Exodus

SSquared

Member
Exodus 1-3

Today we start Exodus.

Exodus is Greek and means 'exit' or 'to depart'. Something interesting is the first five books of the Bible were named differently in Hebrew. They are based on the first word(s) of the text. So, Exodus is actually "Names".

In these chapters we get our foundation with Moses. The Hebrews have been in Egypt for quite awhile and are becoming very numerous. The Pharaoh is getting worried they are becoming too numerous and worries they will revolt. The result is, the Hebrews are forced to hard labor. Eventually, they get so numerous, the Pharaoh declares all baby boys to be killed. The reasoning is, boys/men are most likely the ones to instigate a revolt.

Verse 1:14 states "They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar". If you have ever been to a Passover Seder, you might remember that this is part of the Passover plate. There are bitter herbs on the plate. There is also a mixture of apple, cinnamon, and some other stuff. I thought (but am not 100% sure) this is partly to represent the bricks.

Next, Moses is born. His name was given to him by the Pharaoh's daughter and is most likely Egyptian, not Hebrew. Although, if I remember correctly, his name sounds like the Hebrew for "draw out". He was drawn out of the water, and will also draw out the Israelites from Egypt.

Chapter 3 is the famous burning bush scene. God lays down Moses' calling to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. It is also the beginning of Moses questioning himself and his abilities. 3:11, Moses asks, "Who am I?"

A little later, God reveals himself as "I AM". What does that name mean to you? To me, it shows He is eternal. It says, He is and always is. Jesus will later use that same name, showing His claim to be God.

As you read Chapter 3, take special note of how many times God says "I will". It is nothing Moses (or we) can do, God does it.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]As you read Chapter 3, take special note of how many times God says "I will".  It is nothing Moses (or we) can do, God does it.

Amen!!!  Aside from this program, a friend and I are going through an Associates Degree study.  Just yesterday our study was on "The Four Dimensions of the Love of Christ".  In going through this study I was given a revelation of just how true that statement is.  The question was posed, "Why are we trying to do something that has already been done"?  This was in reference to Christ having done it "all" on the cross.  Paid the full price.  Thus far, we "are" healed.  So, why are we trying to get healed, redeemed, sanctified, forgiven, etc?  "IT IS DONE"!!!  All we really need to do, is believe it, to receive it.  I may not have worded this properly, but I do pray that as you read it, God will give you a revelation as He has done me.  Because, this is the most exciting news!!!!  God Bless you all.  And the "Bible in a Year" program has truly been a blessing thus far.  Thank you for coming up with the idea.  I think it is wonderful.
 
Lady Kajun, that is very inspiring. IT IS DONE!!! How true.

Exodus 4-6

Exodus 4 is the beginning of God using an ordinary man to do God things. Moses feels totally inadequate. Gee, how many times do we feel that way? And yet we know God is saying, "I will be there with you. I will go ahead of you." God, the Lord of the Universe has laid out the plan to Moses and Moses STILL questions it.

The rest of the reading is broken into 3 parts.

1) Pharaoh being Mr. Meanie.
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He really burns me up in this chapter.
2) God repeats His promise to redeem the Israelites. Over and over he says stuff like "I will take you out", "I will redeem you", "I will free you"...
3) Genealogy of Moses/Aaron - Jacob's first 3 sons only are listed (Reuben, Simeon, and Levi). Moses and Aaron are from the line of Aaron.
 
Exodus 7-9

Today we get to start the series of plagues. Not much to say regarding this. But I do find it fascinating how the Israelites were clearly spared from this devastation.

To me, the most important part of the reading is Exodus 9:16: "But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
 
Exodus 10-12

We read about the final plagues today. One of the major gods of the Egyptians was Ra, a sun-god. The plague of darkness shows, ultimately, who is in charge of the sun.

The plague of the firstborn is a severe plague. As we learned earlier, the firstborn son was extremely important. The main inheritance, the double portion, went to this son. For the Pharaoh, it meant his first son, the one who would fill his seat on the throne.

The key part of today's reading, and just an extremely important section of the Bible anyway, is the discussion of the Passover. There are so many significant meanings in it, but we will just cover a few.

Maybe you have heard Jesus being referenced as the Passover Lamb. This is where it comes from. Each family was asked to kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood on their doorframes. In doing so, God would pass over the house and spare the firstborn. The blood here, is a symbol of a sacrifice (the lamb) that is a substitute (for death). In the same way, Jesus was our sacrifice and substitute for death.

The blood on the door is also very interesting. They were told to place blood on the top and both sides of their doorframes. It is almost signifying a cross.

I'd love to hear other's thoughts. The Passover is very rich and meaningful and has lots of insight into Jesus, the Last Supper, and His sacrifice.
 
Exodus 13-15

Some of the things that touched me today:

1) 14:14 - The LORD will fight you; you need only to be still. Wow! How cool is that? But as we read earlier, God already said He was going to do the work. We this promise with the Red Sea.

2) God's presence was clearly with the people. He was 'visible' in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night.

3) After the incredible miracle with the parting of the Red Sea, the Israelites forget very quickly of God's Faithfulness. We will continue to see this behavior all throughout the OT.
 
Exodus 13-15

I have returned from the hospital, with a quite healthy baby boy!  Anyways, on with today's reading.

We get the destruction of Egypt's army and the Pharoah today. As well as the First recorded instance of a praise song.

But before we go into all that, let's look at the initial failing of the Hebrews.  They don't trust God.  He has passed them over from all the plagues of Egypt, He is before them in a pillar of fire or cloud, and yet they still don't trust Him to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians.  This failing is a common failing throughout Israel's history as most of their history is quite circular of "in God's graces, fall away, conquered, repent, restored"  

Now onto the praise and worship
This is a wonderful song.  Do notice that all the women in the camp participated in the worship.  The writers take a distinct issue to point out that the women led the worship.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Exo 15:2  The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
Exo 15:3  The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.
 I love these verses.   The Lord is my strength.  Through Him and His spirit I have power over heaven and earth.  He has become my salvation.  Through His son, I have recieved salvation from the price of sin.  This is MY God and I will praise Him.  Notice the personal relationship. God is My and my Father's God.  This is a familial relationship, blood and love commit us one to another.  The Lord is a man of war.  God is not a pacifist.  Yes He loves us, but at the same time He will fight for us.
 
Amen!!! I really appreciate you guys putting your commentaries here, as it does give me a different perspective and a better insight on these earlier chapters of the Bible. These have always seemed to have been the most difficult chapters for me. Those names kill me...lol Thank you so much for shedding some new light on these chapters.

I'd also like to add a thought here. Note in these middle chapters of Exodus, how God lays down the law and the costs of breaking these laws. I have to wonder how much theft, murder, rape, adultery, etc. would be taking place today if we practiced justice in this manner? Just food for thought. Now I'm not a betting woman, but I'm willing to bet we would see a great decrease in crime today if these stipulations would be practiced still today.
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What do you think?
 
Day 37  Exodus 22 - 24
This is harder to keep track of since Jan ended.  I made the mistake of not actually signing up for the program, which means I gotta figure out which day it is for the readings...oh well. On a side note, i'm truly sorry that I'm not as regular about this as I was, but with the new child, my schedule is quite thoroughly.....well hmm....

on to the thoughts...

Well we get some of the law now but i'll not go into that because it's told better in Leviticus.  Besides this is just a taste of all the laws that are given.

But notice what are among them...
--Be nice to strangers
--Don't bribe officials
--Take a day off once a week
--let the field lie fallow once every 7 years

These are things we consider common sense.  But anyways, lets look at the last chapter...

Here Moses reads the covenant, to the Hebrews, and they agree with it, and yet again, the covenant is sealed in blood. (later on i'll once again go into why this is important, as God deals with it in His word)

Then God orders Moses to come up the Mountain, to be there with Him, and to get some stone tablets.  
Moses happily and willingly goes forth to be there.  To stand in God's presence even though he's a fallen human being.

Moses does this in faith, with no fear over the potential consequences of what could happen to him.  So Moses got to go and commune with God for forty days and forty nights.  How much better will it be once we arrive at Heaven since we're Heirs alongside Christ.  How much more glorious will the communion we have with Christ, than what Moses enjoyed here on earth.



Lady Kajun
Our laws are based upon these.  But since we don't have God sitting on a mountain, or as a pillar of fire before us, we have to use judges and juries to decide on the guilty.  The only problem with out system now, is the total lack of actual punishment involved.  We need more crimes to be capital, and others to be punished with such things as public floggings.  Our executions should be public. People should be able to see these, that we know there is an actual punishement for things that happen.  We need to have be afraid of commiting a crime prior to their every commiting one.  We worry so much on how the criminal feels that we forget that we are supposed to be punishing them for their crimes.  Criminals should not be "rehabilitated" rather they should be so scared of doing a crime again that they don't do so.  But that's just my opinion.
 
Lady Kajun, yeah, I know what you mean. Sad...

I am excited there are others reading along. I wasn't sure who else has been keeping up with the reading. Having others has been a great help in keeping me accountable.

Just some thoughts from the last few days...

The water from a rock in Exodus 17 will become key later on. So just mark that in your thoughts.

Something I thought was interesting is how Jethro mentions delegating to officials just before Moses is to receive all the commandments. As I was reading through the commandments, I couldn't think of Moses doing all that on his own.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Kidan @ Feb. 06 2003,7:02)]Lady Kajun
Our laws are based upon these.  But since we don't have God sitting on a mountain, or as a pillar of fire before us, we have to use judges and juries to decide on the guilty.  The only problem with out system now, is the total lack of actual punishment involved.  We need more crimes to be capital, and others to be punished with such things as public floggings.  Our executions should be public. People should be able to see these, that we know there is an actual punishement for things that happen.  We need to have be afraid of commiting a crime prior to their every commiting one.  We worry so much on how the criminal feels that we forget that we are supposed to be punishing them for their crimes.  Criminals should not be "rehabilitated" rather they should be so scared of doing a crime again that they don't do so.  But that's just my opinion.
Amen, couldn't have said it better myself. I am in total agreement with you on the punishment of crime. BTW, congrats on the new addition to the family. What a wonderful blessing baby's are. Thank you Lord!!
 
Hmmm.  I guess I should start taking notes because when I come to write my thoughts, I forget a lot of them.  As I look over the chapters, I try to remember some things that stuck out or I think are important/interesting.

Some of this tabernacle stuff is amazing.  I took a class on the tabernacle and how it relates to Christ.  Fascinating stuff.  I am going to try and find my notes, or ask the teacher for his notes.

Just a few thoughts from the last 2 days.

blue, purple, scarlet - These are royal colors.

Acacia wood is scraggly and bent.  Take a look at the tree here.  Notice how God is always saying to place gold over it.  The gold is making something generally kinda ugly and making it beautiful which is a representation of God changing us.  The acacia wood is man and his brokeness and the gold is God changing us.

The lampstand (Exodus 25:31) is hammered out of ONE piece of gold.  Pretty amazing for something so intricate.

The number 7 comes up with the lampstand in verse 37.  The number 7 is very significant all throughout scripture.  We obviously know about 7 days in a week.  The number 7 is a way of showing something as complete.  I know we are not in Revelation, but many believe this is why the number 666 is used for the mark.  It's just 1 away from being 7's.

One of the things I learned in my class that I thought was very interesting is how the entrance into the tabernacle was on the east side and how it represents the entrance to Eden which has been closed from the east.  The only way back to Eden is from the east, and the way into the tabernacle is from the east.  I'm sure I'm not stating it quite right, but the way the guy said it made a huge impact on me.

That's all I can think of for now.  I hope you are enjoying reading Exodus and seeing how detailed God is.  He is amazing.
 
SSquared, thank you for that insight.  As I've been reading these descriptions in Exodus, I must honestly say I've been asking myself why God felt it necessary to inspire such detailed accounts of the building of the tabernacle.  It's been very difficult for me to concentrate on these writings.  However, it is very refreshing to be able to come here and get another's views on this.  I just never thought of some of the things you have been pointing out.  Thanks to the commentaries of you and others, I am getting a fresher look at these first chapters of God's Word.  Please keep it up, as I am learning as we go.  Guess I've been guilty of spending most of my years in the New Testament, without too much thought of the connection to it from the Old Testament.  This has truly been a blessing!!!  There have been bits and pieces of the Old Testament that over the years I have been in awe of their connections to the New Testament, but this has been a whole new experience for me.  Praise God!!!
 
Thanks. I totally agree with you. Sometimes it's hard to understand it and to read through it. That's why I wanted to represent a view that can make the reading more exciting. The first time I read through the Bible I was flabbergasted by the rich meanings and accounts found in the OT. Since then, I've tried to encourage people to read the OT, not just NT.

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with posting. It takes me awhile to gather my thoughts and write it all out and I haven't had much computer time the last few days. I'll try to get out a final conclusion to Exodus. I finished it up this morning, but I work and then tonight, I have Wednesday night Bible study.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'd really like to learn/research more. Again, I am really enjoying this study. Our pastor has really emphasizing the importance of daily reading the bible and I am so excited I am able to do it and am getting fulfillment. The past 2 years, it has felt more of a chore (or a checklist) to read it, but I definitely feel a hunger and excitement this year.
 
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