Exodus 3:7-10 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

A deliverer was sent and Moses was not the only one. Over and over again God set men in place to be examples of delivery. Moses being the best known because God worked mighty miracles to set Himself apart from any god that had been proclaimed in those days. The Great I Am proved Himself to be the God of gods, and there were none like Him.

Yet the King of Kings was yet to be declared and more examples needed to be set before men before they would be able to recognize God’s Anointed One. Their God was God but their Savior was to be a man, His Anointed. That was going to take more examples because there was always the lingering doubt that God would ever lower Himself to the dust of the ground and enter in as man.

That prejudice would take much longer and many more examples in order to overcome.

Acts 7:52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; NASB

Yesterday I finished by saying sufficiency was placed on the back shelf. My allusion is to a pantry or larder, perhaps even better, a root cellar.

Isaiah 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

But why the back shelf, why not make that provision available then, right after the fall? Perhaps the answer to that lay with the nature of man himself. We will only accept something when we recognize we need it. Right after the fall, when sin entered in, death began its reign.

Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Death came to all, even to those who did not sin. Death became the enemy of all mankind and it was inflicted as much by man as it was by nature. Dominion was no longer a gift from God but rather a byproduct of murder and war. Sin and death dominated man’s mind, reality and motives.

The answer to that could only present itself after man had come to understand that the answer to sin and death was beyond his ability. They said if you cannot escape death, create it for others. In this God had to allow sin and death to become the enemy so that He could come in with a solution and the victory. Man had to see the need for a savior.

What would this savior look like? How would they recognize Him when He came for them? This is where historical context plays its biggest role.

Leadership by example. You won’t recognize one without one setting the example.