In our reading today from Exodus we see one of the most powerful revelations of God in the Old Testament. God has heard the cry of his people. Their woes come before him (as always) and he remembers his covenant (just like he always does). The people have become aware that they are oppressed. They have seen that they cannot deliver themselves from their situation. At long last the people of Israel see that they are unable to work salvation for themselves by themselves. What is God's promise? He promises to deliver the people from Egypt with his mighty hand. He shows himself through a miraculous appearance. He speaks directly to his messengers who will carry his word of promise to others. He himself will provide the physical means by which the people will receive deliverance from their bondage.
This passage mightily proclaims the Gospel. We see that we all are bound in sin. We are unable to escape. No matter how much piety we try, no matter how many programs we follow, no matter how hard we work at it, we are unable to deliver ourselves from these besetting sins. We run here and there finding no rest, no comfort. We may escape from some of the situations where others sin against us, but we are quite able to sin all on our own and enjoy the fruits of it. And our sin does have consequences. We can see it. We can feel it. We can taste it. We live with the strife, the dissatisfaction, the physical consequences of our sin. We fear to speak with someone we have offended. We have to work extra hard because we have debts to pay. We weigh ourselves realizing that we have less self-control than we'd like. We have topics that we just don't talk about. We shudder to realize that God really can see inside our hearts. We hide behind vague corporate confession and we're really glad when the pastor doesn't announce that we'll confess our sins before God and then shut up for fifteen or twenty minutes so we can really get started. We cannot break this power of sin. We need someone else to do it, just as the Israelites could not break the binding power of Egypt.
Who is it that breaks sin? God himself comes down with mighty signs, with miraculous power, in the person of Jesus Christ, living a sinless life on our behalf, not to show us the way to our own perfection, but to actually be perfection for us. When we sin we sin against our Lord. When we think and do things that bring the fruit of sin upon ourselves, we pour the penalty for that sin on our Lord and Savior. He comes and subjects himself to the power and pain of sin, not entering into it, but destroying its power. With his mighty hand he delivers us from sin. How does he do this? He does it by his death and resurrection. He reveals it through his proclaimed Word, through his enacted Word in the Sacraments, through the work of his messengers. As he sent Moses and Aaron, so he sends countless Christian pastors and other Christian workers who bring the good news of Christ to our world.
Our Lord has raised himself up as a deliverer, the deliverer we need, to rescue us from the bondage in Egypt, the bondage of sin.
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