues had ruined the country’s agriculture and livestock and lifestyle. Hail had fallen and destroyed the already-ripe crops, and then the locusts had come in and finished everything else off. Yet the Egyptians freely gifted their Israelite neighbors with loads and loads of their valuables. (And this was before they experienced the tragic final plague.)
Because here’s something the Bible does say. It says it, and shows it, again and again. Let’s make this Sermon Point Two. What else does Exodus tell us about God?
God wants me involved. And God can clear the way.
If God really wanted me to go around my Renton cul-de-sac collecting gold and silver, and if my neighbors had gold and silver, then God would clear the way so that this could happen.
So far, God has never cleared the way for this particular miracle to happen for me, but He has cleared the way for other things to happen. I can tell you stories, and I know you could tell me stories, about the ways God has cleared for you.
And sometimes He clears those ways in such miraculous fashion that your mouth goes dry with astonishment. Your knees tremble at how differently things could have turned out if God had not cleared the way for something happy to happen.
And we need to remember those times. The early verses of Psalm 103 say, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
As a pastor, one of the most encouraging things I often hear is when someone is facing a serious crisis of some kind, and as they talk about it, they say, “But I know the Lord has something in mind. I know He’ll get me through this.” If we keep in mind how the Lord has blessed us in the past, we can speak that courage with real conviction.
Now let’s just glance into Exodus 12 to see how successful the Israelites’ “Ingathering” was. It is Exodus night, and the people are about ready to leave:
Exodus 12:33 – 36: And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
God had cleared the way. After hundreds of years of slavery, His people were free, with a tiny portion of the wages they were owed for that forced labor.
And on they march through the desert. They come to the Red Sea, and after a night of uncertainty, God parts the waters and marches them through.
And then as they settle down to tent life, I can imagine what’s happening within those tents at night. By this time God has provided a cloud for shade during the daytime, which changes to a tall column of fire at night, like a gigantic street light.
And can you imagine, with the family tent’s door open, and the tent is lit with that pillar of fire, can you imagine Mom or Dad looking through the valuable objects of silver and gold. “These are beautiful,” they say. “We never thought we would ever own something as valuable as this.”
And then comes Mount Sinai, with God speaking the 10 Commandments out loud from the mountain top, and the people shuddering in terror. While Moses is up on the mountain with God, God gives him plans for a beautiful, portable tent temple, a sanctuary.
And notice what the Lord says to Moses even before He launches into the details. Turn to Exodus 25.
Exodus 25:1 – 8: Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
It’s important to remember that this special offering wasn’t a tax, or a requirement. In verse 2, the Lord says, “From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.”
Remember how the Israelites collected these valuables from the Egyptians? Those were free-will offerings. God had cleared the way – probably by preparing the hearts of the Egyptians – so the offering would be given freely with a positive attitude.
And now God needs tabernacle materials. But He refuses to force everybody to simply submit an accurate inventory of what the Egyptians had given them. Instead, He wants this to be a free will offering. He evidently doesn’t want anybody later to feel robbed whenever they look at the sanctuary. The idea seems to have been that if an Israelite family or person did not want to give up these valuable items they had received from the Egyptians, they didn’t have to. They could keep them. They could save them to put up on the mantelpiece in their new Palestine homes when they got there.
But if their hearts were generous, and if they wanted to be willing participants in God’s plans, then they were welcome to bring their offerings.
Let’s put down Sermon Point Three right here. What else does Exodus tell us about God?
God wants me involved. God can clear the way. And God loves willing hearts.
God loved the Egyptians’ willing hearts. God loved the Israelites’ willing hearts.
We’re going to see just how willing those hearts were, but first I’m going show you something really heart-touching. You see, the reason God loves willing hearts is that His own heart is fantastically willing and generous.
Immediately after the Lord talks to Moses about the free will offerings, He begins describing what should go into the tabernacle. Notice the very first item He describes:
Exodus 25:10 – 22: “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you. “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Notice. The first item God describes is not the altar of sacrifice. It’s not the table of showbread. It’s not a lampstand. No, the first tabernacle item God describes is where He will put His presence. God wants to be with us. That seems to be what’s most important to Him. He wants to come as close as He can and still make sure we’re safe.
Centuries later, Jesus would come, to literally walk among us. He and His Father and His Holy Spirit want to come close to us. With their own free wills they have made this closeness their top priority. And they want us to freely welcome them, so that they can welcome us into eternity.
But now, let’s see how the Israelites responded when the call went out for offerings. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 35.
Exodus 35:4 – 19: And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying: ‘Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. ‘All who are gifted artisans among you shall come and make all that the LORD has commanded: the tabernacle, its tent, its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets; the ark and its poles, with the mercy seat, and the veil of the covering; the table and its poles, all its utensils, and the showbread; also the lampstand for the light, its utensils, its lamps, and the oil for the light; the incense altar, its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, and the screen for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles, all its utensils, and the laver and its base; the hangings of the court, its pillars, their sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; the pegs of the tabernacle, the pegs of the court, and their cords; the garments of ministry, for ministering in the holy place—the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.’ ”
And can you imagine God’s delight at what happened next?
Verses 20 – 22: And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart . . . .
And I think that what we’ll hear now is my favorite part of the whole story:
Exodus 36:2 – 7: Then Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and do the work. And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary. So they continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning. Then all the craftsmen who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing, and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded us to do.” So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” And the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done—indeed too much.
Isn’t God’s freewill love a miracle? It can enter the heart of an unsuspecting Egyptian. It can enter the heart of an escaping Israelite. The freewill love and generosity of heaven were poured out not only with God’s willingness to come close to us, but with the sacrificial death of His Son upon the cross.
You and I need to reach willingly out toward such love. We need to cherish that old rugged cross, cling to that old rugged cross.
Let’s sing about that cross together. And let this song personally appeal to us to accept it, and accept the Savior who died there.