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Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

Why Redeem Israel?

Exodus 13:17-15:21

Introduction
Though it was written in 1995, we have only been singing Stewart Townend’s “How
Deep the Father’s Love for Us” for the past few months. And yet it has easily become one
of my favorite sacred songs ever. I can sing it over and over again and never tire of it; for it
powerfully speaks to my heart and from my heart to the Lord every time I sing it. The last
two lines I find especially potent:

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer.

But this I know with all my heart: his wounds have paid my ransom.

Why should I gain from Christ’s reward? I can’t say. I cannot give an answer. As I
look at myself, as I truly take an inward glance, I see nothing good in me to deserve the
salvation I enjoy. Indeed, in my flesh I see only that which deserves the Lord’s
condemnation and mighty wrath. I have known so many nicer people in the world; so
many more caring, kind, and considerate people.

But more than that, I know that for so much of my life, more than half of my life—I
have lived in willful and stubborn rebellion against God. If I may borrow again from Stuart
Townend:

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. I simply put my hand
over my mouth and fall to my face in humble praise and adoration.

At the same time, however, as I think about the nature of my salvation from the
theological rather than the personal side, I can give an answer. Theologically speaking, I do
know why I have been made to gain from his reward. Not why I have been made to gain
from his reward rather than others, but why I have been made to gain from it at all.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 13:17-15:21.

In this section of the book of Exodus we read of Israel’s deliverance from the
Egyptians at the Red Sea. And as we have seen, this act of deliverance represents more than
Israel’s liberation from slavery; it is not simply an emancipation proclamation. The Lord
has performed this miracle of salvation as a model, an exemplar, a pattern for all of God’s

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future acts of deliverance on behalf of his people, including the deliverance of his people
from their sins through the person of Jesus Christ.

Because of this, the Lord intends us to glean much from this seminal act of
deliverance about what it means to be redeemed from the tyranny of sin and delivered to the
Promised Land of eternal life. From the spectacular deliverance of God’s people nearly
three millennia ago, we can understand something of the depth of the richness of our
salvation in Jesus Christ.

Why should I gain from Christ’s reward? Let’s look to the Exodus to find out; for
we could ask the same question of the Israelites. Why should Israel gain from God’s
reward?

Now, if you know anything about Israel, you will know that a question like this is
quite pertinent. For Israel was hardly deserving of the Lord’s salvation from Egyptian
tyranny.

Israel Undeserving
We can begin with Moses himself. Is Moses someone we could say would be
deserving of God’s salvation, of the privilege of leading his people out of bondage? Well,
earlier in Exodus (in Chs 3-4), you will remember that when the Lord called Moses to serve
as his mouthpiece before Pharaoh, he was less than compliant. In fact, he objects to his
commissioning five times!

The first is found in 3:11. Turn there with me: But Moses said to God, “Who am I,
that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
Though this seems like a reasonable expression of self-doubt, something like, “I just don’t
think I can do this,” in light of the four objections that follow, we can include this as an
example of Moses’ rebellious distrust of the Lord.

Look down to v 13 for his second objection: Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I
am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent
me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
This one reads like: “No one else will think I can do this, either. I am going to need to be
credentialed if I am going to be credible to the people.”

Even though this objection, like the first one, sounds fairly harmless and just as
reasonable, it clearly is not unimpeachable in light of the context. The Lord, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has told him to go and deliver the Lord’s people. Surely this
God would have already considered the potential for resistance on the part of the Israelites.

The third objection is located in 4:1: Then Moses said, “What if they will not
believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to
you.’” Now he expresses hesitation, wondering whether or not the people will believe him.

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As these objections continue, hopefully you are getting the sense that Moses has
overstepped his bounds. In fact, asking this question in 4:1 is clearly to deny God’s claim in
3:18a (look back there): They [the sons of Israel] will pay heed to what you say. The exact
words are repeated in 4:1: God says, “They will hear your voice.” And Moses questions,
“What if they will not hear my voice?”1 Moses is simply not believing what the Lord is
saying.

Objection number four is found in 4:10: Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please,
Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have
spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Here, Moses is
implying that the Lord has not properly addressed Moses’ lack of eloquence. Notice
especially the phrase, nor since you have spoken to your servant. Though not as overt as
Adam’s blame-shifting routine (“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me
from the tree, and I ate” [Gen 3:12]), this expresses similar sentiment.

Moses objects that even from the moment he had come into contact with God, his
ability to speak had not improved. He is subtly criticizing God here as he will do later when
he says, “Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this
people, and You have not delivered Your people at all” (5:23). Here he is doing the same
thing: “By nature I don’t have the gift of speech, and I haven’t gotten it from my encounter
with you. You are making a big mistake!” In spite of his encounter with Yahweh, in
Moses’ mind, there had been no change in his situation.

And the final objection, the one that has been masked all along by Moses’ ostensibly
legitimate protestations, is found in 4:13: But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the
message by whomever You will.” As with verse 10, Moses’ adopts the language of
courtesy, of politeness, of consideration. So very politely Moses refuses to obey God’s call.
He says, “Dear sir, feel free to send whomever you wish…as long as it’s not me!”

And it is to these words in particular, representative of Moses’ stubborn

unwillingness to comply with the divine call that the Lord responds with anger in v 14: the
anger of the LORD burned against him. And well it should have.

Now then, we should add that Moses’ objections to the divine call are not the only
examples of his unworthiness to be the object of God’s redemption. Another incident in his
life manifests the same. Look down to the notoriously difficult passage near the end of Ch
4:

Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him
and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's
foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of
blood to me." 26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom
of blood "-- because of the circumcision.

1
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With all that we could say about the difficulty of interpreting the details of this
passage, the few definitive conclusions we have drawn about its general thrust provide
ample evidence of Moses’ less than deliverance-worthy character: Moses is the object of
God’s wrath for the failure to circumcise one of his sons. The sign of the covenant, the very
covenant that promised deliverance to the land of Canaan, was dropped not applied to the
offspring of the leader of God’s people. Moses’ behavior, therefore, is tantamount to a
rejection of the covenant promises for his own family.

Now as we move from Moses to the people he has been entrusted to lead, we find
that they are not much different from one another. Read 4:27-31 with me:

Now the LORD said to Aaron, "Go to meet Moses in the wilderness." So he
went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Moses told Aaron all
the words of the LORD with which He had sent him, and all the signs that He had
commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders
of the sons of Israel; 30 and Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken
to Moses. He then performed the signs in the sight of the people. 31 So the people
believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about the sons of
Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped.

Though the people here respond with faith, it was not to last cf. 5:21: “They said to
them, ‘May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in
Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.’”

Perhaps this complaint seems relatively harmless, even understandable in light of the
circumstances; nevertheless, their response here introduces a theme that reemerges in
Exodus and into the rest of the Pentateuch. It is the theme of their grumbling and
complaining. It pops up again in this morning’s text cf. 14:10-12:

As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians
were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel
cried out to the LORD. 11 Then they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no
graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you
dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? 12 "Is this not the word that we
spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians '?
For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the
wilderness."

They were ready to turn back to Egypt even after having seen God’s mighty hand
and outstretched arm.

In fact, it is upon Israel’s grumbling that the Lord determines to judge the entire
generation of Israelites who personally experienced the events of Exod 13:17-14:31. In
Num 14:27-30, the Lord says,

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against
Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against
Me. 28 "Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as you have spoken in My

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hearing, so I will surely do to you; 29 your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all
your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and
upward, who have grumbled against Me. 30 'Surely you shall not come into the land
in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the
son of Nun.

Now let’s pause briefly to see whether or not my claim that Moses and the people
were undeserving of God’s deliverance. Does this seem to be a fair assessment?

Well, in case what we have seen were not enough, turn with me in your Bibles to
Ezek 20:5-8.

And say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On the day when I chose Israel
and swore to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them
in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God, 6 on
that day I swore to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I
had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands. 7
"I said to them, 'Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not
defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.' 8 "But they
rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not cast away the
detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I
resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the
midst of the land of Egypt.

Israel had committed acts of idolatry while in captivity and refused to put away those
idols even after having been redeemed from Egyptian slavery. We see signs of this in the
book of Exodus itself. Turn to Exodus 32 and read v 1: “Now when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and
said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who
brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’”

And what is the form their god takes? That’s right—a cow! Reminiscent of the
animal gods of Egyptian captivity, don’t you think?

So then, with all that we have seen both in Exodus and elsewhere in the Old
Testament, what would be a fair characterization of Israel and its leadership? How about
this? They are stubborn, rebellious, unfaithful, ungrateful complainers against the Lord who
has come down to deliver them. So why does the Lord bother? Why would God bother to
keep company with people like these? Why should they gain from his reward? I wouldn’t
have done anything for them. I mean, who even likes to spend five minutes with people like
this?

The Church Undeserving

Well, before you go off and judge Israel for their behavior. Remember who you
were before God saved you.

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Remember that you also were once foolish yourselves, disobedient, deceived,
enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating
one another (Titus 3:3).

Remember that you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil
deeds (Col 1:21). Remember that you also once walked in the sins of immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry (Col 3:5).

Remember that some of you were fornicators, or idolaters, or adulterers, or

effeminate, or homosexuals, or thieves, or covetous, or drunkards, or revilers, or swindlers
(1 Cor 6:9-11).

Remember that you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air
(Eph 2:1-2). Remember that you lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (Eph 2:3).

And remember that these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not
crave evil things as they also craved (1 Cor 10:6).

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that none of us was deserving of the
deliverance that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ—not even one. Isn’t this why we
sing, “Why should I gain from his reward?”? Yes, it is. We wonder why the Lord would
bother. Sometimes we just need to be reminded that he was not at all obligated to do so—
obligated from our end, anyway.

Did you catch that hint I just gave you? I said that we need to be reminded that the
Lord was not at all obligated to save us—from our end, anyway. What I am suggesting is that
there is an answer to the question, “Why should I gain from his reward?” I cannot give an
answer only if that answer has its locus in me. But I can give an answer if the answer has its
locus in God. And it does.

Our explanation keeps us here in Exodus. Look at 14:4, 17-18:

Thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them; and I will
be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am
the LORD." And they did so….“As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh
and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 "Then the Egyptians will
know that I am the LORD, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his
chariots and his horsemen.”

Why God Saved Them

So then, we like Israel, are undeserving of God’s favor. So why on earth would God
save Israel? Why would he bother with this people? Why would he bother with people like
us? What do these verses tell us? Well, they tell us that God’s motivation for saving Israel

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was rooted in a desire to magnify the greatness of his own name, in order that he might be
honored even by Pharaoh and his army.

This, as you already know, is a theme that has already had expression in the book of
Exodus. Turn back to 9:16: “But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in
order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.”

Here we have the ultimate aim of what God is doing with the king’s heart. This is
why the Lord has channeled it in the way of obstinacy: so that all creation would verbally
recount and rehearse the greatness of God. As Isaiah the prophet says, “The LORD has
bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, That all the ends of the earth may see The
salvation of our God” (Isa 52:10).

This, then, is what preoccupies our Lord. It is what he values above all things. The
Lord says that he could have made short work of Pharaoh, he could have wiped him off the
face of the earth. And he could have liberated his own people out from under cruel
oppression in a moment, but he didn’t. And the reason he gives is that to do so would have
compromised the full measure of fame he wanted for his own name.

Over and over again the God’s word reiterates the truth that the multiplication of
God’s wonders in the destruction of Egypt and the deliverance of Israel were for the purpose
of magnifying the greatness of his name. Isaiah the prophet, reflecting on the Exodus says,

Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, Who divided
the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name, Who led them
through the depths? Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble; As the
cattle which go down into the valley, The Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So
You, [Lord], led Your people, To make for Yourself a glorious name (Isa 63:12-14).

Turn ahead to Ps 106:7-8 and read with me: “Our fathers in Egypt did not
understand Your wonders; They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses, But rebelled
by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He
might make His power known.”

We looked earlier at Ezek 20:1-8. Turn back there to see vv 8-10:

But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did
not cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of
Egypt. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger
against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9 "But I acted for the sake of My
name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they
lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land
of Egypt. 10 "So I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the
wilderness.

There it is! What this means is that God does not deliver his people because of them;
he delivers them because of him!

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But there is another reason given in this morning’s passage that expresses the reason
God delivered Israel. Notice 13:19: “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had
made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you
shall carry my bones from here with you.’

Here we have a very clear allusion to the Abrahamic covenant; for the statement is
nearly identical to the language of Gen 50:24-25:

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely take care
of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to
Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob." 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear,
saying, "God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from
here."

Now then, why is it that God will take care of the offspring of Jacob? Because he
promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to bring them up from Egypt to
Canaan. God is faithful to Israel because he is the God who cannot lie; he is the God who
has sworn by himself that he would bless Abraham and his seed.

So the reason why God takes care of his people, the reason why he is present with
Israel for good and not for harm is solely because of his faithfulness to himself, not because
of their faithfulness to him. The Lord promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their
posterity would be preserved alive and granted a land of their own in which to flourish
beyond their wildest imagination. So God would deliver this people in spite of their
foolishness.

But in addition to God’s concern for the magnification of his own name and his
faithfulness to his covenant promise, another reason for Israel’s deliverance is expressed in
today’s portion. Look at Moses’ song, specifically 15:13: “In Your lovingkindness You
have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to
Your holy habitation.”

It is because of God’s lovingkindness that he led his people out of slavery into the
land of promise. Now the Hebrew word translated lovingkindness is hesed and it almost
defies translation.2 In fact, most Hebrew scholars do not even translate it into English
anymore, they simply transliterate it. In English it has been rendered mercy, unfailing love,
faithfulness, steadfast love, love, lovingkindness, covenant faithfulness, and even
righteousness (the LXX).

Hesed is something like the New Testament words love, grace, and faithfulness
combined! Perhaps the best rendering is “steadfast love.” Listen to the words of Jeremiah
the prophet: “The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an
everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness’” (Jer 31:3). And in his

2
ds,x,

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lamentation he sounds this note of hope: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam
3:22-23, ESV).

It is because of his steadfast love that the Lord has led the people whom he has
redeemed. You know the language of Psalm 136 well:

To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures
forever; 11 and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures
forever; 12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures
forever; 13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures
forever; 14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures
forever; 15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love
endures forever;

So God redeems his people not because of anything good in them, but because of his
concern for the magnification of his own fame, because of his oath to the patriarchs, and
because of his steadfast love.

But I don’t want you to get the wrong impression here. These three reasons for
Israel’s redemption are not discrete from one another; they are inextricably intertwined in
the purposes of God for the salvation of his people.

First Samuel 12:22 brings together God’s concern for his name and his covenant
with Israel: “For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name,
because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.” Deuteronomy 7:9
brings together God’s steadfast love and his covenant with Israel: “Know therefore that the
LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His
lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His
commandments.” And Ps 138:2 brings together the Lord’s steadfast love and the
magnification of his name: “I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to
Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word
according to all Your name.”

We may put all three together like this: God magnifies the greatness of his name by
making good on his promise to the people he has determined steadfastly to love. I’ll say that again:
God magnifies the greatness of his name by making good on his promise to the people he has
determined steadfastly to love. This, then, is why God delivers such an undeserving bunch as
these stubborn, rebellious, unfaithful and ungrateful complainers. He saves them in order to
magnify the greatness of his name by making good on his promise to the people he has
determined steadfastly to love.

Why God Saves Us

Now, then, if this is the reason why he saves undeserving Israel, it is also the reason
why he saves undeserving us. He saves us in order to magnify the greatness of his name by
making good on his promise to the people he has determined steadfastly to love. In the
words of the Apostle Paul,

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But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he
poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by
his grace we might become heirs [to the promise (Eph 3:6)] according to the hope of
eternal life (ESV).

What an amazing reality! What an astounding deliverance! What a wonderful

savior!

Conclusion
So have we answered Stuart Townend’s question? Do we know why we should gain
from his reward? Yes, we do. We should gain from his reward because our God has
determined that we should, and nothing more. We should gain from his reward because
God has obligated himself to undeserving people to bestow such a reward upon them
according only to the kind intention of his will.

I hope you see the irony here. While we have theologically answered the question as
to why we should gain from his reward, our theological answer leaves us just as speechless
as our personal answer. When I look at myself and see just how undeserving I am, I cannot
give an answer. All I can say is that his wounds have paid my ransom. And when I look at
the Lord and see how good and kind and faithful and magnificent he is, I cannot give an
answer either. What can you say in the face of love that looks you in the eye and says, “I
love you because I love you”? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart:
his wounds have paid my ransom.

Will you stand and sing with me?

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer.

But this I know with all my heart: his wounds have paid my ransom.

Redeemer Bible Church

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Exod 13:17-15:21: Why Redeem Israel? © 2004 by R W Glenn