Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20050327.htm

LIFE'S WILDERNESS SHORTAGES AND GOD
Part I: Looking To God For All The Money We Need
(Exodus 11:1-3; 12:36)
  1. Introduction
    1. Our earthly sojourn as believers is often likened to the Wilderness Wanderings of the nation Israel; like God's people of that era, we often face tangible shortages of livelihood needs!
    2. One need in today's world is the need for money, the cash needed for doing business in the marketplace!
    3. God is not only aware of this need, but in His provision for Israel as she was about to leave Egypt, He made ample provision regarding her acquiring all the money she needed!
    4. We view this event for lessons relative to our own needs in our earthly sojourn (as follows):
  2. Looking To God For All The Money We Need, Exodus 11:1-3; 12:36.
    1. When the nation Israel was getting ready to leave Egyptian bondage to become an independent nation, a great need existed for her to have enough cash so she could function in the world as GOD so desired:
      1. Until this time, Israel had been in slavery where money was not a key possession: their slave masters possessed goods and gave these to their Hebrew slaves for services rendered in slavery, Exodus 2:23.
      2. However, God's plan called for the people of Israel to begin to operate as a nation (Genesis 15:13-14), a nation that had ample possessions in terms of gold, silver, jewels and other valuable articles:
        1. God had predicted Abraham's descendants would go into captivity and serve a foreign, Gentile nation for four hundred years, Genesis 15:13. This foreign nation turned out to be Egypt.
        2. Yet, God also predicted He would judge Egypt so Abraham's descendants would leave it to inhabit Canaan and dispossess at least 10 of its major Gentile people groups, Genesis 15:14a, 16, 18-21.
        3. Yet, to achieve this great transition as a people, God's plan called for Israel to leave Egypt "with great substance" (KJV) or "great possessions" (NIV, ESV), cf. Genesis 15:14b.
        4. We later learn one reason God wanted Israel to have valuables came from His desire that she be able to contribute toward the construction of His tabernacle in the wilderness, cf. Exodus 25:1-9; 36:3-7.
    2. In view of this NEED for possessions so Israel could function in God's WILL, a need God had foreseen for four generations before she left Egypt (Gen. 15:13-14b), God took the lead to get Israel the money:
      1. The Lord informed his servant, Moses, whom He had called to lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage that there would be one more plague before the Egyptians would release Israel from bondage, Ex. 11:1.
      2. Accordingly, knowing of their need for possessions in accord with His foreknowledge and future plans, God told Moses to get the nation Israel ready to consider what they wanted to ask their Egyptian overlords to give them (NIV) in terms of desired valuables, be it jewels of gold or silver, Exodus 11:2!
      3. Exodus 11:3 NIV reveals God made the Egyptians "favorably disposed toward the people" of Israel in part because Moses' miracles had made him highly esteemed in the view of the Egyptian people. Thus, the cause for the motive behind this "spoiling" of the Egyptians was a supernatural causation by God!
      4. Consequently, when the people of Israel went to their overlords following the final miracle in which the eldest offspring of man and beast in Egypt had been slain by the angel of God (Ex. 12:29-34), the people asked for and received all the valuables they requested as God had suggested, 12:35a,b NIV!
      5. The people of Israel even asked for and received valuable clothing from the Egyptians, Exodus 12:35c!
      6. Indeed, the haul Israel took from Egypt was so great, Moses wrote they "plundered" Egypt, a verb used to describe what soldiers do in forcibly taking all they want from a land they invade, Ex. 12:36 NIV!
Lesson: Due to His foreknowledge of the NEED, GOD initiated and provided for the TRANSFER of WEALTH from Israel's Egyptian overlords to His people so that they had all they needed as a nation to switch from working as slaves for whom their Egyptian overlords were responsible to support to becoming an independent nation that would dispossess other nations in Canaan as God WILLED!

Application: (1) We must trust that GOD is aware of what material things we will need TO DO HIS WILL, and that even HUNDREDS of YEARS before our BIRTH, and that HE has the CAPACITY to give us the INSIGHT on HOW to ACQUIRE it. (2) That being so, we should NEVER FRET about our NEED for possessions, but FOCUS on DOING GOD'S WILL and let HIM see that all we need be provided in ways and means HE will instruct AS we GO ABOUT His will in our lives (as Moses did)!