Taking Our Children With Us

Introduction

I meditated what I should preach tonight and I recalled the statement of Moses regarding the Hebrews in regard to taking their children when them as they left Egypt. Follow as I read Exodus 10:8-11. “And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, ‘Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go’? 9 And Moses said, ‘We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.’ 10 And he said unto them, ‘Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.’ 11 ‘Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.’” KJV

You will recall that Pharaoh made four comprises with God’s mandate. The mandate from God was, “Let my people go.” But, Pharaoh said you cannot leave the land. Then Pharaoh said that the people could go out three days but not to go very far. Thirdly, Pharaoh said that the people could go but they could not take their children. The last comprise, found in Exodus 10:24, is that the people could not take their animals. The last plague came upon Pharaoh and at last the people left Egypt.

My call to you tonight is that you take your children with you. We must take our children with us. The truth is that we are not made for this world. We must take our children with us.

I. The Typology of the Circumstances

This entire Biblical incident is a Old Testament story with New Testament truth. We see three truths in this passage for us tonight.

A. The People Typify God’s People in all the Ages

They were chosen by God and He raised up a deliverer for them. Every Christian has been chosen by God and delivered through Christ out of our sins and into life in Him. In this Old Testament incident, God sent Moses to deliver His people from the Pharaoh in Egypt.

B. The Pharaoh Typifies God’s Enemy Satan

Pharaoh was the head of the Egyptian system and Satan is the “god” of this world.

C. The Plagues Typify God’s Judgments

Pharaoh may be mighty, but God is almighty. God’s people today are up against Satan, a great enemy. But God is mighty over Satan.

II. The Truth of the Conflict

This is my burden for the next few minutes.

The Pharaoh had no desire to allow the Children of God out of Egypt. Likewise, Satan wants to keep us in bondage. God wants to take us to Canaan’s land, or the land of victory. But Satan fights us. I know that there are truths taught in this Bible that people ridicule and mock. Some do not believe in a personal devil. But this Book is true.

A. The Determination in Moses’ Heart

There was a determination in Moses heart to take the families out of Egypt. Some people are carefree and never realize that they are in a battle for which they are no match without God’s power! If we would take our children with us in this walk with God, we must understand that there is a conflict.

I was in a service when a pastor made a statement saying, “I feel there is an attack by Satan on this service.” I saw the response of the people. They elbowed each other. Some of them giggled. Some surely thought that something was wrong with the pastor. They did not understand that they were in a conflict. So many are oblivious to the conflict that we are in today. Many families do not understand that there is a conflict – a Satanic conflict – against the family. The enemy would love to destroy every family.

Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old.” Moses knew that the conflict was with every age group – from babies to the aged.

B. The Dedication in our Hearts

In this family dedication service tonight, we need to realize that there is a conflict and all of us who are people of God need to commit ourselves to God. Tonight a young couple brings a baby and they dedicate their family saying, “We want to take our children with us.” Without a conflict, there would be no need for such commitment. We make this commitment because there is, indeed, a conflict against our families.

This also involves male and female. Which is more difficult to raise – boys or girls? There are arguments about that. But, the conflict involves each sex and every family member. We need to be aware that Satan is attacking our boys, and he is attacking our girls. There is a conflict!

III. The Triumph of the Combatants

The people of God were victorious in Moses day. We can be victorious today. They took their children with them and we can take our children with us!

One night I preached on the children of God leaving Egypt through the Red Sea. When I got in the car heading home, my wife and children told me that I had not used my imagination enough. I thought I had done a pretty good job of describing the situation. So, I asked them what they would have said. One daughter piped up and said, “Dad, can’t you imagine the people going through with the water on each said and one of the children looking up and her mother and saying, ‘Look mom, it looks like Marine World.’”

I said, “No, I didn’t imagine anything like that!”

The people left Egypt with their children with them. Let me mention three responsibilities that parents, grandparents, church members and friends have in this matter.

A. We Must War Against Satan

We must oppose Satan in regard to our family. We must say clearly that our children WILL go with us. We must stand a stand! We must not compromise in our day and be blind to our responsibilities.

B. We Must Wait on God

We must wait on God. The battle is not won in a moment. Moses had to go back again and again before Pharaoh. We must not give up on our fight for our children. This dedication service tonight will not give special protection to your children, but rather it is a commitment to say that you will war and wait as you continue to serve God through the years!

C. We Must Walk in Light

Note that as the people left Egypt they had a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. In other words, they had direction from God. You must obey God as parents and people of God. We must walk in the light of what God teaches us in His Word. We must follow Him. He will not lead us astray but the enemy will. We must walk in the light!

I trust that God will put it in our hearts to say that we will walk with God and that we will take our children with us as we go. We come tonight to make that commitment along with this young couple that comes to dedicate themselves and their child to God.

Conclusion

(Prayer of dedication – then the dedication of parents and children – and the dedication of other family, friends and the church.)