Annual Bible Reading 2017: Exodus 1-4

13^th January Morning
Exodus 1-2

For the following books, I will attempt an outline for each book that we will be handling as we continue. I would like to thank all of you who are faithful in reading the Bible and listening to the word of God. We cannot afford to take this for granted and I am sure our lives will never be the same after this adventure. Let us now dive into the book Exodus and make sure we pick a few lessons that we can.

Like I have always emphasized the Bible is the word of God in human language, history, and experiences. We ended the book of Genesis when everyone was dying and the children of Israel are left stuck in Egypt. Life is going to take another spin and things will never be the same again. I blame them for not doing what they had come to do and leaving after they had. I hold Jacob responsible for the pain and all the slavery we are about to see in this book.

The Book of Exodus has 40 chapters and allow me to outline these chapters and categorize them in the major themes so that however extensive we might go as we draw lessons, we will at the back of our minds have the major ideas on which all events rotate. I hope by doing this I would have simplified technical Theology to all of us reading the Bible.

The book of Exodus can be divided into four sections:

• BONDAGE/SLAVERY: Chapters 1-2. In these, we have key practices such as Affliction, Care, Slavery, and Murder.
• DELIVERANCE: Chapters 3-12. In these we see that the source of this deliverance, the Gracious nature of God, the means by which they are saved is the man known as Moses. The plan for this whole process of their salvation is blood and the conditions of this salvation or redemption are Faith and Obedience.
• JOURNEY: Chapters 13-18. The content of this Journey and pilgrim is Separation, Salvation, Singing, sustenance and Shared Service.
• ARRIVAL (half way): Chapters 19-40: In these chapters, we see three key things: the Reconciliation of God, the Relationship with God and finally, the Revelation of God.

The word ‘Exodus’ comes from two Greek words (ex and hodos) which mean: ‘the way out’. The Israelites failed to leave by themselves and now they are going to be forced out by all means. But before that happens, they must first suffer the consequences of their choices. I am persistent in blaming the Israelites and I am taking another direction from that you have always known. Since I started reading the Bible and the story of the Israelites, my teachers and preachers have always painted the Israelites as the innocent ones and the Egyptians as the tyrranical people who torment the people of God. But if you have been reading with us this far, I am very sure you now know who is innocent and who isn’t.

Being a Theologian and a Pastor, my role is to present the Bible to you in its meaning as opposed to its statement. There is always a thread of meaning cutting across all the cluster the Bible gathers in its presentation and narration of matters. We must avoid presenting the Israelites as the innocent ones but rather as guilty sinners who made wayward choices and, just like the Egyptians, they are equal sinners who deserve, not an Exodus, but a destruction.

The Pharoah who rose and never knew Joseph as verse 8 puts it was a patriotic leader. Let’s read his deductive reasoning in these verses 9-11,15-16: “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; “come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”. 

Let us look at things objectively, these people had their own Country and Land in which they decided to live in as strangers and left for foreigners to occupy. Here they are and they are overtaking the citizens and have taken each and every opportunity. Under the influence of the former prime minister, Joseph, the Jews were pampered and had seized almost every opportunity. Just like Joseph, under his leadership and influence, had taken care of his own people and increased them economically so did this Pharaoh intend to take care of his own people at the expense of these strangers.  The strategy was simple: Afflict, Burden, and Depopulate through killing them.

This is exactly what the devil does to whoever gets stuck in an Egypt when they should be leaving: He afflicts you with disease, burdens you with bills just to facilitate your sin and eventually kills you. The Israelites, relatives of the former prime minister, became the slaves of the Egyptians and started building Egypt. They started doing in Egypt what they had failed to do in Canaan. Many of us are like that; we are slaves and servants to our abusive Egypts. We build and toil for towns that do not belong to us. We work and sustain women who do not belong to us. We invest all our energy and resources into Egypts whose agenda is to afflict us, burden us and eventually kill us. Have you ever been used by Egyptian-like people in this world?

When Pharaoh decided to kill the Egyptians, he did not start from the living. He had already put in place what was going to kill the living. He targeted the unborn and he also narrowed down to the male-child. This is not because a male child is in anyway better than a female-child. This Pharaoh targeted the male-child because the male-child is the SEED OF THE WOMAN. Just as in the New Testament, Herod wanted all the boys dead in search of the Christ. So Pharaoh knew that if all boys died and the number of men dropped down, the women were not going to continue any Jewish blood-lines but to enhance the Egyptian’s.

I wish I had time to illustrate this but listen to me. The devil is not after a man in terms of gender but the devil targets the male in the context that men have the SEED. All crops can be destroyed and seasons might not be productive in agriculture but as long as the SEED is safe, all that has been destroyed will sprout out again.

There is a power in a seed that cannot be found anywhere else. The ingredients that make life and its continuation are engineered and kept safe in a seed. That is why I have always told people that we are free to eat anything and actually everything as long as we do not eat the SEED. The failure of our world today and the moral decay we see in our world today. The failure in women and the entire creation is due to the fact that the SEED (Men) have been attacked and broken down.

Pharaoh knew that if he dealt with the masculinity Israel would be no more. For Pharaoh to target the male children, it was not just a political resolution but a plan from the devil himself who knew that God could not use a female to save the Israelites from Egypt. The male children were killed to target Moses. If Moses had been killed, it would then take God another decade to strategize the deliverance of these people. If Herod had killed Jesus in his infancy, that would have meant that God is dead and no more. There is nothing as important as the seed.

Midwives exercised some civil disobedience and did the right thing against the political laws of the country. Sometimes it better to do the right thing than to follow the law. In chapter 2, we see the sovereignty of God in all this rackus. God is going to influence nature and the course of events to make sure the persecutors raise and nurture the redeemer of Israelites.

For Moses to have grown in the Egyptian palace and raised in all the royal culture and traditions of Egypt was more of God becoming flesh, a creator becoming a creature, dwelling among us and suffering as well as enjoying as all his creature did. This is the incarnation symbolized in the life of Moses. For Moses to be the redeemer of the Israelites, he had to be the exact match of the power he was going to fight. He needed to know all the Egyptian ways and be educated in their schools and not just any school but the best schools in there. All this was part of the plan. Moses was God’s plan of redemption and he had to lay it down to make sure it suits the task. God had to become like one of us in order to save us.

Moses could not be raised as one of the slaves and be the savior of fellow slaves. The bible says, “If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Mathew 15:14. Moses had to be 100% a Jew and 100% practical Egyptian. I personally find no other better image of the Incarnate God in Jesus than Moses. Jesus was 100% God and 100% practically the man he had come to save. Moses knew he was on a mission, for his mother always reminded him since the time of breast-feeding.

It is amazing that the communication through breastfeeding sessions can sink that far in the brains of children. He was designed for this rescue mission and he grew up focused on that. He never slept on his duty. He started killing the persecutors of his people immediately. And within no while, he had already left Egypt. As you may see, you could only live in Egypt if you had no purpose for your life. He was not a slave remember? So he had no slave mentality like that of his brothers who actually incited the Egyptians against him.

Now that Moses had received his first education and training in secular academics, he had to join another university again to be trained in another area. Since Moses was not going to be a political leader, he had to be trained in another field of pastoral ministry. This was a leader of people and more so of slaves. He was this leader who was going to work with God on this mission. While it took him 40 years in Egypt, it took him another 40 years in Median following and shepherding animals. All this was in preparation of this individual to be able to deal with people. It is easier to lead 10.000 animals than to lead 2 people. Moses needed this experience before he attempted the task.

I have always told people who want to enter into relationships that sometimes it is better to start with a PLANT. Take care of it, supply water, carry it in and out and change its location daily and position it in the sun. Once it grows, then you have graduated to a PET. Do the same. Feed it, monitor its health, treat it, clean its place and train it what to do and when to do it. Once it starts taking care of itself then you have graduated to a PERSON. Something like this was what God was taking Moses through. You do not just jump out of the university and enter into leadership of people. Moses needed the 40 years in the wilderness of Median around mountains like Sinai.

The last verses say, Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. Exodus  2:23-25.

Finally, the Israelites did the right thing. They looked at their situation and they had had enough. They transferred their tears from crying about the pain. They saved their tears from pleading with their slave master the Egyptians and directed those tears to the right person. They cried unto God. Many people in this world live life like I used to. We spend too much pity-partying. Sharing our pain amongst us the sufferers. We cry upon each other shoulders and weep all night. We then cry and plead and then praise and worship our tormentors in hopes of being excused from their abuse. We spend a lot of time telling our story to people instead of telling it to God. I think this is where the song that says that: TAKE IT TO THE LORD IN PRAYER makes sense. The message here is simple stop telling people your issues, they also need help just like you do. Shut-up towards people and start crying to God. the Good news is that when we do, he hears and considers our tears.

13^th January Evening
Exodus 3-4

If God reminds me I will deal with this Burning bush in chapter three in the future when I get to the book of Daniel. But for now, let me dive into a discussion between a missionary and a herdsman. God is the missionary and he wants to assign a herdsman to a task of keeping and leading people as his new herd. Just Like Jesus told Peter that I will make you a fisher of men, God has a proposal to Moses. He asks him how he finds it leading people as opposed to leading animals all through.

Introductions are very important, he tells him that he is the God of his bloodlines. From Abraham to Jacob. But as we saw in the book of Genesis, God was silent ever since the days of Isaac and Jacob. When you read about the way God was active with Abraham and count the times he ever said a thing to Jacob or even Isaac (if he ever), you will be amazed. But even though Isaac and Jacob were weekend Christians, God still identified with them. Isn’t this amazing on how God still considers himself our God even when we are that indifferent with him?

When Moses attempted to know his name given that in the Ancient Near East, a name meant everything someone was; God told him he was I AM. This falls into the category of the Jehovahistic (Redemptive) names of God in the Bible. But for God to tell Moses that his name was I AM was the simplest way that God could communicate to this finite being that God was everything he would need on this redemptive mission. Has any of us ever imagined what it means for God to find you and tell you that what you are looking for in life and all your annual resolutions; I AM. God is everything you ever wished for and if you have the I AM you literally have everything. God will never send you to any important mission unless he first reveals to you who is. It was important that Moses understands his partner on this mission before he approached the enemy. It is important that all leaders begin with fundamentals or even introduction studies about God.

Has any of us ever imagined what it means for God to find you and tell you that what you are looking for in life and all your annual resolutions; I AM. God is everything you ever wished for and if you have the I AM you literally have everything. God will never send you to any important mission unless he first reveals to you who he is. It was important that Moses understands his partner on this mission before he approached the enemy. It is important that all leaders begin with fundamentals or even introduction studies about God.

The first thing Moses was told to do was to gather the elders of the people. Elders were the people who knew the history of the pain of their people and were the people at the center of the prayers for a redeemer. Elders knew who Moses was and what he was destined to do. So God wanted Moses to understand that in order for him to appeal to the masses, he had to begin with the existing influential authorities. Moses did not have to reach and explain himself to individual Israelites. All he needed to do was to reach out to the leadership and thus everyone would comply.

When you have an important mission, mind the kind of people you communicate it to. If you have associates like the one Israelite who led to his exile then you know how your mission is going to fail. Always know whom to approach and for what. Just as you were selective in the mission, so should you be with the partners. When God sent Moses to Egypt, he assured him in advance that he was going to face resistance and things were not going to be easy. The only assurance he gave him, however, was that God was going to be with him by all means.

What we see in chapter four is a God who is determined to save the Israelites and all he wants from Moses is just but a representative. God pledged to do everything, Moses cooked all sorts of excuses but God accepted all the excuses and through signs he provided an answer to every excuse. We all give God all sorts of excuses and what God does is to make sure he provides until we are the excuse ourselves. What excuses do you have for not doing the right thing in your life? When Moses believed on God and went, the closing verse in chapter 4 says: So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH.

Am Pr. I.T.White. THE GOSPEL HAWKER

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