Overview Lesson on Exodus 1-12

This lesson is going to look at the first chapters as an overview, except for what Pat taught last week because she covered the burning bush and I AM revelations very well. Exodus is all narrative, historical account,  until chapter 20, when it becomes the law for 11 chapters and then returns to the narrative. And it’s a super interesting story, one that has spawned movies but nowadays I think the WOKE Hollywood would have trouble for it.

The Ten Commandments: What did they get right, and wrong.

The Prince of Egypt: Very Biblical, a little too hyper, but a great watch. You can see it on YouTube, or at least the song portions, which are wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ9CJIlFGOQ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-WimijgGEU

Ithink, though, his mother had more sense and put him in a place where he’d be found.

 Four words for Exodus:

Readiness: how did they get here, how did Moses get here?

Revelation: I AM the Covenant God, Yahweh,a different name; the Law 

Redemption: Passover, out of slavery 

Rescue: Moses, Israelites from Egypt

I want to go back and do and do an overview because the main question is, why do we need to study Exodus. It’s 3500 years ago, we’re not Jews, we’re not under the law, this is not our story.

But it is Jesus’ story. God did not just preserve the line of Christ; he preserved the culture Christ was born into, and that matters eternally. 

1:1-22 Why were the Israelites in Egypt? Joseph rescued them during the famine, 430 years before. Apparently the family of Jacob/Israel prospered, for a while. But Joseph’s favorable pharaoh’s died (perhaps a dynasty) and the tides changed. Lesson 1: For centuries. God’s timetable is not ours.

I personally think the first chapters of Exodus are about women being subversive. They are told to destroy their children, the midwives refused. Jochebed hides her child. Pharoah’s daughter says I’m not going along with this. Zipporah and Miriam later are disobedient to revelation, so that’s the difference. 

Under Christ, women don’t have to be subversive; we are equal. A lot of people have trouble with that, but it’s true. We don’t have to be manipulative. We stand with Jesus. We don’t stand against men.

Destruction of the males is always what happens in war and genocide. We see the same thing in the Christmas narrative with Herod, killing all the males under two.

Egypt as a country is a place but also a metaphor in Scripture. The Israelites would escape there but find it was not its friend; even Jesus’ parents went there for a while to escape Herod. Egypt symbolizes the world. We escape there, and we live there, but it’s not our friend to grace or growing in Christ. Hallmark movie, lesbian.

12:38. Also a mixed multitude, non-Israelites. We don’t know much about them

Chapter 2: Moses is drawn out of the water and raised in royalty. The Israelites had some suspicions and cynicism toward him. 2:14 and 15. When he showed back up 40 years later (40 always meaningful in the Bible, long list of 40 days, years, etc.) they would have remembered him as the murderer at first. So Moses was not on the surface the best choice for this job. He had a past, he was not a good speaker, the Israelites would have distrusted him, he’s old, he’s been a shepherd hiding in the backwaters for 40 years. And he’s got a new name for God and says this God is going to deliver them. He’s not Charlton Heston, a good looking old man with a great voice.

Lesson 2: God uses who He chooses and we are usually surprised by this. 

As a person who has pursued education, I have to remember my education has very little to do with how much God will use me. I can throw my credentials around and some people might care but most will say, so what? Who are you? what have you done? What kind of person are you? I value my education because it’s helped me as a person and helped me make money in a field I enjoy, but it’s not some stamp of approval from God. I’ve known so many humble people used by God. Moses was not a big dramatic guy. 

Chapters 4-10 is a detailed account of all the confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh and the first nine plagues. I think it’s common knowledge that these nasty plagues were attacks on their idolatry and animal-based gods. Pharoah is totally out of touch with his people. He keeps saying maybe, then no, and the people suffered. Sounds like today; prideful leaders more concerned with their egos and legacy and press. 

In chapter 11 we come to the 12:29-37. Passover is a larger study, but three points:

Escape from judgment by obedience to the message.

The last Passover as far as Christians are concerned was the Last Supper.

Christ is referred to as our Passover in I Corinthians 5:7.

^6 (I)Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that ^(J)a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Therefore ^[d]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed ^(K)Christ, our ^(L)Passover, was sacrificed ^[e]for us. ⁸ Therefore ^(M)let us keep the feast, ^(N)not with old leaven, nor ^(O)with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Lesson 3: We are passed over in terms of judgment, but so much more is involved in the cross. He does not only deliver us from judgment, he takes us to a new life, an abundant life, a hopeful life, a loving life because we can be rescued from the power of sin.

The verse about plundering the Egyptians is used twice in Exodus, as a prophecy we read last week and as the fulfillment of the prophecy when they left. As mentioned last week, the gold and silver was used for the tabernacle and temple, and probably at time for their needs. Exodus 12:37 says 600,000 Jewish men left Egypt, plus women and children, so we’re talking over two million people. Dalton has 106,000. Hamilton County has 366,000. So….that was a lot of people and a lot of plundering 

We don’t think about it, but the Exodus was one of the biggest miracles, that they survived that long. We might think those numbers are a mistake, maybe an error in copying, but Numbers 11:21 states the same. 

Plundering the Egyptians: They did not plunder them in the sense of pirates; they plundered in terms of receiving the gift of their valuables.

“The plunder of the Egyptians, then, is an image that speaks to us about God’s sovereignty over all things; and about the way in which he uses even the riches of his enemies for his own glory. That’s why it’s also been used as an analogy for the way in which God’s people can use the best things of this world, and especially the wisdom of the world, for the sake of God’s glory. The gold of the Egyptians can be compared to the riches of worldly understanding, which assist us in serving and glorifying God.” Lionel Heard. Http://thebriefing.com.au/2012/07/the-perils-of-plundering-the-egyptians/

Lesson 4: But, he points out, they used that gold to make the golden calves, too!

Conclusion: This scratches the surface . Just remember the 4 R’s: Readiness, Revelation, Redemption, Rescue.