Hey guys,
For this week, re-read Exo 3:7-22, [a] this time, write down God’s promises to Moses…..keep them handy as we progress through the story of the Exodus.[b] Now, read Exo 4 & 5.[c] Write down the fulfillment of some of God’s promises from chapter 3.[d] Why do you think God records the promises and related fulfillment? [e] What are the Hebrews experiencing as Moses requests Pharaoh to let the people go? [f] What is Moses’ response to God as the oppression increases?[g] How does this relate to the information collected in chapter 3?[h] Moses knows the answers to his questions but surely doesn’t recognize how severe the situation will get….reflect on Exo 3:19, especially “ except under compulsion”.[i] Now, review Exo 3:12, what is God’s promise to Moses?[j] Let’s discuss the comfort of God in our lives,[k] especially in tough times when there appears to be no good solution………remember “I AM”.[l] Write down your questions and thoughts, bring them with you on Tuesday.
Blessed to be a blessing,
See you guys Tuesday night….
Nathan
For this week, re-read Exo 3:7-22, [a]
THE NET BIBLE®, New English Translation (NET) 7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
9 And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.
10 So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 He replied, “Surely I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve God at this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘The Lord – the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’
16 “Go and bring together the elders of Israel and tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, appeared tome – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – saying, “I have attended carefully to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt,
17 and I have promised that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the landof the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
18 “The elders will listen to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even under force.
20 So I will extend my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will do among them, and after that he will release you.
21 “I will grant this people favor with the Egyptians, so that when you depart you will not leave empty-handed.
22 Every woman will ask her neighbor and the one who happens to be staying in her house for items of silver and gold and for clothing. You will put these articles on your sons and daughters – thus you will plunder Egypt!”---Bible.org[1]
this time, write down God’s promises to Moses…..keep them handy as we progress through the story of the Exodus.[b]
6. I am the God … come down to deliver—The reverential awe of Moses must have been relieved by the divine Speaker (see Mt 22:32), announcing Himself in His covenant character, and by the welcome intelligence communicated. Moreover, the time, as well as all the circumstances of this miraculous appearance, were such as to give him an illustrious display of God’s faithfulness to His promises. The period of Israel’s journey and affliction in Egypt had been predicted (Ge 15:13), and it was during the last year of the term which had still to run that the Lord appeared in the burning bush.
--Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. [2]
Now, read Exo 4 & 5.[c]
III. THE CALL OF MOSES (Chaps. 3, 4)
A. The Revelation of Jehovah to Moses (Chap. 3)
3:1–4 In tending the flock of Jethro, Moses learned valuable lessons about leading God’s people. When he went to Horeb (Mount Sinai), the Lord appeared to him in a bush that burned with fire but … was not consumed. The bush suggests the glory of God, before which he was told to stand with unshod feet. It might also foreshadow Jehovah’s dwelling in the midst of His people without their being consumed. And some have even seen in it the destiny of Israel, tried in the fires of affliction but not consumed. We should all be like the burning … bush—burning for God, yet not consumed.3
3:5 The Lord promised Moses that He would deliver His people from Egypt and bring them into a land of abundance—that is, Canaan—inhabited by the six heathen nations listed in verse 8. The word “holy” occurs here for the first time in the Bible. By removing his sandals, Moses acknowledged that the place was holy.
3:6 God reassures Moses that He is the God of his forefathers—Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Cole shows the importance of this revelation:
Moses brings no new or unknown god to his people, but a fuller revelation of the One whom they have known. Not even Paul’s words to the Athenians on the Areopagus are a fair parallel here (Acts 17:23). The only true parallel is the continuing Self-revelation made by God in later centuries, culminating in the coming of Christ. Yet in its day the Mosaic revelation, while a fulfilment of patriarchal promises, was as new and shattering to Israel as the coming of the Messiah was later to prove to be.4
3:7–12 Moses protested God’s sending him to Pharaoh, citing his own inadequacy. But the Lord assured Moses of His presence and promised that he would yet serve God on this mountain (Mount Sinai) with a liberated people. J. Oswald Sanders remarks:
His inventory of disqualifications covered lack of capability (3:11), lack of message (3:13), lack of authority (4:1), lack of eloquence (4:10), lack of special adaptation (4:13), lack of previous success (5:23), and lack of previous acceptance (6:12). A more complete list of disabilities would be difficult to conjure up. But instead of pleasing God, his seeming humility and reluctance stirred His anger. “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses” (4:14). In point of fact, the excuses Moses advanced to show his incapacity were the very reasons for God’s selection of him for the task.5
3:13, 14 Moses anticipated questions from the children of Israel when he returned to them as the Lord’s spokesman, and he wanted to be able to tell them who sent him. It was at this point that God first revealed Himself as Jehovah, the great I AM. Jehovah (more precisely Yahweh) comes from the Hebrew verb “to be,” hāyāh. This sacred name is known as the tetragrammaton (“four letters”). English Jehovah comes from the Hebrew YHWH, with vowel markings supplied from Elohim and Adonai, other names of God. No one knows for sure the true pronunciation of YHWH because the ancient Hebrew spelling used no actual vowels in its alphabet. However, the pronunciation “Yahweh” is probably correct. The Jews consider YHWH too sacred to utter. The name proclaims God as self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal,6 and sovereign. The fuller name I AM WHO I AM may mean I AM BECAUSE I AM or I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE.
3:15–22 Fortified by this revelation that God was really present and ready to come to His people’s aid, Moses was told to announce to the people of Israel that they would soon be free. Also, he was to test Pharaoh by requesting that the Israelites be allowed to travel three days’ journey to sacrifice to the LORD. This was not an attempt to deceive but a minimal test of Pharaoh’s willingness. It would also prevent the Egyptians from witnessing the slaying of animals that were sacred to them. God knew that Pharaoh wouldn’t yield until compelled by divine power. The wonders of verse 20 are the plagues that God sent on Egypt. By the time God was finished with them, the Egyptians would be glad to give the Jewish women anything they asked! The wealth thus accumulated would only be just compensation for all the slave labor of the Jews under the taskmasters of Egypt. The Israelites did not “borrow” jewels and clothing (as in the KJV); they “asked” for them (NKJV). No deceit was involved—only the just payment of wages. ---MacDonald, W. [3]
Write down the fulfillment of some of God’s promises from chapter 3.[d] Nu 33:4 while the Egyptians were burying all the firstborn among them whom Yahweh struck. Yahweh also executed punishments among their gods.[4]
Why do you think God records the promises and related fulfillment? [e]
Miracles
A MIRACLE IS AN EVENT in which God reveals His divine power for the purpose of drawing people to Himself. Miracles not only inspire awe and wonder; they also have revelatory significance. Philosopher David Hume asserted that a miracle is “a violation of the laws of nature,” but the Bible does not teach that natural law is something independent or separate from God as if He created the universe and then left it to operate by itself. To the contrary, natural law is to be understood as God’s ordinary way of operating in the natural world (Ps. 19:1–3; 104; Heb. 1:3), and a miracle is therefore God’s extraordinary manner of operating in the natural world. Sometimes people use the word miracle too loosely. Some occurrences may be unusual in their nature or their timing, but that does not mean they are miracles in the strict biblical sense.Several Old Testament terms are translated “sign” and “wonder,” both indicating God’s intervention in history to affirm His presence and His control over events. The New Testament uses eight different Greek words in association with miracles. Four of these are the most prominent. Dynamis (“power”) describes a miracle as an expression of divine power. Sēmeion (“sign”) affirms that the miracle attests to God’s presence. Teras (“wonder”) portrays the effect of the miracle on the observer. These three terms occur together in Acts 2:22; Romans 15:19–20; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; and Hebrews 2:4. The fourth is erga (“works”). What men considered a “wonder,” Christ regarded simply as a work of His hands.Miracles are not scattered haphazardly throughout Scripture, but rather they appear in four specific periods of biblical history: the time of Moses and Joshua, of Elijah and Elisha, of Daniel, and of Christ and the early church.In the Old Testament, miracles took place during critical periods of Israel’s history. They served to accredit God’s message and messenger. When Moses responded to God’s call to return to Egypt to lead the Hebrews out of bondage, miraculous signs were needed to convince the people that he had been sent by God and to convince Pharaoh to release the enslaved Israelites. The ten miraculous plagues in Egypt demonstrated to Israel that God was exercising His power on their behalf (Exod. 6:6–7). In addition, since each one of the plagues was directed at one of the gods of Egypt, God declared, “The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt” (7:5, see 17; 8:6, 17; 9:15, 29; 12:12). This truth applied also to the great miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea. God also performed numerous miracles on Israel’s behalf when they were in the wilderness and as they invaded and conquered Canaan under Joshua’s leadership.--Campbell, D. K. [5]What are the Hebrews experiencing as Moses requests Pharaoh to let the people go? [f]
We have such confidence in our pre-existing conclusions that we only acknowledge evidence that supports our current position and ignore all other information.
The heart operates much like a tree planted in soil. If we put down roots into the soil of sin we simultaneously develop a greater appetite for that sin, growing deeper and stronger roots, and we become increasingly immovable - hardened to our condition and plight.
We do not need emotional conditioning, evolutionary programming, or confirmation bias to explain the way in which pride manipulates us into our own downfall.
Assuming none of us particularly wants to end up self-deceived sinning to our own hurt, how can we avoid this fate?
Well, this morning I want us to look at plagues 4-6 on Egypt and take note of three habits that identify a hardened heart.
God is bringing about His judgments on Egypt in the form of 10 plagues.
The plagues come in a pattern - 3 sets of 3, and a final judgment.
We are looking at the second set of plagues, and Egypt has already endured the Nile turning to blood, frogs everywhere, and swarms of lice or gnats.
God is humbling Egypt and Egypt’s Pharaoh by targeting their comfort, their livelihoods, and also their gods. This week the hard lessons for Egypt continue, and spoiler alert, they don’t respond in a way that avoids the third cycle of judgments.
So here we go, Yahweh vs. Egypt [6]
What is Moses’ response to God as the oppression increases?[g] Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”[7]
How does this relate to the information collected in chapter 3?[h]
Hebrews 11:23 (LEB)
23 By faith Moses, when he* was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw the child washandsome, and they were not afraid of the edict of theking’s commandment.—this introduces four examples of faith in connection with Moses (Hebrews 11:23–29). The cause of the parent’s faith was their realization that their child was “goodly.” The word asteion came to mean beautiful, whether morally (Num. 22:32, negatively, “headlong”), or physically, as here. Stephen in Acts 7:20 adds that Moses was fair to God, beautiful in God’s sight. This gives the key to their faith. They were not merely delighted at the natural beauty of their child. Their faith enabled them to realize that God had purposes in view in regard to him, and enabled them to defy the power of the world and the decree of its king.
Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;—Moses decided to leave the court and visit his downtrodden brethren; he knew that his recognition of them meant the renunciation of his position and the prospects involved in his adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter. The step he took that day, as recorded in Exodus 2:11, was the refusal mentioned, as is shown by the statement in both passages, “when he was grown up.” That decision was an act of faith, with the assurance that God would fulfill His promises.
Hebrews 11:25 choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;—the aorist tense of the verb rendered “choosing” marks it as a single and definite act. The verb sunkakoucheomai, to be evilly treated, is used here only in the New Testament. The simpler form is used in v. 37 and 13:3. The latter part of the verse is, lit., “than to have a temporary enjoyment of sin.” He viewed both prospects, the voluptuous life of an Egyptian prince, and what his public recognition of his Hebrew descent involved, and he made his immediate choice.
Heb 11:26 accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.—the word rendered “accounting” is again in the aorist tense, expressive of a single and resolute act as the result of a decisive estimate. The “reproach of Christ” (not “reproach for Christ”) means Christ’s reproach. That scoffing and mockery which Christ endured, and which His faithful followers still endure, was anticipated by the godly long before Christ became manifested, though they may have dimly foreseen Him. Cp. 1 Corinthians 10:4, “the Rock was Christ.” The Lord said of Moses, “He wrote of Me.” Such reproach was wealth to Moses, far greater than anything Egypt and its royalty could supply. What a lesson for believers today!
for he looked unto the recompense of reward.—he fixed his gaze upon what the day yet to come will bring at the hands of the one whose reproach he endured.
Apoblepō, to look off, is used here only in the New Testament The word in Hebrews 12:1 is the synonym, aphoraō. For “recompense of reward” see 2:2.
Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.—this does not describe either the flight of Moses to Midian (Ex. 2) or his leading Israel in their final departure from Egypt. It follows on closely from the preceding statements as to his decision to leave the court and identify himself with his people, for in doing so, as mentioned in v. 24, he verily forsook Egypt with all its pleasures, knowing that he would incur the wrath of Pharaoh.
To endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” is the very essence of faith. It gives courage, steadfastness, and assurance as to the future.
Heb 11:28 By faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.—the perfect tense “he hath kept,” as in the original, indicates the continuance of the ordinance and the permanent nature of the record. The “destroyer” is a noun formed from the definite article with the present participle of the verb, lit., “the destroying one” (cp. 1 Thess. 1:10, “the Deliverer” as in Rom. 11:26, not “which delivered,” A.V., nor “delivereth,” R.V.).
Heb 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were swallowed up.—the faith of the leaders is ascribed to the whole people. The Red Sea, first mentioned in Exodus 10:19, has frequent mention in the historical books and the psalms (about 20 times), but not in the prophets.
The “which” refers to the dry land; it was that of which the Egyptians “made trial” (as the statement is literally).--Vine W.E [8]
Moses knows the answers to his questions but surely doesn’t recognize how severe the situation will get….reflect on Exo 3:19, especially “ except under compulsion”.[i]10. Come now therefore, and I will send thee—Considering the patriotic views that had formerly animated the breast of Moses, we might have anticipated that no mission could have been more welcome to his heart than to be employed in the national emancipation of Israel. But he evinced great reluctance to it and stated a variety of objections [Ex 3:11, 13] all of which were successfully met and removed—and the happy issue of his labors was minutely described.--Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. [9]
Now, review Exo 3:12, what is God’s promise to Moses?[j]
Let’s discuss the comfort of God in our lives,[k]
especially in tough times when there appears to be no good solution………remember “I AM”.[l]
Write down your questions and thoughts, bring them with you on Tuesday.
Blessed to be a blessing,
See you guys Tuesday night….
Nathan
This is the end of the blog post
Appendix / Bibliography
[2] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 50). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[3]MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (pp. 91–92). Nashville: Thomas Nelson
[4] Harris, W. H., III, Ritzema, E., Brannan, R., Mangum, D., Dunham, J., Reimer, J. A., & Wierenga, M. (Eds.). (2012). The Lexham English Bible (Nu 33:4). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
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Stimulating theology is an oxymoron for most people. "Theology" sounds like something for the severely intellectual, full of complicated ideas that escape the typical Christian reader. In reality, theology is meant to enhance our understanding of God. Most of the words that make up the Christian vocabulary are common words, drawn from the realities of life, and therefore are easily applicable to real life. Based on this premise four leading authors have come together to create this excellent volume. The Theological Wordbook tackles tough words, such as propitiation, regeneration, righteousness, predestination, but it does so in a natural, plain-spoken manner designed to be enlightening rather than evasive. Also literally dozens of words you are likely to use every day, such as forgiveness, mind, peace, rest, family, truth, have profound biblical value. Using The Theological Wordbook can enable you to more fully appreciate what the Bible teaches on these crucial topics and how each of these terms is relevant for life today. As this happens, your understanding of God will expand. And as the words you use, speak, and hear in the community of faith become more familiar, you will become more connected to your own spiritual heritage. The Theological Wordbook is the link between understanding God's Word in your head and accepting it in your heart. Copyright
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[6] https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/265533-three-habits-of-a-hard-heart?utm_source=logos&utm_medium=searchpanel&utm_content=searchresult&utm_campaign=promo-faithlifesermons
[7]THE NET BIBLE®, New English Translation (NET) WHERE THE WORLD COMES TO STUDY THE BIBLE Copyright ©1996-2018 Bible.org, reprinted with permission
[9] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 50). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
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