July 11th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image from visualBiblealive.com

If you’re new here… we’re continuing our One Summer, One Story series – a fast-paced overview of the “big story” of the Bible! Missed anything? Find all the past posts here.

Last week we spent some time considering the theological significance of the plagues against Egypt and the beautiful picture of redemption contained in the Passover account. Today we’re going to pick up with the people in the wilderness – although it pains me to do so, we’re skipping over the well-known story of the crossing of the Red Sea for the sake of time!

First of all, just consider for a moment the staggering number of people that Moses is leading into the wilderness with only the clothes on their backs and a few provisions that would last them several days or weeks at most. Erase that mental picture that may be in your mind of a couple of hundred cartoon people walking together in the desert.

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.

Exodus 12:37

In the MacArthur Bible Commentary he points out that “a conservative estimate based on the number of men, probably the fighting men twenty years of age and above, would give a population of two million.” (p.100)

TWO MILLION people. No Walmart stores in sight. A desert without food or water supplies. Mothers nursing tiny infants {and tiny infants being born every day!}, little toddlers crying because their feet were tired and they wanted a snack, elderly people being pulled on carts or helped along as they walked.

We have a tendency to be really tough on the Israelites. But seriously – if I were in this crowd of two million people in a seemingly hopeless situation with the most powerful leader of the world chasing us down in chariots trying to kill us, carrying my hungry babies and worrying about how we would feed them in the desert and what might become of us… I’d have an awfully hard time trusting God. Wouldn’t you?

They were in faith school. After 400 years of not hearing from God, living in Egyptian culture and surrounded by worship of Egyptian gods, passing along stories of a God who made amazing promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob but not really knowing Him personally… they needed to be re-introduced to Yahweh. They needed to know that He is sovereign, sufficient, aware of their needs, compassionate toward His people, zealous for His holy name.

He was tangibly in their midst, guiding their every step.

By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

Exodus 13:21

As they stood, paralyzed with terror, penned on one side by the Red Sea and on the other by Pharaoh’s approaching army, they were reassured of God’s ability to deliver them, and then saw with their very eyes the waters split in two and give them a miraculous way of escape.

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

…But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in Him and in Moses his servant.

Exodus 14:13-14, 29-31

As they grew hungry, they were consumed with fear again and grumbled against God and Moses, but God displayed His faithfulness even in the midst of their faithlessness – for each and every day they had food to sustain them and their families.

The LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”

Exodus 16:11-12

On and on through their journey they faced new lessons in faith school. Was God able to deliver this defenseless and unarmed people from hostile enemies? Could God provide water? Would God provide food for them? Was He trustworthy – would He keep His promises?

The answer again and again: Yes. Yes, He is faithful. Yes, He is trustworthy. Nothing is too hard for Him.

Moses’ summary of this time in Israel’s history is profound, recounted as the people stood poised to enter the promised land 40 years later:

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

Faith school is never easy. No one is eager to enroll – the lessons are grueling and difficult. But He is trustworthy: He is revealing what is in our hearts, He is humbling us and teaching us to depend on Him alone, He is showing Himself great in our lives.

Whatever the challenging circumstances you face – remember this:

• You may not know what will happen tomorrow, but He is guiding you today.
• He will fight for His people. Trust Him. Rest in Him.
• He knows your needs. He wants to reveal Himself in your life – and we won’t really know Him until we are humbled and forced to depend upon Him.
• As a man disciples his son, so the Lord disciplines you. It is because He loves you.

Yes, He is faithful. Yes, He is trustworthy. Nothing is too hard for Him.

July 8th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image from visualbiblealive.com

Yesterday, we looked at how God was revealing Himself powerfully through the plagues against Egypt – these were not random acts of destruction, they were theological statements introducing Him as the LORD, the only true God. In the midst of this powerful account of God’s judgment against Egypt, we also find one of the most powerful illustrations of salvation and pictures of Jesus as Redeemer contained in the Old Testament.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.”

Exodus 11:4

The judgment would be swift and severe. And there was only one way to avoid it.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household… The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect…

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

Exodus 12:3,5,21-23

God didn’t tell them to try really hard to be good in order to avoid being wiped out. There weren’t long lists of rules they should follow, there was no character test. If they were to be spared, the lamb had to die in their place. They had to trust God enough to obey His command, slaughter an innocent lamb, and have their homes marked with the blood. Surely the firstborn sons were especially motivated to obey the command of God – and as he saw his father marking that doorframe with the blood of another, the message was clear: the lamb died, and now I will live.

One of my professors in college was an expert in ancient cultures. He took us on the best “field trip” of my life which included stops at a museum in Philadelphia and also at the MET in New York. As we walked through a hall of Egyptian artifacts, he pointed out to us the stone doorframes from Egypt lining the hall, each engraved all around the sides and top of the doorframe with hieroglyphs. He stopped and read the hieroglyphs to us – pointing out that these engravings were claiming allegiance to and calling for protection from various members of the vast pantheon of Egyptian gods.

The night of Passover suddenly became even more profound to me. As followers of the LORD dipped the hyssop branches into the blood of the lamb and wiped it on the doorframes of their homes – they were claiming allegiance to and trusting in protection from only one God: the one true God. Anything they had trusted in in the past would be covered up – only their faith in Yahweh was what mattered.

Fast forward thousands of years, and we find Jesus described in the New Testament as the Passover Lamb:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

Revelation 5:6

Jesus is the Lamb of God. We all deserve to die because we are all sinners. But this spotless, perfect Lamb was sacrificed in our place. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor and spare us from the punishment we deserve. We must simply trust His Word and place our faith in Jesus as our Passover Lamb. Our hearts must be marked with His blood. Just as the Israelites would have covered up any engravings already in place on their doorframes – we must trust in Him alone for our salvation.

Because the Lamb died, I now will live.

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July 7th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

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For hundreds of years in Egypt, God’s people flourished – and then they were brutally enslaved. God never forgot them. He had not forsaken them. He was waiting – waiting while the family of Jacob, later named Israel, grew to a number great enough to become the nation of people He promised. He waited until the hearts of the Egyptians were bitter and hard against Him and His people. He waited until His glory could be fully revealed as He redeemed His people.

Notice Pharaoh’s response when Moses first takes him God’s command to let His people go.

“Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” (5:2, NIV)

Pharaoh asked who He was – who is this God who claims He has the authority to take the Israelites out of their enslavement? What kind of God would send a humble, trembling man with a speech impediment in to the most powerful ruler on earth and boldly demand such a thing?

The plagues that follow seem to be God’s glorious and fearsome introduction of Himself to the Egyptians – and even His own people who had lived in Egyptian culture for so long – as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one true God who is supreme over all the gods of Egypt. Over and over again God states that the purpose of the plagues is that they will know that He is the LORD.

When God turns the mighty Nile river to blood, it seems to be a direct statement against the Egyptian god Hapi, spirit of the Nile in flood and “giver of life to all men.”

This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.

Exodus 7:17-18

Not only did the Egyptians worship a god of the Nile, one of their gods was the frog-headed goddess, Hekt. Hekt was worshipped as a fertility goddess and credited with a role in the origin of the earth. Interesting that God uses frogs with uncontrollable fertility to plague the Egyptians with the very thing they worshipped.

Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

Exodus 8:9-11

Another member of Egypt’s large pantheon of gods and goddesses was the sky goddess Nut, mother of the sun-god Ra. She was she was supposed to protect the land from destruction which came down from heaven. Notice what God says to Pharaoh (through Moses) before violently pummeling the land of Egypt with hail:

…this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

Exodus 9:14

The last plague, the death of the firstborn, was obviously the most painful for the Egyptians. It was not only against the supreme god of Egypt, Pharaoh himself, but also against the future pharaoh, his son, the very next god (Horus) of Egypt.

God is the only true God, the only One worthy of honor and worship, the only true creator of heaven and earth, the only one. These opening chapters of Exodus scream to us – “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” (Isaiah 42:8)

The gods of Egypt were obvious and tangible – the idols in our own lives are much more subtle. He will not give His glory to another.

We must examine our hearts and ask God to show us anything in our lives that is stealing glory and honor due to Him alone – if we do not surrender it willingly, it may ultimately destroy us. He is the only One.

*Information about Egyptian gods was taken from The Plagues and the Exodus by Dr. David Livingston.

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July 6th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Last week we saw how the Lord was with Joseph – and how He is with us during the painful detours of life that seem to come out of nowhere, that seem to hinder us from what God has called us to do.

But sometimes, the detour from our expected destination seems even bigger.

The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

Exodus 1:5-8

God, in His sovereignty, had brought Joseph to Egypt to protect his family, the line of the Promised One, the chosen family God had promised would become a great nation in a land of their own. As Genesis came to a close, they had no land and they were far from a nation (although a family of 70 is impressive considering Abraham and Sarah’s laughable situation!). Not only that, but after Joseph was gone, there came to power a ruler in Egypt with no personal knowledge of or sentiment toward Joseph’s family. Joseph’s family which was growing large and intimidating.

And so, God’s people were eventually forced into slavery as an attempt to subdue them. By the way… if it helps you to see chronology and how these early books of the Bible fit together [it always helps me!], you can find a free downloadable Pentateuch timeline that I put together here.

Hundreds of years passed. God’s people were brutally oppressed. Their children were taken from them and killed. There was no recorded interaction of God with his people since the time of the patriarchs. If I were an Israelite at that time, I wonder what I would have been thinking? God must not know! Maybe He doesn’t care? Are the gods of Egypt too powerful for Him? Was He just a god of the past, living and active only for our fathers?

And then, God shows up.
In a burning bush.
In the middle of nowhere.
To a runaway murderer.

And as God introduces Himself and explains His plan to Moses, this unlikely leader with stumbling speech, these questions that must have been running through the minds of His people are answered clearly.

God must not know! I have surely seen the affliction of My people… for I am aware of their sufferings. (Exodus 3:7)
Maybe He doesn’t care? …and have given heed to their cry (3:7) …I am indeed concerned… (Exodus 3:16)
Are the gods of Egypt too powerful for Him? I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians… (Exodus 3:8)
Was He just a god of the past, living and active only for our fathers? I AM… this is My memorial-name to all generations. (Exodus 3:15)

Are you feeling forgotten in your suffering?

He knows your suffering – He is aware, He loves you and knows you intimately.

He is concerned about you. He weeps with you.

Nothing is out of His control. Nothing has escaped His notice or fallen from His hand.

The same God who was with Abraham on the mountain, the same God who was with Joseph in the dungeon, the same God who was with the Israelites in the midst of their suffering – our same God is with you. You have never been forgotten.

If you are enjoying this series, would you consider sharing it with a friend? Want to make sure you don’t miss a post in our One Summer, One Story series? Click here to receive these posts directly to your email inbox each day. Each post will also be indexed here for future reference, and so you can easily share the series with others.