Exodus 1-4
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Exodus 1-4
Exodus 1-4
This morning we are going to make the transition from Genesis to Exodus and I hope to show you how these two books are connect together. Many times the typical Christian struggles to understand how the 39 books of the old testament connect with the 27 books of the new testament. We struggle to understand them and so we don’t read them and spend far more time reading the epistles then we do the Pentateuch.
Perhaps you set out at the beginning of the year to read through the bible in a year—a noble task—how often to we get through Genesis keeping that same energy and excitement only to get into Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deutronomy and fizzle out.
We often find much more satisfaction, joy, excitement from the words of Paul over the words of Moses. Its reality—we are much more eager to explain Ephesians rather than Exodus.
Hopefully the Lord will remind us the importance of this still.
I want to open with a quote,
“Exodus is an epic tale of fire, sand, wind and water. The adventure takes place under the hot desert sun, just beyond the shadow of the great Pyramids. There are two mighty nations—Israel and Egypt—led by two great men—Moses the liberating hero and Pharaoh the enslaving villain. Almost every scene is a masterpiece: the baby in a basket, the burning bush, the river of blood and the other plagues, the angel of death, the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna in the wilderness, the water from the rock, the thunder and lightning on the mountain, the Ten Commandments, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, the golden calf, and the glory in the tabernacle. Once heard the story is never forgotten. For Jews it is the story that defines their very existence, the rescue that made them God’s people. For Christians it is the gospel of the Old Testament, God’s first great act of redemption.”
Any guesses on what the word “exodus” means?
Exit or departure, gone out
While the characters change the storyline continues from Genesis: There is a God who saves, who delivers his people from Bondage
Slavery to Salvation is in full display.
Exodus is written by Moses, i think most people would agree with that without much reservation.
Jesus himself says this to be true,
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
In both cases Jesus is quoting Exodus and attributing it to Moses so clearly it is written primarily by him. However, I would be of the belief that some others wrote small portions of Exodus which would explain times that Moses is referred to in the 3rd person.
The reality is that the Exodus is the great miracle of the Old Testament. The Psalmist and the prophets point back to the Exodus as a symbol of Gods faithfulness.
We don’t have time this morning but there is debate on the exact time Exodus was written. You can connect timelines based on the building of the temple of Solomon which is said to be X number of years after the Exodus or other passages referring to how many generations removed from the Exodus but depending of if you try to line it up with the lineage of Pharohs or other evidence there is some variation. Its somewhere between 1200-1500 BC.
There is a funny quote I came across in study “the actual evidence concerning the Exodus resembles the evidence for the unicorn.” The reality is there is not a lot of evidence or books regarding the Exodus or that time period but we know that it is true because God says that it happened. Thankfully we have the bible to confirm and remind us of these things.
Before we begin in Exodus 1 I have a couple reminders that I think would be healthy for us.
The real hero of the story is God.
The book is about mercy, justice, holiness and glory of the Almighty God. As we read it and study it we must keep asking the questions—what is the book showing and telling us about the character of God?
2. The book is connected to Jesus
One of the most earth shattering revelations in my study of scripture came a number of years ago while go through a study with Greg & Mike—the entire storyline of the bible points to Jesus. I think conceptually we know that but it finally clicked and you begin to see each of these stories pointing to the coming Messiah and making so much more sense.
We see in Jude 5 it says that Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Earlier after his resurrection Jesus said
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Starting with the Exodus—he explained all things about himself, him in all things.
As we enter Christmas time I can’t help but see the parraells with the story of Jesus with the story of Moses.
born to save a people, rescued from his enemies at birth, sojourned in Egypt, wandered in the desert (Moses much longer than Jesus)
The story of Ransom, Redemption & Deliverance—the story of Exodus and the story of the Gospel.
3. Exodus is not a story of salvation but the story of salvation
4. Exodus is written for us.
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
With all that being said, turn to Exodus chapter 1 as we open up this book. Lord willing we will cover the first 4 chapters of the book this morning.
In the Hebrew the book of Exodus actually opens up with “and” further cementing the continued themes from Genesis—a sequel of sorts. The reality is this is yet another chapter in the story of redemption unfolding.
As Pastor Jared talked about last week, Genesis ends on a high note, we see these peaks and valleys and it ends at a peak but quickly goes to a valley.
Remember how the Israelites got here in the first place. Jospehs brothers sold him to slavery—a negative, that God used for good but will soon be a negative again. His brothers eventually follow him right and now they are all in Egypt
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
We could go through all the names and trace out the lines of what was the come but the reality is we are reminded of God’s promise he made to Abraham
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Abraham was promised a great land and a many people and God has not departed from that promise.
We are reminded that God uses people for this story but ultimately it is God’s story and God gets all the praise and glory. After everything Jospeh did and went through he is summarized and remembered with just 3 words. We all have read elegant and thoughtful obituaries honoring the life of someone special. This past week I read lots of the life of Rosalynn Carter sharing lots of things of the person she was and what she did and her legacy.
And yet Jospeh, “Then Joseph died”. Move on—next character.
The story does not end—the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly—growing exceedingly strong—the land was filled with them.
And then the story hits a valley:
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
Jospeh is forgotten and the good favor the Israelites built up in Egypt was forgotten—they had become a threat and needed to be dealt with and into bondage the people went.
10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
They attempt to suppress the Israelites yet God’s story will not stop.
Its fitting that man devises an attempt to suppress God and that very attempt is what unravels the plot.
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Pharaoh attempts to rid the males to weaken Israel and yet the midwives disobeyed because they feared God and not man. and so then he commands to throw the babies in the river.
Turn to chapter 2.
Enter stage left—the solution
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.
10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses is introduced, put into this situation because the attempt to rid the Israelite men.
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
For the sake of time we will summarize some here—Moses is banished the desert, hiding from Pharaoh and now homeless, a wandering hopeless man. He comes across a priest who had 7 daughters—he helps them out and they help him out. Moses marries one of the daughters and gives birth to a son.
We see in verse 23 the king of Egypt died and the people are groaning for their slavery—they are crying out for help.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
God hears our prayers—all of them—and he responds. Not on our time table but on his.
As we get to chapter 3 there are a couple main points the Gospel Project pulls out that I think are very helpful.
God reveals His holiness to His servant
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
No doubt Moses had seen a burning bush before—probably somewhat frequently in the desert. And yet this stood out because it was on fire but not burning.
This took place in Horeb which is also called Sinai and you can see on your outline a general map of the region and where this took place. This was about 255 miles in a straight line from Rameses in Goshen or about a two week journey going quickly. It took the Isralietes about 47 days leaving to get to Mount Sinai.
In some transparency the bible is hard to study at times—meaning its hard to determine exactly what is meant and why certain words are used instead of others and what the meaning is or better translation is. I don’t have all the answers, I have theories or educated guesses on what things are particularly in these passages but we will see a couple times it doesnt appear to make sense but God has a purpose. Ill add that it doesn’t change the meaning or application so we can rest in that.
The first case of this is in verse 2 where it says “the angel of the LORD”. Who is this angel of the LORD? As we read on it becomes very apparent to me it is actually God himself.
Regardless, this is clearly a Theophany—does anyone want to define that for us? A visible appearance of the invisible God. A God-appearance, a visible manifestation. In that moment the bush became the temple of the Living God.
God uses Theophanys throughout the bible to show His power and glory and call people to Himself.
In verse 5 it says the land you are standing is holy ground—this is the first time in the bible, and not the last, that God is referred to as Holy, or holiness is attributed to him.
Again we don’t have time but God called out to Moses and he responds with Here I am which echos of Samuel and Isaiah, Here I am—use my God!
2. God reveals His identity to His servant
6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Again there is a lot here we don’t have time for--
8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Moses is probably thinking—yes—God is going to come down and rescue them—save my people! Bring them out of slavery and into the land that was promised!
And yet the script flips
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
I can imagine Moses emotions—pure joy to pure terror. Woah, woah, woah....me? Me? I think perhaps I misheard.
Moses begins his defense as to why it can’t be him.
a. “Who am I?” v.11—inadequacy for such a serious mission
b. What is his name? v.13—inability to validate or confirm who sent him
c. They will not believe me or listen to my voice. v.1
d. I am not eloquent v.10
e. “Please send someone else” v.13
And yet remember what we said at the beginning this is God’s story, not Moses. What do you need? What should you do?
This is one of the most amazing paradoxes of God’s grace: God uses sinful men to carry out his saving purpose. Yes—Moses—you are no one, not worthy, they won’t listen to you, you cannot speak well, but...
i am who I am.
in many ways God is saying, your not able to do this…I am!
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.”
The Lord is with you
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I am who i am---what does that even mean. This is another example of lots of debate and arguing and I don’t know exactly what it means.
God is self-existent, not dependent on anything or anyone else.
The Hebrew word is Yahweh which is translated Adonai (Master or Lord) and in English becomes Jehovah. Actually the word Yahweh is so powerful and sacared the Jews won’t even say the name.
This is a personal name—I am their God and they are my people---tell that that Moses. I am.
I am the father of your forefathers and my promise remains and I will deliver my people.
We have to move on
3. God reveals His power to His servant
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
You cannot do it Moses—but i can. And you will face resistance but I have a plan for that.
This story is not over. It is quite fasinating and humbling—because I would guess we are more like Moses than we care to admit.
Go—make disciples---share the good news of Jesus Christ with your loved ones, your family, your friends, your spouse. The ones who we love so dearly and we are so hesitant to share the good news—the allow God to use us to be part of the process of delivering them from their enslavement.
We know who God is—we know what He can do—we know He tells us He will be with us and we will do the work. And yet we are Moses.
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
Yeah..but..
He just keeps going. God has given him all these things and proven what He will do and yet…but what about this!
2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
Wow---perhaps we have even said God just show me a sign, show me something to confirm this is what I am supposed to—we are Moses
Staff to serpent, hands broken and then fixed, oh and I will turn water into blood.
What does Moses say,
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
Ultimately Moses relents and goes and the story continues.
Before we close hopefully some encouragement we can take home with us:
Every Christian has a calling. God probably has not meet you a burning bush. He probably hasn’t appeared to you in a Theophany—more than likely He has called you to Himself through the preaching of his Word to reveal our need of a Savior. And in response we are called out of darkness and into light and we are called to the mission of Jesus Christ. I hope to encourage you. The body of Christ is composed of many different parts with many different callings. Some of us are to teach or preach. But for many of us the calling looks different but is just as important. Some of us are called to be nurses, teachers, mothers, accountants, secretaries. We each have a calling.
Are we being like Moses? if you know Jesus as Lord you have been shown this miraculous sign. We celebrate this time of year the Savior coming—the Savior promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses—that Savior came and chose to redeem us. And when we are called to go and fulfill God’s calling our lives—we have more excuses than Moses did.
