Today's Reading:

Exodus 1
Exodus 2
Exodus 3
Exodus 4

 
We are starting Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers and if you are thinking this is a lot of laws, lists, sacrifices and censuses, and where is the grace in it all? - Do not worry, take a deep breath, ask questions and keep going. These books can feel heavy and slow at times, but don’t quit. They are not just rule books for the Israelites. God in His way is loving and teaching with each chapter how to live in His presence and who His character is. Every instruction and ritual has grace and shows a holy God that refuses to leave His people behind. Some parts may feel repetitive or hard to connect to, but we will start to see Jesus more as the Passover lamb, through the tabernacle, through sacrifices, and the manna. The same God of the burning bush is the one who meets us today and He’s got you.

Today we started Exodus which was packed with information that sets the story for the chapters to come and was written by Moses for the Israelites around 1446 BC. If you recall, at the end of Genesis, Joseph, who had been working for Pharaoh, reunited with his father and all his brothers, then brought them down to live in Egypt due to the famine. They were given choice farmland away from the city center. Exodus started about 430 years after the end of Genesis. The new Pharaoh had not been ruling during the time of Joseph and his father Jacob/Israel, therefore he had no remembrance of Joseph or the good he had done for the Egyptians. Josephs influences no longer protected his family. All of Israel's (Jacob's) sons, the 12 tribes, have since passed away, but as God promised, his descendants were as numerous as the stars- to a point it made the Pharaoh nervous. Pharaoh tried to destroy the descendants of Israel and ordered the midwives to kill all the baby boys. The midwives, fearing God, would not follow Pharaoh’s orders, and they did not kill the babies. So, the Pharaoh ordered the Egyptians to throw the Israelite babies into the Nile River.

Moses, born to the tribe of Levi, was a baby at this time. (His Levite tribe will become important later). After a few months, his mother could not hide him any longer and she sent him down the river in a basket. Moses’s older sister (Miriam) was able to intercede with Pharaoh’s daughter, who found Moses and Miriam arranged for their own mother to be a nursemaid for the baby. By God’s grace, Moses was then raised in the Palace under the care of his birth mother.

40 years pass and Moses saw an Egyptian beating a fellow Hebrew. He killed the Egyptian and hid the body, but the next day was called out on it and fled to Midian. (They become known as the Midianites). Moses defends the daughters of a priest named Reuel and ends up marrying one of them. The chapter then calls the priest Jethro, which was an honorary title for a priest, like calling him “His Excellence”, Reuel was the priest's given name which means “Friend of God”.

Meanwhile, back in Egypt, the Israelites had become more oppressed by Pharaoh, and they called out to God. God “remembered His covenant with Abraham” (2:24-25). This was not God putting them on the back burner and forgetting about them; it just meant that now was the time to do something about their situation and fulfill his promise of blessing for them to be a great nation.

In chapter 3, Moses, now 80 years old living as a shepherd for Reuel, found himself at Horeb, the mountain of God (Mt. Sinai) and “the angel of the Lord appeared” (pre-incarnate Jesus) speaking from a burning bush. The angel was distinct from God yet spoke as God with divine authority. The bush was on

fire, but not burning up by the flames, God called to Moses identifying Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- these three are known as the patriarchs of the Jewish people. God told Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. Moses asked God who He was and for His name and was told “I AM WHO I AM”, this is the name Jesus claims, I AM, in the New Testament (John 8:58). God sent Moses back to the elders as they would listen, and God Himself would make sure the Egyptians would let the Israelites leave with enough plunder to provide for them to make the journey.

God gave Moses 3 signs as he was being a reluctant leader. God had just told him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to “let My people go”, yet Moses made excuses of “who am I to do this, what if they ask who sent me and what if they do not believe me.” God turned Moses’ staff into a snake, and he ran away from it in terror. The guy who is supposed to deliver the Israelites and face down Pharaoh was scared of a snake on a stick. God gave Moses two more tricks: a healing leprous hand, and water that turned to blood (this was a foreshadowing of an upcoming plague). Moses had one last excuse about not being eloquent enough, and God finally got a bit annoyed and said, “Fine, your brother Aaron will be your spokesman”. Along the way to Egypt, Moses, his wife Zipporah, and his sons meet God. It seems like God was going to kill him (probably due to Moses not circumcising his son yet, a violation of the covenant), but Zipporah quickly fixed the situation with a flint knife. Then she touched Moses’ “feet” (euphemism for his genitals) with the foreskin. This was a Midianite custom, a blood ritual as a rite of passage, and what tied the family together and Moses’ Jewish covenant obligations that have now cost blood; the blood guilt fell on Moses, who needed the protection/purification, and it was now paid. God immediately relented and spared Moses. God takes His covenant seriously, even with the man he chose to lead Israel. No one gets a free pass on obedience; it is a reminder that leadership for God starts with faithfulness in the smallest, most personal commands.

Today's Discussion question: 

In quiet self-reflection, can you humble your heart to recognize the majesty and power of the Lord, whose voice speaks over the waters and whose glory fills the earth?

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