The Bronze Altar

Story:  The Bronze Altar

Passage: Exodus 27:1-8

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the bronze altar. 

  

Notes:  The altar was to be made of acacia wood.  It was not to be overlaid with gold however.  It was to be overlaid with bronze.  This was for practical reasons as well as aesthetic reasons I believe.  Bronze would not be affected by fire and thus it was a good choice to use on the altar.  We also see that bronze was already used for the curtain rings outside of the Holy of Holies.  Bronze seems to be the metal of choice in the Holy Place of the tabernacle.  The altar was to have four horns, one at each corner.  These horns would point all directions and symbolized what the blood of the sacrifice covered.  The atoning blood would be applied to all four horns.  The utensils for the altar were also made of bronze.  There was a bronze screen placed in the altar as well to allow the offerings to fall through the altar.  Basically, it was a hollow box with a screen, completely covered in bronze.  The Hebrew word for altar is derived from the word used to describe the slaughtering of animals for sacrifices or eating.  It was basically a killing place.  In Hebrews 13:10, we are told we have an altar from which those in the tabernacle have no right to eat.  The cross was the killing place where the perfect Lamb was sacrificed. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  Christ is our sacrifice.  The cross was the altar He was sacrificed on.  Just as the horns of the altar reached out in all directions and showed how the atoning blood of the sacrifice covers us all, the cross also covers us all with the atoning blood of Christ!

The Ark of the Covenant

Story:  The Ark of the Covenant

Passage: Exodus 25:10-22

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Ark of the Covenant. 

  

Notes:  The Ark of the Covenant is an interesting article.  It is the first item which God gives directions to build.  The purpose of the Ark is found in verse 22.  “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”  This was to be where God presided.  The Ark was to be a physical object designed to show God’s presence and His holiness.  The ark was to be made from acacia wood, but overlaid in gold.  The entire thing would be covered in gold.  This would be an incredibly beautiful and precious item!  It appears that God saw gold as the metal which best captures His holiness.  Even though the ark would be made of wood, it would be covered with gold.  It was to be fairly simple.  It was a golden box with a golden lid.  The mercy seat is where we started seeing some intricacy.  There were to be two golden cherubim made of a single piece of gold as the lid of the Ark.  Their wings were to overshadow the Ark and their faces were to face the center.  God said He would meet them from the middle of the mercy seat.  These heavenly worshippers were facing the center and worshipping.  The lid is called the mercy seat.  I don’t know exactly why it is called that, but I suspect it is because mercy has to be involved whenever God directly interacts with humanity.  This was the seat where He would show mercy to Israel.  This is the first indication of how much mercy is an aspect of God’s character!  The first item He wants built for the tabernacle is one which directly represents His presence.  There are three main concepts which He wants portrayed with this Ark: holiness, worship, and mercy.  I find that incredible!  God was going to make Himself present to imperfect Israel and the attributes He wanted portrayed in His presence were holiness, worship, and mercy.  One other aspect of the ark is that Israel was instructed to place their testimony in the Ark.  God wanted this item for His presence to contain proof of His presence.  He would provide testimony of His presence and this belonged in the Ark.  The Ark is referred to as both the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark of the Testimony.

Questions:  Why was everything overlaid in gold?  Why was the Ark to be carried with poles?

Lessons:  Holiness, worship, and mercy are the focus of the Ark of the Covenant.  Take some time to just think about why God would choose these things to communicate through the Ark of the Testimony.

Contributions for the Sanctuary

Story:  Contributions for the Sanctuary

Passage: Exodus 25:1-9

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God tells Moses to take a collection of materials for the Tabernacle.

  

Notes:  At first glance, we are entering a boring part of the Bible.  Who really cares about all the dimensions and materials of a temple or tabernacle?  In reality, this is a really powerful section of the Bible.  The God of the universe has decided to dwell among humanity.  He can represent this any way He wants and He chose to symbolize His presence with a tabernacle.  Every detail of this tabernacle was laid out by God Himself.  Thus, the design shows us what was important enough to the God of the Universe to include in the symbol of His dwelling among Israel.  I am going to try to dig deep and try to learn about God’s character and plans for humanity based on what He specifically wanted in this sanctuary.  This passage just sets up the design by giving us a list of materials that would be needed for the tabernacle.  This is not a random material list; God has chosen specific colors and materials for His sanctuary.  God warns Moses to make the tabernacle and its furniture exactly like God says.  This is an important deal to God, so it should be to us as well. 

Questions:  The ESV calls for goatskins.  This possibly means dolphin skin or dugong skins.  What type of skin is this?  Why did God want Israel to build a tabernacle?  Why did God choose the materials He asked for?  Why did God choose blue, scarlet, and purple threads?

Lessons:   This is a big deal! Israel just made a covenant with God and God is going to dwell among them in a way that they can physically sense.  He has chosen to show His glory through a tabernacle.  When you think about it for a little bit, you can see how informative and important His description of the tabernacle will be! We need to be careful not to just discount parts of the Bible that don’t appear to pertain to us.  The entire Bible can teach us about the character of God.  

Laws About Altars

Story:  Laws About Altars

Passage: Exodus 20:22-26

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about altars.  First He repeated that they should never have any idols.  Then he said altars should be made of earth.  If it is made of stone, it must not be hewn, and there must not be stairs leading up to it. 

  

Notes:  God begins by reminding the people that they have heard His voice and seen His presence.  He uses this to remind them to not make idols.  His logic is basically that they had seen His power and majesty and heard His voice.  They know He is alive, so they should not worship something that is not alive.  We will see how they utterly fail at this later.  God specifies He wants an altar made of earth.  He wants a simple looking altar.  The glorious thing about an altar of God is not the altar itself, but the God who the altar is for.  Ultimately, the greatest sacrifice was made on an altar of two pieces of wood.  God promises in the middle of this passage to bless the people wherever they go.  If the altar is made of stone, it must not be cut stone.  The glory and praise for the altar should not go to anyone but God.  Rather that the material being crafted by a human, it is to be natural stone crafted by God.  There were to be no steps leading up to the altar so that their nakedness would not be exposed.  Going up stairs would reveal flesh.  It is hard to keep your legs covered going up stairs.  I believe this is symbolic of the fact that our flesh is in perfect conflict with His holiness.  Our flesh has no place at the altar. 

Questions:  Why could there be no stairs?  Why did God not want altars made of other materials?

Lessons:  We see in this passage that God is really emphasizing that He does not want us to worship idols.  This is a big deal to God.  In fact, our attitude towards worship in general is a big deal and it dominates a good portion of the law.  It is important that our worship and praise goes where it deserves.  We need to worship the creator and not His creation.

The Ten Commandments

Story:  The Ten Commandments

Passage: Exodus 20:1-21

Characters:  Moses, God

Summary:    God gave Moses a list of commandments to follow.  The Israelites freaked out when they saw the mountain smoking and heard the thunder that was God’s voice.  They wanted to draw back and wanted Moses to speak to them instead of God.  The people drew away while Moses drew closer.

  

Notes:  The Ten Commandments.  This is one of the most known passages in the Bible.  When some people think of Christians this is what they think of.  God begins by stating who He is.  He is the Lord our God, who brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery.  Some might think that it is odd that God reminds them that He had just freed them from slavery and now He was going to give them a bunch of different rules and laws to follow.  The difference is that a slave does not legitimately owe anything to his master.  We do legitimately owe something to God.  He has freed us and allows us to live.  His holiness demands our holiness.  We obviously fall short, but these rules are a way for us to attempt to show our submission to the only one who deserves total authority over us.  The first four commands can be summarized as loving God.  He is to be our only God, we are to have no idols, we are to not take His name in vain, and we are to keep the Sabbath holy.  The next six are about loving others.  Honor your parents, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, and don’t covet.  In a lot of ways, these all actually have to do with honoring God.  I am going to try to break down each commandment, but first I want you to prepare yourself.  Christians tend to get all excited about sins that they don’t commit and overlook the ones which they do commit.  We tend to look at murder as much worse than pride.  I will submit that each of these ten commandments is equal in magnitude and I will try to explain why I think that.  Each commandment is intended to ensure we keep God in His rightful place and don’t lower Him.  We need to make sure we equalize sin in our lives.  All sin separates us from a holy God and is all serious.  Just because you haven’t killed someone does not make you a better person than a murderer.  Anyway, moving on, the first commandment is to have no other God’s besides the one true God.  This is pretty straightforward.  If we worship another God, we are lowering God and elevating something false.  Next we are to have no idols.  The commandment seems to talk about physical idols.  God is a jealous God.  He is not jealous of us, He is jealous of our attention.  He wants our love and worship and He hates it when we turn that towards something that does not deserve it.  An idol is just an object that we worship and give our attention instead of God.  Today, this could be money, property, a celebrity, sports, etc.  If we evaluate where our attention lies, it is either on God, or on something that does not deserve our worship.  God says that worshipping idols will result in punishment even to future generations.  However, God’s love will also reach to future generations of those who love Him.  Next we are told to not take God’s name in vain.  This is a big deal that we tend to brush over.  Think of one of the most important people in the world.  Their name commands respect.  You wouldn’t just throw their name around in a conversation without some sense of respect.  For example, I am not a huge fan of our current president, but when I think about or talk about Obama, I have respect for him and for his position.  I try my best to not disrespect him even if I disagree with him.  God commands an infinite amount of respect.  We throw God’s name around like He’s just a concept that we use to get what we want.  If we truly grasped His holiness and majesty, I suspect we would be cautious to even talk about Him out of fear that we might misrepresent Him or disrespect Him.  This commandment is about so much more than using His name as a curse word!  It has to do with using His name as any normal name.  The next command has to do with the Sabbath day.  God’s reasoning is that He rested on the seventh day of creation, so we should rest too.  It is interesting that He has designed us to need rest.  Especially in today’s culture, it is hard to slow down and just rest, but God wanted that for us so much He put it into the law!  The Sabbath was to be a holy day of rest.  Now come the commands dealing with other people.  We are to honor our father and mother.  This comes with the promise that if you honor your parents, you will live long.  Ultimately, by dishonoring your parents, you are dishonoring God.  Not only did He choose who your parents would be, but He is ultimately our father and by showing a lack of respect for parental authority we show a lack of respect for His relationship to us. Next is the command to not murder.  This word includes taking a human life out of carelessness or recklessness.  It does not have to be intentional.  Taking a life if huge!  You are destroying someone made in the image of God.  Next is the command to not commit adultery.  A lack of faithfulness is a lack of commitment.  God requires commitment from us and if we cannot commit to our wives how can we commit to Him?  In fact, many times humanity is described as an adulterous woman when we sin.  We are told to not steal.  Stealing displays a lack of contentment as well as a lack of respect for someone else’s property.  Not bearing false witness is important because God is truth.  Anytime we speak something other than the truth, we are not following the God of truth.  The final command is to not covet.  This is sort of the source of the commands to not steal or commit adultery.  When we covet, we are blatantly expressing jealousy and a lack of contentment for what we have.  Coveting also tends to elevate physical things to a higher place than they deserve.  If you are truly satisfied in Christ, you have no reason to be dissatisfied with what He has given you.  Every one of these sins has a lack of respect or honor for God at it’s heart.  Thus both coveting and murder are equally wrong on a spiritual level.  One obviously has larger consequences in the physical world however.

 The final part of this passage describes the peoples’ reaction to God giving the commandments to Moses.  They were terrified by the noise.  They stood as far as they could and asked Moses to speak to them instead of God because they were afraid they would die.  When they encountered the holiness of God, they realized their own nakedness and they feared for their lives.  Throughout the Bible, whenever someone truly encounters God, they fear they will die.  When our imperfection is exposed to His perfection we see our true frailty and we are overcome with awe and fear of the Holy One.  Have you ever wondered how every knee could bow when Christ returns?  It is because there is no other response available to imperfect humans in the presence of a holy God.  Moses told the people that God had come to give them a fear of Him to keep them from sin.  We will see how that plays out in future posts.  I think the final verse of this passage is telling.  The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.  The Israelites shrunk back from God while Moses drew close.  Moses had the same fear they had when he first encountered God in the burning bush, but now that he ahd submitted to God’s authority, He wanted nothing more than to be in His presence.  I feel like this is summed up in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  When we allow God to take the highest place in our lives, we have nothing to fear.  But when we try to occupy that highest place ourselves, we have every reason to be terrified of God as the people were.

Questions:  Was Aaron with Moses when these commands were given?  What was his reaction to this?  Was everybody else afraid to be anywhere near the mountain?  Why did God design us to need rest?

Lessons:  There are a lot of lessons in this passage and many of them I have covered in the notes section.  This is a significant passage because it shows how important it is to God that we keep Him where He belongs and remain humble ourselves.  Many times we judge people who cannot keep these specific laws when we are just as guilty of lowering God and raising ourselves.  The point of these commandments is not for us to condemn those who cannot keep them, but rather they are for us to see the standard we are supposed to hold to and to see how we fail and need the blood of Christ to save us.  We need to be careful to use this passage as a tool to lead us to the cross instead of a tool to make us feel like we don’t need the cross compared to others.

Jethro’s Advice

Story:  Jethro’s Advice

Passage: Exodus 18

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, Jethro

Summary:    Jethro met Israel with Moses’ wife and children.  Moses met with him and filled him in on all that had happened.  Jethro worshipped God.  Moses sat down to be a judge for the people and Jethro suggested he set up people who could do that for him.  He followed Jethro’s advice.

  

Notes:  I find it interesting that Moses did not have his wife and kids with him this whole time!  Apparently at some point he had sent them home.  I suspect it was because he expected some resistance from Pharaoh and he thought it would be safer to send them on.  When Moses told Jethro what had happened, he worshipped God.  Jethro realized that these events showed that God is greater than all other gods.  When Moses told him about the events, he started with what God had done to Egypt, then he talked about their hardships in the wilderness, and then God’s deliverance.  Unlike Israel, Moses did not stop his story with the hardships but continued on to God’s deliverance from the hardship.  This is significant because we all face hardship and it is easy to focus on that.  But if we don’t focus on how God dealt with the hardship, we will end up as depressed negative people with no trust in God.  The whole episode with the judges is interesting as well.  Moses was handling all of the cases Israelites had with each other.  Can you imagine the tens of thousands of people having only one judge?  This is obviously something Moses had not received a structure for.   As a go between between them and God, Moses was taking all of the authority on himself to interpret God’s laws for the people.  Jethro was a little more practical.  He suggested a structure with judges over ten, fifty, a hundred, and a thousand people.  These judges would handle smaller cases within their own groups.  Larger cases would be brought to Moses.  This allowed him to focus on leading the nation and communicating with God.  Jethro claimed that God would be with this plan and Moses obeyed.  Jethro is therefore the father of our judicial system!  Not really, but it is a similar setup.  Moses was the equivalent of the Supreme Court.  These judges had the responsibility of hearing a case and interpreting God’s laws for the people in reference to the case. 

Questions:  How long was Moses’ family with Jethro?  Did Jethro believe in God?  Where did Jethro get his idea?  Did it come from God?  How did Moses choose these judges?

Lessons:  One lesson I can see here is to not focus on your hardships but to trust God and when he delivers you, to focus on His deliverance.  The other lesson I see is to share the load.  Moses took the full load of judging the people on himself.  This would have worn him out and rendered him incapable of leading the nation the way he needed to.  It was not wrong for him to give that authority to others.  It just allowed him to focus his efforts on his own calling.

Water from the Rock

Story:  Water from the Rock

Passage: Exodus 17:1-7

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel, random rock

Summary:    There was no water for the people to drink.  They got angry at Moses.  They were about to stone him when he cried out to God.  God told him to take his staff and strike the rock at Horeb.  He did so and water came out of it.

  

Notes:  Oh Israel.  Once again, they lose their trust in God quickly.  Last time it was lack of food, now it is lack of water.  Moses identified the problem immediately.  He told them they were testing the Lord.  He knew that by complaining about him they were complaining about God.  The people accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them.  They were ready to stone him.  Think about this for a second!  They are slaves in Egypt.  A man comes to them saying that God wants to use him to deliver them from slavery.  This is what they have been looking for for years!  God does ten amazing things through this man.  After these plagues, they get to just walk out of Egypt.  They cross a sea on dry ground, following a visible portrayal of God in a pillar of cloud and fire.  They run low on food and God supplies a daily supply of sweet bread.  Now they are low on water and their conclusion is that God is not with them and Moses just wants to kill them.  How slow are these people?  God’s solution is for Moses to hit a rock with his staff.  Now this must have been a huge rock since Moses would have known what God meant by the rock at Horeb.  It is interesting that the passage does not actually give a description of what happened or the effect it had on the people.  It just says that Moses obeyed.  Ultimately, this is an issue of the people not trusting God.  They are basically assuming that if God is with them, they will always have plenty of food and plenty of water.  While it is true that they are surviving thanks to the provision of God, they are not content with that.  They want a surplus.  Keep in mind a surplus is coming once they reach the Promised Land, but for now, they are to live with the day to day provision from God.  In a similar way, we are not promised a surplus in this world.  When we get to heaven, we will have a surplus, but in this life, our journey, we are to trust God to sustain us day to day.  We have no reason to expect Him to give us wealth or plenty, but rather we can fully trust Him to give us what we need to live and serve Him. 

Questions:  What was the people’s reaction?  How did they think stoning Moses would help them?  How long had they been wandering at this point?  Were they really completely out of water?

Lessons:  We need to trust God to sustain us and provide our needs, but we can’t get too wrapped up with blessings in this life.  Rather, we need to focus our attention and our energy on the blessings we will receive in heaven.  We must be careful when we complain and grumble.  When we grumble, we are complaining about God without realizing it.  We are saying we aren’t content with what He has already done for us and we want more.  In fact, we often feel we deserve more!

Bread from Heaven

Story:  Bread from Heaven

Passage: Exodus 16

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:    The people traveled for another month and a half.  They grumbled against Moses and Aaron about the lack of bread.  The Lord said He would rain bread down from heaven.  Moses and Aaron told the people this.  God showed His glory to the people and told Moses what He was going to do in the presence of the people.  In the evening, He provided quail, and in the morning He provided manna, a bread like substance.  They were to only gather about 2 quarts per person per day.  However some people disobeyed.  They were to only gather 6 days a week and rest the seventh.  A sample of manna was kept in a jar to be a testament to God’s provision.  The Lord provided manna to the people for forty years. 

  

Notes:  There are some interesting things happening in this story.  We begin to once again see Israel’s stupidity, but once again, we have to remember that we are as bad as they are!  The people are complaining again.  They seem to be blaming Moses and Aaron for their lack of food.  They even claimed to prefer having died by God’s hand in Egypt while they still had food.  This is ridiculous in my opinion!  It shows how shortsighted the Israelites were!  They would rather have food but die than be hungry and live.  They were focused more on their comfort than on the purpose of their life and following God.  God tells Moses He is going to rain down bread from heaven for them every day.  He even says His reason to do this is to test if the people will walk in His law or not.  If I was told that God was doing this to test whether I would obey or not and this test was going to involve me eating food, I would be all for that!  Maybe I would slip up and mess up months into it.  But Israel couldn’t follow God’s command for 24 hours!  I’ll get to that in a minute.  Moses and Aaron knew what was really going on though.  They knew the people were actually grumbling against God.  God showed His glory to the entire congregation.  This is impressive and shows that the root of the problem was that the people did not believe that He was God.  After all of the wonders and provision they had already seen, they still did not understand His holiness!  I just don’t get that!  God does specifically say that He was going to provide bread and meat so that they may know that He is the Lord their God.  Sure enough, God covered the camp in quail in the evening and with a flaky fine honey tasting bread that the people called manna in the morning.  God’s instructions were to gather an omer, or about 2 quarts, per person per day, and to leave none of it until morning.  As it turns out, an omer was a perfect amount of manna for one person in one day! What do you know! Some people kept it until the next morning though.  Moses was angry with good reason.  This showed not only a lack of obedience, but also a lack of trust that God would continue to provide for them the next day!  The manna rotted and smelled and bred worms if it was kept until the next morning.  God provided double on the sixth day.  The people were told to keep half of it until the next day and to rest the next day.  This is the first occurrence of the Sabbath.  It is not just a day of rest, it is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.  However, some people tried to gather manna on the seventh day! These people could not listen to instructions!  They obviously found nothing!  The cool think is that the manna did not rot on the Sabbath.  This was just another obvious sign that God was behind all of this!  When people disobeyed by trying to gather manna on the Sabbath, God got angry at Moses.  Then the people obeyed!  God wanted them to keep a sample of the manna.  He knew the people needed visual affirmation of His provision.  This manna was to remind them that He is capable and willing to provide for them and help them survive!  Interestingly, Christ is the bread of life provided for us when we were starving in the wilderness.  God is in the business of provision at every level of life!  That said, we are not to depend on the provision, but rather on the provider! 

Questions:  What did the people think of the manna?  Did some people dislike it?  How quickly did people get tired of it?  Why could the Israelites not just obey! 

Lessons:  God will provide!  And when you get angry about your circumstances, try to remember that God put you in those circumstances.  You are ultimately complaining about Him.  I highly recommend not doing that!  I also think we can learn from this some of the dangers of relying too much on comfort.  The people would have rather been comfortable while they died, than alive and following God.  That sounds so ridiculously rebellious and like a slap in the face of God, but we do that all of the time!  We put our comfort or our image above God constantly!  Following God should be the number one and the number two priorities in our life!  Nothing else should even come close, not even our own comfort or image.  

Bitter Water Made Sweet

Story:  Bitter Water Made Sweet

Passage: Exodus 15:22-27

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:  The Israelites went into the wilderness.  After three days they couldn’t find water so the people complained to Moses.  They found a source of bitter water.  The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood that he threw into the water and it became sweet.  The Lord promised to keep the Israelites healthy if they follow the Lord.  They camped by the water at Elim. 

  

Notes:   It takes very little to pull our focus from God.  It generally just takes a little bit of discomfort.  When discomfort gets to us and pulls us away from God, it shows that our focus was on ourselves the whole time!  To be fair on Israel though, three days with little to no water is tough to deal with.  And with the thousands and thousands of people they had, it probably looked grim.  Can you imagine the emotional rollercoaster they went through when they came to Marah and saw water?  They were probably overjoyed!  Then they realized the water was “bitter”.  It wasn’t drinkable!  The people would obviously have been upset.  But instead of praying to God for deliverance from this next obstacle, they complained about Moses!  Moses then asked God for deliverance.  Apparently, the fact that not even a sea had stopped them so far did not cross their minds!  God showed Moses a branch, or a tree depending on how you translate the word.  Moses threw it into the water and it became healthy to drink!  The passage says that the Lord tested them and gave them a statute that day.  He promised to heal them if they followed His commandments and diligently listened to His voice.  God calls Himself the Lord, your healer.  God is a healing God. He can heal physical, emotional, and mental brokenness.  Diligence is careful and persistent work or effort.  After this incident the Lord led them to Elim.  Elim had 12 springs of water and seventy palm trees.  God never intended them to die of dehydration; He just wanted them to trust Him to provide water.  Now that they had sort of passed the test, He led them to a huge source of water! It should also be noted that while God could have fixed the water Himself, He appears to have wanted Moses to do a tangible act of obedience to Him.  We will see that consistently throughout scripture.

Questions:  Was God still leading them with a cloud and fire?  Did the people carry water with them on the journey?  How did Moses know to throw the wood into the water?  What made the water bitter?

Lessons: The promise God made to Israel is worth noting today.  We need to diligently listen to His voice!  We need to try to do what is right in His eyes and not our own.  We need to believe that God is a God of healing and trust Him to deliver us from any brokenness that comes as a result of our fallen nature.  Just like God turned the water from being useless and bitter to sweet and useful for consumption, He can transform us from being polluted and worthless to clean and useful for doing His will.

Crossing the Red Sea

Story:  Crossing the Red Sea

Passage: Exodus 14:1-31

Characters:  God, Israel, Egypt

Summary: The Lord told Israel to camp by the Red Sea.  Pharaoh’s heart would harden and he would pursue them.  This is exactly what happened!  Pharaoh pursued Israel.  When the Israelites saw the Egyptians, they were afraid and cried to God.  God told Moses to lift up his staff and divide the sea.  The pillar of fire and cloud moved behind the people and blocked the Egyptians from reaching them.  The sea divided overnight and the Hebrews crossed the sea on dry ground.  The Egyptians pursued, but God confused them and broke their chariots.  God then returned the sea to normal, drowning all of the Egyptians who had been pursuing them.  The people of Israel feared the Lord when they saw His power. 

  

Notes: This is obviously a well known story of God’s miracles and wonders.  I see it as the first story showing the Israelites idiocy!  Now before I continue, here’s a disclaimer.  I’m as much of an idiot as they were, but still.  God just showed His power in Egypt, killed all of the firstborn but showed the Hebrews He would save them, led them out of Egypt with all the riches they wanted, visibly led them by day and night, and warned them that Pharaoh would pursue them, but he would end up losing and God would be glorified.  So when the people saw Pharaoh pursuing them, they got excited to see what God would do right? Wrong! They freaked out and complained to Moses!  They even said it would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die in the wilderness!  What were these people thinking!  Moses however showed faith and told them to stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord.  Moses knew better.  God still scolds Moses for Israel’s attitude though.  God says, “Why do you cry to me?”  In other words God wants to know why Moses acts surprised that God is doing what He said He would do?  It’s a valid question!  Now I wonder what the Egyptians thought when this cloud moved between them and the Israelites!  Honestly, the Egyptians were stupider than Israel, but to be fair, their hearts had been hardened by God!  Also, they were motivated by the loss of their work force!  I always picture the parting of the Red Sea happening quickly, but it is described as taking all night and being caused by an east wind.  I assume that means the wind was so strong that it was the wind which held up the water on each side!  That is incredible!  I wonder what was going through the people’s minds!  There had to have been a wind!  If there had been no wind, the ground would have been soaking wet and muddy!  But the Israelites crossed on dry ground.  Pharaoh pursued, which was a really stupid idea!  At some point, he should have realized that God was working against him, but no, he didn’t accept that God was more powerful than he was!  His pride would be his undoing!  The Lord finally threw them into a panic and clogged their wheels.  I don’t know what that means, but apparently, they were going at a pace where they could have caught the people so God slowed them down.  Finally, Moses stretched out his hand and the sea returned to normal, drowning the Egyptians.  This whole process appears to have taken about 24 hours.  This was probably a very very stressful 24 hours for everyone involved.  The passage says that the people saw God’s power and they feared the Lord and believed in Him.  It is incredible that they did not already believe in Him!  Israel was incredibly stubborn and hard headed!  And they will only get worse!  It is also interesting to note that when the sea returned to normal, the Egyptians were fleeing.  Apparently, once their wheels stopped working, they realized that the Lord was fighting for Israel.  The pillar of cloud and the parting of the Red Sea weren’t convincing enough!

Questions:  How could the Israelites not trust God?  How could the Egyptians not see that they were doomed?  Did Pharaoh survive this?  It isn’t specifically stated that he died as well.  What does it mean that God clogged the chariot wheels?

Lessons:  God is powerful and is capable of doing anything!  He did these wonders to bring glory to Himself, and we see that that is exactly what happened!  When God makes a promise, we need to trust He will keep it!  When we feel surrounded with our backs against a wall/sea, God is capable of delivering you! 

Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Story: Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Passage: Exodus 12:29-42

Characters:  Israel, Egypt, God

Summary:  The Lord struck down the firstborn of everyone in Egypt.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him to leave.  The Egyptians were urgent to get the Hebrews out of Egypt.  They feared for their lives.  The Israelites ate unleavened bread because they did not have time to fully prepare it.  They left Egypt with 600,000 men not counting women and children.  They had been in Egypt for 430 years.

Notes:  Every house in Egypt lost their firstborn.  From Pharaoh, to his lowliest servant, even to the flocks, no one was spared.  The passage says that everyone woke up in the night and Egypt was filled with wailing.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron after telling them that he would never see them again.  He tells them to leave once and for all.  Finally, the plagues became too much for him.  God had accomplished what He intended to accomplish through Pharaoh.  He had delivered the Israelites from death through the blood of a perfect lamb.  The Egyptians weren’t stupid!  Their land had been ruined!  They wanted to get the Israelites out of their country.  What impressed me the most out of this passage though is the fact that one family had become 600,000 men alone over a period of 430 years!  That is a massive slave force to lose!  And Egypt was losing their slaves right when they needed some significant work done!  By the way, that is 430 years to the day apparently!  The passage concludes by stating that it was a night of watching by the Lord, so the Passover has become a night of watching by Israel. 

Questions:  Could Egyptians have killed a lamb to be passed over?  Did any Egyptians leave with the Israelites?  Why did the Egyptians just give their gold and silver to the Hebrews?  What was the Lord watching for exactly? 

Lessons:  This is a story of deliverance.  God kept His promise and delivered Israel from the hand of Egypt.  We need to remember that even when it feels like God is distant, He never has left us and He will keep His promises!

The Passover

Story: The Passover

Passage: Exodus 12:1-28

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:

The Lord told Israel what He was about to do and what they had to do to be spared.  Each household was to take a lamb without blemish and keep it for four days and then kill it.  They were to smear the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.  Then they were to eat the lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to eat it with their shoes on, their belt buckled, and their staff in hand.  God would kill every firstborn in Egypt, but when He saw the blood, He would pass over the Israelites.  They were to celebrate tis with a feast every year.  For seven days, they would eat unleavened bread.  Now work would be done for those seven days.  Moses told the elders what to do and they obeyed.  

Notes:  I have nowhere near enough time to do Passover justice in this post, but here goes!  The feast of unleavened bread is the first celebration that God gives Israel, and it is the first aspect of the law that we see.   Since Christ fulfills the law, every time we study part of the law, I will try to show the way that Christ fulfilled it!  The Passover was a time when God showed mercy to Israel and delivered them from Egypt.  Throughout the Bible, Egypt represents sin, the flesh, and death.  God was going to deliver His people from sin and bring them to the Promised Land.  Let’s look at how He is going to accomplish this!  First, every household is supposed to find a lamb. This lamb needs to be perfect.  Interestingly, a lamb is needed for each household.  (Spoiler alert: Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb)  In order for Christ’s sacrifice to cover us, we must become part of God’s household.  Fortunately, we see this all throughout the New Testament.  We are adopted as heirs; we are the sons of God.  This lamb was not just chosen and killed, it was kept for four days by the family.  This lamb became a part of the family and lived with them for a short time before they killed it.  Likewise, Christ lived among us for a short time before we killed Him.  They were to eat it while prepared to move.  When we are saved, we need to be ready to go.  Salvation is the beginning of a journey, not the end.  God specifically says that He will execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt.  We have already seen how the plagues were a direct attack on specific Egyptian gods.  Here God states that that is what He is doing.  Egypt worshipped these false gods, so the true God attacked each one to prove that He is the only true God worth worshipping!  God is not happy when we give the glory and worship that He deserves to something we create ourselves.  We see a taste of His wrath in His treatment of Egypt.  God has done many many miracles already for Israel, but this is the first one that He wants them to commemorate with a feast forever.  During this feast, there is to be no leaven present.  Yeast is a leavening agent.  Yeast is later referred to in the New Testament.  Yeast mixing through bread is compared to sin working through our lives.  By having no leaven, the Israelites were symbolically keeping themselves pure from sin.  This was obviously important, because twice God specifies that if anyone has leaven in their possession, whether Israelite of foreigner, they are to be cut off from Israel!  This was a serious deal!  Moses specifies that this is to be celebrated even after Israel arrives in the Promised Land.  This is the most significant moment in history so far, and it is possibly one of the most significant moments in history ever up to our current place in history!  The Passover laid the groundwork for how God was going to redeem His people to Him.  This was more than foreshadowing, this established the structure and meaning of what Christ would later do for the entire world!  God is God and could have saved us in a number of ways, but He chose to save us through innocent blood taking His wrath in our place.  This is the first time we see this play out and this is the precedent for what Christ did for us!  Christ did not have to die because the Passover happened, rather, the Passover had to happen and Christ had to die, because that is how God decided to structure our redemption!  The fact that many people died in the Passover is tragic, but necessary!  For the Israelites to be saved, they had to be saved from something!  For us to be saved, we must be saved from something!  The emphasis should not be on the fact that God killed Egyptians, but rather that He spared the Israelites!  In fact, we see that that is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is for: to remind future generations of the way that God spared them.  The focus of the Feast is not on the death of the Egyptians, but on the life of the Israelites!  Likewise, our focus should not be on the fact that there are people who are not saved, but rather on the fact that there are people who are saved!  Salvation makes no sense!  Judgment on the other hand is totally logical!  We are broken and have strayed from the purpose of our design and creation.  We deserve death!  When people die, they are getting what they and we deserve!  It is the right thing for bad things to happen to us!  The illogical and strange thing that happens is that some are saved!  Grace is by definition not deserved, and if we feel we must question God, do not question His judgment, but rather His grace!  He has every right to judge us and destroy us!  If you think differently, you do not understand His holiness!  He had no conceivable reason though to judge and destroy His own son so that we are passed over.  Take some time and just worship God for His mercy and grace which He has lavished on those of us who don’t even deserve another breath!

Questions:  Why was the death of a lamb necessary?  Who exactly was going to pass over Egypt? 

Lessons:  The lessons in this passage are somewhat apparent!  This story speaks volumes about God’s mercy and grace.  Some see this as an example of a judgmental God.  I see this as a story of a merciful God full of grace!  In fact, how can there be mercy without judgment?   A life was taken in every house in Egypt, but in Goshen, that life was not the one deserving of death.  Keep in mind, that even though we have been given life, a life was still taken: a life that was infinitely undeserving of death.  Keep this in perspective, and never give in to the temptation of believing that our grace is deserved!

A Final Plague Threatened

Story: A Final Plague Threatened

Passage: Exodus 11

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God had Moses and Aaron warn Pharaoh that there would be one last plague.  The Israelites were supposed to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry and they would give it to them.  Moses warned Pharaoh that God would come down in the night and kill the firstborn of every person in Egypt from the Pharaoh to the lowliest servant.  Even animals would be affected.  After this Pharaoh will let the Israelites go.

Notes:  Not only would Pharaoh let them go, God says he will drive them out of Egypt.  Apparently, the Hebrews are not winning any popularity contests with Pharaoh.  Interestingly though, the Egyptian people seem to like them.  God says that their neighbors will just give them jewelry as they leave.  Moses is apparently a great man Egypt.  This final plague is awful.  Every firstborn child in Egypt will die.  This even affects animals.  The poor livestock in Egypt really took a hit from these plagues!  Egypt would be messed up after this is all over!  According to God though, the Israelites would not be affected.  His protection even extends to the Hebrew animals.  It is interesting to me that God lumps animals in with the people for Egypt and Israel.  I assume that this is because the animals also have the breath of life.  It appears to me that God set up a hierarchy of creation.  He set animals above many things, but under humans.  Humans were over creation in general but under God.  It is interesting that Moses was “hot with anger” after this encounter with Pharaoh.  I wonder if he inherited some of God’s frustration while delivering God’s message or if Moses himself was upset with Pharaoh. This passage concludes with a sentence which basically serves to change the direction of the narrative.  We are about to slow down and get more detail.  Any time the narrative slows down to give more detail there is a good chance that we are coming to an important part of the redemptive story of the Bible as a whole.

Questions:  Were the Israelites really immune to this final plague?  Did Pharaoh really not think that his son would die?  Hadn’t God come through on all of His other plagues?  What was the general reaction of the Egyptian people when they heard about this plague?   What have the magicians been doing for the last several plagues?

Lessons: Once again we learn that Pharaoh was not listening so that God’s wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.  This passage serves to show that God wants to be glorified.  The Egyptians elevated Pharaoh above God.  Pharaoh was considered to be a god himself.  God does what is necessary to show the Egyptian people that He alone deserves worship and glory.  He unleashes His power and judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt so that they would know that He is God.  It is vital that we understand that God is about God and that we give Him the worship and glory that He deserves.  From creation forward, we see that our purpose is to bring Him glory.  

Darkness

Story: Darkness

Passage: Exodus 10:21-29

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God told Moses to stretch out his hand and the land would be covered in darkness.  Moses obeyed and the land was dark for 3 days.  Pharaoh told Moses to go and they could take their kids with them.  But they were not allowed to take their livestock.  Moses said that they needed their livestock so that they could make sacrifices.  Pharaoh got really mad and told Moses to never show his face again or he would die.  Moses left.

Notes: This is described as a darkness to be felt!  That’s ridiculous!  For three days the people could not see each other and stayed home.   This was another plague which was unannounced.  Goshen was unaffected.  I wonder what caused this darkness.  I almost feel like the laws of physics had to change for the light to be so divided.  Pharaoh was fully aware that the Hebrews wanted to escape.  That is why he was going to allow all of the people to go without the animals.  The Israelites couldn’t escape into the desert without their livestock.  This would effectively keep them on a leash.  When Pharaoh heard Moses demand to take all of their animals he knew Moses was trying to trick him.  He was furious and vowed to kill Moses the next time he saw him.  Moses agreed and said he would never see him again.  This won’t turn out to be true, but this is one of the last times the two of them will see each other.  Once again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because of God.  God had one last display of power planned.  This last plague would prove to be significant in His redemptive plan for the world.  Because of this, we will get more description for the upcoming plague than for the previous nine.

Questions: What did the Hebrews think of this?  Were the Israelites getting any warning before the plagues?  Did the darkness confuse the Egyptians?  Did Pharaoh really think Moses would take the Israelites out of Egypt without their animals?

Lessons:  In this passage we see Moses standing his ground and easily speaking to Pharaoh on God’s behalf.   He is radically different from the Moses we saw at the burning bush.  Moses has seen the power and authority of the one he serves.  He realizes that he is on the winning side and it totally transforms him.  Are we totally transformed?  We are also on the winning side and we serve the same God with the same power.  Do we act like it?  We need to get a hold of the fact that we serve God, not some idea.  We are on the correct side and we need to let that transform the way we live our lives.

Locusts

Story: Locusts

Passage: Exodus 10:1-20

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:

God warned Pharaoh through Moses that He was going to cover the land with locusts.  Pharaoh’s servants begged him to give in to Moses’ demands.  Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron back and said he would let the men go worship. He refused to let all of the Israelites go however.  So God sent locusts into the land and they ate whatever plants survived the hail.  Pharaoh repented and asked Moses to plead on his behalf to God.  God took away the locusts.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again.

Notes: First of all, God says that He is doing these plagues so that the Israelites and their children will know that He is the Lord.  This is interesting because God is hinting at the fact that they would need some reminding.  God’s issue with Pharaoh was that Pharaoh refused to humble himself.  The root issue here is pride.  I think this is the root issue for all sin, but this was a blatant representation of it.  Pharaoh’s servants realized what was happening and begged Pharaoh to let them worship God.  They pointed out that Egypt was already ruined.   Pharaoh agreed and said that they could serve the Lord in the desert, but he wanted to know who all was going to go.  Moses told him that the adults, children and animals were all going to go.  Pharaoh was not happy and assumed that Moses was trying to trick him.  I love that he swears by saying “the Lord be with you if I let your little ones go.”  Obviously the Lord was with Moses and Pharaoh did let everyone go eventually.  Pharaoh told him to take the men and worship since that is all they need.  Moses left and God sent in locusts.  I find it interesting that the passage specifies that the locusts came in with an east wind.  Pharaoh then sounded repentant.  He admitted to sinning against God and Moses, He asked for forgiveness and asked Moses to plead to God for him.  Moses did and God blew the locusts into the Red Sea.  Interestingly, He did not have the locusts die in the land like He did with the frogs.  Pharaoh hardened his heart again though.  This story shows that you can say all the right things and sound repentant but you might not be in your heart.  Pharaoh said the right things but he did not mean it.  I just want to point out that Pharaoh’s issues stem from him worrying about his image.  As one of the most powerful men on earth, it would look terrible if he allowed his entire slave base to just walk out of the country.  If he wanted to maintain his image, he could not afford to let them go even for a short time.

Questions:  How many of Pharaoh’s servant supported Pharaoh by this point?  What did the Egyptian public think?  Was Moses surprised that Pharaoh knew that the Israelites were going to try to run for it?

Lessons:  This passage shows me the importance of being truly repentant in your heart.  As prideful humans, this is impossible unless we let the Spirit convict us of our sin an.  If we listen to the Spirit, we will see how insufficient we are compared to Christ and He will lead us to His forgiveness.  If our repentance is based in making much of God rather than making much of ourselves, Christ’s amazing grace and mercy is ready for us.  If we are not truly repentant though, we are leaving ourselves open to His punishment and judgment.  

Hail

Story: Hail

Passage: Exodus 9:13-35

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: 
God warns Pharaoh that the next plagues will be on Pharaoh’s heart.  God warns that hail will fall that will kill anyone outside. Those who feared God took cover and were spared, but those who ignored God were struck down.  It did not hail in Goshen.  Pharaoh said he had sinned and said he would let them go.  Moses doubted Pharaoh’s sincerity but he prayed and God stopped the hail.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again and did not let the people go.

Notes: I actually found a lot of interesting stuff in this passage!  First, the Lord specifies that now the plagues will be sent on Pharaoh himself, or on his heart depending on how you translate the Hebrew.  God gives the reason for this; that they may know there is none like God in all the Earth.  God actually goes into a lot of detail explaining the reason for these plagues.  He points out that He could have wiped Egypt out long ago.  The reason for all these drawn out plagues is not merely punishment, but so that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the Earth when they see His power.   In fact, God says that this is the reason He raised Pharaoh up.  I find this terrifying honestly.  I have heard it said that God is for God.  God’s ultimate will is for His own glory.  That is why He created us, that is why He saved us, for His own glory.  This is hard to accept, I prefer to think I play a bigger role in God’s plans, but this passage sure seems to support it.  It seems that we exist to bring God glory.  Pharaoh did not willingly glorify God, but God still used his life to bring Himself glory.  God’s end goal was not punishment for Pharaoh, but glory for Himself.  In fact, everything God does indeed seems to be for His own glory.  Eternal punishment seems cruel, but it is just.  God is the only perfect holy being.  He is the only one in the universe who deserves glory and worship.  When we choose not to give that glory and worship to Him but rather focus it on creation, we disqualify ourselves from eternal unity with Him.  Think about it, what is the purpose of heaven?  Is it for our enjoyment and pleasure?  No! It is for worship.  Heaven is about glorifying God for eternity because He alone deserves it!  Once we turn our worship to other things, it makes total rational sense that we are no longer able to worship Him for eternity without some change in us.  That change came through Christ.  But anyway, my point is that God’s glory comes first.  That is the reason that the Egyptian people suffered through ten agonizing plagues rather than being instantly wiped out.  God is not cruel. God just deserves the glory we are giving to other things.  He is jealous for our attention.  We find out in the next verse that Pharaoh was still exalting himself above the Israelites.  That is the core issue here.  Pharaoh was making himself god, as was the Egyptian tradition.  Pharaoh was not just denying the true God, he was blatantly trying to replace Him.
This is an interesting plague in that God allowed people who believed and feared Him to be spared.  We read that some of Pharaoh’s servants did indeed fear God and took shelter.  Some left their servants and livestock outside though.  I wonder if any Hebrew slaves were left outside.  Anyway, apparently it hailed for quite some time.  Pharaoh sounded repentant.  He claimed he had sinned against God and he was wrong.  Moses straight up told Pharaoh that God would end the hail, but Pharaoh was lying.  This ended up being true.  Pharaoh once again hardened his heart.  This is called sin by the way.  Pharaoh did nothing physical that was sinful here.  Simply hardening his heart was considered sin.  I find it interesting that some of the crops had not grown yet and were thus unaffected.  Even in God’s judgment, He provided for the Egyptian survivors.  This shows that even in His justice, He was loving.  Even as He destroyed, He provided.  This also supports the fact that His main goal is His glory.

Questions:  Were any Hebrew slaves left in the storm?  Why did God raise Pharaoh up just to destroy him?  Why was Pharaoh still not repentant?  How many Egyptians believed God and were spared?

Lessons:  This passage shows us a little bit about the character of God.  We see examples of His righteous jealousy.  While this is a little scary, it is also encouraging.  It shows us that God deserves and desires our worship.  When we give God glory with our lives, He is pleased.  This isn’t selfish because He deserves that glory.  This passage should show us how important it is to not exalt ourselves, others, or other things above God.  We need to give Him the glory He deserves.  Our whole lives need to be for His glory and not our own.  When we put our image, our finances, our comfort, etc. above Him, we are giving our affections to His creation which does not deserve our affections.  Keep your affections on the creator.

Livestock Die and Boils

Story: Livestock Die and Boils

Passage: Exodus 9:1-12

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh



Summary: Moses warned Pharaoh that if he didn’t let them worship, god would strike the Egyptian livestock with a plague.  Pharaoh ignored the warning and all of the Egyptian livestock died, but not one of the Hebrew livestock died.  Pharaoh still hardened his heart.  God told Moses to throw handfuls of soot from a kiln into the air and the people and animals would get boils.  They did it and it happened.  The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let them go.

Notes: This is the second plague which did not affect the Israelites.  The cow was considered sacred in Egypt.  To kill all of the cows was a direct attack on the Egyptian religious system.  I find it interesting that Pharaoh actually checked to see if Israel was indeed unaffected by the plague, but when he saw it was true, he did not let them go.  The next plague came without warning, just like the gnats.  These boils were painful and probably burned.  The animals were also affected by this plague.  That is the animals who were not livestock were affected.  The Egyptians had a God of medicine.  The magicians did not appear in public because they also had boils.  This showed that God was stronger than their god of medicine.  I wonder if they were required not to appear so that the Egyptian people would not know that they too were affected.  It amazes me that Pharaoh still hardened his heart!  At this point, he had to know that he would be ruined if he kept denying God.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did the boils affect Israelites as well?  Was Pharaoh affected?

Lessons:  Pharaoh looks like an idiot in this passage.  We need to careful to learn from his mistake though.  When God told him what to do and what the consequence would be if he did not obey, Pharaoh ignored and despised God.  How many times does God give us a command with a promise or a consequence?  How seriously do we take it?  Let’s be honest here, often times we don’t take it that seriously.  Aren’t we just acting like Pharaoh when we do this?  We need to take God’s word as if it was spoken by an all powerful and holy ruler and creator of the universe.  Because it was.

Flies

Story: Flies

Passage: Exodus 8:20-32

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God gave Pharaoh another chance.  This time if he didn’t obey, He would send swarms of flies into Egypt.  Houses would be filled; even the ground would be covered.  This time though, God would spare Goshen, where the Israelites lived.    This happened and Pharaoh decided the people could sacrifice within Egypt.  Moses said that wasn’t good enough so Pharaoh gave them permission to leave as long as the flies disappeared.  Moses prayed to God and the flies disappeared, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and didn’t let them leave.

Notes: This plague was the first to leave the Israelites unharmed.  God did this to show the Egyptians that He was the Lord.  The flies, just like the gnats, made the Egyptians’ sacrifices invalid.  The Hebrew actually only calls it a swarm.  It does not specify what it is a swarm of.    It could have been any insect really.  Pharaoh compromised and decided they could sacrifice in Egypt.  Moses reminded him about the social issues with them sacrificing in Egypt and then Pharaoh clearly promised that they could leave.   I find it interesting that Pharaoh wanted Moses to plead for the flies to leave.  That shows that he knew God was behind this.  He did not cry out to God himself though and he didn’t seem to actually fear God very much since he immediately took back his promise.  This time, the passage says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. I wonder if God was involved in this or if Pharaoh’s pride had taken over at this point.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did they actually believe that Pharaoh was letting them go?  Was there celebrating?

Lessons:  Sometimes we cry out to God when things are tough.  But then, when things are good we forget Him and rely on ourselves.  This is exactly what we see happen here.  I suspect that Pharaoh did not deliberately lie to Moses, but rather that he rethought things after the flies left.  As awful as this looks to us, we do the same thing.  When we are clearly insufficient, we let God be God.  But as soon as we have the slightest hint of control, we make ourselves our god and we put the true God second.  When we do this, we are just as guilty as Pharaoh was in this passage.

Frogs, Gnats

Story: Frogs, Gnats

Passage: Exodus 8:1-19

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses to go to Pharaoh again.  If Pharaoh did not listen, God would send frogs to fill the land.  Moses obeyed and Pharaoh did not listen so frogs filled the land.  Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated this as well.  Pharaoh called for Moses and told him that if he got rid of the frogs, he would let them go worship.  Moses had Pharaoh pick a time for the frogs to leave and Pharaoh picked the next day.  Moses cried out to God and the frogs died the next day and stink.  When Pharaoh saw the frogs were gone he changed his mind and didn’t let Israel go.  Then God told Moses to tell Aaron to strike the dust of the earth. The dust became gnats which covered all the people and animals.  The magicians could not duplicate this so they decided that this was done by God.  Pharaoh did not listen though. 

Notes: God chose frogs because the frog was worshipped in Egypt.  It was illegal to kill a frog.  The Egyptians soon realized how stupid it was to worship frogs.  I love that the magicians duplicated this as well.  All they did was contribute to the problem.  Pharaoh’s magicians could never solve the problem, only duplicate it.  Pharaoh was treating Moses like God.  Instead of crying to God himself, he went to Moses.  Pharaoh promised to let the people leave to worship the Lord.  Moses wanted Pharaoh to know for sure that God was responsible for the frogs though so he made him pick a time for the frogs to leave.  Pharaoh picked the next day which would have been impossible by natural causes.  But God did it.  The frogs died wherever they were, even in the houses.  The passage says that the land stank.  I’m sure that was an understatement.  They piled the dead frogs in heaps.  I wonder if there were people whose job it was to cart the heaps of frogs to the Nile and dump them in.  Pharaoh changed his mind.  He didn’t care about his promise; he just wanted to be rid of frogs!  The next plague came without warning to Pharaoh.  I find it interesting that Aaron is still doing all of the actions.  I wonder if Moses was wishing he had listened to God the first time now.  God would tell Moses what to do and Moses would then have to tell Aaron to do it.  The gnats were significant because the Egyptians were obsessed with cleanliness.  If yo had a bug issue, you weren’t allowed to worship.  The passage states that this plague also infected the livestock which means the animals couldn’t be sacrificed.  This plague put Egypt’s religion on hold.  God was showing His superiority over their idols.  Up to this point, Israel is also affected by these plagues.  The magicians can no longer imitate these plagues.  They now realize that this is God’s doing and not Moses’.  At this point, I bet they are panicking as they realize what they are up against.  Pharaoh however will not listen to logic and does not listen.  Unfortunately for Pharaoh, God’s just getting started. 

Questions:  What did the Israelites think of these plagues?  Did they get mad at Moses?  Did Moses care anymore?  How did the magicians create frogs?  Why couldn’t they produce gnats?  Were they panicking as they realized who they were up against?

Lessons:  God is more powerful than anything.  He deserves all of our attention.  When we put something ahead of God, we are making a huge mistake.  Sometimes I think we subconsciously decide something is more important than God.  We would never state that out loud, but we act like it.  God shows in this passage that He is bigger and more powerful than anything the Egyptians worshipped.  We need to make sure we don’t put creation above the creator in our hearts.  

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Story: Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Passage: Exodus 7:1-13

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses that He had made him like God to Pharaoh.  Moses would speak what God told him to speak and Aaron would say it to Pharaoh.  God warned that Pharaoh would harden his heart even though God would use signs and wonders.  Egypt would know that God is God when He leads His people out of Egypt.  Moses and Aaron obeyed.  Pharaoh demanded a sign so Aaron cast down his staff and it became a snake.  Pharaoh’s magicians were able to imitate the sign but Aaron’s staff ate their staffs.  But Pharaoh would not listen.  

Notes:  I have a few thoughts on this passage.  First of all, this passage gives us a little bit of insight into the dynamic of God speaking to us through prophets.  If Pharaoh represents humanity, then Moses was representing God.  Moses spoke and Aaron repeated Moses’ words to Pharaoh.  Thus, even though Aaron did the work, the credit goes to Moses.  In the same way, the prophets’ messages were not from themselves, but from God.  I find it interesting that Pharaoh did not deny them because he had hardened his heart, but rather because God had hardened his heart.  Pharaoh had the choice to listen to Moses, but God had hardened his heart so he did not.  I believe God left Pharaoh with the choice to listen, but He altered Pharaohs heart enough that he had no desire to listen.  Thus God was in total control even though He technically gave Pharaoh the choice.  Sometimes I think we don’t have free will, but rather we simply have will.  God can and apparently does manipulate that will, but it is technically still our will.  At first glance this is terribly unjust.  The poor Pharaoh has no choice but to deny Moses and eventually pays for it with his life.  How is that just?  But we need to remember that A. he did have a choice to listen even if he didn’t have the will to listen and B. Pharaoh deserved death just like all of us.  The injustice here is not that Pharaoh died when we had no choice but to oppose the Israelites, but rather that the Israelites lived even though they continually stopped following God.  That is the injustice.  Verses 6 and 10 show growth in Moses and Aaron.  In both those verses we read that Moses and Aaron did “just as the Lord had commanded them”.  They were done arguing.  Whatever God told them a couple of chapters ago transformed them.  They knew Pharaoh would ignore them but now they were prepared.  They had regained their focus on God and not on their circumstances.  I don’t know how Pharaoh’s magicians turned their staffs into snakes.  I don’t know if it was an illusion or if they actually turned them into living snakes.  I have to think it was an illusion because life coming from something dead should only be done by God.  If it was an illusion, they must have been confused when Aaron’s staff ate theirs but was no bigger when it became a staff again!  This would be enough to convince me that I should pay attention, but God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart enough that he does not even seem to consider listening to them.

Questions:  What did the magicians think when their staffs were eaten?  At what point did Moses and Aaron regain their focus?

Lessons:  God does not use prophets in the same way that he used to, but in the New Testament we see that one of the gifts of the Spirit is prophecy.  The Spirit acts like a prophet for us now.  He is the go between for us and God.  We also should learn from Moses and Aaron’s obedience.  This is obviously quite a change from their former ways.  We need to be as obedient as Moses.  When he heard his mission would fail he stayed with it because his success was not based in results, but in obedience to God.