Unbelievers who live with believers of God in this world we share will never fully understand the work of God among those who believe, worship, and follow Him.  Believers, often do not fully understand but truly believe, accept, and rely on God’s miraculous work!  Unbelievers live in a world that relies on their own wisdom and strength, their own powers of persuasion to get all they think they need, and will do anything to preserve their own self-made kingdom.  When their earthly, human kingdoms are threatened, watch out!  All forms of hate, violence, ridicule, bullying with beatings will rise up within those who wish for status quo against those who they think threaten their existence.

Pause to prepare our hearts in prayer to God:

May Your love in us increase along with our faith in the author and finisher of our faith; Jesus.  Realize Gods’ love for us.  Know that God’s work is and always will be to save us and set us free because of His relentless love. Thank Him with humbled hearts.

Background

Remember—increase was promised by God beginning with Abraham.  (Genesis 17) God promised Abraham that He would make a great nation from him. Abraham, who was very old and childless, was promised many descendants. This promise is being fulfilled through his succeeding generations—just as God said He would.  God also promised to bless Abraham and the families of the earth through him. 

With the promised increase of great proportions; the Egyptians become fearful.  So, their solution?  Weaken them by ruthlessly working them to death while demanding population control by killing all the males born to the Hebrew women.  Wait, what?! Has God left?  Does He hear the cries of His people?  God has not left because He promised to be with His people always.  God hears the cries for help.  God is still in control and has a plan to save them. That is what God does best redeem and restore. 

In truth, the most comprehensive term for what God is doing to get us out of the mess we are in is salvation.  Salvation is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Salvation is the biggest word in the vocabulary of the people of God. 

The Exodus is a powerful, dramatic, true story of God working salvation.  The story has generated an extraordinary works of art over the centuries as it has reproduced itself in song and poem, drama and novel, politics and social justice, repentance and conversion, worship, and holy living.  It continues to capture the imagination of men and women, especially men and women in trouble.  It is significant that God does not present us with salvation in the form of an abstract truth, or a precise definition or a catchy slogan, but as story.

“Exodus draws us into the story with plot and characters, which is to say, with design and personal relationships.  Story is an invitation to participate, first through our imagination and then, if we will, by faith—with our total lives in response to God.  This Exodus story continues to be a major means that God uses to draw men and women in trouble out of the mess of history into the kingdom of salvation.

Half the book is a gripping narrative of an obscure and severely brutalized people who are saved from slavery into a life of freedom.  The other half is a meticulous, some think tedious, basic instruction and training in living the saved, free life. The story of salvation is not complete without both halves.” –Eugene Peterson, The Message Bible, Exodus

Now, we are ready to begin the exodus…

Exodus 1

The Israelites Oppressed

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

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

⁸ Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, 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.”

¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They 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.

¹⁵ The 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.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

²⁰ So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

²² Then 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.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The human race is in trouble.  We’ve been in trouble for a long time.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul preaches. We, too, are slaves to sin.  But is our desire to stay in our sin condition?  I hope not!  Jesus came to seek and to save us from all sins.  He paid the debt to redeem us from the slavery of sin. As authentic believers, our inner desire is to be with God and then do what God says is best for us. Our part is to believe in God’s One and Only Son, sent to earth to save us and set us free! Free from the sin that had taken over our being and replaced it with a new life in Christ!

Some people in and out of the church accept the mess they are in as a permanent condition. Some shrug their shoulders, and say, “Oh well, the heart wants what the heart wants…” and then do anything and everything not of God to get what our deceiving hearts want.  In this condition, we are still enslaved to the Deceiver who wants to destroy our hearts.  Yes, our hearts lie to us when our heart has been captured by the Liar whose goal is to hinder our relationship with God and each other.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” proclaims the prophet, Jeremiah.  (Jeremiah 17:9)  We cannot depend on our hearts to guide us.  We depend on the One who saved us.

The skill, perseverance, intelligence, the devotion of the people who put their shoulders to the wheel to pull us out of the messy muck we have created are appreciated—or should be!  But at the center and core of this work is God.  What is our response to God?

Exodus will supply plenty of reasons to respond to God in faith.  Through this reading and teaching we will discover that God’s plans for us contain a lot of surprises. God leads and provides the means to reach His goals.  God never leaves us or forgets us.  God hears us. God responds.

So, take a minute…

Have you ever been in a seemingly hopeless position at work, school, or home? Have you felt trapped and powerless to act? Remember, God hears our needs and answers prayers in the manner that will help us, serve His will, and often surprise us. Trust God in prayer right now for His special guidance right now. Be still and listen.

Lord,

Thank you for your amazing truth, your relentless love for us, your ways to save us told to us in story form so that we will understand more readily.  Thank you for the discovery of new insights that enrich our souls each time we sit with you and learn from you through Your Word.  Thank you for your plan to save us and set us free.  May we turn to you first in times of trouble with humbled gratitude for all you have done, are doing, and will do to keep us free.  Keep us at the center of it all, where you are, dear Jesus.

In Jesus Name, Amen