Exodus 02

   Exodus
Exodus (The Redemption of Israel and The Preservation of Israel)
 The Redemption of Israel (Exodus 5-15:21)
■ The Plagues
● The miracles of God through Moses offended specific false gods of the Egyptians, in fact, often offended more than one of their false gods! God shows, beyond a shadow of a doubt that He, and He alone, is God, and no other person or thing can make that claim legitimately. 
Plague Ref. God(s)
Nile turned to blood 7:14-25 Khnum – the guardian of the Nile
Hopi – the spirit of the Nile
Osiris – the giver of life, whose bloodstream was the Nile
Frogs 8:1-15 Heqt – the god of resurrection, who also assisted women in childbirth and whose form was a frog
Gnats (mosquitos) 8:16-19 Perhaps an attack on Egyptian Priests
Flies 8:20-32 Uatchit – A god who took the form of a fly
Plague on cattle 9:1-7 Hathor – the mother goddess, whose form was a cow
Apis – the bull god, who was the living personification of Ptah (the creator god) and the symbol of fertility
Boils 9:8-12 Imhotep – the god of medicine
Hail 9:13-35 Nut – the sky goddess
Isis – the goddess of life
Seth – the protector of crops
Locusts 10:1-20 Isis – the goddess of life
Seth – the protector of crops
Darkness 10:21-29 Re, Aten, Atum, Horus,
all of whom were son gods of sorts
Death of the firstborn 11:1-12:36 Pharaoh – who was considered a god
Osiris – the giver of life


● The Passover
 The Passover has massive significance to us as believers. We find that every Hebrew was to find a lamb and slaughter it, painting the blood over the sides and the tops of the door-frame. 
 It was not to be just any old lamb, but rather a year old male lamb without any defect. It was also important that the lamb not be too big for the family, and smaller families were required to meet together so that none of the lamb would go to waste, they were to eat every bit of it.
 When the Spirit of the Lord went through the city, killing the firstborn of each household he would passover those who households which had blood over the door frames.
 The Jews, even to this day, celebrated this passover meal as starting the new year. The Lord told them to begin marking time based on this event, not only because of how miraculous it was, but because of what it looked forward to.
 John the baptist said of Jesus Christ, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) the Spirit of the Lord passed over those houses with blood on them because that blood was a reminder that Christ would come and take the sin that was atoned for (covered) away completely!
 We, as members of the Church, on this side of the cross, celebrate the Lord's Table looking back to that wonderful event and reminding ourselves and each other what Christ's sacrifice means to us, just as the Jews were to celebrate the passover looking forward to the cross.
● The Red Sea
 As the Israelites were escaping Pharaoh changes his mind and decides to chase after them. Gathering all of his armies and all of his chariots he began to chase after the Hebrews in order to destroy them and take them back as slaves.
 In faith Moses raises his hands over the Red Sea and God parts the waters allowing them to walk through on dry ground.
■ This is a foreshadowing of baptism. As the Hebrews walk through the Red Sea they walk on dry ground, through the miracle of God's hand into life. They pass through the impossible into the new freedom that God has provided for them.
■ The Egyptians soon try to follow them and race into the waters as well. However, they did not walk into those waters in faith and they were swept away. The Hebrews walked trusting that God was going to save them, but the Egyptians disbelieved the miracle and raced after them, ultimately racing to their death. That which was a miracle of life for the believing was death for the unbelieving.
 The Preservation of Israel (Exodus 15:22-18)
■ Preservation from Thirst (Exodus 15:22-27)
● The people began to gripe about the fact that they were out in the wilderness and could not find any water to drink, since it was all bitter and none of it was sweet water.
● Immediately, rather than show faith in God the people begin to grumble at Moses. 
 It's amazing when you think that these people had seen the Lord make darkness sit over the land, the Nile turn to blood, all of the firstborn of Egypt slain in their sleep, and the Red Sea parted before them and they STILL grumble against Moses and the Lord rather than having faith and simply asking God.
 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,” Philippians 2:14-15
● Moses asked the Lord and was told to take a tree and throw it into the bitter water and it became sweet and good to drink. The Lord protected Israel on their journey through the desert.
■ Preservation from Hunger (Exodus 16:1-36)
● The people began to look back on their life in slavery and say: “Would that we had died by the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of mean, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
● This shows a double dose of foolishness. Firstly, they doubt the Lord yet again, even after he miraculously gave them fresh water to drink! Secondly, they are looking back on their old life of bondage and saying, “Wasn't that nice? Remember all of the great food we got between beatings and the long days of slave labor?”
 Yet, so often we do the same thing. However the Egypt that we left behind is still only a step away in terms of our sin nature. We sometimes long for the fruit of sin that we left behind when we were crucified with Christ and say, “Wasn't it great when I could do whatever I wanted and didn't care one bit about the Lord? I could indulge in all my favorite sins and never had to worry about anything!”
 Romans six tells us about how Sin is our old master and has been deposed by the cross of Christ, yet Sin can still scream, tempt and entice. However, he no longer has any authority. If we fall into sin it's because we listen to the commands of Sin, and ignore our new loving Master who bought us.
 “What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:15-16
● However, the Lord provides manna, bread from heaven, that they are given each morning.
 They are told that they must not try to store up and save any of it or it will rot. The Lord wanted them to continue to rely on Him for every step, never taking the manna for granted and being able to say, “I collected enough for five days and now I won't thank the Lord again until I run out.” Coming to, and relying on, the provision of the Lord was to be a daily affair.
 This event also shines forward onto something that God was planning to do in His Son's work here on earth.
■ "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.' " 
Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." 
Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread." 
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” -John 6:31-35
■ Preservation from thirst again (Exodus 17:1-7)
● The people again complained that they were thirsty. This time even giving Moses the impression that they were going to kill him by stoning! 
● It almost seems comical. Surely there was time that passed between these events, but it is amazing that there was no one saying, “The Lord has provided for us every step of this journey! Let us go to Him now and ask him!” Everyone just complains and loses focus, even though the Lord has bailed them out every step of the way.
● Does this sound at all familiar?
■ Preservation from Defeat (Exodus 17:8-16)
● Moses had Joshua choose men and go out to fight against Amalek.
● During the battle Moses sits on top of a hill and raises his hands in dependence on the Lord. Whenever he lets his hands fall the Israelites begin to lose ground, but whenever his hands are raised they win.
● In order to continue this (imagine holding your arms up for several hours!) they put a stone under him so he could sit and two of his friends held his hands up. 
 Doesn't this show us how we are to find victory over our troubles and trials? It is only through dependence on the Lord that we can have any victory in life. In fact that is the purpose for our trials, that we would depend on the Lord more and become conformed more and more to the image of His Son!
■ Preservation from Chaos (Exodus 18:1-27)
● Moses began to get thoroughly bogged down taking care of and judging in every matter for everyone. He was spending all of his time judging between the people on cases that weren't all that important or difficult.
● His father-in-law, Jethro, suggested that he set up some structure of people whom he trusts to judge in smaller things, and passing it up the hierarchy if it is too difficult or too important.
● This protected Moses as a leader and gives us an important lesson if we are ever in a position of leadership. We must not set ourselves up as the center of everything, but rather encourage, build up and entrust others. This is one way that many Christian leaders burn out at the end of a few years of ministry.
Take Home
Israel's redemption was entirely of God's doing. They didn't do anything in order to be redeemed, and they did nothing for their own preservation. As they would look back on this amazing event they could never boast and say, “We fought our way out of Egypt, endured 40 years in the dessert and then took back our land!” they forever had to look back on the story of their nation and said, “God did everything for us, we did nothing, He was faithful, when we were faithless, He was loving when we looked to everyone else except Him. He was patient, when we tested his patience at every turn. Praise the Lord, we are His people!” And the same can be said of our salvation. All that is left for us to do is to walk the path that is before us. If we trust in what he has done things will go well. If we doubt Him character or His ability we are going the wrong way! We were made to know, love and trust in Him always!

For we walk by faith and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7