Chapter 5, Delivering His People

The Set Up: Exodus 1:6-22
With Joseph the vice president of Egypt, the entire Israelite family enjoy the perks of being in with the Pharaoh. But as the book of Exodus begins, the Israelites have grown into a large group of people and the new Pharaoh feels threatened. He enslaves the Jewish people, forcing them to build the cities of Rameses and Pithom. Pharaoh then orders all male Israelites to be thrown into the Nile when they are born. Altogether the Israelites are enslaved for 400 years, and begin to wonder whether God had forgotten them. Where was His promises? Where was His protection?

Moses: Exodus 2:1-10
God told Abraham hundreds of years earlier that the Jewish people would be enslaved for 400 years (Genesis 15:13-14) but that He would deliver them. A boy is born, placed in a basket in the Nile, later to be found by the Pharaoh's daughter. She names him Moses and he is raised in Pharaoh's house.

God is Calling: Exodus 3:1-10
Years and years after being saved from the Nile, Moses has fled to the desert after killing an Egyptian. While tending the flocks, God speaks to him from within a burning bush. God calls Moses for the purpose of delivering the Israelite people from the bondage of slavery. Moses complains and begs for God to send someone else because he doesn't have confidence that he is good enough or has the skills required to follow the purpose. But when God calls, He always supplies what is needed to get the job done. What is God calling you to do in your life? What gifts, talents, passions are pulling you? Spend time listening for God's voice this week as to where He might want to use you to make a difference for His Kingdom.

God is Holy
God tells Moses to take off his sandals for he is standing on holy ground. From the beginning we've looked at how God is pure, perfect, and the greatest good. Interacting with God is an amazing opportunity because we are so far from those things. But He invites us to be in His presence if we will take the time to do so. Play the video below, allowing yourself to be quiet. Close your eyes and listen to the words. Let God speak to you and be in His Holy presence.



God is Delivering: The Passover
To the Israelites, it seemed like God had forgotten them. Many times in life, we can feel the same way. Abandoned or forgotten. Exodus 6:1-5 reminds us that God always remembers, and He is always faithful:

Then the Lord said to Moses,
"Now you'll see what I'm going to do with Pharaoh. It will be My mighty hand that will free My people. It will be My mighty hand will force Pharaoh to let them go.
I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but to you, I have revealed Myself by My Holy Name. I have established a covenant with the Israelite people to give them the land of Canaan, where they used to live as strangers.

I have heard the cries of the Israelites as they have been enslaved by the Egyptians, and I have remembered My covenant.

God did not forget His people, and He does not forget you. He hears your cries for help. God sends 10 plagues on Egypt to prove His power and His covenant with His people. Pharaoh continues to refuse them freedom until the 10th plague. The final plague is the death of every firstborn male in Egypt: From Pharaoh to the servants to the livestock, everyone except for the Israelites.

You can read the full story in Exodus 12:1-29. God commands His people to sacrifice a lamb and spread the blood of the lamb across the door posts. At midnight, the angel of death walks through all of Egypt, leaving the first born dead in every household except for the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. The tradition continues today with the Passover holiday, a celebration meal of when God passed over the homes of His people, and delivered His people from the slavery in Egypt.

This Passover Meal or Seder Meal, is an important part of the Israelite heritage, continuing through today. There is great symbolism and meaning in the elements, many of which point us to the coming sacrifice of Christ.

Chapter 4, God is faithful to Joseph

God's Story:
(Genesis 37:1-28 ; Genesis 39:1-23 ; Genesis 41:12-16, 25-44)
At age 17, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph ends up working for Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguards. Joseph works hard and God blesses all he does so that he soon becomes Potiphar's secondhand man. But Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him, and although he probably could have gotten away with it, Joseph refused to sin against God and man. Potiphar's wife lied and said Joseph tried seducing her, and he was soon thrown into jail. But he remained faithful to God, and God continued to bless him there as well. Soon, he had been promoted in prison and was given more responsibility. One day, the Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker are thrown into prison, and each have a dream. God gives Joseph the ability to interpret the dream and he turns out to be right. 2 years later, Pharaoh has a dream and the cupbearer remembers Joseph. God again gives Joseph the meaning of the dream, and Pharaoh makes Joseph vice president of Egypt.

What we learn about God:
Even in the hard times, God is faithful. It's easier to complain or give up, but God will always provide for His people when they continue to seek Him and live for Him even when it's hard to do.

What we learn about our response to hard times:
Throughout his entire life Joseph is given the raw end of the deal. But Joseph continues to work hard and trust God. He never stopped following after the dream God had laid on his heart as a 17 year old. He doesn't complain, give up, or stop doing the right thing. 13 year later, Pharaoh names him second in command over all of Egypt, a testament to God's purpose, timing and blessing.

For next week...
The set up for the next chapter of God's story is this: As a result of God's work in Joseph's life, his entire family moves down to Egypt during the famine. There they experience the good life as honorary royalty. Their family is getting bigger and bigger, and that's where we will start next Thursday.


Family Tree!
The Covenant made with Abraham was passed down through his descendants. Joseph is apart of Abraham's line. He was one of 12 sons of Jacob. God later renames Jacob with the name "Israel" and thus, we see where the 12 tribes of Israel come from.

Hearing God's Voice
"Come close to God, and God will come close to you."

James 4:8

God wants to speak to His people and He's given us the tools to do it: The Bible, the Holy Spirit, other believers, and experience. The problem is, most of our lives are so busy and cluttered, we have a hard time hearing the still small voice calling for our attention. Just like any other relationship, we need to put time and effort into getting to know God deeper. What we give our time to shows what we think is really important. Sadly, God is usually towards the bottom of the list. Be more intentional to giving Him time and listen closer for His calling.

The Grace of Candlesticks
In the movie "Les Miserables", Jean Valjean gets a picture of what grace is through a bishop. Jean Valjean is a convict who receives the unexpected kindness of a meal and place to stay from the bishop. But in the middle of the night, he steals the silver utensils from the bishop and knocks him out. The next day, the police catch Jean Valjean and bring him back to the bishop. But instead of having him thrown in jail, the bishop lets him go and then gives him silver candlesticks on top of what he's already stolen!

JUSTICE:
Giving the deserved consequence, setting wrong things right
MERCY:
Not giving the deserved consequence, forgiveness
GRACE:
Giving an undeserved gift

All 3 words are aspects of who God is, but we focused on the aspect of GRACE as it is connected to the covenant. The covenant is God's promise based upon His faithfulness, not human actions. The covenant is based on grace, an undeserved gift.

The bishop tells Jean Valjean, "With this silver, I have ransomed your soul from fear and hatred." There is a responsibility from this point on for Jean Valjean to change his ways. Likewise, we are encouraged in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

Your body, your life is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you as a gift given by God. For God bought you with a high price, so honor Him by the decisions you make.

Chapter 3, The Covenant

God's Story (Found in Genesis 12-22)
2000 years after sin and death enter God's perfect creation, God chooses to speak to reveal Himself to and through a man named Abraham. God says He will make Abe a great nation, grant him great fame, and everyone on earth will be blessed through him. (Genesis 12:1-3) This are crazy promises to make because Abe is a 75 year old nobody whose wife can't have children. God promises they'll have as many descendants as they stars. How? And how will everyone on earth be blessed through him?

But Abe begins to listen to God. He doesn't completely trust God to provide and does things his own way (For example, lying to the Pharaoh, sleeping with his servant Hagar). But God remains faithful and cleans up the messes, and continues to tell Abe that God will give him a son, Isaac, who will be the start of the covenant promise. 25 years after God first speaks to Abe, Isaac is born and the promise of God is beginning to look possible. Just a few years later, though, God asks Abe to sacrifice Isaac to show his devotion.

The culture Abraham lives in worshiped many gods, who people believed controlled various parts of the world like the sun, moon and rain. These gods were feared so much that people began sacrificing more and more to appease their wrath.

What we learn about God:

• 1) God makes Himself known as distinctly different from the gods of the world: He is good, loving, faithful and desires relationship with humanity.

• 2) The type of relationship God seeks is very different from how most of the world works: Instead of setting up a contract relationship, He begins a covenant relationship with Abraham.

• 3) God's promise, timing and provision are always faithful, even when it doesn't always seem to make sense to us. We must learn to trust and obey Him even if it's hard.

Contract vs. Covenant
A contract is an agreed upon set of expectations between two parties. It is an IF, THEN relationship. Our example was: IF Manny Ramirez plays baseball, THEN the Dodgers will pay him way too much money. If either side doesn't hold up their end of the bargain, the contract is broken.

Your parents are a good way to remember the difference that a covenant is: They provide food, clothes, shelter and protection to you not based upon how well you do your chores, get good grades, or even obey them. They provide those things based on their love for you. If they set up a contract relationship, you'd probably all be living on the streets by the time you were 8.

Your parents still have expectations, rules, and responsibilities for you to follow. Thankfully, however, their relationship with you is based not on how well you live up to some of those rules.

• God's Covenant: God's promise, based on His faithfulness, rather than human action. That doesn't mean there's no expectations on our part, we'll look more at that later.

• God's Timing:We often want God to work on our schedule, but as we see with Abraham, sometimes it can be a long road of tests that help develop us into what God wants.

• God's Provision:God doesn't promise an easy road, but He promises to provide. He is faithful and present even during the hard times. God provides a SUBSTITUTE SACRIFICE in place of Isaac after Abe proves his trust and obedience.