You Can take The People out of Egypt, but...

You Can take The People out of Egypt, but...

27And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 30Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. (Exodus 14:27-30)

22And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. 23And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.(Leviticus 9:22-23)

It must have been an awesome sight to see some two million Hebrews making their way from the land of Goshen toward the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army in hot pursuit. The Israelites reached the water, and Moses, at God’s command, stretched out his rod over the sea. It is here that an amazing miracle happened...the waters parted and these two million people walked through the Red Sea. Not only did they cross through the sea, but they did it on dry ground! When the Egyptians tried to pursue, they drowned as the walls of waters rushed back into place. The Lord had delivered His people from Egypt. (Ex. 14:30).

The theme of the book of Leviticus is the rituals of Worship and Holiness. This is a continuation of the Law which was set in the book of Exodus. Exodus ends with the construction of the Tabernacle, while Leviticus tells us about the worship which takes place within that Tabernacle. Exodus ends with the glory of the Lord moving into the Tabernacle. Leviticus picks up with the presence of the Lord calling out to Moses from inside the Tabernacle. The book of Leviticus teaches God’s people how to approach Him, be pleasing in his sight, and gives a command to be “Holy.”

The book of Exodus is all about God getting the children of Israel out of Egypt, while the book of Leviticus is all about God getting Egypt out of the children of Israel. I once heard a saying, “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl! This reminds me of so many today. God gets us out of the bondage(Egypt) of drug addiction, promiscuity, low self-esteem, etc, but we still act like the very thing we were delivered from. Now that we are out of Egypt, it is time to get Egypt out of us! If we would just surrender our ways, and allow His word to change us; we would become more like him and less like the world.