Tag Archives: blessing

A Walk Through the Wilderness (Lesson 2)

Uncategorized, , , ,

A Bible study in Exodus

Chapter 1

Blessing

The Book of Exodus is actually called the Shemot in Hebrew. It means Names.   Which is where the book begins.

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5The descendants of Jacob numbered seventyin all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

In v.5 it says that there were seventy souls in all, but that is only counting the men. Remember that it says and his household.  So if you include the women and the children there were logically many more than 70.  God does not leave women out because they are unimportant, but because genealogy is of vital importance in scripture. Have you ever heard the saying, “momma’s baby, daddy’s maybe”?  The maternal lineage is unquestionable, but the paternal lineage is always subject to question. So lineage in the bible is critical to establish the continuity of the chosen people of God all the way to the absolute veracity of the lineage of Jesus. When Mary conceived, the bible with purpose and intent includes this scripture in Matthew 1:25 He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus. (The Message)  As I said before, if we begin to question certain parts of the bible, we actually make it of little effect.  We either believe it is the inspired word of God, or we put it aside as a combination of fact, fable, and myth.  In keeping with this line of thinking, it is important that we understand that much of the bible is accepted by faith. There is no other way to believe that a man poked a stick in the sea, and it parts, or that Jesus was able to rub mud in a blind man’s eyes to restore his sight. (John 9).  We gain understanding and wisdom to interpret the word through the Holy Spirit, and it is then applied to our daily life to guide us.  God’s word IS our cloud by day, and our pillar of fire by night.

v.6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. 

The bible is constant in the fact that multiplication = blessing.  The first thing God told Adam and Eve in the garden was to be fruitful and multiply.  Imagine this; Gods instructions to man after He put him in the garden was: Eat, have sex, and take care of the garden! How crazy is that?!? What is crazier is that man messed it up! But, I digress.

In Psalms 127 we read this,v.3 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. 4Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. 5Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

So in reading v.5 we understand that God has done with Israel exactly what He promised to do in Genesis 46:3 God said, “I am the God of your father. Don’t be afraid of going down to Egypt. I’m going to make you a great nation there. When God says that He will do something, you can rest assured that He will do it.  He could have only told Abraham in that passage, Don’t be afraid to go to Egypt, but he adds the promise to the command. And He seals the promise with His authority, I AM.  We will talk more about this in our next lesson in Chapter 3.  We must understand that God’s commands are always linked to promises. If they were not, He would not be a kind and good God.  And if they were not, the teachings would be too hard to bear. But in order that we trust God, in the dry times of our wilderness walk, we trust that the command includes a promise for good.  One example of this would be the 5th Commandment to “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. The commandment, Honor you father and mother… the promise… that you may live long in the land.

I would like to encourage you to read Deuteronomy 28.  It is God’s word to the Israelites after they took the Promised Land.  It is a chapter of “ifs”, and “buts”.   If you do this, I( God) will do this, but if you don’t…. These promises and curses are just as valid today as they were 4000 years ago. Remember, Jesus did not abolish the laws or commandments, but fulfilled them.  He told us to obey them and to write them on the fleshy tablets of our heart.  Those promises are still connected to our obedience, and those curses are still connected to our disobedience.  The only thing that is different, is that when we mess us, we are not required to sacrifice a lamb.  The Lamb was already sacrificed.  Praise God.

Oppressing

8Now a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 

The word Now in this verse, is the divine divider that will begin God’s great plan for deliverance.  In verse 7 they were fruitful and increased abundantly, but NOW things have changed. The were and the now happen to us all.  And in truth, many times, we will never walk toward God’s plan for our lives until the NOW happens.  This is definitely the case with the Israelites.  Unless NOW happened, they would have been completely content to stay in Egypt.  After all, they were doing well. As I said in the first lesson, they were blessed while all of Egypt was in bondage to Pharaoh.  But God had made a promise to Jacob in Genesis and God is faithful to keep His promises.

v.9“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” 11So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13and worked them ruthlessly. 14They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. 
So with that one word every thing changes.  They go from being abundantly blessed to having taskmasters and being afflicted  (v.11). When God allows oppressing, He is still blessing! It grieved the Egyptians, and I guarantee that it grieved the devil. He can’t stand God’s people. As much as God loves us (more than we can ever comprehend), Satan despises us (more than we can ever comprehend).

v.15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

It is a serious thing to understand 1 Peter 5:8 that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He wants to devour your marriage, your children, your happiness and anything else that God blesses you with. And devour is just what he tries to do to the Hebrew people. Pharaoh orders the midwives to kill all the male children born to the Hebrew women. When that fails, it appears he commands ALL the Egyptians (v.22) to kill every male baby by throwing him into the river.

Chapter 2

1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 

As I said earlier, God does not think less of women than He does men. Women are precious to Him and we are made in His image, just as men are. But we are made in the gentle image of God. The compassionate image of God.  In Genesis 1:2 it says…and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  This word moved, is the Hebrew word rachaph (raw-kawf) and it means to brood.  Think of a hen when she sits on her eggs.  This also reminds me of Jesus as He looks out over Jerusalem in Matthew 23:38 and cries out Jerusalem, Jerusalem…. How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. (The Message).  We see a very tender side of God, and His cry for a wayward child.  This is what we see as Chapter 2 continues. In Matthew Henry’s commentary on Exodus 2, he writes…”The parents of Moses saw he was a goodly child. A lively faith can take encouragement from the least hint of Divine favor.  It is said in Hebrews 11:23, that the parents of Moses hid him by faith; they had the promise that Israel should be preserved, which they relied upon. Faith in God’s promise quickens us to use lawful means for obtaining mercy (they were told to put all the male babies in the river, and that is what they did). Duty is ours, events are God’s. Faith in God will set us above the fear of man. At three months’ end, when they could not hide the infant any longer, they put him in an ark of bulrushes by the river’s brink, and set his sister to watch. And if the weak affection of a mother were this careful, what shall we think of God, whose love and compassion is boundless. Moses never had a stronger protection about him, no, not when all the Israelites were round his tent in the wilderness, than now, when he lay alone, a helpless babe upon the waves. No water, no Egyptian can hurt him. When we seem most neglected and forlorn, God is most present with us“. Wow! That is a powerful commentary.

v.4His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

So Pharaohs daughter is bathing in the river, and she sees the little ark floating on the river and sends her maidens to get it. You can just hear her compassion in v.6.  Not an Egyptian. Not Pharaohs daughter, but a woman. Made in the image of the God of unfailing compassion. This evil Pharaoh apparently has a soft spot for his daughter, because on the one hand he has commanded that all the male babies be murdered, yet his own daughter brings a Hebrew baby into the castle to raise as her own, and it appears that this is tolerated. Apparently Pharaoh also noticed Moses was a “goodly” child.

Because this Bible study was originally for a group of women, one of the things that I want to add at this point is this. I have always thought of man being made in the image of God. But in Genesis 1:27 it says So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Women are made in the image of God too. How are we like God? There are many ways. *We are relational to our core. We should always be attempting to nurture and protect our relationships. *We love beauty. God could have made the world black, white and grey, but His love of beauty is clearly seen in all of creation.  We are not being vain or conceited to look for and create beauty all around us, and in ourselves.  *We are compassionate, loving, forgiving and kind. Our relationship with our children and our husbands should be modeled after the relationship that God desires to have with us. Loving, gentle and full of grace.  There is nothing more unappealing than a harsh, demanding woman and it is hard to see the beauty in a woman that is constantly complaining. I assure you that at this point in this study I am addressing myself even though it may seem as if I am pointing the finger at others.  Sometimes I catch myself actually looking for something to fuss about. I walk into a room, and think, “I bet she left that curling iron on”, and if she did, I am ready to pounce. I don’t understand what drives me to this, but it is a struggle that I have, and that I ask God to help me be aware of.

So, back to our study.  We know that Moses is raised by Pharaoh’s daughter in his very own castle.  I find that humorously ironic. But the irony doesn’t stop there. Moses mother puts him in that basket with the faith that God will protect him. And God certainly does.

v.7-9, Moses sister says to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee? 8 And Pharaohs daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaohs daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. 

How is that for irony? I love the way God works. In faith, trust me with your child, and I will not only return him to you, but I will work it out so that you are paid to nurse and take care of your own child.  These things (among so many others) is what makes me love God!

10And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.11And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.12And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.13And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?14And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.15Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

Moses does what many of us do when we sin, he ran. Pharaoh vows to kill him and Moses runs and hides in Midian.

16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.17And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

Up to this point, the only information we have about Moses is that he was a “goodly” child.  Now we are beginning to see the “goodness” in Moses. We see that he was concerned about his  fellow Hebrews being mistreated and now he stands up for these young women and even waters their flocks.

18And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today?19And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock. 20And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. 21And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. 22And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land .23And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

So in wrapping up this chapter, Moses marries one of Jethro’s daughters, Zipporah, and they have a son and he is perfectly content (v.21) to dwell there.

But, meanwhile, Israel is still in bondage and v.24 says that God remembered them. Does this imply that God forgot them?  This passage in Isaiah 49 answers that question. But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me. My Master has forgotten I even exist.” “Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I’d never forget you—never. Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands. (The Message)

The Hebrew word for remembered is zakar (zaw-kar) which means He was moved on their behalf and in response to their groanings. It is a word that means God was actively involved in their situation.  And when God “remembers” Israel,  He is also about to make Moses get actively involved in their situation.

God’s mercy is so amazing. God’s plan was to use Moses before there ever was  a Moses.  He didn’t change His plan when Moses committed murder. He already knew this. God never uses perfect characters in the Bible.  He uses very real people, just like you and I.  He used Moses because the heart of Moses was to protect. When Moses uses the words “Let my people go” to Pharaoh in a later chapter, He begins to take ownership of these people who God has given him. And in spite of the frustration he will feel with them, he will at times be the only reason that God doesn’t completely wipe out the Israelites because of their disobedience and stubbornness. This is a beautiful type and shadow of what Jesus does for us. He stands in the gap for us when we are disobedient and stubborn, and keeps God from completely wiping us out both individually and as a nation.