I. Yahweh Versus Tyranny 00:01

Lord, I pray that as you speak to us this morning, you would open our eyes to see the wondrous things that you do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

So this week we get to the fun part of Exodus, let’s say. This is the showdown. I’ve labeled this week “Yahweh Versus Tyranny.” That’s the showdown from the beginning of time until now, actually. As we covered a little bit when we mentioned the fall and how that created the context for the exodus of our own lives, what happened is God created this paradise, this walled garden, for us to live in community with him. But in order to be in true freedom, in order to live in perfect love, you actually have to be committed and joined with God. You actually have to conform your will to his, not because he is a megalomaniac who wants to control your every decision, but because he created the world to be an outpouring of his love. And anything that does not go with the direction of God’s will is actually anti-love and anti-freedom.

So even Eve eating this apple of the tree that’s supposed to make her like God, that story we tell of the forbidden fruit, was actually an act that enslaved her to the law of sin and death. And Adam came right along. So when we talk about this title of the sermon, Exodus, the battle between Yahweh and tyranny, that’s actually the battle in your life today. The battle that’s going on is between God and the tyranny that would enslave you in this very day and age. And luckily for us (in fact, luck is not the right term; there’s something grander about it), by God’s providence for us, the battle has been won. We’re just walking into the victory. So when we go over this battle in Exodus, I want you to remember that this same God, who by his power showed that no might could stand against him, that nobody could stop him from saving his people, that God is fighting your tyranny, and he is bringing you into the promised land. He will not stop until that work is completed in you.

II. A Stubborn Savior and Three Signs 03:00

So in week one of going through Exodus, we found that this small family of Abraham had grown into a people enslaved in Egypt, and that they were crying out for salvation. Now, there’s no evidence that they were crying out to God. In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that they had forgotten the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Egypt they had begun to participate with the Egyptians in the worshiping of false gods, and they were probably just crying out in desperation to anybody: Pharaoh, the Nile, Ra, any of these gods. “Somebody save us!” But our God is so good that those who seek will find, even if they don’t know where to look. And so he heard them, and he prepared for them a savior in the person of Moses, the same way God prepared a savior for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so in week two we covered Moses’ journey. Moses is one of those great characters in the Old Testament that absolutely has to be true, because he is not written like a superhero. He is not perfect. He is stubborn and weak, and he’s a murderer to begin with. Out of his anger at seeing a Hebrew person beaten up, he kills the Egyptian, hides the body, and then runs away, because Pharaoh is going to kill him for it. That’s the Moses we get to look up to, considered the greatest character in the whole Old Testament, and he’s a murderer and a coward. That’s who we’re starting with. Thank God, because if God just found all of these perfect people and used them, we might think that we have to be perfect in order to be used by God. But that’s not his point. In fact, even by choosing the people of Israel, he chose what has been called throughout the entire Old Testament a stubborn and rebellious people, because he wants us to know that he can save even you. He can use even you.

And so we get Moses in the desert. He gets stripped of all of the conceits, all of the arrogance he grew up with as a prince of Egypt. He had all this stuff, and God strips it away, and he’s finally able to hear the word of God in the burning bush. Throughout this encounter Moses is objecting strenuously: “God, you’ve got the wrong guy.” Eventually he says, “Please don’t send me.” He has no more objections, but “Please choose someone else.” But God gives him three signs, to show him and to show the Israelites that God has chosen even this murderer Moses to be his representation, that he has chosen Moses to be their savior.

He gives them the sign of the staff, which becomes a snake. And then he tells him to pick up the snake, because the power of God is such that when he conquers sin in your life, represented by the snake, that becomes the foundation of the authority of God in your life: his overthrow of the enemy. In fact, the greatest act of God on the cross was in destroying the serpent of old, that symbol of sin and death, as God died and then rose again and conquered. And so our symbol of authority on the cross is the same symbol as Moses’ staff: that is, the conquered snake. There is no authority over God’s authority. That’s what the staff symbolizes.

Then he has his hand, which God says to put in his cloak, and it comes out leprous. It’s a sign of the death that is in our bodies because of the law of sin and death reigning in our bodies. And God heals it. So God says, “I can conquer even the consequences of sin in your life: not only set you free from sin, but conquer the consequences and give you life.” And lastly he talks about the water of the Nile turning into blood, representing God’s sacrificial system that ends and culminates in the blood of Jesus that conquers all. So these are the preparatory symbols God gives Moses to go back to Egypt. Just keep those in your mind as we look at what God does in Egypt. He saves his people out of slavery, and he brings them into new life through these symbols.

You know, there are actually people who read the Bible as though everything written in it is a metaphor. They’re like, “Duh, the staff is a metaphor, so it didn’t really happen. He had a stick, and God gave him a vision, and he dreamed that. Maybe he had some ayahuasca, some hallucinogenic drug, that was burning in the bush, and that’s what that represents.” They have all these explanations except for the real one, which is that God is a God of symbol and metaphor, but the symbols and the metaphors lead us into the reality of who God is. Absolutely the staff is a symbol. Absolutely the leprous hand is a symbol. But it doesn’t take away the reality of what it is. Of course, the cross is the most powerful symbol in the history of the world, but there really was a man who died who was God. There really were these things.

And there’s this great quote that I think encompasses Moses’ journey, from the prince of Egypt, the murderer, the fugitive, the nomad. There’s this quote from a book I just finished reading the other day, by Neil Gaiman. It says, “He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the place of things that are, and it was changing him.” That’s the invitation today, as we talk about what is the most symbolic of stories in the Old Testament. Every plague is a symbol of something meant to teach us. I’m inviting you beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the things that are. And that was the journey Moses took.

III. The Name of God 08:38

And then God gives him his name. That’s the other thing God gives him: the name of God, Yahweh. Now, this one’s interesting, and we’ll get into the plagues next, but this is quite literally the point of the first chapters of Exodus until they get to the wilderness. That whole thematic section is introducing you to the name of God, and you’ll see it repeated throughout. Listen for “Yahweh”: “Yahweh said this, so that you may know that I am Yahweh.”

Now, there are people who don’t believe in God, believe it or not. They’re out there. In fact, sometimes maybe we have difficulty believing in God, wouldn’t you think? At least we have difficulty in believing he is who he says he is. And when you listen to people who don’t believe in God, there’s a simple question you can ask them: what do you mean by God? And 90 percent of the time, I don’t believe in that God either. Because they’ll talk about this judgmental, Zeus-like figure who sits on his throne and zaps that person and zaps that person, and he’s vindictive. That’s not the God we believe in.

So what’s the point of Exodus? The point of Exodus is: even we have difficulty knowing who God is, so let me show you who God is in the story of him rescuing his people. The name Yahweh means the God who delivers, the God who rescues, the God who is faithful even when we are not faithful. Like I said, there’s no evidence that the Israelites are serving him under the slavery of Egypt. In fact, all the evidence points to the fact that they’ve given up on that God, that they have to be reintroduced to him by his powerful saving arm.

IV. Get Your House in Order 10:53

So we get Moses heading into Egypt with that knowledge, to approach Pharaoh, to bring about this confrontation. And then we have this little detour, because the Old Testament is like that, and God is like that. Here’s the detour. He’s heading into Egypt (you might not even know the story; in fact, they didn’t show this story in the cartoon version, The Prince of Egypt, and I get why), and it says God tried to kill Moses (Exod 4.24–26). Wait, what? He sends him to Egypt, and then he tries to kill him? That’s what it says. And then what happens? His wife Zipporah circumcises his son, and she says, “I am now a wife of blood with you, Moses.” And then he’s good to go. What a weird story! What the heck is going on?

Well, this is what’s going on. God knew that if he went to Egypt and his whole household wasn’t committed to serving the Lord, then he wasn’t going to make it. In fact, there’s this great rule that my buddy Jordan Peterson has. I’m going to paraphrase it: “Get your own house in perfect order before you attempt to criticize the world.” You see a lot of people out there telling you how the world out there should be: “They should do this, they should do that.” And they’re divorced, and they haven’t talked to their kid in two years, and they’re drug addicted. That’s an extreme example, but you know what? Every one of us does the same thing. We’re very concerned with the speck in everybody else’s eye, but we don’t look at the log in our own eye (Matt 7.3). There’s a fundamental biblical principle where you have to get your own house in order: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24.15).

And so God tried to kill Moses because he knew he wasn’t ready yet. It was a test for him, for his wife, for his son. But they passed with flying colors. She was willing to circumcise her son and say, “I am now a wife of blood to you. Your mission is my mission.” That’s a pretty darn good wife. She understood. She wanted to be a part of the mission of God to save not only the Israelites, but ultimately (we know the end of the story) this act saved the world: the fact that she was willing to dedicate her son and her household. Because you know where the division often happens between husbands and wives? Over their children. “I know what’s best for my kids.” And she knows what’s best for my kids, and maybe it doesn’t agree. And so we see in here a biblical example of a husband and wife dedicating their house to God instead of to their own idea about what should be. The wife was even willing to dedicate her son to the Lord, to get about the mission of God.

V. The Confrontation Begins 13:16

All right, a little detour. So we get Moses heading to Egypt, and we’re going to jump into Exodus 4:19:

19 And Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” Exod 4.19

The reason I bring this up is the connection between Moses and Jesus. Where have we heard that before, “for the people who are seeking your life are now dead”? We actually hear that in Matthew chapter 2 (Matt 2.20), and it’s prophesied in Hosea. What happens is, when Jesus is born, we have another tyrant king who thinks that he can rule the world, and he decides to go out and try and kill Jesus. And where does Jesus run to? Egypt. Because it says, “Out of Egypt I have called my son” (Hos 11.1). And then what does God say to him? “Go out of Egypt.” It’s this reverse parallelism: “for those who have sought to kill Jesus are dead.” It’s the same language. What am I saying here? God does the same thing yesterday, today, and forever. With Moses he was looking to rescue his people. And that connection between Moses and Jesus is extremely important as we go through this, because that’s who Jesus said he was like.

All right, let’s get to the confrontation here. Verse 21:

21 And Yahweh 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. Exod 4.21

This is possibly the most controversial aspect of the plagues, because it’s repeated throughout that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart and he doesn’t let the people go. So very briefly, what is happening here with Pharaoh? Because there’s a way of reading this where you think of God as manipulating Pharaoh, so that he can have this big bad guy who has no free will, so that he can beat him up, so that the people can see, “Oh, God’s stronger than Pharaoh.” What’s actually happening here? There’s a mystery to it, but I think it’s probably something like this.

Everybody says Hitler, so we’re going to jump over to Stalin, right next door. Imagine Stalin is on his deathbed (in fact, we have some tales of what was happening on his deathbed), and imagine somebody came to him and said, “Jesus Christ is Lord. If you just repent and believe, you will be saved. If you stop murdering people,” which is what Stalin did for decades in the Soviet Union, “then you can be saved. You can turn your life over to Christ.” What do you think Stalin would have said at that moment? Well, I guarantee you he would not have agreed to those terms, because he had decided in his heart that he knew what was best for his life. And not only that, but he had the power and the right to kill people to get his vision achieved.

That’s exactly what has happened with Pharaoh: first with his father, who threw the babies into the Nile, and then, as the next Pharaoh comes up, he continues this program of enslaving and murdering the Hebrew people. And you know what murderers and tyrants don’t do? They don’t give up their power. I am arguing here that not only was God involved, but there’s another aspect to this, where Pharaoh made his bed and now he’s lying in it.

That’s a warning to all of us. Guess what? If you’re in a habit of always getting a milkshake every time you go through a drive-through, it’s going to be really hard for you to not harden your heart and stubbornly get the milkshake, even when you know you shouldn’t get the milkshake. That’s a very small example of what’s going on here. But what you decide to do determines what you will decide to do. At some point we have to stop trying to get our own way in life. Otherwise, as C. S. Lewis said, there are two types of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “Thy will be done.” If you insist on your own way, your heart is going to become hard to what God wants to do in your life. That’s what happens to Pharaoh.

And then there’s a warning in here. We’re going to skip down a little bit, because we can get to that later, but basically God says, “Because you won’t let the Israelites go, my firstborn son, Israel, your firstborn son will be required of you. I’m going to take your firstborn son” (Exod 4.22–23). That is the challenge that has been issued to Pharaoh. Now, the interesting part about this is he says, “If you don’t let my son Israel go, that he may serve me…” We’re framing what the plagues are about. What’s the point? Israel should be worshiping and serving Yahweh, the true God, but instead they’re worshiping and serving other gods, and Pharaoh is enforcing this. And God’s saying, “That’s not the way the world works, and you’d better let him go. You’d better let Israel go.” And so the challenge is not whether Israel will lay bricks in Egypt. The challenge is who Israel is going to serve.

VI. Who Is Yahweh? 19:01

So he goes to Pharaoh, and he lays this all out. He does the miracles. He tells Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” And then in Exodus 5, verse 2, Pharaoh gives his reply, and this is his reply throughout:

2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Exod 5.2

What did I say? This whole section is about who is Yahweh. That’s the challenge. And Pharaoh says, “I don’t know Yahweh.” And God basically says, “You’re going to find out.”

So then Pharaoh gets pretty upset at this upstart murdering thug who left Egypt’s house and demands that Israel be let go. And we get that famous phrase: more bricks, less straw. He tells them, “You’ve got to make more bricks, you slaves, and I’m not even going to give you the materials with which to make them, the straw. Good luck.” And my favorite part about this story is Moses’ response. Moses immediately panics. God has told him over and over again that Pharaoh’s not going to let his people go, and Moses immediately panics. This is what he says:

22 Then Moses turned to Yahweh and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” Exod 5.22–23

You can just hear the angst. It’s like, “You haven’t even delivered them this much, and you said you were going to deliver them all the way! What the heck, God?” And God basically says, “Look, I told you this was going to happen. Now let’s get about our business.” He has no patience (thank God he has no patience) for Moses’ misunderstanding of what’s going on. He’s like, “This is the truth.” He reminds him of what he said, and then he says, “Let’s get about our business.”

So we see here the beginning of the plagues, in chapter 7, verse 3:

3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them. Exod 7.3–5

That is God’s response to Moses’ panic.

VII. An Uncreation Drama 21:28

And now the plagues. Now, there are a couple of things we need to think about. We’re not going to go through each plague and explore; there are so many nuances. But I just want us to get a picture of what’s going on here and what we’re meant to take from this. Because as far as we know, God hasn’t told us that he’s going to start assaulting the IRS to make sure that they don’t tax us more than we think they should. We’re in a different situation. Our tyrannies, God is not coming down and smiting them with frogs and locusts. So what is the point here, then? If God’s operating differently now, then what is the point for us?

Well, first of all, we need to keep in mind that this whole thing is about knowing who Yahweh is. It’s actually said seven times throughout the plagues: “so that Pharaoh will know that I am Yahweh,” “so that you will know that I am Yahweh,” and “so that Egypt will know that I am Yahweh.” So everyone knows. That’s the point. We’re trying to figure out who God is and what power he has.

They’re broken up into three groups. There are ten plagues: three groups of three, so there’s nine, and then there’s the Passover, which we’re not going to talk about today, because that’s a whole ‘nother thing. Real good grammar. So the first, the fourth, and the seventh plague are about God sending Moses in the morning to meet Pharaoh at the Nile. Then the second, fifth, and eighth plague begin with God meeting Pharaoh in his house. And then the third, the sixth, and the ninth come suddenly, without any warning to Pharaoh. I say all this to say: all of these things that seem opaque to us at times, that seem willful, this is God’s plan, and he’s just unfolding it step by step to make a point to us about how he is saving his people.

The two points that are most present in what he’s doing: first, it’s an uncreation drama. There’s the creation in the beginning of Genesis, and the plagues parallel it in reverse. I’m not going to get into all the symbolism, but I’ll just mention this. For instance, in the seven-day creation story, God speaks ten times to create the world, to separate the waters, all these different things. It says, “And then God said.” In the plagues it says “And then God said” ten times. They’re a parallel. And the language that’s used throughout: the gnats are one of the plagues, and it says “from the dust of the earth.” It’s the same language God used to create life. So there are all these different parallels.

And what’s happening is, when you give yourself over to sin, to tyranny (this is a parable as well about us and our fight against sin), you actually are uncreated. In consequence, your image of God becomes marred and marred. And ultimately we know that if you don’t accept the saving power of Jesus in your life, then there’s an infinity of uncreation, of death. And so what God’s showing is not “how strong I am to defeat these people, so that you can worship my strength.” He’s not just showing that. He’s actually showing, “When you pursue other gods, this is the result.” So that’s the uncreation. Everything that is not love, in the example of Jesus Christ, is actually counter to the very existence of the world: uncreation.

And then there’s the confrontation with the false gods of Egypt. Each of them is called out by the plagues. In fact, they’re all linked to the various plagues. And so anybody you serve that is not Yahweh, you’re doing it wrong. Yahweh is the only good God, the author and giver of all good things.

VIII. The Judgment of God 25:47

So let’s go through this. How are we supposed to think about this judgment of God? Well, I gave you a hint there. There’s this story that’s told as kind of a parable about Hurricane Katrina, which you probably remember: complete devastation in New Orleans because of this massive hurricane. Come to find out, many of the preventative measures that would have mitigated that utter catastrophe were not taken because of corruption. So was it God sending a flood on the evil people of New Orleans, or was it humans sinning, which leads to destruction? Kind of both. I don’t want to get into the mystery or the theology, but the point is that God, like a good father, disciplines those he loves (Heb 12.6), and like a good judge, he judges those who need judging. And that’s what’s happening here in the plagues. If you have a tyranny that has given itself over to the type of evil where babies are wantonly murdered, you can expect the judgment of God. If you have a tyranny that demands that you worship its gods in place of your own…

So plague one: the Nile turns to blood. Well, we know what that is. When Pharaoh threw the babies into the river, the ones who would have been Moses’ contemporaries, the boys, their innocent blood is crying out from the waters in judgment against Egypt. The wealth of Egypt is the Nile, and God instantly takes that away. It says they have to dig wells to find water to drink, because all the water is blood. It’s also a condemnation of the Egyptian god Hapi, the god of the Nile. And what it should say to us today is: hey, do you trust in your wealth instead of God? Well, God can instantly dry up that flow, or your mistakes can land you in hot water and you can get fired. The only one who will not abandon you, who will always provide, is God.

Plague two is the frogs, which might be the weirdest one. They are just assaulted by thousands and thousands of frogs. I cannot imagine. Thousands of frogs coming up from everywhere. What does that mean? Well, I’m just kind of hitting the surface here, but frogs are amphibians. What did God do in creation? He separated the water and the land. What are frogs? Frogs are both water and land. The natural order God had created is breaking down. Not only that, but there’s an Egyptian god that’s symbolized by a frog. The god of fertility is symbolized by a frog, which makes no sense in my mind symbolically, but I guess the god is symbolized by frogs. So what is God saying? God’s saying, “I am; they are not. Yahweh, not them. I am that I am.”

Then there are the gnats from the dust of the earth. He says, “Strike the dust of the earth,” the same dust that produced the life that is humanity. Strike it, and gnats will fly up by the thousands. And what do gnats represent? Well, the dust has always represented mortality: from dust you’ve come, to dust you shall return (Gen 3.19). So what’s happening when you choose death? Well, death itself rises up to get you. The dust that represents death is rising up to take on the Egyptians.

IX. The Plagues Against Egypt 29:38

And at this point God says, by the way, no more of the plagues are going to affect the Israelites. Gosh, there’s so much to talk about; we’re going to cut it short. Basically what happens in the first three plagues is God’s reminding the Israelites, “I am God.” They get the message, and the rest of the plagues are just for Egypt. They are separate now. They’re starting to take themselves away from Egypt.

The next one is “Fill the land with flies.” It’s the same words that are used when it says, “Fill the earth and multiply,” that great promise of Genesis for humanity: fill the earth and multiply. Instead, it’s filled with flies, which symbolize decay, death, strife, enmity.

Plague five: the livestock is assaulted by an actual plague, a disease. Well, who is your provider? Is it your wealth and cows, or is it God? And like I said, each one of these has a linked Egyptian god. For instance, with this one, the Egyptian goddess of the sky is portrayed as a cow. They have really interesting symbols, because I’m just imagining, sky and cow don’t usually go together. But the point of all of this is that God is the only one who can provide. The Egyptians’ [gods] are exposed as mere idols.

Boils: this one’s interesting. Boils in Hebrew is the word for snake in Hebrew spelled backwards, which is a common literary trope in Hebrew. You actually see, like, a house, the place of safety, is actually the word ark inverted, spelled backwards. They have these links between these things. And so it’s like the boils are the sin you’ve engaged in, come back to bite you. It’s turned around; it’s gotten you.

Then there’s plague seven, the hail like never before seen on earth. Now, this is really fascinating, because he actually gives a warning to the Egyptians. He says, “If you don’t want to die, get under a roof. Go into the ark.” God in his mercy is inviting even the heathens to participate in his protection. He’s like, “Get out of there.” And it says those who heard the voice of the Lord were spared, and those who did not died. Once again, you can see the symbolism for where we’re at today.

Then we’ve got plague eight, the locusts, symbolizing the never-ending hunger and gluttony that we often worship. We want our needs and our pleasures fulfilled in all things, and that will turn back on you, and the locusts will eat everything when you allow that passion to run free. And it comes from the east, which is the symbol of evil in this time and in this place. It talks about going east of Eden. The farther east you go, the farther you get into evil territory. And then the wind from the west blows them away.

And all throughout this time you’re like, “What is Pharaoh doing?” Well, what Pharaoh is doing is the most despicable thing you could imagine. He’s saying, “God, stop! I’ll let the people go.” God stops, and he says, “Nah, never mind.” And we might think that’s inconceivable. That word doesn’t mean what you think it means in this case, because he actually did it. Inconceivable as it may seem: as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly (Prov 26.11). Pharaoh made his bed when he decided to kill the male babies of the Hebrews. When he decided to enslave that people, he made his bed, and now he’s lying in it.

So this whole time he’s going back and forth, and then the darkness comes. And if you didn’t understand the connection between creation and uncreation, this is as clear as it gets. God literally says, “Let there be darkness,” the exact same phrasing as “Let there be light.” And what is he saying here? There is absolutely nothing good without God. Period. There is no light, there is no life, there is nothing without God. And of course that is the most direct challenge to Egypt, whose chief god is the god of the sun, Ra, the one most associated with Pharaoh. Well, even the sun, Ra, cannot pierce what God has covered. Only Yahweh is the creator and giver of all good things.

X. God Is for Our Total Freedom 34:18

And at this point Pharaoh starts negotiating. Pharaoh says, “I’ll let you go, but leave your women, your children, your old people behind. Just the men can go.” And Moses says, “Nope, that’s not what God said.” Then he says, “Okay, fine, but leave your livestock behind.” And Moses says, “No, that’s not what God said.” I love this, because you see Moses’ transformation. He went from cowering, “Please don’t send me,” to being able to tell Pharaoh no, because guess what? He just saw God move in a wonderful way. Keep that in mind too: when you see God move, you get transformed.

And what is that symbolizing to us? God is not for partial freedom in our life. As we end today, let’s remember that more than anything. They could have gone, just the men and women, but they don’t get their livestock? No. God is for their complete freedom. There is nothing that is the Hebrews’ that God will leave enslaved. In fact, they loot Egypt on their way out. They actually gain from their experience in slavery things that will bring their prosperity in the new land, because of God’s goodness, God’s redeeming power.

So this is my question today: you don’t think God is speaking to us today through the tragedies and plagues assaulting our world, our nation? God is able to redeem any situation. But the one continuing factor throughout the entire story of God is that there have to be people who listen, who hear him and go about his business. That’s our call in the midst of today, because he wants to set us free, for total freedom and redemption. Amen.