Read Exodus 4:1-17

Summary

Throughout history, when God has chosen to speak to the world through men, he has sometimes chosen to send signs and wonders to authenticate the message. Moses was a part of this pattern; not only did Moses receive a powerful call to the Ministry through the Burning Bush, but he was given powerful signs as well.

Despite the powerful signs God gave Moses to perform, he still shows extreme reluctance to return to Egypt. In this passage, we see God provide Moses with those signs, and also with a spokesman to speak for him. We see God’s mercy and provision despite Moses’ disobedience to his calling.

Our passage explained

v1

Still before God’s presence at the Burning Bush, in the opening verses of chapter four, Moses receives powerful signs to perform. Moses twice objected to his calling, doubting his worthiness to act as God’s servant (Exodus 3:11-12), and that the Israelites will believe God sent him and can deliver them from slavery (Exodus 3:13-15).

Moses’ third objection strings from his second:  while God has stated the Elders of Israel will acknowledge Moses’ leadership (Exodus 3:16-21), Moses does not believe that the Israelites, in general, will believe him (v.1). They will hear his message and respond to him that “The LORD did not appear to you” (v.1).

v2-9

To this objection, God provides Moses with three powerful signs that will conclusively demonstrate he is God’s servant. First, God causes Moses’ shepherd staff to turn into a serpent (vv.2-3), clearly an act of God’s power which would get the attention of the Israelites (v.5). More so, because Moses is to (dangerously) pick the snake up by the tail, not the neck, to turn it back into a staff (v.4).

The second sign shows God’s power beyond physical objects to humanity itself: Moses’ hand is turned “leprous” (likely a skin disease rather than leprosy) when he places it in his cloak, and restored when he repeats the trick (vv.6-7). This sign would be instantly alarming (as it was to Moses), and shows God has power over life to hurt and to heal.

The third sign, if the Israelites still will not listen, is “the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground” (vv.8-9). The Nile was the sacred source of life in Egypt, and so turning water from the Nile to blood demonstrates God’s power over life and death, despite what the Egyptian “gods” may claim about their own life-giving powers through the Nile waters.

v10-17

Despite these powerful signs, Moses still objects to his calling, so God gives him a spokesman. Moses states he is “not eloquent … slow of speech and of tongue” (v.10). In effect, Moses complains that he is not up to the job and God has not done anything to help his public speaking skills.

God objects to this argument as irrelevant, since God “made man’s mouth” and determines who can speak how well (v.12). He commands Moses to “go” because God “will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak” (v.13).

Moses then becomes disobedient, asking God to send someone else (v.13). God’s anger at sinful disobedience is kindled, but despite this God has graciously sent Moses’ brother Aaron to meet him, because God knows Moses’ heart (v.14). Aaron will act as Moses’ spokesman, just as Moses speaks on behalf of God (vv.15-16). They will speak the words God gives them, not their own words.

Finally, God tells Moses to take his staff “with which you shall do the signs” (v.17). Moses and Aaron will take on a mighty empire with nothing in hand but a shepherd’s staff. But they will have God’s words, and his powerful signs to accompany them in the task. They go in God’s strength, not their own.

Our passage applied

Just as Moses went to Egypt with powerful signs that demonstrated God’s presence with him, so too Jesus’ ministry was accompanied by powerful signs. When John the Baptist’s disciples came to see if Jesus was the Messiah, he replied: “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4-5). God’s powerful signs demonstrated Jesus was the promised Messiah, come to rescue us from slavery to our sins.

Thankfully Christ did not try to run away from his calling. At Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed to God for strength and humbly submitted to God’s will, even though he wished there might be another way. Where Moses disobeyed God, Jesus was humble and obedient all his days, all the way to the Cross. It is through Christ’s righteousness and his sacrifice we are rescued from slavery to sin.

We rely on God’s strength to win our battle against sin. Like Moses and Aaron, we have no power of our own but God’s words given to us in Scripture, and the powerful signs performed by God through Jesus. His strength, not ours.

Resources

Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.

Read Exodus 3

Summary

We have all seen burning bushes, in person or on a screen. But never a burning bush which is not consumed. This unnatural wonder is a wonderful and fearful sign of God’s power. But its intent was to bring Moses into God’s presence, because Moses would play a key part in God’s fulfilment of his covenant promises.

Exodus 3 records the Call of Moses by God, as God appears to Moses at Mount Sinai at the Burning Bush. There Moses encounters God’s presence, receives God’s commissioning, and hears God’s challenge to Israel and Egypt.

Our passage explained

v1-5

Many years after Moses’ flight from Egypt, he is shepherding the (valuable) flock of his Father-in-law when he brings them to Horeb (v.1). There, the “angel of the LORD” (which refers to God himself) appears to Moses “in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (v.2) This would grab his attention as fire is a threat to his flock, but while it was burning “it was not consumed” (vv.2-3).

As Moses comes close to look at the unusual sight, he receives a personal summons from God, to which he responds positively (v.4). God instructs Moses to take off his sandals (a sign of respect) because he is standing on ground made holy by God’s presence (v.5). God identifies himself covenantally as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, causing Moses to cover himself at coming into God’s special physical presence.

v6-15

Now that Moses is in God’s presence, he receives God’s commissioning. God reveals that his presence with Moses is because he has seen his covenant people’s pain (v.7, cf. 2:23-5), and has come to rescue them and bring them to Canaan, a land where he will provide for their needs (v.8). God has come to act as judge and to correct an injustice (Israel’s slavery), and commissions Moses to “bring my people … out of Egypt” (v.10).

Moses responds to God’s commissioning with two objections. Firstly, lacking self-confidence, Moses questions his worthiness to act as God’s agent (v.11). God responds by telling Moses who he is less important than that God himself “will be with you”, and that he will recognise this when he leads the Israelites out of Egypt (v.12). In the meantime, he must trust in God.

Moses’ second objection is that the Israelites may not believe God sent him, or God has power to deliver (v.13). To this, God tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM”, the only unchanging, self-existent God (v.14). Further, Moses is to tell the Israelites that their covenant God, revealing himself as “I AM” and “Yahweh” has sent Moses to them to fulfil His covenant promises to them (v.15).

v16-22

In the remainder of the chapter, we see God’s challenge to both Israel and Egypt. Israel’s challenge is to accept Moses is God’s messenger, sent as part of God’s rescue plan. Moses was to tell the Elders of Israel that the God of their Patriarchs had heard their cries and was acting, to deliver them from slavery to the Promised Land (vv.16-17). God promises that “they will listen to your voice” (v.18), answering his earlier second objection.

The challenge to Egypt is to release God’s people from their bondage. Moses and the Elders were to go to Pharaoh and ask him to “let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God” (v.18). Since Pharaoh was viewed as a god in Egypt, leaving to worship God elsewhere was a challenge to Pharaoh’s divine authority and Egypt’s political-religion.

God is clear that the Egyptians will not meet this challenge, so God will strike them powerfully to force them to release the Israelites (vv.19-20). The trouble that will come to Egypt will be so great the Egyptians will gladly see them leave with their prized possessions, so those who plundered the strength of the Israelites will have their wealth plundered by their victorious, freed slaves (vv.21-2).

Our passage applied

The call of Moses reminds us that God is present with his people. He knows and hears all things, including when they suffer. So he knows our needs, and comes to help. God comes to Moses to commission him for ministry, the instrument through which God fulfils his covenant promises and His will.

In the same way, Christ’s coming to deliver us from the slavery of sin demonstrates God’s presence with us. God knows our need for salvation, and sent Jesus to not only live a perfect life but offer up a perfect sacrifice for our sins, so we can enjoy the blessings of God’s presence, as the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Like Moses, we are inadequate to receive this on our own, or to share the news of this blessing to others. But like Moses, the important thing is not our character but that God is with us. We receive God’s promises by faith, until one day we see them fulfilled.

Resources

Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.

Read Exodus 2

Summary

At Easter we remember God’s deliverance of us from our slavery to sin through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We remember that God keeps the promises he makes, and that they were fulfilled in Jesus. Through Jesus, God delivers us from slavery to be his people.

In Exodus Chapter 2 we see this foreshadowed in the beginning of God’s delivery of his people from slavery. Moses, who will eventually lead God’s people out of Egypt is born. But God must deliver Moses at birth and in adulthood from Pharaoh, showing his hand working as he hears his people and remembers them.

Our passage explained

v1-10

In the first ten verses, we see God’s hand moving as he delivers Moses at birth. A Levite couple have a child, who they hide for three months because of Pharaoh’s edict to kill male Israelites (vv.1-2). With hiding a growing child no longer possible, the mother trusts God to deliver her child by placing him in a basket “ark” in the Nile (vv.3-4), to be carried away from danger.

By God’s providence, the instrument of deliverance is one of Pharaoh’s daughters, who recognises the child is Israelite but takes him for her own anyway, and even arranges (through Moses’ sister’s initiative) for Moses’ own mother to care for him at her own expense! (vv.5-9). 

Once he was fully weaned, perhaps two to three, Pharaoh’s daughter legally adopted the Israelite Moses as a Prince of Egypt (v.10), where he would receive formal education.

v10-15

In adulthood, Moses will again need God’s deliverance, this time from his murder of an Egyptian. Despite being adopted as a prince, and receiving the benefits of that position, Moses still identifies himself as an Israelite and studies the way his people are treated (v.11). 

Seeing an Egyptian overseer beating an Israelite slave, he “struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” which ultimately led to his fleeing Egypt to avoid Pharaoh’s wrath when his act became known (vv.12-15). Acting in his own strength, Moses’ attempts to help his people fail.

v16-25

In Midian, God provides for Moses with a family. Moses escaped Pharaoh’s immediate reach and wrath, but now has no idea what to do, and is sitting by a well (a common meeting place in nomadic societies). God sends the daughters of a Midianite priest to the well to draw out water for their flock (v.16). Shepherds attempt to bully them away so they can take the water for their own flock, but Moses intervenes to help the daughters by driving away the shepherds and helping water their flock (v.17).

Moses’ generous act earns the respect of the Midianite priest, who invites him home for hospitality (vv.18-20). Moses begins to live with him, and even marries one of his daughters, Zipporah, with whom he has a son, named Gershom, whose name recognises that he is not home but a sojourner (vv.21-2).

The life and deliverance to date of Moses has occurred because God hears His People. The Pharaoh who wanted Moses dead has died, but the people continue in their groaning “because of their slavery and cried out for help” (v.23). God’s response is fourfold; he “heard their groaning, and … remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob… saw the people of Israel—and God knew” (vv.24-5). 

Our passage applied

The Israelites’ cries for freedom reach God’s ears. God hears, and “remembers”, which means more than recalling, but bringing to mind with intent to act. God is getting ready to intervene for his people as he promised the Patriarchs, and so he observes their plight and concerns himself with it, as he prepares to act.

We live in an age of instant gratification and satisfaction, where we want things now. But God’s plans take time. This passage shows that God is aware of his people’s suffering, but God’s timing is not always ours. Decades pass in this chapter, but God is still acting to deliver by sending Moses, his instrument, and protecting him from harm.

God is acting in this passage because God keeps his promises and cares for his people. God is not coolly indifferent to the suffering of his people, but not only hears their cries, acts as he promises, observes our suffering, and concerns himself with it. When we cry out, this passage shows that God hears, recalls, observes, and acts, in his own timing.

God acts on his promises to deliver his people, as he has for us all in Christ. At the right time, Christ came to die for the ungodly (Romans 5:6), so we may have eternal life. Enslaved to our sin, God redeemed us and set us free so we can worship God freely and glorify him. The promise made in the Garden of Eden and the deserts of Canaan was fulfilled thousands of years later when Christ was nailed to a Cross for our sins, and rose three days later.

This Easter we remember again that God hears, remembers, sees, and knows. God remembers his promises … and he acts.

Resources

Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.

Read Exodus 1:8-22

Summary

There is a saying which jokingly states “Capitalism is man exploiting man, Communism is the reverse.” This cynical statement about political and economic systems reveals a truth about humanity after the fall; at one level or another, we seek to exploit and enslave others for our benefit.

The exploitation and enslavement of people, or opposition to progress and blessing, seems to occur quite often to God’s people. As God blesses his Church, various foes arise to attack it. This was the case for God’s people in Egypt. As they were blessed by God, they fell into oppression by the Egyptians. The rest of chapter 1 tells of the erasure of Joseph’s memory, the enslavement of the Israelites, and the attempted eradication of God’s people.

Our passage explained

v8-10

In verse eight we read of the erasure of Joseph’s heritage in Egypt. The Israelites were able to settle in Egypt because of Joseph’s wise rule, saving the Egyptians (and many others) from famine. His heritage would be remembered by many, just as leaders like Winston Churchill are remembered today, long after their death.

But “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (v.8). While this could be interpreted as referring to a king who had not heard of Joseph (and this is possible), the implication in this verse is rather that he refused to acknowledge Joseph’s wise rule. The reason was likely prejudice (ethnic and religious). This erasure of Joseph’s memory in the rulers of Egypt was dangerous, because Joseph’s wise rule created goodwill the Israelites relied on in their sojourn in Egypt.

With Joseph’s memory institutionally erased, God’s people fell into enslavement, as described in verses nine to fourteen. The king turns the Egyptians against the Israelites by noting how they had multiplied and could “if war breaks out … join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land” (vv.9-10). 

v11-22

Instead of expelling them from Egypt, his “shrewd” answer is to enslave and exploit them, and so “they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens” (v.11). Yet despite this, God’s people still multiply in number even as the Egyptians ever more ruthlessly oppressed them (vv.12-14). This increasing hostility and affliction is joined by increasing dread by the Egyptians of the people of Israel (v.12).

While the Pharaoh sought control over God’s people through enslavement, they still multiply in number. So the Egyptians progress from enslavement to eradication. The Pharaoh commands the midwives to kill any newborn Israelite male (vv.15-16), which will effectively wipe them out in a generation. The two (possibly head) midwives, Shiphrah and Puah (v.15), refuse this because they fear God more than Pharaoh (who remains nameless unlike the God-fearing midwives, v.17).

The midwives further demonstrate their fear of God over Pharaoh by their deceptive answer, suggesting the Israelite mothers are quick birthers (vv.18-19). God in turn shows his blessing on the midwives for trusting him over man, by blessing them with children, just as he also further blessed the Israelites (vv.21-22).

With the midwives frustrating Pharaoh’s plans for eradication, Pharaoh then draws the Egyptians directly into his plans. He “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’” (v.22). All the Egyptian people are commanded to identify with his attempt to kill off God’s covenant people, by participating personally in the genocide of the Israelites.

Our passage applied

This passage shows how in history the conflict which started in the Garden of Eden between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent continues. Those who rebel against God and follow the way of Satan persecute those who seek to follow God. Opposition and oppression of God’s people is the fruit of rebellion against God. This takes different forms in different times, whether it is through seduction away from Christ with worldly pleasures, or through deliberate persecution of God’s people.

We also see that Covenant blessing brings opposition from those outside the Covenant. The Israelites were fruitful and multiplied, and this brought increasing opposition from Pharaoh. The more God blessed them, the worse it got. Likewise, the Church’s growth attracts opposition from the Devil and from rebel sinners. But God is greater than any other power and in him we will overcome all opposition (1 John 4:4).

Likewise, we also should not be surprised when non-believers fail to remember blessings they have inherited from Christian influence in society. Egypt’s prosperity rested on Joseph’s wise rule, but it was deliberately ignored and forgotten. Likewise, our society and our “rights” rest on the Christian heritage of rulers and leaders, seeking to apply Biblical wisdom to their rule for the common good. This is conveniently forgotten today, as it was in Egypt, even while those benefits are enjoyed.

This chapter demonstrates God’s blessing to us, his people, despite opposition and persecution. While we may endure opposition and persecution for God’s sake, God has already overcome the world in Christ. We too will overcome, hidden with Christ in God

Resources

Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.

Read Exodus 1:1-7

Summary

The Book of the Exodus in the Old Testament is the great story of God’s redemption of his people out of Egypt to be his servants. Exodus carries forward the story of God’s redemptive plan from the seed first planted in Genesis, which sprouted and grew into a seedling through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The beginning of the book of Exodus makes it very clear that God’s redemptive plan is continuing, and that Exodus continues that story. It gives us hope to rely on God in troubling times, like these current days, because it reminds us that God is still working out his plan of salvation. In the first seven verses we see a reminder of God’s sovereign hand, a reminder of God’s provision, and a reminder of God’s covenant promises.

Our passage explained

v1-4

The book of Exodus begins by repeating the names of the sons of Jacob, oddly enough reminding us of God’s sovereign hand. In verses one to four we read “these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.”

The purpose of repeating these verses is to remind us of God’s storyline so far. After calling Abraham to Canaan, God blessed Abraham with a son of the promise, Isaac, who in turn gave birth to Jacob. Jacob, after fleeing Canaan for his life due to stealing the birthright and blessing from his older brother Esau, returned to Canaan with children and possessions. 

Jacob eventually moved south to Egypt with eleven of his sons and other family, at God’s command (Genesis 46:2-4). This was part of God’s sovereign hand, as he ordered events by sending Joseph (Jacob’s other son) to Egypt years before to save his family when a famine in the region arose. These verses tie back to Genesis 46:1-8, showing that God was planning events to make the nation of Israel a mighty people (Gen 46:3), as promised to Abraham (Gen 12:1-4).

v5-7

This opening passage also reminds us of God’s provision. In verse five we read that “all the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.” Joseph was already in Egypt because God had sent him there to become (basically) Prime Minister of the country and shepherd it through a time of famine. While his brothers had committed evil by selling him into slavery, God meant it for good (Gen 50:15-21).

Joseph’s position in Egypt allowed for his family to come and settle in Egypt, in the region of Goshen (Gen 47:1-6). There, God’s people were given the privileged duty of looking after the Pharaoh’s cattle and livestock. God’s people were preserved from the famine in that part of the world, and blessed with favourable treatment by Pharaoh because of the high regard that he held Joseph.

In the land of Egypt, God’s people began to experience the blessing of God’s covenant promises. In verses six and seven, it states that “then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”

Our passage applied

Joseph and his brothers died, but the covenant promises God made lived on and began to be fulfilled. Those described as the sons of Israel in verse one are described as a people in verse seven. The people greatly increase in number in the land of Egypt, just as God promised Abraham that “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” (Gen 12:2). They fulfil God’s commandment at Creation to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:26-28).

This promise ultimately finds its fulfilment in Christ (Gal 3:16), and in everyone who trusts in Christ for salvation. God’s promises to Abraham were fulfilled as a son became a family, which became a people. Ultimately, that people brought forth Christ, the promised son in whom all the nations of the world, including us, are blessed.

As the world shuts down to try and control the Covid-19 pandemic and we lose control of much of what we could easily do before, this passage reminds us that God is still in control and working away. God saved his people in a day of great famine, and caused them to flourish and prosper. Whatever happens in the coming months, our eternal life is secure in God, and we can walk forward in confidence that God keeps his promises.

God is still working out his salvation plan. Perhaps this present crisis may be a way in which God softens hearts to the Gospel, especially in lands with hardened soil like ours. We do not have to fear the future like non-believers, because we know God is in control of everything, executing his plans. God still reigns, provides, and keeps his promises today. Even the uncertain is certain to God, executing his will according to plan.

Resources

Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.