Leaves from the Tree
Studies from God's Word

Leaves from the Tree Studies from the Old Testament "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness..." — II Timothy 3:16

Exodus 1

1:7-14 - "But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. "Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land." So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them."

The Lord has been faithful to the promise he made to Jacob (Genesis 46:3). Jacob's descendants are now growing in number in Egypt beyond natural explanation. They began as a large extended family of 70 people and by this point have grown to such an extent that the new Pharaoh takes notice of them and is fearfully concerned that Egypt will be overrun by the Israelites. There is a five-fold description of their growth as "fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them." The description is intended to emphasize the degree of the Lord's blessing upon the children of Israel, and also to remind us of these passages from Genesis (Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:7). The connection with the two earlier passages from Genesis is important because this fruitful multiplication of Israel in Egypt is a new creation story just like the garden of Eden and the aftermath of the Flood. In all three cases God is starting with a few chosen ones and building a new world from them according to His plan and purpose. We should not see their growth as just a natural outcome, but as the hand of God upon them to bless them.

The blessing of the Lord in their amazing increase of numbers is wonderful in the eyes of Israel, but not in the eyes of Egypt. Their prosperity is not a welcomed development for Pharaoh or the nation. Though there is no hint that Israel formed any real threat to the Egyptians, Pharaoh saw their increase through the lens of natural suspicion and fear. Though they had been in the land for many years by now, they were still regarded as foreigners and outsiders. Pharaoh imagined a worse case scenario of a foreign invader recruiting the numerous Israelite men as a ready made army. Pharaoh dealt "wisely" with Israel when he exercised not spiritual wisdom, but natural wisdom. The distinction is that natural wisdom is always self-serving and will find a way to gain advantage over others. Pharaoh convinced the Egyptian population by appealing to their own fears and instituted a nationwide oppression of the previously free Israelites by conscripting them as forced laborers. They imposed upon them hard, rigorous, bitter labor which the Egyptians thought would accomplish two things. One, they would have a huge workforce to do all their work projects for them, and two, the difficulty and danger of the labor would limit the Israelites population growth to a manageable level.

This is one of the first examples in Scripture of the now familiar response of the world to the blessing of God upon His people. The world as represented by Egypt here reacted to the blessing of God upon His people with a hateful and wicked persecution. Even to this day, the world still reacts in a similar way. Persecution of the people of God has not disappeared in the 21st century. Yet, in spite of Pharaoh's plan, the Lord's blessing caused the Israelites to continue to grow in spite of their persecution. In the same way, the intention of wicked persecutors throughout church history has never succeeded in eradicating Christians. The more the church has been oppressed by wicked men, the more the gospel has grown and spread. The confidence of God's people to endure and even thrive in times of persecution is not found in themselves, but in God, His promises, and in His sovereign control of history. This persecution is no unexpected development escaping God's notice. He had proclaimed to Abraham many years before that this exact thing would occur. "God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years." (Genesis 15:13).

1:15-21 - "Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?" The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them." So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them."

Pharaoh's plan to limit the growth of the Israelites by hard forced labor has failed miserably. They are more numerous now than ever. In his growing fear of their numbers, he crosses a fateful line. Pharaoh resorts to a particularly wicked plan that has been used by evil men at critical junctures in world history as a weapon against entire people groups. The weapon is genocide. This is mass murder exercised by a powerful and oppressive government against a people group under their power to further a political goal. We should be well familiar in modern history with the horrors of genocide. We have examples ranging from the Armenian genocide by the Turks, to the Jewish holocaust in the Nazi death camps of WWII, to the Jewish pogroms by Stalinist USSR, to the gassing of the Kurds by Saddam Hussein. Sadly, there are many other examples than these. Such a degree of evil is not reached overnight, but there is a progressive development of wickedness. In this case with Pharaoh, he came up with the plan to have the Hebrew male children murdered only after his previous plan failed. In this case, Pharaoh wants to resolve the problem, but seems to want to avoid direct involvement.

He summons two Hebrew midwives who are most likely supervising midwives among the Hebrews. He gives them a surprising and heart challenging command. He commanded them to put to death every male Hebrew child during the birth process. Remember Pharaoh was considered by all Egypt to be a god among men. His word was law and all his commands were to be obeyed and any disobedience to his commands was subject to death. The midwives were faced with an impossible problem. They could obey Pharaoh and commit murder on his behalf and in doing so they would protect themselves from his wrath. Or, they could choose to disobey Pharaoh, and risk his wrath, but avoid violating God's standard regarding murder. They had no choice available to them without danger attached to it. Their choice really boiled down to the issue of whose wrath they most feared, Pharaoh or God? It is critical for us to recognize that the midwives did not choose to obey Pharaoh by excusing themselves in God's eyes. They did not say, "We must obey Pharaoh, and certainly God will understand that we had to do so." Instead they practiced what we call civil disobedience. They did so specifically because they feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. If we are ever placed in a position of similar moral dilemma we must make the same choice they did. For the believer, when we are forced by those in power to choose between honoring God's standard or theirs, we dare not excuse our compromise. "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29).

In this case, God honored the midwives fearing Him above Pharaoh by protecting them, blessing them with their own families, and causing their names to be preserved for all successive generations. God gave them wisdom in how to answer Pharaoh when he confronted them. We do not know for sure whether their answer was truthful in describing the difference in how the Israelite women gave birth, or whether they made it up as a diversion story and in essence lied to Pharaoh. In spite of the concern of some believers that God would never bless anyone that lied in such a way, there is no spiritual conflict on that point. Even if they lied, it was not a sin for them to do so in this case. A lie is sinful because it deceives for the purpose of gaining advantage over another person. In this case the motive was to preserve the lives of innocent children from murder. There was no moral obligation for them to give the truth to this wicked ruler as a tool he could then use to destroy more lives.

1:22 - "Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive."

Pharaoh's wicked deterioration reaches its final stage here. His first two plans to first oppress, and then eliminate the newborn male children have both unraveled. Realizing he cannot count on the midwives to do his dirty work for him, he now enlists the help of the entire nation of Egyptians as co-conspirators in the destruction of a generation of Hebrew sons. All the Egyptians are help monitor the birth of new Hebrew sons. As each is born a deadly fate awaits them. Each Hebrew son is to be taken by force if necessary and cast into the river Nile. Since the vast majority of the population lived along the shores of the Nile this was a diabolical plan by Pharaoh. It also had a hidden religious benefit. The Nile river was worshipped by the Egyptians as one of their gods. They honored the Nile as both the giver and taker of life. By casting the Hebrew sons into the Nile the participating Egyptians would be able to religiously escape the crushing guilt of such a horrendous act. They could all agree that the lives of the children was taken by the god of the Nile, not by themselves. This convenient justification is exactly the kind of excuse Satan provides whenever he is at work in a nation that together participates in such wickedness. How else can we understand how our entire nation for the last generation has agreed to sacrifice millions upon millions of babies in abortion for the sake of a "woman's right to her own body"?

Questions from Genesis 50:

Question: 50:15-17 - Are we to infer that Jacob did not actually say these words to be passed on to Joseph since it is being described as an after-the-fact response of Jacob's death?

Answer: We cannot know for sure whether Jacob actually spoke these words to his sons or not, because there is no conversation recorded where Jacob spoke this message to them. It is likely that the other sons joined Joseph at their father's bedside for his final moments together. If Jacob had spoken this message then, Joseph would have heard it himself. The only other possibility is that before Joseph arrived that Jacob gave them this message to pass on after his death. There are two valid interpretations from this passage. They both fit from what we know of Jacob and what we know of the sons of Israel. One is that Jacob feared that Joseph was only waiting for his death to retaliate against his brothers. In this possibility I could see Jacob giving this appeal to his sons much like he had appealed to Esau years before in a similar situation. The other possibility is that Jacob never spoke these words to his sons and that they simple lied to Joseph in an effort to soften the vengeance they were anticipating from him. This is not difficult to imagine from the other sons because they had a long pattern of lying to cover themselves. However, I personally lean toward the first interpretation. The main reason I do is because of the development of Judah's character by this point. When he was younger we see Judah cutting corners in various ways, but since the time he offered himself in Benjamin's place he seems to have grown into the kind of leader that would not compromise in this way.

Exodus 2

2:2-6 - "The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Moses was born in the midst of the edict from Pharaoh for the newborn sons of the Hebrews to be cast into the Nile river. His parents chose to defy Pharaoh's unrighteous command to kill their own son and hid him for the first three months. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict." (Hebrews 11:23). Their choice put them in rebellion to the king's law, but their hearts were not motivated by rebellion. They showed true faith and courage to hide Moses. Their faith was shown in trusting God to cover them and their son if they did what was right in the sight of the Lord in spite of the king. Their hearts were courageous because discovery of their disobedience would most likely result in their death. We have a powerful example here of believing parents committed to doing what is right before the Lord even at potential great cost to themselves. How many believing parents today fail to do what is right toward and for their children simply because it is hard or inconvenient? Their priority concern was not for themselves but for the Lord and for their son.

The Lord is not specifically mentioned in this passage, but His presence overshadows each development. While Pharaoh was implementing his plan for Israel's destruction, the Lord was quietly at work to bring about Israel's deliverance. Moses was chosen by the Lord to one day be "savior" of Israel. In this way, Moses spiritually represents Jesus. He is a type of Christ as his work as deliverer points forward to the greater work of salvation through Christ. Two details from these early moments of Moses' life also point directly forward to similar events in the life of Christ. Like Moses, Jesus is hidden by his parents in Egypt from an evil ruler seeking his death, and in the same way, other innocent children of Israel are killed while he is hidden (Matthew 2:13-16).

This early story of Moses not only points forward in Biblical connections to the Savior, it also points backward in history to an earlier savior. There is a connection we are meant to draw between Moses and Noah. Moses was himself saved by being placed in an ark covered with pitch just like Noah. The Hebrew word in the original text translated "wicker basket" is the identical word used in Noah's story to describe the ark through which he survived the waters of the flood. "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch." (Genesis 6:14). Why would the Lord direct our attention back to Noah for a spiritual connection with Moses? There are two symbolic points conveyed by this connection. First, like Noah, the Lord keeps Moses safe in the ark of salvation. The waters that were death for so many become the means by which the Lord carries Moses to the fulfillment of His plan for His people. Second, Moses, like Noah will be the chosen one through whom the Lord is going to start a new world for His people. When Moses later leads Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land, it is similar to Noah leading his family out of the ark to begin a new world together. Both of these are spiritual previews of the fulfillment in Christ. Jesus is the beginning point of God's New Creation and He will one day build through Him an entirely new world.

2:7-10 - "Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?" Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go ahead." So the girl went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, "Because I drew him out of the water."

The Lord remained quietly in the background here also, but His hand was directing every element of this development. It was no accident that Moses' sister Miriam was watching the ark with Moses in it. It was no accident that the ark was placed in the exact spot (without human planning) upon which the eye of Pharaoh's daughter would rest. It was no accident that Pharaoh's daughter chose this exact spot on the long river Nile to bathe. It was no accident that Miriam was bold as a young girl herself to step forward and dare speak to Pharaoh's daughter when Moses was discovered. It was no accident that Pharaoh's daughter's heart was softened toward Moses in spite of him being under the death penalty of Pharaoh. It was no accident that through Miriam's offer, Moses was given back to his own mother for nursing; this time under the protection of Pharaoh's daughter. It was no accident that after being weaned, Moses became the son of Pharaoh's daughter and the grandson of Pharaoh himself. The lesson here is that man may make plans that oppose the plan of God, but no matter how powerful the man, the Lord's plan will always be accomplished.

The Exodus account does not give us any additional details of the early life of Moses from the moment he was given to Pharaoh's daughter until he became an adult. Later in the book of Acts we are given some more details as part of Stephen's address to the Sanhedrin. "And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel." (Acts 7:21-23). Moses lived in Pharaoh's court from the age of his weaning (probably age 3-5) until he was forty years old. During that period he was given all the benefits of an Egyptian royal court education. It is clear from the text that even when he was forty, he knew that he was Hebrew rather than Egyptian. He had been raised by the Egyptians, but the Lord had insured that his early most formative years were with his mother. For the Lord's purpose in his calling Moses had gained a core identification with the Hebrews, but he was also equipped with an Egyptian education. His heart connection with Israel would be the foundation for his great task to one day deliver them from bondage. At the same time, his Egyptian education well equipped him for the negotiations with Pharaoh to come.

2:11-15 - "Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, "Why are you striking your companion?" But he said, "Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and said, "Surely the matter has become known." When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

At age forty Moses was stirred to visit his enslaved brethren. His heart was moved by their hardships. When he saw one of the Egyptian slave masters beating one of the Hebrew slaves he formed a plan to kill the Egyptian. Moses knew that he was committing a serious violation of Egyptian law and that if discovered his slaying of the man would make him a criminal. His status as a member of the royal court did not give him the right to murder an Egyptian. Moses crossed this line to help his brethren because he believed that God had placed him in this position in order to be a deliverer for Israel. "But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand." (Acts 7:23-25).

What is interesting about this perspective upon which Moses acted is that he was called by God to be the deliverer for Israel; only not this way, and not yet. Moses acted upon a growing sense within his heart of his own future calling, but he got ahead of the Lord in this. What we don't see in this scene is Moses stopping before striking the Egyptian and seeking the Lord as to whether he should do it. He never cries out to the Lord at all, and the Lord does not speak to Moses here and now. Instead of calling upon the Lord, we see Moses looking around to make sure his act would go unseen. We discover the next day along with Moses that his best effort to conceal the murder have not been successful when another Hebrew blurts out that the murder is already known. Of course, word travels back to Pharaoh who orders the death of Moses. This is now the second time that Pharaoh has tried to kill Moses, and again he will not succeed. Moses flees in fear to the north to Midian. The plans of Moses have gone terribly wrong. His effort to deliver Israel has blown up in his face, he lost his position in Pharaoh's court, he lost his connection to his Hebrew brethren, he lost his home in Egypt, and he is a wanted criminal. Nevertheless, Moses is now right where the Lord wants him. "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." (Proverbs 16:9). His first forty years he grew strong in the court of Egypt and somewhat full of himself in the process. Now, what has begun is the next forty years of deep spiritual training in God's specialized school for men of God. The Lord is going to use these next forty years in Midian to refine and prepare the heart of Moses for the great calling ahead of him. Behind is the discipleship of Egypt and ahead is the discipleship of the Lord.

2:23-25 - "Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them."

Finally, the Pharaoh that twice sought to kill Moses has died. Because of the Lord, and in spite of Pharaoh's great power, Moses has outlived his adversary. But, back in Egypt things have not improved for the children of Israel. Their bondage as slaves continues and their hardship has not lightened at the death of Pharaoh. In their distress the people turn to the Lord and cry out continuously for his help. This is the turning point in their story. God will change their circumstances and their lives forever. But, we should see how and why He does. God does not intervene in their difficult circumstances just because it is hard for them. There are two reasons why God responds in powerful deliverance given in this passage. First, He intervenes because they have prayed and kept on praying! God responds to their prayers. There is a four-fold description of how God was impacted by their prayers. "God heard...God remembered...God saw...God took notice." Second, He acts on their behalf because of the covenant that He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His motive in their rescue is in place before they were even born. He is motivated by His own covenant faithfulness. This combination of factors is exactly why God delivers us today from our troubles. He is motivated toward us by His covenant faithfulness toward the covenant He made with His Son Jesus. He also responds when we cry out to Him in believing prayer. Covenant promises along with answers to prayers that lean entirely on Him is the same combination behind every blessing from God we receive today.

Questions from Exodus 1:

Question: I have wondered why the Israelites stayed in Egypt after the 7 years of famine, rather than return to their homeland. I know that it was God's plan; "God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years." (Genesis 15:13). However, was there a natural or physical reason why they remained?

Answer: It is an interesting question, but one which the Scriptures do not address except through the Genesis 15:13 passage you quoted. There is no verse that explains what they were thinking or what motivated them to remain once the famine ended. Perhaps it was their connection to Joseph and the desire to not be parted from him again. Remember when Joseph buried his father Jacob in the Promised land that he had promised Pharaoh he would return. It was clear that Joseph was permanently connected to Egypt because of Pharaoh's dependence on him as an administrator of his government. If the Israelites had left Egypt after the famine they would have had to part with Joseph. Another factor may have been the favorable circumstance of their new home in Goshen. They had been blessed through Joseph both with the best pasture land in Egypt and a promise of constant provision by Joseph for them and their little ones. Certainly, as you mentioned, the Lord's hand was the real deciding factor in their staying. Whatever their reasons on a human level, the Lord sovereignly kept them in Egypt in order to fulfill His plan.

Exodus 3

3:1-2 - "Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed."

From the time of his flight to Midian to escape the wrath of Pharaoh, until this day of his meeting with the Lord at Horeb a significant period of time has passed. Moses settled in Midian and married the daughter of Jethro at age forty. At this point Moses is now eighty years old (Exodus 7:7). Forty long years have passed since then. Moses has for the last forty years served his father-in-law as the shepherd of his flocks. It is not a stretch to identify Moses as a failure. The man who was once a prince in Pharaoh's court and mighty in word and deed (Acts 7:22), has amounted to nothing more than a shepherd in the wilderness. Remember from Joseph's story that shepherds were a despised profession in the eyes of the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). While Moses would certainly have been a failure in the estimation of Egypt, in the eyes of the Lord Moses is now prepared for a higher calling. That which most qualified Moses for greatness in the world was his education and personal accomplishments. It is worth noting that the Lord could have but did not call Moses into spiritual service at age forty when he thought he was ready, and when the world would have concluded he was most qualified. Instead, the Lord took him into a forty year period of humbling service to in a sense break down the pride and self-sufficiency that he had come to rely on. It is a spiritual irony, and a common theme in the Lord's preparation of those He sends into kingdom service that when Moses' strength was greatest, he was least prepared and qualified for his true calling, and when he was later weak and unqualified in his own eyes that the Lord deemed him ready to send.

The way the Lord chose to call Moses into His service was unique and provided Moses with a powerful image of the relationship with the Lord that he would enjoy for the next forty years of his assignment. Moses saw a common desert bush on fire. What amazed him was the bush burned without being consumed. The relationship of the bush and the fire was a symbol of the Lord's relationship with Moses. The fire represented the presence and the power of God. Fire has often been chosen by the Lord to symbolize Himself. It is an image of His holiness as a purifying fire. The Lord showed Himself to Abraham in a similar image on the day He made a covenant with him when he appeared as a flaming torch (Genesis 15:17-18). Later the Lord will show Himself again to Moses and all of Israel as a pillar of fire to lead them through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21). This fire is identified throughout the Bible as God's "consuming fire." (Exodus 24:17, Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29). The fire burning within the bush represented the Lord, but the bush symbolically represented Moses as the servant of God. The bush was ordinary. Nothing about it would have drawn the attention of Moses except the fire burning it. The point is the spiritual significance of Moses has nothing to do with himself and everything to do with the Lord's presence with him. We are also meant to recognize the contradiction of a consuming fire that does not actually consume what it is burning. The meaning is that Moses will not be harmed by responding to the Lord's call, no matter where that call may take him, but he will be changed by the call. God will spiritually, not physically consume the life of Moses. He will be purified by the fire of God, but not be destroyed.

Exodus 3:3-5 - "So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

When Moses turned aside in his direction to draw near the bush the Lord spoke to him from the midst of the bush. There is a subtle, but significant lesson here. The clear implication is that the Lord would not have spoken had Moses not turned aside to draw closer. Before he saw the burning bush Moses was simply engaged in his daily life responsibilities. God chose to invade his routine, but He did so in a way that required a response from Moses. God was calling, but at first not audibly. The way God first called him was through stirring holy curiosity in Moses. Only after Moses gave his full attention to the burning bush did the Lord speak clearly to him. The question for us is whether we will turn aside from daily routines to give the Lord our full attention when He stirs our spiritual curiosity in some circumstance of our life. When the Lord did speak, He addresses Moses by name twice. It is a second way of emphasizing the importance of gaining the undivided attention of Moses and should remind us of the way God called both Abraham and Jacob (Genesis 22:11, Genesis 46:2).

Then God gave Moses a pair of surprising commands and a brief but momentous explanation. The commands were a warning to not come near the bush, and an instruction to remove his sandals. The warning is initially confusing. The reason God caused the bush to burn was to catch the attention of Moses and to draw him close for a special meeting with God. Yet, when Moses begins to draw close, the Lord warns him to not come near the bush. Moses is meant to interpret these apparently contradictory signals from the Lord as "come close, but not too close." The confusion is cleared up by holding two principles of the Lord's presence in the tension of their right relationship. The first principle is that the Lord calls us into close proximity to Himself for the purpose of fellowship with Him and to receive from Him the details of our life assignment. The second principle is that we must always maintain proper distance between ourselves and the Lord because He is awesomely holy and we are not! In our close fellowship with the Lord we dare not presume that we are His equals, but reverentially respect His perfect purity.

As a practical expression of this attitude, the Lord required Moses to remove his sandals. This was commonly done in that culture as a sign of respect when entering their home. The explanation given by the Lord makes this emphasis by identifying this location as "holy ground." The practical reason for removing the sandals was to not carry into another's home the dirt from the world outside. Here Moses is being invited into God's home, but only if he respects the holiness of it by not carrying in the defilement of a fallen world. Even though physically, this spot is no different than all of the ground around it, the ground where this bush stands is named as holy ground because of the presence of the Lord in the bush. God is holy and wherever He makes Himself known becomes holy ground. This is the first time holy ground is mentioned in Scripture, but not the first time it is revealed. Each of these circumstances were revelations of holy ground: the Garden of Eden, the ark of Noah, the altar of Abraham, and the rock of Jacob. This theme of holy ground will continue to develop throughout God's Word in the tabernacle, the temple, and in final fulfillment in the incarnation of Christ. The application for our own relationship with the Lord is amazing! In Christ, God has come to dwell in us (Ephesians 3:17-19). We are His home. Our lives are now called by Him, holy ground!

3:13-15 - "Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, '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-name to all generations."

One of the key principles of God's revelation of Himself throughout history is called progressive revelation. It means that God did not choose to reveal everything that can be known about Himself from the beginning, but rather to reveal some of Himself and then progressively to add more to that revelation until His full revelation is reached. The fullness of His revelation is in Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3, Colossians 2:2-6). From the garden of Eden until Christ, God progressively revealed more and more of Himself to His covenant people. In this meeting with Moses, God unveils one of the most significant things that can be known about Him. He reveals His covenant Name to Moses. He identifies it as His "name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations." The meaning points to the many names which God associates with Himself throughout the Old Testament that identify some specific aspect of His nature or acts. These names such as El Shaddai, El-Elyon, and many others serve to highlight one quality of God for a particular kind of situation that the people of God are facing. For instance, El Shaddai means God Almighty and is an encouragement that God is in control because He is more powerful than everyone and everything.

The memorial name of the Lord is different than His other names. This name identifies the nature of the Lord in a way that the other names do not. This name reveals more than a single aspect of His nature, it describes His essence. We could say that this name defines what it is to be God! Only God can be called by this name. No man or angel can claim this name for themselves. The name has been theologically identified by the term Tetragrammaton. That comes from a Greek word meaning four letters. The four letters in view are in the original Hebrew text that is translated here by the words, "I AM". The four Hebrew letters are YHWH. The Hebrew does not fill in the vowels between the consonants, but the popular pronunciation in earlier generations of this name was Jehovah. In recent years that more accepted pronunciation is Yahweh. The name is the continuous present tense form of the Hebrew verb "to be". When God reveals that His name is I AM, the meaning is that He continuously IS! The focus is not on what He was, or what He will one day be, but that He always has been, is now, and always will be what He IS at this moment! He is the eternally unchanging One Who alone is self-existent depending on no one or no thing for His existence. This understanding is essential equipment for his relationship with the Lord and for the accomplishment of his great assignment from the Lord. This understanding remains essential for us to grasp in our own relationship with Him and to equip us to carry out our own assignment from Him.

3:18-22 - ""They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.' "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go. I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians."

The Lord now describes for Moses what will unfold as he obeys Him in this call. Moses will return to Egypt and meet with Pharaoh. This alone is a fearsome task for Moses because of the circumstance under which he fled from Egypt forty years before. However, this meeting with Pharaoh will not be a social visit, but a spiritual confrontation representing the Lord's concerns to Pharaoh. Moses is to inform Pharaoh of his meeting with God and then confront Pharaoh with the Lord's demand for him to release Israel for a three day journey into the wilderness for the purpose of worshipping God. This demand of the Lord is not going to sit well with Pharaoh. For one thing, Pharaoh is himself considered a god in Egypt and he also worships his own gods including the Nile and others. Pharaoh had little respect for the God of the Hebrews since they were his slaves and their God had not intervened for them until now. The demand for a three day release would be understood differently than we might expect. A three day journey was a common figure of speech at that time for a long trip of an undetermined time period. It actually meant that they would be gone as long as it takes. In other words Pharaoh would know that there was no promise they would ever return.

God does not send Moses with the message hoping to persuade Pharaoh with these words. The Lord knows Pharaoh's heart and intentions. He tells Moses up front that the message will not change the mind of Pharaoh and confirms for Moses that He knows that Pharaoh will only change his mind when the Lord forces him to do so by the powerful persuasion of His miracles. God is preparing the heart of His messenger Moses for the confrontation ahead. The real story of this negotiation with Pharaoh will be one of spiritual warfare. The Lord wants Moses to know from step one to expect opposition and resistance, but that the Lord will win this confrontation. This will be no uncertain contest of wills between the God of Israel and the god of Egypt (Pharaoh). The struggle between God and "god" must take place so that the entire world can see which is the real God.

Exodus 4

4:1-5 - "Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'" The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail"--so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand-- that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

The discussion between God and Moses at the burning bush continues. Moses here raises his third objection to what the Lord is calling him to do for Him. In the first part of the conversation Moses had objected, "Who am I", and "Who will I say sent me?" When the Lord answered those concerns, Moses then raises the issue of his believability in the eyes of the leaders of Israel. "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?" It is becoming clear by this point that Moses has no desire to accept the Lord's call and return to Egypt. He is doing his best to wiggle out of the Lord's assignment for him. This objection should not have been an issue for Moses at all if he was listening carefully when the Lord spoke at the beginning of the conversation. When the Lord described for Moses that He was sending him to speak to the leaders of Israel He assured Moses that they would listen to him. "They will pay heed to what you say..." (Exodus 3:18). Now, as if the Lord's Word had no substance Moses raises the question of whether they will listen to him. We are so often like Moses in this that it is scary. God has spoken very clearly in His Word, the Scriptures on many issues of importance to us. Yet, when one of those issue comes to the forefront in our lives we will quickly question whether it is true, or trustworthy, or if it really applies to us. It reminds me of a time a friend in the Lord was compromising in an area of sin and I read for him a couple of passages that directly identified what he was doing as sin. Rather than accept what God had said and repent, he immediately raised objections about the translation or the interpretation. The point is that Moses had his mind made up before God even spoke. Yet, God does not falter at the resistance of Moses, nor ours.

The Lord anticipates both the reluctance of Moses and the uncertainty of the leaders of Israel. He graciously provides miraculous signs to confirm beyond question that Moses is His prophet. These signs are gracious because the Lord owes no one any explanation or confirmation beyond His Word, but He also knows our weakness in discernment and faith and He gives powerful demonstrations that eliminate all skepticism. The Lord gives Moses three signs to confirm His Word. This principle of confirming signs continues on into the New Testament in the ministry of Jesus. From His own teaching, Jesus identified the miraculous works He did as basis of faith in Him as the Messiah. "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." (John 10:37-38). These sign miracles function as God's testimony regarding the one He sends. "God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will." (Hebrews 2:4).

The first of the confirming signs calls attention to the staff of Moses. It was common for men to carry wood staffs in those days, and for shepherds like Moses they were essential equipment for their work. Interestingly, God asks Moses what he has in his hand. Of course, the Lord knew it was a staff, but by asking in this way the Lord shows Moses that what was an ordinary staff to him, would become something awesome and powerful in the purpose of God. In the same way in all of our lives, when the Lord calls us to serve Him he will make use of ordinary elements of our lives and transform them to become extraordinary in His service. This is also a test of faith and obedience for Moses. When God has him throw down his staff and He changes it into a serpent, Moses immediately reacts with normal fear of the snake. God then commands Moses to do something naturally foolish. He is to grasp the snake by the tail. To do so would expose Moses to the danger of being bitten. Moses may be reluctant to obey, but he does what God has commanded and is relieved to see God change the snake back into the staff. This sign also serves to symbolize what God will demonstrate over and over in Egypt; that His power is far superior to the power of the gods of Egypt. The serpent was another of the gods of Egypt that was honored by them as a symbol of wisdom.

4:10-12 - "Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say."

The Lord has resolved the issue of whether Moses will be received by the leaders of Israel. However, Moses is not finished with his list of objections. What is amazing is that Moses had no advanced warning about this burning bush encounter with God. He had no time to prepare a list of objections, but when he is put on the spot by the call of God, he instantly has several strong objections lines up as to why he should not be sent by the Lord. This objection is particularly ironic and not a touch disingenuous by Moses. He essentially tells the Lord that he is the wrong man to choose for this assignment because he is not a great speaker, and never has been. He even goes so far as to tell the Lord that his speech deficiencies have not improved since the Lord appeared to him. In other words, this meeting changes nothing as far as Moses is concerned. Moses is dead wrong. This meeting with the Lord changes everything whether he likes it or not, whether he acknowledges it or not. When the Lord meets us in a chosen encounter for the purpose of giving us our calling, or life assignment, we are changed by that encounter, whatever the specific circumstances He chooses for the encounter. A true encounter with God never leaves the person unchanged by it. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." (II Corinthians 3:18).

Where Moses was not being completely honest with the Lord was in his self description. After forty years living as a humble shepherd, Moses no longer felt qualified to represent the Lord in the court of Pharaoh and to speak eloquently on His behalf. His current feelings however, did not change the past. Here again is the description of Moses in his first forty years; "...he was a man of power in words and deeds." (Acts 7:22). He had been a man of eloquence in Egypt. The last forty years has not destroyed the gift within him that made him powerful in his words. Instead the last forty years have changed his self perspective from a man confident in himself to a man completely unsure of himself. That change in perspective is actually a necessary condition for where the Lord is taking him. Moses will not go to Egypt leaning on his own wisdom, talent, or eloquence. He is going to lean on the Lord alone. His ability to impact Israel, Egypt and Pharaoh with his words will have nothing to do with him and everything to do with speaking only the words of God. In this, we should all follow the path of Moses. God calls us to speak on His behalf. It won't be our words or clever way of saying it that will impact their hearts, but the words of God. We will see this pattern of initial reluctance to speak for the Lord repeated in various ways in the generations to follow in those the Lord calls.

Jeremiah the prophet began when he was called to object like Moses. "Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth." (Jeremiah 1:6-9). The Lord's answer to Jeremiah and to Moses is similar. Their weakness in speech is irrelevant for their call. What counts is the One Who calls and sends. He made the mouth. He gave them the ability to speak. All that matters is that He goes with the one He sends and gives them the message to deliver. Since it is His message, if we will simply trust and obey Him, He will accomplish His purpose through our obedient delivery.

4:13-18 - "But he said, "Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will." Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said, "Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. You shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs. Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

The Lord has met every objection that Moses raises and has not budged on His call to Moses. Moses has no other valid reason not to go, but his heart is still resisting at this point and he makes one last desperate attempt to deflect the call on his life. All that he can do is make a final appeal to the Lord. He asks the Lord to please send anyone else beside himself! Please Lord, just send anyone except me! This last squirming effort by Moses really exposes the real issue here. The issue is not whether he is a great speaker, or whether Israel will believe him. The issue is that he just does not want it to be him. A critical principle of kingdom service comes into focus here for Moses and for us. God does not take volunteers into His army. Everyone that enters the service of the Lord is drafted into service. The Lord does not market, or advertise His service in an effort to persuade by enticements the enlistment of servants in His kingdom. He chooses those that He wants to serve Him. When He chooses a person, He does not first interview them and ask their input or permission. He chooses and He calls, and those He calls must respond. We have no options other than complete rebellion or obedience. Of course, when the Lord is the One calling even rebellion is not an effective resistance. Ask Jonah the prophet whether rebelling against the call of God is effective. When Moses raises this final objection, he quickly discovers that God's grace has a limit and that he dare not presume upon the Lord in resisting any further. "Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses..." That means that further resistance will be treated as disobedience and punished.

Once God issues His call, the outcome is already determined. Moses must submit. The Lord is not unreasonable however in dealing with the weakness of Moses. God provides Moses with a spokesman in his brother Aaron. This arrangement of the Lord speaking to Moses, then Moses speaking to Aaron, and Aaron speaking for Moses will not be permanent, but accommodates the struggle of Moses in a transition into ministry. At the beginning we will see Aaron serving in this way and later, as Moses grows into his role, he will begin to speak for himself more and more. What we should notice is that the Lord tells Moses that Aaron is already on his way to meet him. That means the Lord stirred Aaron to seek out Moses for this purpose before the burning bush encounter. This was not God switching to Plan B because He did not anticipate the weakness of Moses. The Lord knew before they ever spoke that Moses would need this initial help from his brother and provided the answer before Moses even asked. "...your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." (Matthew 6:8).

One additional detail in this passage is important to notice. Once the meeting with the Lord at the burning bush ends, Moses returns home. Once there he does not give his "two week notice" to Jethro and then immediately leave for Egypt. Moses approaches Jethro, who is both his father-in-law and his boss in the shepherding business and he asks him to let him go to Egypt. God has just spoken to Moses and told him to go to Egypt, but Moses appropriately does not presume on Jethro in this change of his life direction. Moses has been a member of Jethro's family for forty years now. Jethro has always treated Moses well from the first day they met. He generously opened his home to Moses, offered him his daughter in marriage and gave him a livelihood. It would have been disrespectful for Moses to just announce he was leaving because God told him to. What Moses does is trust the Lord. Since the Lord has called him he can be confident that the Lord will convince Jethro's heart to agree to his leaving. By asking for Jethro's blessing to go, Moses does not burn any bridges behind him in their relationship. Later, the fruit of his wisdom here will bless both Moses and all of Israel when they meet Jethro in the Exodus and receive the benefit of his wise counsel.

4:22-26 - "Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, "Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, 'Let My son go that he may serve Me'; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'" Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me." So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood"--because of the circumcision."

This passage has traditionally confounded many believers. It is the unexpectedness of the event and the uncertainty of what has happened, why, and to whom that has left many confused. The first mystery is to identify who it was that the Lord sought to put to death. The text only identifies the target as "him." There are two possibilities. Either it refers to Moses, or to his son. The wording of the original Hebrew allows for either interpretation. I cannot say for sure, and the real point being made is the same in either case. I lean toward identifying the target of the Lord as the son of Moses. The reason is the immediate context in which the Lord tells Moses what he must declare to Pharaoh about the Lord's firstborn son, Israel and Pharaoh's firstborn. It is a strong warning that the Lord intends to kill Pharaoh's firstborn son because he refuses to release the Lord's firstborn. If Moses' firstborn is the Lord's target, that would make perfect sense in parallel to what will happen in Egypt. It is also possible that Moses is the target because he is not the one to step forward to perform the circumcision, but Zipporah does. However, if Moses is the one God sought to kill, the main point remains the same.

The mystery is in why God would first call and send Moses to Egypt and as soon as he leaves in obedience the Lord Himself rises up to confront him (either directly or through his son). The issue has to do with circumcision, and the standard to which God holds those He calls to lead and represent Him. The son of Moses had not been circumcised. He should have been. There was no excuse why he wasn't circumcised. Since the days of Abraham, the focus of those in covenant relationship with God was this sign of circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14). Moses was the head of his household. It was his responsibility to circumcise his own sons on the eighth day after birth. There is an implication in the story that Zipporah knew all about circumcision, but did not want it for her sons. Moses most likely abdicated his leadership in the family on this issue and let her have her way. God had not made it an issue between Him and Moses until the time came for Moses to fulfill the Lord's call. The kingdom principle is "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." (Luke 12:48). Those who lead are held accountable to a higher standard (James 3:1). It did not matter what Zipporah thought of circumcision, or what Moses thought of Zipporah. The issue was what God required of Moses as a leader of Israel. If he could not lead his own family in the ways of the Lord, how could he lead all Israel? "(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)" (I Timothy 3:5).

We should also recognize the intentional wording of the death threat toward either Moses or his son. The passage tells us that the Lord "sought to put him to death." We have many examples in the Bible of the Lord executing a person for serious violations of His holiness and in each case the death of the person is instantaneous (Leviticus 10:2, II Samuel 6:7, Acts 5:5). When the Lord wants to put someone to death, they die. He doesn't have to try or seek to put someone to death. The description here is meant to alert us to the provision of the Lord's grace and mercy in His necessary discipline. The point is that the Lord made it clear that if this issue of circumcision was not resolved, through repentant action, that it would end in death. When Zipporah circumcised the son, the Lord mercifully withdrew His hand of judgment.

Exodus 5

5:1-4 - "And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.'" But Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go." Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword." But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!"

This is the first meeting of many to come between Moses and Pharaoh. Moses does obey the Lord and deliver His message to Pharaoh, but not in every detail. The Lord had originally told Moses to take the elders of Israel with him to this meeting, and he was also instructed to perform for Pharaoh the signs that God had shown him at the burning bush (Exodus 3:18, 4:21). By missing these two details we can see that Moses is in a heart orientation of obedience, but that he is not yet giving the full measure of attention to the Lord's instructions that his calling deserves. The background concept to keep in mind is the significance of every word from God. The Lord does not waste words or give idle commands that can be ignored or overlooked without concern. There are reasons why the Lord wanted the elders of Israel there to observe this meeting with Pharaoh and there are reasons God wanted Moses to perform the signs he had been given. The failure of Moses to follow in detail the commands of the Lord is an example we all to easily follow when we should not. When we read God's Word and discover commands of the Lord that apply to our lives, we are not meant to grasp the general concept of His command and then decide for ourselves how or to what degree we should implement what He requires of us. The New Testament principle is identified as being "doers of the word" (James 1:22). What is the acceptable standard for doers of the Word? Should we do 75% of what we know the Lord requires and be satisfied with that because we "mostly obeyed" Him? Partial obedience laid bare is still a mixture of obedience and disobedience regardless of the percentage of each.

There is an interesting shift that occurs in the tone of this first meeting with Pharaoh. The message from the Lord that Moses and Aaron first deliver to Pharaoh is very direct and bold. The tone of their delivery is courageous and confrontational. Moses is bold in the strength of his recent encounter with God, the miracles he experienced, and the good fruit of a hero's welcome by the Israelites. The message does not come with any consideration for how Pharaoh may feel about what God has to say to him. It is delivered as it should be representing the Lord as a King speaking to another king (Pharaoh). It is not a request or an appeal for cooperation. It is a demand of a superior and more powerful king to an inferior and weaker king. Pharaoh's response is classic. Who is this Yahweh that I should obey His voice? His denial of knowing the Lord has nothing to do with our sense of being saved, but instead describes Pharaoh's unfamiliarity with this specific name for the God of the Hebrews. Pharaoh does not know about Yahweh yet, but this is just the introduction and in the days to come he is going to get to know Him far more than he ever wanted. When Pharaoh insolently rejected the message from Yahweh, the tone of the meeting suddenly changes. Moses and Aaron shift from bold messengers of a greater King, to almost pathetic supplicants. Rather than perform the miracle signs God had given him at this point, Moses resorts to using the "magic word." Moses says, "Please, let us go...", as if softening the conversation from a demand to an appeal and asking Pharaoh rather than telling him will suddenly change his mind. Their nice request is met, not with Pharaoh's cooperation, but with a demand from him for them to stop stirring up trouble with the people and to get back to work!

5:6-9 - "So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, "You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words."

When Moses and Aaron first arrived back in Egypt as the Lord's messengers they were greeted with great hope by the people of Israel (Exodus 4:29-31). The people had worshipped the Lord when they learned that He was concerned about their afflictions in Egypt and had sent messengers to rescue them from their difficulties. That is exactly what Moses was there to accomplish. There is just one problem that the people had not anticipated, and would have to learn by experience. What they began at this exact point to learn is a discipleship lesson that we must all learn along with them. The lesson is that while God has promised to favor His covenant people with blessings, the fulfillment of His promise does not always unfold in the way or the timing we would choose for ourselves. If Israel, or even Moses were in charge like the Lord of this scenario, they would have chosen for it to unfold like this. First Moses would have delivered the message to Pharaoh, then Pharaoh would have immediately had a change of heart and released Israel with no fuss or further problem. When Pharaoh did the exact opposite and actually strengthened their bondage and affliction once God's message was delivered, both Israel and Moses were disoriented and confused. If God is in it, shouldn't everything just go smooth?

This is no different than the new believer that comes to know the Lord expecting that their life circumstances will all be fixed now that they are saved. When more troubles, rather than less troubles develop in their life, many are disillusioned and disappointed with God. The same pattern often develops when a believer makes a difficult decision to trust the Lord in some issue of obedience and do the thing pleasing to the Lord, only to be caught off guard that their obedience ends up costing them something. The discipleship principle involved here is that God's priority is not our comfort but our growth. There are bigger spiritual issues at stake than God making our lives as cushy as we would prefer. "strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22).

In this case there was a needful perspective being gained by Israel through Pharaoh's hardening heart. They were learning the hard way about the reality of rebellion against the revealed will of God in this world, and their own hearts were being safeguarded against the temptation to return to Egypt in the future by a fresh and increased dose of just how harsh a world in rebellion to God can be. Even with this lesson of their severe hardship and suffering, Israel would soon be tempted in the wilderness to reject the Lord's direction and run back to their slavery under Pharaoh.

5:20-23 - "When they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. They said to them, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us." Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all."

Following the increased demands of Pharaoh and the new workload upon Israel the foremen of the slaves were themselves punished when the people could not meet their quota of bricks. Rather than appeal to Moses, the foremen went directly to Pharaoh and cried out for relief. Pharaoh did not flinch but held them and the people to the impossibly high standards of work that he had imposed. When the foremen left the meeting with Pharaoh they were met by Moses and Aaron. What ensues is the beginning of the unraveling of the relationship between Moses and the people of Israel. Up until this point Moses was the new hope of Israel and welcomed without reservation. How these foremen respond to Moses establishes a pattern that will play out over and over for the next forty years of their journey through the wilderness. The patter is simply this; when Moses does something that makes their lives easier he is a hero to Israel, but when he does something that makes their lives more difficult he becomes the target for their anger.

Moses and Aaron had to be taken aback by how these Israelite foremen address them coming out from their meeting with Pharaoh. Without even saying hello, the men declare their desire for the Lord to take notice of Moses and Aaron and to judge them for what they have done. They are asking for the judgment of God to fall upon them and in doing so they are accusing them of having sinned. The essence of their perspective is that what Pharaoh has done is all the fault of Moses and Aaron. The underlying implication is that if Moses must have blown his assignment as the Lord's messenger somehow. If Moses had delivered the message the way he should have then Pharaoh would have let them go, not made their slavery worse! This is of course a false accusation based upon a fleshly conclusion which failed to understand the deeper plan of the Lord in this circumstance. Pharaoh responded in the way he did because God wanted him to do so. God was setting up a confrontation between Himself and Pharaoh. The foremen were blind to that greater purpose of God, and were only concerned to attack the one they blamed for causing them more trouble.

It is not right that these men reacted by blaming Moses, but it is somewhat understandable because they did not have the benefit of all Moses had experienced with the Lord. However, Moses did not have that excuse for his reaction that followed. When the foremen blame Moses for their troubles, how does Moses respond? Moses does something right and something wrong. What is right is that he does not stand there and argue with the foremen. He does not even attempt to defend himself or justify himself in their eyes. He knows that it really is not his fault since he was only the messenger. While it is a hard pill to swallow, those that are called to be messengers for the Lord have to learn the lesson that when the message is not welcomed, the messenger is often blamed. Moses does what he should when he is unjustly blamed for the increased trouble for Israel, and being blamed for it by the people. Moses returns to the Lord. Since it was the Lord's message and the Lord's commission to deliver it, Moses can only find understanding in the presence of the Lord. What he does wrong, however, is that he does not return to the Lord to humbly seek wisdom and an explanation from the Lord. What Moses does is carry the attitude that the foremen approached him with in his own communication with the Lord. Just like they blamed him, Moses now blames the Lord. Moses' prayer is not one of innocent confusion seeking an explanation. He does want an explanation, but it is flavored with an accusation that the Lord has mishandled the situation.

Moses did not expect that by delivering the Lord's message the circumstance for Israel would grow worse before it got better. Moses asks two loaded "Why Lord?!?" questions and follows them with a complaint that the Lord had not fulfilled His promise to deliver the people through him. "O Lord, why have You brought harm... Why did You ever send me?" Moses has not yet learned what we should know. The Lord is wise and faithful beyond question. He knows what He is doing even when we don't. He is always faithful to fulfill His promises even when we don't see how He will do so. When things don't go according to our plan that does not mean that they aren't going according to His plan. Moses should have known better. The Lord specifically warned him that Pharaoh would not respond well at first. "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go." (Exodus 3:19-20). We should know better also to ever blame the Lord for what goes "wrong" in our lives.

Exodus 6

6:1 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land."

Chapter five ended with Moses being accused by the Israelite foremen of mishandling the entire situation, and then Moses returning to the Lord and confronting the Lord about the way the Lord has handled the entire situation. Moses asked the two loaded "Why Lord?" questions. Moses wanted to know why the Lord had brought harm to Israel because Pharaoh had made their lives even more miserable when he increased their workload. Moses also wanted to know why God had even bothered to send him to Egypt in the first place because his mission had so far been a complete failure in his perspective. Moses then compounded the two accusatory questions directed toward the Lord with a direct statement implying the Lord had not fulfilled His promise to deliver Israel from their bondage. This verse is the Lord's response to the questions and insinuation of Moses of His unfaithfulness.

The first thing to notice in the Lord's response is that He does not directly answer either of the questions Moses asked Him. He also does not directly address the insinuation that He has not fulfilled His promise. Instead, the Lord declares that the time has arrived for Him to act directly and that Moses would see for himself what He was going to do. This interaction between Moses and the Lord strikes me as very parental. Moses, like an immature child is emotionally reacting and venting his frustrations over a difficult circumstance. The expectations of Moses have not been matched by the actions of God. In his frustration Moses wants answers and demands them from the Lord. The Lord responds as a wise parent who is more concerned about what Moses needs to learn than He is with how Moses is misinterpreting His role in the situation. The Lord, never directly answers the questions Moses asked, but directs his attention to what He is about to do. His upcoming actions will answer all of Moses' questions and more. The deeper principle revealed here in the way the Lord handles the frustration of Moses is that the Lord does not owe any of us any explanation of His plans. He graciously chooses, when it serves His purpose, to grant us understanding of what He is doing and why, but we should expect a similar response from the Lord when we make similar demands. If you want to be ignored by the Lord, then following the bad example of Moses in demanding answers from the Lord is a good starting point.

The Lord's answer directs Moses back to His original declaration when they spoke at the burning bush of what He was going to do, but let's Moses know that the time has come for Him to accomplish it (Exodus 3:19-20). Once again, the emphatic point that the Lord makes is that He is not going to ask, persuade or appeal to Pharaoh. He is going to compel Pharaoh to do what he does not want to do, but the Lord will force him to do! The Lord twice describes that Pharaoh will only release Israel "under compulsion". This is another strong indicator of the complete sovereignty of God over all human beings. Many believers can embrace the idea that the Lord is sovereign over His own people who in their minds have willingly wanted the Lord to be in complete charge over their lives. Here though, the Lord is going to exercise forceful control over the mind, heart and will of a man that has not requested it and does not want it. Pharaoh never invites the sovereignty of God over his life and decisions. So, this passage forces us to deal with a clash of concepts in how God deals with humans, both willing and unwilling. Is God really in complete charge like He declares here, or does God always limit Himself to only working where humans invite His involvement? On the one hand we have those who insist God will never impose His will on an unwilling human. On the other hand we have God's declaration to Moses here to watch how He is going to force Pharaoh to do under compulsion what he would never choose to do on his own. I choose to accept God's own testimony of how He deals with humanity over humanity's presumptive assertions of what God would never do.

6:2-5 - "God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them. I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant."

God chooses this key moment to refresh for Moses what He revealed to him about Himself at the burning bush. Remember, it was at the bush that God had identified Himself to Moses by what would be from that point forward His covenant name, YHWH, or Yahweh. Now, the Lord gives Moses some additional background history on this special name. The Lord declares again to Moses, "I am Yahweh", and reminds Moses that He is the One Who had appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The important connection is that what God was about to do for Israel through Moses had everything to do with the special covenant relationship established previously with those three patriarchs. The Lord had made promises to them over 400 years before, that He was now about to fulfill. Moses had just questioned the faithfulness of the Lord to His promises, and now indirectly the Lord lets Moses know that even a 400 year delay does not undermine His faithfulness.

Then the Lord makes a curious statement to Moses. In referring to His name Yahweh, He tells Moses that He was known as God Almighty to them, but that He did not make Himself known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the name Yahweh. This statement is curious because of two passages from Genesis. In the first (Genesis 15:1-2), the Lord appeared to Abraham and Abraham used the name Yahweh in his response as he was talking with God. In the second (Genesis 28:13), God appeared to Jacob in ladder dream and told Jacob that His name was Yahweh. This apparent contradiction of what the Lord now tells Moses is a misunderstanding of emphasis. The Lord is not telling Moses that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had never even heard of the name Yahweh before. What the Lord is emphasizing is that Moses is the first person in history that was ever given the explanation by the Lord of what His covenant name means (Exodus 3:14). The earlier patriarchs were familiar with the name Yahweh, but were not given deeper spiritual understanding of the meaning of His name. They did know Him primarily as God Almighty, but from now on, Israel would know Him primarily as Yahweh. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob He was God Almighty, or the God who is more powerful than all the other gods of the nations. Now, to Moses, and Israel after him, He will be known as Yahweh, the eternally unchanging One, the self-existent One, Who depends on no one and no thing for His existence.

6:6-8 - "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.'"

The Lord now graciously lays out for Moses His plan for Israel's future. Because it lays in the future, it seems uncertain to Moses, but because it is the Lord's plan its fulfillment is as certain as the past. God first commissions Moses to pass on to Israel the knowledge of God's covenant name that he has been given. The promises that follow are dependant upon the meaning of His name. The Lord then gives seven wonderful promises to Moses to pass on to Israel. These seven promises form the specific outline of the plan of God for Israel. The strength of the promises is measured by the integrity of the One that makes the promise. The Lord frames them in seven "I will..." statements. Because He wills these seven things, there are all 100% certain to one day happen just as the Lord said.

The seven promises are 1) the Lord will bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, 2) the Lord will deliver them from their bondage, 3) the Lord will redeem them with an outstretched arm and great judgments, 4) the Lord will take them for His people, 5) the Lord will be their God, 6) the Lord will bring them to the land He swore to the patriarchs, 7) the Lord will give that Promised Land to them for their possession. He then finishes His declaration of what He intends to do by repeating that His name is Yahweh. The meaning is that His name reveals His true nature, and that is the proof, the absolute certainty that what He says He will do is what will happen.

There are several details in these seven promises deserving more detailed study, but I'll highlight a couple. The Lord is going to stretch out His arm when He brings Israel out of Egypt. This is an image meant to tell us something about the way God reveals His power in history. The Biblical perspective is that God is all powerful. We use the theological term omnipotent to describe that God is not just more powerful than all others, but that the full degree of His power is so great that any comparison with the power of others fails to show how great His power really is. Yet, we do not see the greatness of God's power in all of history. God chooses not to show all of His power at all times, but instead He has chosen specific times and events through which He will show His power. The events immediately ahead for Israel will provide one of the great demonstrations of God's power in all of history. This is not the only time in history in which God stretches out His arm and makes His great power known. He did so in the creation, in the curse which changed the world because of Adam's sin, in the flood, and in the blessing of the patriarchs. Now He is about to reveal His power by humbling the greatest nation in the world and exalting the least of nations to a place of greatest prominence in world history.

6:9-13 - "So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage. Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land." But Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, "Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?" Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt."

God ordered Moses to speak this plan to Israel as His messenger, and Moses obeys. Moses declares the full message of God to Israel, but he is met with a discouraging and disheartening response. Israel does not listen to Moses. Can you imagine God sending a true prophet to you with a true message directly from God and you just don't listen to what he has to say? Israel has no excuse to so completely ignore the messenger and message from God, but there is an explanation. They are themselves despondent because of the increasingly cruel circumstances of their bondage. Their suffering has exhausted their capacity to hear the word from the Lord and believe it. The word despondency in our translation is literally shortness of breath or spirit in the original Hebrew. Both senses apply here. Their increased hardship has left them gasping for breath, which then renders them unable to catch their breath spiritually. This is a real issue for Israel here that is beyond their control. Their tribulations have so deeply impacted their physical and spiritual lives that they can't even really hear let alone respond to this message of hope from God. I appreciate that the Lord does not berate Israel for this lack of response here. The Lord knows their suffering and does not compound their suffering by condemning them for their spiritual weakness. The Lord had Moses deliver His message to them even knowing in advance they would not listen. Later, once the Lord has delivered them, Israel will be able to look back and gain appreciation for the mercy and faithfulness of the Lord when they were at their lowest point.

Moses does not in this moment grasp yet what the Lord is doing. Being ignored by Israel tempts Moses to rehearse once more to the Lord his fear and uncertainty about himself as the Lord's messenger. "Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?" In the perspective of Moses, a skillful messenger will get people to listen. Since they ignored him, the issue must be his lack of skill to deliver the message of the Lord effectively. The tone of this question that Moses asks the Lord here is a bit less disrespectful than previously, and more of an honest doubt in his own ability. However, in the big picture, the ability of Moses is no factor in his calling. The Lord had previously made it clear to Moses that his skill has nothing to do with his calling. All that matters is that the Lord has called him, sent him, and is with him. The Lord does not stop and repeat all this to Moses here. In fact, the Lord once again ignores this attempt by Moses to be excused from this assignment. The Lord's only response is to renew His charge to Moses and Aaron. Eventually it will sink in that when the Lord calls and assigns the only appropriate response is obedience, not negotiation.

Exodus 7

7:1-3 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt."

The Lord had just commanded Moses to return to Pharaoh with the Lord's message. Moses balked at the thought of speaking to Pharaoh again because Pharaoh had disregarded him the first time. Moses asked the Lord why Pharaoh would listen to him. Now the Lord answers the concern of Moses in a way that strengthens the heart of Moses and also takes Pharaoh down a level in the eyes of Moses. The Lord is going to make Moses "God to Pharaoh..." Moses has seen Pharaoh as too large until this point. The Lord is announcing to Moses how He sees Pharaoh and where He has appointed for Moses to stand in relationship to Pharaoh. Remember Pharaoh was considered a god among men by the Egyptians. This role description by the Lord confirms for Moses that not only is Pharaoh not going to be like a god to him anymore, but that because of his role as the messenger of the one true God, Moses will actually be like God to Pharaoh. Additionally Aaron will serve as the prophet of Moses. This is all to demonstrate how far down the pecking order Pharaoh really is. He sees himself as a god, but the true order of spiritual authority will be Yahweh, then Moses, then Aaron, and only then Pharaoh. One of God's great works in the events about to unfold will be the humiliation of the ruler of Egypt who had been so arrogant as to designate himself as a god.

The Lord alerts Moses once again as He has before that the release of Israel that the Lord has promised is not going to be immediate. The Lord will bring Israel out of Egypt, but first He has some unfinished business with Pharaoh and Egypt. In order to accomplish all that He has planned the Lord must insure that Pharaoh does not give in too quickly. The Lord has planned a multiplied series of signs and wonders for Egypt. These signs are commonly known as the Ten Plagues. They are not all literally plagues, as in diseases, and the term Ten Plagues is no where used in the Bible, but was coined later as a way of describing these events. As we will see in the study of each of these signs of the Lord, each one was a necessary aspect of the Lord's plan. If Pharaoh were to release Israel too soon, critical elements of the Lord's message to Egypt would be left out. Therefore, the Lord announces again that He is going to spiritually deal with Pharaoh's heart to insure His plan is fulfilled.

The way the Lord is going to deal with Pharaoh is by hardening his heart. Many struggle with this concept because at first glance it seems as though it is not right or fair for the Lord to do this to Pharaoh. First we should be clear that Pharaoh is no innocent victim here as though he was a pure and good ruler that God turned bad. God hardening his heart is making his heart more firm in the direction it was already inclined. Even so, does God really have the right to do so to a man's heart? Yes, God as the creator of all has the right of ownership. "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Proverbs 21:1). "So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires." (Romans 9:18). Many are uncomfortable with this principle because the concept of God being in charge to such a deep degree is unsettling or even frightening. It is indeed unsettling for a person who lives under the impression that they are in complete control over their own life. The Bible gives us unsettling truth which leads to a deeper security in our sovereign God rather than the false comfort of the illusion of human control.

7:4-5 - "When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst."

In referring to the eventual release of Israel, the Lord describes that He will "bring out My hosts..." The hosts here are the people of Israel. The word chosen by the Lord to describe them on that day is intentional and awesome in its implications. Hosts is a military term. It describes the orderly arrangement of an army. Israel at this present moment could hardly be compared to an army. They were a nation of slaves. They were not armed nor trained to be warriors. Even their disposition was oriented more to their slavery than to any real hope of freedom. Yet, the Lord chose to describe Israel not just as an army but as His army! This is a prophetic description by the Lord of what He is going to accomplish in and with Israel. It is not about what they are today, but what they will be when God accomplishes His purpose for them. In a similar way, in the New Testament, we are each saved from the spiritual slavery of our old life. When the Lord saves us He joins our lives to His church. In terms of who we were before Christ laid His hand of salvation upon us, we were far from special. His salvation gives us a new identity and a new purpose. He transforms spiritual slaves into spiritual warriors, and calls us His army.

The Lord announces here that He is going to cause Israel's release by a series of what He calls "great judgments." What we call the Ten Plagues, God calls great judgments. In other words, the ten signs and wonders He is about to do are not mere displays of God's power, but they are specifically targeted judgments from God. Biblically, judgments are long deserved responses of God's justice because of the mounting sins of the people judged. In this case, the judgments will fall upon the nation of Egypt implying that they deserve what they are about to receive. What sins of Egypt are the reason why God will send these great judgments? The sins of Egypt were numerous, but the target of the Lord is to deal with the idolatry of Egypt. The nation worshipped a number of gods. Each of the ten great judgments that will strike Egypt in these next chapters is a specific judgment upon one of the false gods of the Egyptians. Each judgment will show conclusively that their god has no power and that Yahweh is the One true God. This passage from the final judgment confirms that the false gods of Egypt were the Lord's target; "against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--I am the LORD." (Exodus 12:12).

7:8-13 - "Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'" So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said."

Before the ten great judgments of the Lord begin, the Lord first has Moses and Aaron do a personal demonstration for Pharaoh of the Lord's power. The demonstration involves Aaron throwing down his wooden staff and it becoming a serpent. This demonstration was not randomly chosen by the Lord. The serpent was one of the primary gods worshipped in Egypt. On the crown Pharaoh wore was a depiction of an angry cobra ready to strike. This demonstration would make clear from the beginning whose crown or authority was greater; Pharaoh's or Yahweh's.

When Aaron's staff becomes a serpent by the miracle of God, Pharaoh responds in an unexpected way. Pharaoh is apparently not impressed, and summons sorcerers. When they arrive they amazingly duplicate the miracle by throwing down their staffs which then turn into serpents. This passage has troubled believers with the question of how this could happen. We will see in the account of the first two great judgments to follow that a similar imitation of God's miracle by these same sorcerers will occur. How should we understand what took place here? There are two possibilities, both of which could be what happened. The first possibility is that the sorcerers are nothing more than ancient versions of our modern Las Vegas magicians in which they used natural trickery to give the false impression that they had real spiritual power. This view explains this as a trick in which the serpents of the sorcerers were made a stiff as a staff by a special nerve manipulation known to snake charmers. The explanation is that the same nerve that made the snakes stiff is pressed in front of Pharaoh and their "staffs" only appear to turn into snakes. While this is a plausible explanation, there is no hint in the text that would lead us to think that this was pure showmanship here.

The other possibility, and the one I accept is that these sorcerers did real works of power. This passage describes how such a thing can happen; "the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness." (II Thessalonians 2:9-12). This describes the activity of Satan is certain circumstances to do supernatural works of power through deceptive human agents in a similar way that God does in certain circumstances works of power through those He chooses. In this case, it is not the sorcerer that turns the staff into a snake, but Satan. The purpose is the opposite also of God's signs and wonders. When God does a miracle it is to confirm the truth of His message and validate the authority of His messenger. When Satan does a work of power, it is to confirm the deception of his message and to validate the authority of his false messengers. The Lord permits Satan to do limited works of power for the purpose of exposing the hearts of those who are willing to believe a lie.

This is spiritual warfare in a display of competing powers. The Lord does not leave it unclear whose power is the greater one however. The serpent that was Aaron's staff immediately attacks and swallows up the serpents made from the staffs of the sorcerers. Pharaoh could not ask for a clearer demonstration of the superiority of God's power, but his heart ignores the swallowing of the staffs of his sorcerers and his heart is hardened further. Generations later when Jesus does awesome miracles in front of witnesses, we should not be shocked at how easily they turn away from Him. People will believe what they want and need to believe no matter how great the evidence to the contrary until the Lord changes their heart.

7:17 - "Thus says the LORD, "By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood."

This is the first of the great judgments of the Lord upon Egypt. As with each of the nine judgments to follow a specific false god of the Egyptians is to be judged in the eyes of Egypt. The intention of the Lord is to expose the utter weakness of their gods in comparison with the One true God, Yahweh. The first judgment the Lord unleashes will target the Nile river. The Nile was itself one of the gods of Egypt. The Nile was personified by the Egyptians as the god Hapi. It was called the giver of life. The river was pictured by the Egyptians as providing for the land of Egypt what the bloodstream does for the physical body. By turning the water of the Nile to blood, the Lord is going to at the same time literally give to the Egyptians what they worship, and show them that what they call the life giver of Egypt is really the source of death. Of course, the Lord's issue is not with the Nile river because He had created the river. His issue is with how the darkened hearts of the Egyptians have turned His creation into a false god. "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." (Romans 1:25). God is going to humiliate the Nile god of Egypt and make it so that they cannot lean on it any longer.

Questions from Exodus 6:

Question: 6:1 and 3:2-4 - In 6:1, it identifies the Lord as the one speaking to Moses. But in 3:2, it reads "and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush..." and then in verse 4, "God called to Him from the midst of the bush...". Does God use angels to speak for Him at times?

Answer: Yes. One of the primary assignments of angels is to function as the messengers of God. The term "angel" is a translation of a Greek word for messenger. This passage from Hebrews tells us that God revealed the Old Testament through angels. "For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty," (Hebrews 2:2). To address the other aspect of your question we have to also make a distinction in how the Lord spoke through angels in the Old Testament. The following topic really deserves a full book to adequately explain it, but I'll briefly describe it here. Throughout the Old Testament God spoke His messages to people by sending angels as messengers. However, in some of the portions that mention an angel we are meant to identify that "angel" as a very special messenger even among angels.

The passages that refer to "the angel of the Lord" can refer not just to a normal created angel serving the Lord as His messenger, but as the Son of God appearing in the form of an angel. These kinds of appearances in the Old Testament are what are known theologically as a theophany or christophany. These refer to an appearance of God or and appearance of Christ. It does not mean that Christ ever became an angel, only that He took the form of an angel to deliver a message from God. In these appearances we will read that an angel spoke and often in the same passage that God spoke. The passage we studied in Genesis 18 is an example. Three "men" appeared to Abraham. We later learn that they were angels, yet one of them is also identified as the Lord. Your question was about Exodus 3:2 in which "the angel of the Lord appeared" to Moses in the burning bush. Yet two verses later in 3:4 we read that "God called to him from the midst of the bush..." The angel that appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and later on Mt. Sinai to give Moses the Law of God was the Lord Jesus Christ in a pre-incarnate appearance. In other cases, the Lord sends messages through an actual angel, such as the times the Lord spoke to Mary and Joseph by sending the angel Gabriel with messages.

Exodus 8

8:1-4 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs. The Nile will swarm with frogs, which will come up and go into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and on your people, and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls. So the frogs will come up on you and your people and all your servants.'"

Following the first great judgment of turning the Nile into blood, the Lord now sends Moses back to Pharaoh with a simple message and a warning. The message of the Lord is nothing new, but repeats the earlier demand of the Lord to let His people go so that they may serve Him. The issue between the Lord and Pharaoh has been clarified into a straightforward contest of will and power. Who is stronger, and who will flinch first? The Lord leaves no question as to whether He is going to lighten His demand as was common in any negotiation between sovereign rulers. When relative equals negotiate it is expected for both to give a little to find some workable middle ground. The Lord restates His earlier requirement, and He will do so again and again with increasingly devastating demonstrations of His power until finally Pharaoh relents. One thing Pharaoh is going to learn the hard way is that the Lord when the Lord makes a demand, the only viable option is to respond as He requires. The Lord also has Moses announce the second of His great judgments upon Egypt. Moses is to deliver the message in the form of, "But if you refuse...behold, I will smite..." The Lord does not expect Pharaoh to give in. The warning is phrased to highlight the stubbornness of Pharaoh's heart and that the responsibility for the suffering to come rests squarely on his shoulders.

The Lord chooses a swarm of frogs for the second judgment. This choice was as purposeful as the choice of the Nile in the first judgment. As with each of these judgments specific Egyptian gods are targeted and "humiliated" in the eyes of Egypt. Egypt reverenced the goddess Hekhet, who had the head of a frog. She was the wife of Khnum, who was the god in Egyptian mythology that made humans on his potter's wheel. Once he made them, she breathed life into their bodies. Hekhet also had the job of keeping the frog population in the Nile river in check by using crocodiles to eat them. By miraculously multiplying frogs to swarm throughout the land the Lord was exposing Hekhet as powerless to stop them. He is in essence saying to Egypt, "Where is your frog god now?" The Egyptians were well familiar with the frogs spawned in the Nile and in some seasons had to deal with a greater number of frogs along the banks of the river where they bathed and fished. This judgment multiplied that problem a thousand fold. These frogs did not just overrun the banks of the river, but filled the entire territory. They swarmed every house, bedroom, bed, and kitchen. Remember, in that culture people slept on the floor on mats rather than raised beds. For the duration of this judgment, they slept with frogs, and could not even roll over in bed without rolling over on the frogs. Their food preparation was affected by the frogs in their ovens and bread making bowls. Every class in Egyptian society was affected and none of the wealth or power of Pharaoh could exempt him from it.

8:6-11 - "So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. The magicians did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Entreat the LORD that He remove the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD." Moses said to Pharaoh, "The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile?" Then he said, "Tomorrow." So he said, "May it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your servants and your people; they will be left only in the Nile."

Once again, the sorcerers of Egypt were able to imitate the appearance of the frogs. The impression is that in these first two works of power, the magicians of Egypt were able to do a similar work by demonic activity, but on a much smaller scale. The obvious and unspoken issue for the sorcerers is that they are only able with the greatest display of their "powers" to make the problem worse, not better. In the first judgment of turning water to blood, and now in the swarming of frogs, their efforts add to the blood and the frogs. They are completely unable to decrease the number of frogs let alone make them go away for Pharaoh. There is an important principle here regarding spiritual warfare. Satan has a limited power, granted to him by the Lord, to imitate the works of God. We will see in the following judgments that the Lord will not allow demonic powers to duplicate all of the works of God, or even the degree of the works that are being imitated. We should be aware however, that some degree of spiritual imitation remains a dangerous deception for those who interpret any display of spiritual power as an automatic proof of God's involvement. We should also be confident if we ever encounter some deceptive spiritual power, that the power of God is always superior (Acts 13:6-12).

The plague of frogs has an affect upon Pharaoh in a way that the first judgment did not. Certainly this judgment touched him more directly and was a much greater irritation. Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron and for the first time he shows a weakening resolve. He then does an amazing thing. He appeals to them to pray on his behalf. Keep in mind that Pharaoh was a god to the Egyptians. Here is a "god" asking someone else to pray for him. It reveals the truth hidden in Pharaoh's heart. The truth is that he knows he is no god. This request exposes his lack of confidence in his own godhood. If he were truly a god he could command the frogs to go and they would have to obey. Pharaoh is shown to be as weak in the face of this judgment as the lowest servant in Egypt. Additionally, Pharaoh does not ask Moses to pray to the Nile river for help, or to Hekhet, the frog goddess. He asks Moses to pray to Yahweh for him. In an earlier exchange, Pharaoh had arrogantly questioned who Yahweh was (Exodus 5:2). Now he is beginning to learn to fear Yahweh. He won't yet fully admit it in these exact words, but by asking for prayer to Yahweh, he is acknowledging that Yahweh has power over the frogs and admitting that neither he, nor any of the gods of Egypt do. It is an interesting phenomenon that I have encountered many times with unbelievers. People that do not believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, when they are confronted with a life crisis beyond their control display a sudden interest in Christians praying for them in the name of Jesus.

8:12-15 - "Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. The LORD did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. So they piled them in heaps, and the land became foul." But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said."

Moses prays, and the Lord answers by causing all the swarming frogs to die. The Lord leaves Pharaoh a pungent reminder of this judgment in the rotting bodies of the frogs. The frogs do not conveniently hop back to the Nile to die, but instead expire where they were covering all the land. The task remains of piling up all the dead frogs. The original text emphasizes how many piles of frogs created by repeating the word heaps. There were heaps and heaps and heaps of dead frogs. If you have ever been near the carcass of even a single dead reptile you have learned first hand that the odor from decaying reptiles is a unique experience. There is nothing even faintly pleasant about the odor. Now imagine multiplied thousands and thousands of decaying frogs heaped up right outside your house. Remembering that Egyptian homes had open windows with no glass or screens, the smell of the heaps of frogs was a strong reminder of the hand and power of Yahweh that they could not escape. Even as further judgments would unfold, this one will remain for a time as an aroma of death.

In spite of all this, once the frogs died, Pharaoh breathed a sign of relief and his heart immediately hardened again. It is becoming apparent quickly after the start of the judgments of the Lord that Pharaoh's heart will only change under the continued intense pressure of present judgment. If the Lord grants him any space to relax, his heart goes right back to its previous stubborn resistance. How similar is this pattern of Pharaoh's reactions to the Lord's dealing with him to the way people react to the Lord even today. I have seen the Lord apply intense pressure to the heart of a person through unwanted circumstances of trouble. When the trouble is at its peak it is not uncommon for people to apparently soften toward the Lord. Then, as soon as the pressure is of the trouble is gone, their hearts snap almost instantly back to their previous unconcerned and rebellious attitude. It is a well known pattern that when some disaster strikes society such as the events of September 11, 2001, the Katrina hurricane, or the recent Virginia Tech shootings that the people affected show a surge in spiritual interest. Church attendance always increases in connection to these kinds of events; for an amazingly short time. Then, soon after God and church are as neglected as before, if not more so.

In WWII, this pattern was known as "foxhole salvation." People tend to show great interest in the Lord's help when bullets and bombs are flying overhead the foxhole. In the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, George Clooney's character Everett is a worldly wise scoffer at the foolishness of religion. Then, when he is about to be hanged, he suddenly "finds religion" and prays with great zeal. As soon as he is unexpectedly rescued by a flood of water, he disregards the divine connection in his deliverance and he immediately returns to scoffing even as he is floating in the water of the flood. One of the most important things we can do to maintain true spiritual growth is simply to remember what the Lord has done for us in our life circumstances. To recognize His hand in our lives safeguards our heart from the arrogance of Pharaoh.

8:16-23 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.'" They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Now the LORD said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, as he comes out to the water, and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For if you do not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they dwell. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of flies will be there, in order that you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the land. I will put a division between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will occur.'"

This section details the third and fourth great judgments of the Lord. They are similar in that they both involve swarms of flying insects. In the third judgment either gnats or mosquitoes cover all the land of Egypt. The original word used can refer to either type insect. I am inclined to believe these were mosquitoes. Gnats would certainly be irritating, but there is a sense in which each successive judgment is increasing in severity over the preceding one. As bad as the frog judgment was, mosquitoes would be even worse, especially in dense swarms covering all the land. One of the worst nights of my life was spent camping next to a lake in Canada on a canoe trip. My camp site was swarmed by mosquitoes and I was bitten hundreds of times in a few minutes of time. I ended up climbing in my sleeping bag even though it was a hot summer night and closing the hood of the sleeping bag with a draw string until only my nose for breathing was exposed. At least I had the relief of morning arriving and the mosquitoes dispersed in the daylight. For the Egyptians, they had to endure that kind of torment, without relief for the duration of this judgment. With no screens on their homes, they had no place to hide.

It is at this point that the Lord draws the line on what He allows the magicians of Egypt to imitate. They exhaust all their magical arts, but are unable to bring forth these insects as Moses and Aaron had done with the staff of the Lord. They are forced to acknowledge to Pharaoh that this miracle is the "finger of God." We might expect Pharaoh to give heed to his own sorcerers, but instead he once again hardens his heart. In earlier judgments, Pharaoh hardened his heart because his magicians were able to in measure imitate the miracles with their powers. Now, in spite of the clear evidence that they cannot imitate the plague of insects, he still hardens his heart. This shows us the dangerous progressive nature of a hardening heart. At the beginning it took more for his heart to harden. Now, and from now on, it will take less for him to harden his heart. The warning, for even true believers, is to not lightly dismiss the danger of ever hardening our hearts toward the Lord. Each time we harden our hearts we are making ourselves more inclined to further hardening in the future.

The Lord also introduces a new element in the announcement of the fourth great judgment. He is going to purposefully distinguish between the Israelites and the Egyptians in the coming judgment. As the Lord brings swarms of flies upon the land and people of Egypt, He is going to preserve the people of Israel and their homes in the land of Goshen from the swarms. This protection of Goshen will confirm that this is no naturally occurring phenomenon. The Lord is going to protect His own people at the same time that He afflicts Pharaoh's people. Everyone will experience for themselves which god is truly God, Pharaoh or Yahweh.

Exodus 9

9:8-12 - "Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from a kiln, and let Moses throw it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast through all the land of Egypt." So they took soot from a kiln, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast. The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians. And the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses."

Following the fifth great judgment of the pestilence upon only the livestock of the Egyptians while sparing all the livestock of Israel in Goshen, the Lord now directs Moses and Aaron to do a particularly unusual act to introduce the sixth judgment. Of course, all of these judgments are out of the ordinary, and the roles of Moses and Aaron in them are not usual activity for any person. What the Lord has them do here though, is at first mysterious. They are to take handfuls of soot from a kiln and throw it into the sky. It is important that they do so in the sight of Pharaoh. They must do it where Pharaoh can see them because there is no prior announcement for this judgment, but the Lord wants Pharaoh to be certain that the boils that follow are not a natural outbreak of disease, but the work Yahweh. Why soot from a kiln, and why throw it into the sky? We cannot be 100% certain since the text does not give us further explanation, but there is a likely connection to an earlier part of the story. When Moses had first arrived back in Egypt and first delivered the Lord's demand to Pharaoh to let His people go, Pharaoh had responded by making the lives of the Israelites more miserable by requiring them to make an unreasonable amount of bricks and to do so without the provision of straw. The people made the bricks by taking mud from the banks of the Nile, mixing some straw into the mud, and then baking the mixture in brick ovens or kilns. This soot that Moses and Aaron were to throw into the air by handfuls was most likely the soot left in the brick ovens.

It was an appropriate expression of God's justice that He chose the soot of Israel's kiln's which represented their great misery under Pharaoh's oppressive hand to impose on him and the Egyptians His hand of judgment in the form of boils. They were also to throw it into the sky. The Egyptians worshipped a number of sky gods, the most prominent of which was Horus, who was pictured with the head of a falcon. The primary task of Horus was to watch over from the sky the reigning Pharaoh and to protect him from all harm. This judgment from the Lord was going to symbolically use the soot of Israel's misery and hold Pharaoh directly accountable for it by imposing upon his body and the bodies of all his subjects boils causing their own great misery. Horus would be exposed as completely powerless to protect Pharaoh from Yahweh's hand of judgment.

This is also the final time that the magicians of Pharaoh are mentioned. The last time we encountered them, they attempted to imitate the third plague, but they could not. They never left Pharaoh's court because throughout this series of judgments they act as Pharaoh's counselors. In this case, they do not even attempt to imitate this judgment, and are instead personally inflicted with the boils of the judgment. There is a noticeable comparison and contrast drawn here. Moses and Aaron stand boldly before the so called god Pharaoh, and pronounce the judgment of God upon him. The greatest sorcerer/magicians in all the land of Egypt with all their secret arts can no longer stand before the messengers of Yahweh.

9:13-17 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go."

This section like a spiritual interlude between plagues six and seven. Before the Lord unleashes the seventh judgment upon Egypt, He first has Moses deliver a message of mercy to Pharaoh. The Lord wants Pharaoh to know that whatever he has so far experienced in these judgments is not as bad as it could have been. The Lord declares that if He had put forth His hand and struck Pharaoh with what the Lord implies he really deserves, then he would have been killed already and all of Egypt with him. The lesson here is about the daily mercies of God that we all enjoy without even being aware of them. The real issue is one of God's justice and mercy. In light of God's holy justice what do all human beings actually deserve from God? The answer is death. We have all sinned and violated God's Law in many ways. Every single one of us has earned and deserves the death penalty for our transgressions against God. Since we have not yet died, then we are living only because of God's mercy. God has not inflicted upon anyone the full penalty that they deserve while they are still living and breathing.

The ten judgments unfold in a specific order as we should expect from the Lord who is a God of order. The first nine judgments occur in three sets of three judgments. In comparing the first three to the second and third set of three there are patterns of similarity that emerge in the kind of judgments and even in the way the Lord either announces them to Pharaoh or chooses not to announce them. The seventh plague is the first one of the third and final set of three. The tenth plague is by itself as the culminating or final judgment. Just before the Lord has Moses declare the beginning of the final set of judgments, He informs Pharaoh that there is not one more judgment coming, but a set of "all My plagues" that He is about to send on Egypt. The implication of describing what is coming in this way is that the worst is still to come. No matter how devastating blood, frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, and boils have been, things can and will get worse. Telling Pharaoh in advance that there is more than one judgment coming is merciful because it allows him the opportunity to repent and release Israel before it is too late. This also shows us the pattern of how the Lord deals with people in rebellion to Him. When the Lord brings judgment upon a person's life it always contains an element of His mercy in that it provides a call to repent and avoid a worse judgment. The Lord does not start with a final destroying judgment, but if a person persists in rebellion, then the Lord will continue to turn up the heat.

The Lord also informs Pharaoh of His ultimate reason for all of the plague judgments. There is more motivating the Lord than simply getting Israel out of Egypt. What the Lord tells Pharaoh about His own concerns in all of this is deep insight into the priorities of the Lord's actions in all judgment. He has and will judge Pharaoh not just to punish him or make him suffer. The Lord's priorities are that Pharaoh may know there is no one like the Lord in all the earth, that He would show Pharaoh His power, and that He would proclaim His name through all the earth. These three priorities are all concerned with the glory of the Lord. His glory is His first concern and priority in all His dealings with Pharaoh. When a human being is most concerned with their own glory in their dealings with others we rightly judge them to be conceited and arrogant. The difference with the Lord and why it is a holy thing for Him to be concerned foremost with His own glory is that we are imperfect and flawed and He is perfect and gloriously holy. It is therefore wrong for us to glorify ourselves because we are glorifying that which is actually corrupt. When God glorifies Himself in all His interactions with us, He is righteously calling our attention to His perfection and holiness so that we can respond as we should in worship. God chose to make his dealings with Egypt and Pharaoh an example for all the nations and all of history to follow of His incomparability and His power so that His name would be made known in truth (Romans 9:17).

9:18-23 - "Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die.'" The one among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; but he who paid no regard to the word of the LORD left his servants and his livestock in the field. Now the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field, throughout the land of Egypt." Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt."

In the announcement of the seventh plague, there is an additional expression of mercy from God in the form of a specific warning. The seventh judgment with be a severe storm of rain, thunder, lightning and large hail. The hail alone will be so great that any remaining livestock or people that are out under the open sky when the storm strikes will be killed by the hail. The exact size of the hail is not described, but we can conclude by its deadly effect that it is going to unusually large. The mercy from God is not in the storm, but in the warning God has Moses deliver. The Lord tells Pharaoh for his own benefit and the benefit of everyone in Egypt to stay inside during this plague. It is merciful of the Lord to issue such a specific warning since He owes no warning at all to Pharaoh. The reason that the Lord gives such a merciful final warning at this point is that the severity of the judgments is about to increase in these four coming judgments. Up until now, in the first six judgments there has been serious loss of convenience, comfort, and wealth, but so far, no loss of human life. From this point forward people are going to die in the greater judgments to follow. The Lord does not take lightly the death of even rebellious and wicked people.

The warning is also a test. Pharaoh and the Egyptians have been given plenty of evidence in the first six plagues to start taking Moses and the Lord seriously. Now, the Lord tells them what is going to happen and the danger in it for them, and then He allows each one to decide for themselves whether to be judged by the hail. If the person that hears the message respects the message, he will act with appropriate fear and stay inside. If the person that hears the message chooses to arrogantly disregard it, then they have chosen the hail for themselves. There is a parallel here to how the people respond to the gospel of salvation. The Lord has declared to all the world through His messengers that the only salvation from final judgment is through faith in His Son Jesus. Those that heed the message and flee to Him in faith will find safety on the Day of final judgment. Those who disregard the gospel message are choosing God's announced judgment for themselves.

9:27-30 - "Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time; the LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones. Make supplication to the LORD, for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." Moses said to him, "As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the LORD'S. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God."

Following the seventh judgment of the great hail storm, Pharaoh has a change of heart. For the first time in his reaction to the series of plagues, he acknowledges his own shortcomings. "I have sinned this time; the LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones." The natural first reaction is to hope that the judgments from God have finally worn down his stubborn resistance and that he has come to a heart and life changing understanding. He declares three critically important right conclusions when he tells Moses and Aaron that he had sinned, Yahweh was the righteous one and that his people had also sinned. Moses responds to Pharaoh's confession with a discerning reply. "But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God." Moses recognizes this apparent repentance of Pharaoh for what it actually was. Pharaoh is shedding what we call crocodile tears from an insincere heart. As soon as Moses prays for the hail storm to stop, Pharaoh's supposed repentance disappears like a mist in the heat of the sun. He told Moses what he believed he and Yahweh wanted to hear, as a way to manipulate them into relieving the pressure of the judgments. We were not there to see any non-verbal clues of hypocrisy on Pharaoh's face, but in his words there is a clue of his insincerity. The two words he uses "...this time" limit his admission of guilt to this plague alone. He implies that up until now he has been without fault.

Moses is given discernment by the Lord to expose to Pharaoh how the Lord sees his heart. Nevertheless, Moses is still going to intercede for Pharaoh and end the judgment of the hail storm. The reason is that each judgment serves a dual purpose in revealing God's power. There are not ten messages from God in the ten judgments, there are twenty messages. God is speaking in each judgment about His power, and He confirms that message each time He cause the judgment to stop. It is a revelation of the power of God to cause the hail storm and it is a revelation of the power of God to end the hail storm at the exact time that Moses prays. When God answers the prayer of Moses and ends this storm, it is so that Pharaoh "may know that the earth is the Lord's." Pharaoh has falsely believed that Egypt is his, but the Lord is showing him that Egypt and all the world are His! "The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it." (Psalm 24:1).

Questions from Exodus 8:

Question: The question is: it seems that Moses committed for God here in verse 9 -- did he have the authority to do that because in verse 12 he's crying out to God to do the request? 8:9 - "Moses said to Pharaoh, "The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile?" 8:12 - "Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh."

Answer: Yes, Moses did establish a guideline for the end of the plague that in effect committed the Lord to that guideline. No, Moses did not exceed the authority that the Lord had given to him when he did this. It's true that no where in the text did the Lord specifically tell Moses to say this to Pharaoh, but it is also true that no where did the Lord forbid him to do so. We can be certain that Moses was acting within the boundaries of his authority because of the response of the Lord when Moses prayed next. "The LORD did according to the word of Moses..." (Exodus 8:13). If Moses had gone too far, and exceeded his authority, the Lord would not have honored his commitment to Pharaoh. We will read an account later in Exodus of a time when Moses does transgress and exceed his authority while representing the Lord. When he does, the Lord immediately rebuked him and disciplined him for misrepresenting Him.

Question: Exodus 8:16, 20 - What is the significance of the third and fourth judgments? Are they targeted toward specific gods/goddesses?

Answer: Yes I believe that all of the ten great judgments of the Lord upon Egypt that we commonly call the Ten Plagues were aimed at exposing the foolishness of the Egyptians' idolatrous worship of many false gods. The third judgment was the turning of the dust of the earth to gnats. The fourth judgment was swarms of flies. In the third judgment the ground of the land of Egypt which was itself worshipped as a god was transformed from fertile, life giving farmland into what I believe was probably mosquitoes. Instead of giving life, the land of Egypt was now draining their life blood. The swarms of flies in the fourth judgment is a translation of a word which literally means all kinds of flying vermin. This category included biting flies, gadflies, and the famous Egyptian beetle we see depicted in various expressions of Egyptian art as the scarab. These were all worshipped in Egyptian idolatry in varying levels of honor.

Exodus 10

10:1-2 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD."

In a previous passage we saw that the Lord planned this series of great judgments to glorify His own name on the stage of history in an unforgettable way. Now, the Lord gives Moses additional insight into His long range purpose for these events. Again, these plagues mean much more than the way the Lord got Israel out of Egypt. Had the Lord been looking for the quickest route for Israel's release, He would not have hardened Pharaoh's heart and instead would have influenced Pharaoh to release them without all of this trouble. All ten of these great judgments were necessary so that the Lord could demonstrate in history the range and extent of His power. Earlier the focus of the Lord's revelatory purpose was so that Pharaoh and Egypt would learn that they should compare no so called god to the One true God Yahweh (Exodus 9:14).

In this passage the Lord explains to Moses how these events will accomplish an important spiritual benefit for Israel in the generations to come. God did what He did to Pharaoh and Egypt to give the fathers and grandfathers of Israel awesome stories to tell their children and grandchildren (Psalm 78:42-51). These stories will be more than the common exaggerations of life in the good old days. These are the true stories of the Lord and His mighty acts. The Lord wants each successive generation of Israel to be raised in the remembrance and understanding of how Yahweh "made a mockery of the Egyptians..." The sense of the phrase is how the Lord humiliated the arrogance of the mightiest nation on earth and the false gods they worshipped. He wants all future generations to learn the story of how He performed each of these miraculous judgments. The ultimate goal of passing to the coming generations, like a treasure, the message of these amazing events was that those generations would come to know Yahweh for themselves. Each generation is faced with its own challenges of false gods and must have their own hearts anchored to the reality of the power and holiness of the Lord. Your heart and mine today need to rehearse and remember these judgments of the Lord so that we will know with spiritual perception who the Lord is and what kind of God we serve.

10:7-11 - "Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve the LORD your God! Who are the ones that are going?" Moses said, "We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD." Then he said to them, "Thus may the LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Take heed, for evil is in your mind. Not so! Go now, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desire." So they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence."

Pharaoh's heart has been progressively hardened. One of the consequences of a hardened heart is that it affects the ability of the hardened person to see what is clear to others around them. In spite of the great and mounting losses that Egypt had suffered, at this point Pharaoh remains convinced that it is in his best interests to hold the Israelites in slavery and to not release them as Yahweh had demanded through Moses. The servants of Pharaoh are not portrayed in these events as men of great wisdom, but after all this, they can see what Pharaoh cannot. They dare to approach Pharaoh and appeal directly to him. They urge Pharaoh to give in to the demands of Yahweh. They take a personal risk of offending Pharaoh by including a light rebuke in their appeal. "Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" Of course, Pharaoh was well aware of the physical and economic cost of these events to Egypt. Their point was that he was not admitting to himself in his stubborn resolve, just how bad the condition of the nation was. The servants make a suggestion to Pharaoh that he yield to Yahweh's demands, but they cleverly suggest a partial offer that would effectively leave Pharaoh in control of Israel. They recommend that he "let the men go..." Their advice appeals to Pharaoh because it would relieve the pressure of more judgments while insuring that the men of Israel would return to their slavery after offering to Yahweh, because of their desire to return to their families.

Pharaoh has Moses and Aaron brought before him, and asks them leading questions about their intentions in leaving. In his response, it is apparent that Moses has grown since he was first given this assignment from the Lord. On the day of the burning bush, Moses was extremely reluctant and protested to the Lord about his lack of eloquence. Even in his first exchange with Pharaoh, remember Moses was quick to appeal to Pharaoh by asking him to please release Israel when Pharaoh rejected the Lord's demand. Listen to Moses now as he responds to Pharaoh's question. Moses does not hesitate, waver, or show any sign of fear at all. He boldly declares, "We shall go..." Moses is not saying please to Pharaoh any longer. He is growing in confidence as he is serving the Lord in his assignment. His confidence is not self confidence, but in the Lord. He has seen the hand and power of God. He is able to say that they are leaving Egypt as a certainty before it even happens because the Lord had said He would make it happen.

Pharaoh reacts to the answer that Moses gives him. The meaning of his answer is that he mockingly acknowledges that if he were to ever release all of Israel including the women and children, it would indeed be the proof that their God was with them. However, he has no intention of that ever happening. He is really sneering at the suggestion that all of Israel will ever leave Egypt. Pharaoh's heart and will is battered by the pounding he has taken from eight plagues so far, but his willful stubborn streak runs deep. He offers to Moses what his servants suggested. Only the men of Israel will be allowed to leave for a short time for their sacrifices. Pharaoh is smug in having made this offer that he considers plenty generous on his part, and he drives Moses and Aaron out of his presence fully expecting that they will settle for what he has allowed them. Pharaoh still does not get it yet.

10:21-23 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings."

This is the account of the ninth plague. The Lord caused the sun to be blotted out for three days with a thick darkness. The Lord also distinguished among the Egyptians and His people Israel by leaving the land of Goshen where they lived unaffected. We should recognize that this was far more than the kind of inconvenience we experience in a power outage. The sense of the term thick darkness is that there was no light in Egypt at all except in Goshen. When I was a child I visited with my parents Carlsbad Caverns. During the underground tour at a certain point the guide announced that they were going to turn off the lights. When they turned the lights off the darkness was so deep that I could not see my hand an inch away from my face. In fact I could see nothing at all and was functionally blind until they turned the lights on again. It was an unsettling experience. This was the experience of an entire nation, not for a minute, but for three days. There was also the sense that there was a spiritual element about this darkness as a darkness that "may be felt." This was an oppressive pressing darkness. No one left their home for its duration because they would only be stumbling around lost.

All of Egypt ground to a halt for those three days. The Lord gave the entire nation a forced retreat to contemplate what was happening and what it all meant. One thing every Egyptian would think about was the implication for the chief of their gods, Amun-ra. He was considered to be the king of all the Egyptian gods. The second part of his name, Ra, was the Egyptian word for the sun. Where was Amun-ra in these three days? Yahweh had blotted him out. To the Egyptians all of life began with the sun. This great darkness imposed on Amun-ra was the Lord's ultimate demonstration to Egypt that they might know that Yahweh, not even the king of their gods was supreme.

10:24-29 - "Then Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, "Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you." But Moses said, "You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the LORD our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the LORD our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the LORD." But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me! Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die!" Moses said, "You are right; I shall never see your face again!"

In this exchange between Pharaoh and Moses, we can see Pharaoh continuing to weaken as he is fresh from the fear of the thick darkness. Pharaoh gives Moses his most gracious offer yet. Before the darkness he was only willing to release the men. Now, he offers for all of Israel to go worship Yahweh, but he still attaches one stipulation to his offer. Israel must leave their livestock behind in Egypt when they go. This is Pharaoh still desperately trying to maintain a shred of control over Israel in the hope that they would have to return to their herds and flocks eventually. As Pharaoh is weakening, Moses is continuing to grow in the strength of the Lord. Moses responds again without hesitation and with great boldness. Three phrases Moses uses emphasize the new strength of his heart. Moses is not negotiating, he is telling Pharaoh how things are going to go. "You must also let us... our livestock too shall go with us... not a hoof shall be left behind..."

As we might have anticipated, Pharaoh does not respond well to being told by anyone how things are going to be. He is still a god in his own perspective and people do what he says, they do not dare to tell him what they are going to do. Pharaoh immediately reacts in anger and orders Moses to leave. This is the end of their exchanges. Pharaoh issues a death threat warning to Moses. He warns him to never see his face again or he will die. Moses responds with what we should understand as a personal prophecy from the Lord. They will never meet face to face again according to the plan of God, and Pharaoh said it without realizing he was in essence signing his own death warrant. The three cycles of three judgments each has now ended and there remains only the final judgment of the Lord upon Pharaoh and Egypt in the tenth plague to come.

Questions from Exodus 9:

Question: 9:19 - Had a significant amount of time passed since the plague where all the livestock had been destroyed? The Egyptians now have livestock ("and whatever you have in the field") and so do the Israelites (their livestock was not harmed in the plague), even though they were slaves. Did they maybe force the Israelites to give up some of theirs?

Answer: The amount of time that passed in the duration of the ten plagues was likely to be a few months total. The last plague occurred on a single night, but the earlier plagues lasted for a period of days each (Exodus 7:25). I am assuming you are curious about how the Egyptians had livestock in the fields in verse 9:19 for plague number seven, when earlier in 9:6 for plague number five the text tells us that "all the livestock of Egypt died." While some time did elapse between plague five and seven, I do not think there was enough time for the Egyptians to go acquire more livestock from other countries. There is also no hint that they confiscated the livestock from the Israelites. I think the better explanation is found in the use of the word "all" in verse 6. We tend to read it as though every single animal in Egypt died in that plague. The word actually refers to all kinds or sorts of what is being described. I think what happened in plague five was that all categories of Egyptian livestock were afflicted with the pestilence and the vast majority of them died.

Question: 9:27 Moses intercedes for Pharaoh to end the storm and the other judgments and God answers His prayers. How might that apply to us today in the area of intercession? It doesn't appear that Moses is putting up all sorts of various prayers during this time as he is watching all the hurting people and animals. Perhaps he is only praying those specific prayers the Lord has put on his heart to pray with a kingdom perspective vs. comfort or compassion. Could you elaborate some on that?

Answer: You've asked an interesting question, and I'm not sure I can answer with a definitive response. Moses' situation was clear cut because he was a prophet sent by God with a crystal clear message and assignment. I'm sure he realized that devastation experienced by the Egyptians from the judgments he was announcing, but even if his heart was ever sympathetic toward the suffering of the Egyptians, he knew that the Lord had caused it by His hand. To pray and ask God to go easy on them, or to soften the blow would have set Moses in a position of resisting the purpose of God to judge the nation. That much is clear to me. The difficulty in answering your question is considering how this applies in the circumstances around us. I do believe unlike many modern Bible teachers and pastors, that God continues to judge people, cities and nations today. However, none of us have the benefit of an audible message from God identifying what events are His judgment and which are not.

I could choose one example and describe my own response. I believe the Katrina hurricane that flooded New Orleans was a judgment from God. My own response was to pray first for the true believers in the area that they would find grace to endure and be a light to everyone around them. I also prayed for the hearts of the unbelievers that they would recognize God's hand in the storm and turn to Him in repentance. I did not ask the Lord to lighten the effect of the storm because I believe that God caused it to get people's attention. In each new situation we are dependant upon our understanding from God's Word of how He works in the midst of His world, and the discernment we have of what He is doing today. It is always good to pray for wisdom and discernment in the process of deciding how to interpret what each event means.

Exodus 11

11:1 - "Now the LORD said to Moses, "One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely...

The Lord now gives to Moses the details on how His planned sequence of great judgments upon Egypt will conclude. The certainty of the Lord's description is significant. There is no hint of the following kind of statement from the Lord. "Moses, I would really like to finish these judgments against Egypt and free Israel. I have one more big judgment planned and I hope that it will be enough to change Pharaoh's mind about releasing Israel. However, you know how stubborn he is, and if he refuses even after this, I'll just have to come up with an eleventh plague." I uses this kind of fantasy response from the Lord to contrast with the way He actually spoke to Moses. There is zero uncertainty on His part regarding whether this would be the final plague, or whether another would be necessary. The Lord is not at all unsure of how Pharaoh will respond before the final judgment even occurs. He has ordained this as the final plague, and it will have the intended impact upon pharaoh's heart, and he will change his mind about releasing Israel.

The reason the certainty of the Lord regarding the future and specifically the future hidden decisions of the man Pharaoh is important is because of a heretical teaching in the church that has grown in influence in the recent years. A heretical teaching is one that undermines one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. The teaching that has grown in recent years describes God as an "open" God. Those who teach this error assert that God neither fully knows or controls the future. They say He is open in the sense that He discovers the future in the same way that we do, as it unfolds. This is a clear contradiction of many Bible passages that teach us that God knows the end from the beginning and that He is sovereign over all of history including future history. God can only know a future event with absolute certainty if He controls history to such an extent that He can cause the future to unfold in that exact way. This passage is not God hoping, or guessing or speaking about future probabilities, but declaring what will happen with this tenth judgment.

What is more, Pharaoh will not change his mind in the same way he had done previously, only to change back before actually releasing them. On three previous occasions Pharaoh had agreed to release Israel, but with restrictions. Once he permitted them to leave as long as they only went a short distance. Another time he allowed them to leave as long as it was only the men that left. One other time, he agreed for them to go, but forbid them to take their livestock with them. In each case, Pharaoh gave permission under the duress of the recent judgment, but remained in control over Israel in his own mind. This final judgment was going to strike the deathblow, not only to the firstborn of Egypt, but to the hardened illusion of Pharaoh's that he was in ultimate control over Egypt and Israel. This time "he will surely drive you out from here completely." The word completely highlights that Israel's release from their Egyptian bondage will be on the Lord's terms, and not Pharaoh's. They will be released permanently and without restrictions.

11:2-3 - "Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold." The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people."

The Lord now rehearses for Moses what He had told him all the way back at their first meeting at the burning bush back in the wilderness of Midian. "I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians." (Exodus 3:21-22). The time for the Lord to bring to pass what He had promised has now arrived. This is also the fulfillment of the same promise God had made to Abraham over 400 years before. "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions." (Genesis 15:14). God had first made this promise to Abraham that long ago, but once He makes a promise, He never forgets and never fails to fulfill it. I am so glad that God's faithfulness is immeasurably greater than mine. I have difficulty remembering commitments I made last week, let alone faithfully following through with every single one. The Lord never drops the ball in finishing what He said he would do, exactly as He had declared it.

The Lord will cause the Egyptians to willingly give to Israel many precious possessions because the Lord will cause them to look favorably on Israel. This giving favor to Israel in the perspective of the Egyptians is a powerful work of God in itself when compared to the previous attitude of the Egyptians toward Israel as their slaves. The gold and silver and other precious items will be given by the Egyptians, not taken by force by the Israelites to show that it was the sovereign power of God at work in their hearts, not Israel's own strength that made this happen. Nevertheless, Israel was to view these valuable items as plunder. The term plunder points to what we call the spoils of war. Plunder is the valuable items carried off by a conquering army from the helpless people they have just conquered. Even though Israel has not lifted a hand in battle, there is a huge spiritual warfare that has been fought. The battle was between the Lord and the false gods of Egypt. The Lord won a complete and decisive victory, and now Israel will carry off the plunder as a sign of the Lord's victory.

In addition, the Lord is going to redeem the wealth of the Egyptians in the hands of Israel. This silver, gold, and fabric that they are taking with them is later going to be gathered by the Lord from Israel and used as the raw materials for the building of God's tabernacle when He commands Moses to take an offering from Israel for His sanctuary (Exodus 25:2-8).

11:4-8 - "Moses said, "Thus says the LORD, 'About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 'Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before and such as shall never be again. But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying, 'Go out, you and all the people who follow you,' and after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger."

In the previous great judgments the Lord had Aaron and Moses represent Him to Egypt in the actual circumstance of the plagues by their actions of using the staff that represented the authority of Yahweh. In this final judgment upon Egypt, the Lord has Moses declare it in advance to Pharaoh, but He will not work through Moses in this plague. Instead, the Lord announces that He will go out into the midst of Egypt Himself and cause the death of all the firstborn of Egypt. This is an awesome depiction of what every human being will one day face in the final Day of Judgment. Throughout history, the Lord has dealt and continues to deal with each generation through events that signify a degree of His judgment. But, on the final day when everyone stands before the throne of God to face His final judgment, the Lord will not be working indirectly through some event or circumstance. Then each person will face the hand of God directly to receive from Him the judgment that they deserve.

The Lord again emphasizes the sovereign distinction He maintains between the Egyptians and the Israelites. This final plague is not going to be any more random than the previous ones. This is not going to be an indiscriminate disaster that will strike Egypt in the middle of the night. Yahweh will cause His judgment to strike only the homes of the Egyptians while at the same time protecting every home of Israel. The result will be a loud wailing erupting from every Egyptian home, while the neighborhoods of Israel will not even be disturbed by a barking dog.

When Moses finished delivering the Lord's message to Pharaoh, he left Pharaoh in the boldness and the holiness of God. In both of these elements we see Moses acting as a true prophet of God who is more than a mere messenger, but one who also represents the Lord in his actions. The boldness of Moses is seen in how this meeting with Pharaoh ends. To honor proper court etiquette, Moses, as the messenger should wait until the king dismissed him to leave the king's presence. Leaving without being dismissed by the king was actually a great insult to the king and reflects the Lord's disdain for this self-centered and stubborn ruler. It also powerfully expresses the superiority of the Lord over Pharaoh. It shows that the Lord is so much more powerful than Pharaoh that He can afford for His messenger to insult Pharaoh in his own court and yet be assured of the Lord's protection. It also reveals the holiness of God in this final announcement of judgment upon Pharaoh. The anger of Moses as the Lord's representative is born from the anger of God toward Pharaoh. This is a deserved judgment based upon Pharaoh's many previous insults to the Lord's name.

Questions from Exodus 10:

Question: 10:29 - Pharaoh said he wouldn't see Moses face again but does he summon Moses after the final judgment of the Lord (12:31)? Does this prophecy refer to the time when, after the Lord has completely dealt with Pharaoh and the Israelites leave Egypt, he will then never see Moses face again?

Answer: Great question, and it is good to see you paying attention to the details. First of all, it was not Pharaoh that said Moses would never see his face again. In Exodus 10:28, Pharaoh threatened Moses with death if he saw his face again. It was Moses that declared that he would not see his face again in 10:29. This is important, because Pharaoh could simply be wrong, but Moses was speaking as the prophet of God and his declaration is true. This is a classic apparent contradiction in the two texts. Since Moses wrote both Exodus 10:29 and Exodus 12:31 we can expect that he would be aware of such a contradiction in the events if there was one. Having compared these two verses and studied them, I don't think there is any actual contradiction. There are three viable explanations that reconcile the apparent contradiction, and I'll list them in order of what seems to me the best way to explain these verses.

1) This is an issue of confusing wording in our translation, but not in the original Hebrew text. We can translate Moses' declaration like this and remain faithful to the Hebrew original, "I shall not be seeing your face again." We have a similar saying in our way of speaking when say to someone, "I won't be seeing you anymore." It does not mean that another encounter can't happen, but that a permanent change is coming in which the two people will be separated. I believe this is the best way to understand this passage.

2) It is possible that after the 10:29 declaration that Moses and Aaron returned to Goshen and prepared for the exodus of Israel. The passage in 12:31 does not specifically require a face to face meeting and could be describing an official message sent by Pharaoh to Moses in Goshen.

3) Pharaoh and Moses could have been referring specifically to official court appearances by Moses as had been happening throughout the plagues so far. This option seems a bit weak to me.

Exodus 12

12:1-2 - "Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you."

The Lord announces to Moses and Aaron that their calendar is changing and that this month will be the new first month of the year. This is not a temporary change due to the present special circumstances but is going to be a permanent change for all of Israel. It is also not a simple administrative adjustment to change their calendar. This is a significant symbolic change. Living under Egyptian rule for the past 430 years they have been accustomed to the Egyptian calendar. Egypt began each new year at the time of the yearly flooding of the Nile River. It was Egypt's way of honoring the god of the Nile and acknowledging that their entire society depended upon the yearly renewing of the fertile soil on the banks of the Nile from the flood waters. By changing the calendar of Israel the Lord was stating that Israel would no longer mark time by reference to the honor of this false god of Egypt.

This change was more than a negative comment about the worship of the Nile by the Egyptians. It also powerfully identified the new spiritual reference point that the life of Israel would be based upon for this generation and all the generations to follow. The calendar would begin with the celebration of the Passover. That points to Passover representing a new beginning for Israel. It signifies the end of their old lives as slaves to Pharaoh and the beginning of their new life as servants of Yahweh alone. In this way, Passover is a symbol of our salvation as well as theirs. The Passover is linked to the death of Jesus upon the cross and all that His death means for us. Our lives are transformed when we encounter the cross in the moment of our salvation. Because of the cross, we are permanently delivered from our former life of slavery to sin (Romans 6:16-18). Because of the cross we are delivered into the freedom of a new covenant life with God. While our society does not base its calendar upon the event of the Passover, the cross to which the Passover points is the starting point of our personal spiritual calendar. Before the cross, there was only our old life and slavery to sin. Since the cross we are free. God changed their calendar so that Israel would never forget the Passover. Christians must never forget the cross!

12:5 - "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats."

The core of the Passover was a special meal that was to be eaten by all the Israelites the night that the Lord brought the tenth and final great judgment upon Egypt. Each household was to take a lamb or a kid from their flocks. It was required to be a male, a year old, and unblemished without any physical defects. These three requirements were commanded by the Lord and were not options or suggestions to enhance their dining experience. All three requirements were spiritually symbolic as we should expect and must be maintained without modification so that the spiritual picture the Lord intended to paint with these events can be clear to all who will ever participate.

We know with certainty from New Testament passages which refer to this event and apply it to Christ that the lamb was a type of Christ. Remember, a type is an Old Testament event designed by the Lord to portray in advance some critical element of the person or work of Christ. John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus was the embodiment of this lamb. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Peter referred specifically to one of the details of this passage and applied it to Christ. "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." (I Peter 1:18-19).

The three key elements for the Passover lamb all point to Christ. Jesus was of course a male. Males were in this culture the leaders of their households. This is significant because of the role He fulfills following His death upon the cross. His death will provide the foundation for a new family of God with Christ as the Head. The lamb must be one year old, the age at which lambs were considered to have reached full growth. A one year old lamb had arrived at the prime of life. Jesus died on the cross as a young, but fully mature man. He was sacrificed in the prime of his physical life.

The most important element was that the lamb must be unblemished. We will see later in the requirements of the sacrifices in the Tabernacle and Temple that only unblemished lambs were allowed for sacrifice. To be unblemished is to be physically pure. This symbolically pointed to a deeper and greater purity in Christ that was absolutely essential to His sacrifice on the cross. The greater purity of Christ is the fact that He had never sinned (II Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15). Not once in His thirty-three years of life in this world did Jesus ever sin. This is far more than a preference for our salvation. If Jesus had ever once sinned, then you and I would not and could not be saved. The reason is found in the requirements of God's justice. In order for the blood of Jesus to pay the price for all of our sins, it had to be of infinite spiritual value. Had He sinned once, then His blood would have been no more valuable in satisfying God's justice than our own blood. The unblemished lamb represents the absolutely pure and innocent Savior as He hung on the cross providing complete payment for our many sins by virtue of His perfect blood.

12:21-23 - "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you."

We derive the name of this event from this passage. It is called the Passover because the Lord passed through the land of Egypt that night and passed over the homes of Israel, while entering the homes of every Egyptian to strike the firstborn children and livestock. This may seem a bit hard to believe for some because of the number of homes involved and all of it occurring in a single night. This is only difficult to believe for those that have a low perspective of the power and nature of the Lord. This is not a Santa Claus story where we are left wondering how a single man can possibly accomplish all that in a single night. Keep in mind that He is the One who created lightning, and He is not slower than His own creation.

It was the Lord's choice of which homes to enter and which homes to pass over, but He had warned Israel through Moses that their faith and obedience would be a critical factor in His response. Each head of household in Israel was to take the blood from the slain lamb and dipping a branch of hyssop in the basin of collected blood they were to apply some of the blood to the outside of the house. A haphazard application would be of no benefit. The Lord commanded that the blood be applied in a very specific way to the doorway into each Israelite home. The blood was to be applied to the two sides of the front door (the two doorposts) and then some was to be applied to the top of the frame of the door (the lintel). While the Lord does not explain the significance of these three specific locations for the blood, we can draw a conclusion from comparing the New Testament fulfillment of this event. This is intended to be a direct connection to the death of Jesus upon the cross. The symbolic result of applying some blood to the two sides and the top of the doorway leaves us with a clear impression of a cross with the blood on the top indicating the top of the cross and the blood on the two sides indicating the cross beam and the two sides of the cross.

Israel would be saved from the great judgment of that night only if they were inside a home covered by the blood of the lamb. Best intentions and good deeds would not stop the destroyer from entering the house. Neglect the blood and death is the unavoidable consequence. Believe and obey this and salvation from judgment is the glorious result. This principle remains 100% in force in God's dealings with all of humanity today. Those who count on their own goodness or even the good will of God, but who ignore the shed blood of Christ will encounter the full impact of God's great judgment on the final day of history. Only those who have believed in the death of Jesus upon the cross and have His blood applied to the entrance of their hearts will be spared forever the judgment of God.

12:43-48 - "The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; but every man's slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this. But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it."

The Lord rehearses once again the importance of the Passover for Moses and Aaron. When the Lord repeats Himself it is a signal for us to pay attention even more closely. We are historically and culturally far removed from the events of this night, but we are spiritually living in direct connection to what this night still means. Paul connected the events of Exodus 12 to Christ in a way that demonstrates that Christ is not just one of the things Passover means; He is the meaning of Passover. "For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed." (I Corinthians 5:7). The details of this night were designed by God in anticipation of the time that Jesus would come to fulfill what the symbols can only foreshadow. The lambs sacrificed that night did not actually save anyone from the destroyer. Their purity was limited to physical purity alone. The blood of even the best animal in the world cannot adequately answer the problem of even a single person's sins.

These lambs were symbols of the true Lamb of God. Even the details of how the meal must be prepared speak to this connection. No bones were to be broken that night, and God made sure that none of the bones of Christ were broken on the cross. "For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN."(John 19:36). It was His death on the cross that saved Israel that night. Yes, His death would not technically happen for hundreds of years to come, but because Israel believed God and applied the blood of these lambs to their homes, God counted their faith that day as though they were believing in Christ's death on the cross. The benefit of His death is not chronologically limited as though only the people alive since the cross can ever be saved. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The cross is no afterthought in the plan of God. All of history led up to the cross. The Passover was simply the most detailed preview of the cross that had yet been given to the world.

The Lord also establishes a firm boundary identifying who may and who may not partake of this meal. Only members of the covenant people of Israel may eat of it, or those that have been joined to Israel by circumcision. The Lord is very specific and particular about who can receive the benefit of salvation from the destroyer. There are to be no exceptions to this rule. What this points forward to is the dividing line in the New Covenant between those who have been born again and those who have not. In the New Covenant there is a circumcision all believers experience, but it is a spiritual circumcision performed by Christ Himself upon our hearts (Colossians 2:11). The New Testament fulfillment of this principle is found in the insistence of Jesus that "You must be born again." (John 3:7). The person that is born again is delivered from the great judgment of God, but the person that has not been born again remains under judgment.

Questions from Exodus 11:

Question: 11:5 - "from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl..." Is this specifying the actual age range of firstborns who died - i.e., could this include older children or even adults?

Answer: No, the age range is not emphasized in 11:5 so much as the social range is. The point is that every level of Egyptian society would be touched by this judgment from the highest and most powerful, the Pharaoh, to the lowest represented by the slave girl. I don't think adult firstborns were affected in this judgment. It is probable that Pharaoh was himself the firstborn son of his father, but he did not die in this plague. We do know, however, that from 12:30 every home in Egypt was affected so the extent of the judgment was tremendous.

Question: 11:5 - Is it possible that the Lord chose this particular plague as a judgment to Pharaoh because of his choice to kill the male children back when he began to fear the Israelites teaming-up against the Egyptians? Ex. 1:10-22

Answer: The Lord never specified His reasons for choosing this last judgment. It is entirely possible that one of His reasons was as an "eye for an eye" expression of His justice for the earlier command from Pharaoh to slay the male Hebrew babies. Another reason I believe that the firstborn of Egypt were chosen is that they represented the strength of Egypt's future. Pharaoh's firstborn in particular was designated to be the next god as the future Pharaoh that the Egyptians would worship and serve. The other firstborn children represented the people who would choose to worship Pharaoh rather than Yahweh. In the aftermath of this devastating judgment the message was that idolatry only leads to death.

Exodus 13

13:6-9 - "For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders. You shall tell your son on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'"

The Feast of Unleavened Bread which was introduced to Israel for the first time in the previous chapter is confirmed and emphasized here. This seven day feast was to become a permanent part of Israel's calendar throughout the generations to come. It was intentionally linked by the Lord to the remembrance of the Passover and that link was to be preserved in their future practice. This requirement of eating a particular kind of bread had nothing to do with health concerns, but served as a spiritual symbol that was to shape the understanding of all generations of Israel. There were three spiritual aspects of the feast.

The first aspect was the symbolism of leaven as a substance to not eat with their bread. A common misunderstanding among Christians is that leaven is always a symbol for sin in the Bible. Leaven does represent sin in some passages, but it is really a broader symbol than that. We learn from the later teaching of the Lord Jesus that leaven is a symbol of hidden influence. It can be used to represent a good thing like the hidden influence of God's kingdom (Matthew 13:33), or a bad thing such as the hidden influence of the sinful world around us. In this case, the leaven that Israel was not to mix with their bread symbolized the influence of Egypt upon their hearts. They had lived in the world of Egypt for over 400 years and had been subtly influenced by Egyptian culture, and worse, Egyptian religion. This feast was a message from the Lord to Israel to cleanse themselves of all Egyptian influence (II Corinthians 7:1). The second aspect of the symbolism of the leaven was that cleansing their lives of the influence of Egypt was a necessary preparation for where the Lord was taking them. The exodus was about a permanent departure from Egypt, but it was even more about the goal of the Promised Land ahead. The spiritual standards of the Promised Land were higher than the standards of Egypt.

The removal of all leaven, points to the sanctification that the Lord requires of all of His people. A true relationship with the Lord consists of much more than simply receiving forgiveness for our past failures, but remaining unchanged for the future. God forgives us, but He also changes us. He does not want us to remain the same people that so casually violated His standards the way the rest of the world does. He is a holy God, and He wants His people to be holy. He calls us to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:14-16).

The third aspect of the leaven is more of a practical spiritual one. This feast to be celebrated for one week each year by all future generations of Israel will provide each father of Israel the opportunity to rehearse for his children the reason for the feast, and to teach them the meaning behind it. The Lord is always very concerned with the faithful transmission of the truth to the next generation. God is long term oriented in ways that we are not. It is not sufficient for us to have our own relationship with the Lord and understanding of His ways without passing them on to our children after us. This also highlights another critical principle of God's kingdom. The future generations of Israel would not themselves experience exactly what this first generation did. They would not witness the ten great judgments of the Lord on Egypt. They would never travel for themselves across the Red Sea and through the wilderness into the Promised Land. Would their lack of personal experience mean that they had any less of a covenant relationship with the Lord? The clear answer found in this God ordained feast pattern is no! The future generations would be established in their own relationship of the Lord through the message proclaimed from father to child. This remains critical for us. None of us were there on the day Jesus was crucified or the day He rose from the dead. Yet, because of the message of the gospel, we have as close and meaningful relationship with the Lord as the people that were there to see those events.

13:11-16 - "Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.' So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."

The Lord introduces the redemption of the firstborn to Israel here. This requirement of the Lord applied to all firstborn sons born to Israel, as well as the firstborn males of their livestock. For the people, the requirement was that when the firstborn son was born the parents were to pay to the Lord a redemption price which will be specified in the Law of God to be given at Sinai. For the animals, each Israelite family was to sacrifice the firstborn unto the Lord with an allowed exception. The firstborn donkeys were to have a lamb substituted as sacrifice. This was because the donkey was an unclean animal under the Law, and could not be directly offered to the Lord. There is a requirement of this law that seems strange to us at first glance. If the family with the firstborn donkey could not provide a lamb in place of the donkey, they were to break the neck of the donkey, thus killing it. This may seem harsh and wasteful, but God is more concerned for His people to understand the principle at stake than He is about the economic loss of the donkey.

The principle is tied to what the Lord describes next about the law of the firstborn. The Lord anticipates the future sons of Israel to ask about this redemption of the firstborn practice. When they do, the fathers are to press home to their hearts the continuing significance of the events of the Passover night. On that night God killed all the firstborn of Egypt while passing over and sparing all the firstborn of Israel. The reason that God spared the firstborn of Israel was not because they deserved to be spared. The Egyptians were not greater sinners than the Israelites. If we consider who deserved to die that night based upon sin, then all deserved to die, Egyptian, Israelite, firstborn, secondborn and everyone else. God spared Israel only because of the blood of the lamb upon their doorway. Because God spared their lives even though they did not deserve it, they all owed their lives to Him from that moment forward. They belonged to Him, not to Pharaoh, and not even to themselves any longer. In the same way, this principle carries forward into the New Covenant church. We are identified by the Lord as the "church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (Hebrews 12:23). The meaning is the same. Jesus as the Lamb of God saved us from the judgment of God by His blood shed for us, and because of that, we forever belong to Him and owe our lives to Him.

13:17-18 - "Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, "The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt." Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea; and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt."

Israel was about to permanently leave Egypt. The destination was the Promised Land to the northeast. There was more than one route from Egypt to Canaan. In fact, the route that Israel took was not the preferred route of the day. Along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea was a commonly used and well traveled route. It was used by trading caravans and was the most direct and pleasant way to travel to Canaan. The distance by foot by the coast route would take maybe a month or so to travel given that there were older people and small children among them. It was more pleasant by far than the inland route because the coast route had the benefit of the cooling sea breezes. Left to themselves, Israel would have taken the coast route. However, they did not choose their own path, because they were to follow the presence of the Lord as their guide in their journey from Egypt to Canaan.

Certainly, because God knows and is sympathetic to the needs of His people and the difficulty of the journey, He would guide them the faster, far more pleasant way. Again, in this passage, we see that our priorities do not always match God's priorities. The Lord chose to avoid the "better" route and take Israel instead through the wilderness of Sinai. His choice really did not make much sense. A route through Sinai was much longer, and the environment passing through that desert wilderness was not friendly to a caravan of over a million people. Where would they find food and water in that wilderness sufficient to sustain all the people? Yet, in spite of all these natural reasons, the Lord chose the wilderness route. The reason He shared with Moses was that He anticipated them changing their minds about continuing on to the Promised Land. The coast route would take them directly through the heart of Philistine territory. To pass through they would have to fight. The Lord's long range purpose was to form Israel into a fighting force capable of conquering the Promised Land, but that would take time, training and experience. They would not be ready for battle within the month.

The choice of the longer, much less pleasant route for them was really then an expression of the mercy and wisdom of God toward them. The bottom-line of this scenario is that God knows best which direction we should go in life and we don't! Left to ourselves we all would choose the faster, more pleasant option of life pathways. When God leads us the long way with more difficulties we should trust and believe that His wisdom is greater than our own, and that His way is going to turn out best for us in the end. If every Christian could just get this one lesson learned well, how much heartache would be avoided. Had they gone they way they would have chosen, they would have ended up slaves in Egypt once again. God's way was harder, but in the end they were a free and strong people.

13:21-22 - "The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."

This is the first appearance of the famous pillar of the Lord. It is a single pillar, not two as some have mistakenly concluded. That same pillar appeared as a column of smoke in the daylight, and a column of fire at night. The double practical benefit for Israel was that during the day, the smoke would often shade them from the desert sun, while at night the fire of the Lord provided the security of light in the wilderness. Those benefits would only be consistently experienced as Israel maintained their one responsibility toward the pillar; stay close to it. If they remained close, then they were blessed in the Lord's presence. If they were to ever lose sight of the pillar, then there would be no shade, no light, and no guidance to enjoy.

The simplicity of this principle remains in our own relationship with the Lord. All we have to do is stay close to Him. Of course, since we do not see him in a visible pillar like they did, we must discern where the pillar of the Lord's presence is day to day. The way we discern the Lord's presence today is by the clear testimonies of His revealed Word. God is found where He says He will be found. If we stay on the path of holiness and righteousness we can be assured that we are staying close to Him. If we veer off into sin we should expect to begin to lose sight of Him. If we stay on the path of love, we can be certain that we are staying close to Him, because "God is love". If we veer off into anger, dissension, bitterness and hatred we should not be shocked to discover a growing distance between ourselves and His presence. This spiritual discipline of staying close to the Lord is a daily issue for us. It is not enough to check once a month or week to discern whether we are currently close to Him. Each day I need to check to make sure I am following the pillar of cloud and each night the pillar of fire.

Exodus 14

14:9-12 - "Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then they said to Moses, 'Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."

Up until this moment, Israel must have been riding a wave of exhilaration. They had received a prophet sent from God to deliver them in Moses. They had watched as the Lord successively struck Egypt with ten awesome demonstrations of His judgment while preserving them in the midst of it all. They had finally been set free from their slavery and the misery of their impossible work load. They had been blessed with favor with the Egyptians and plundered their wealth as they left. Finally, they were given the supreme assurance of the Lord's provision and protection in the visible presence of the pillar of fire and cloud that was already leading them in their journey. They had every reason to be confident in their circumstances until this moment. With the arrival of the chariots of Egypt, suddenly all of the evidence of the Lord's involvement in this circumstance was forgotten and they were immediately dominated by fear for their safety.

The first response of Israel in this situation was a step in the right direction. They cried out to Yahweh! When overwhelmed by fear and a circumstance beyond human control, the wisest thing the people of God can ever do is to cry out to the Lord. However, what and how they cry out is the concern, not just that they cry out. They cried out to the Lord and then spoke to Moses as the Lord's prophet. What they said to Moses reflected the current attitude of their heart toward the Lord. They cried out, not in faith and trust, but in complaint and bitter sarcasm. Had their hearts learned the lessons of the Lord's deliverance, here is how they would have spoken to the Lord and Moses. "Lord, we saw your mighty hand in the plagues you sent upon Egypt. We saw you humble Pharaoh and prove that You alone are God over all the earth. We have been blessed by your special concern for us as Your covenant people. Now, we trust that You protect us from this threat of Pharaoh's chariots. We place all of our hope in You!" Of course, the people did not cry out to the Lord and Moses in that way, but instead exposed their unbelieving and rebellious hearts in their cries.

They speak to Moses with dripping sarcasm when they ask if there were no graves in Egypt. They are implying that God has brought them all the way out here only to have them killed by Pharaoh. They had been given assurance by Moses that God was going to free them from slavery and bring them to the Promised Land in Canaan. Their complaint about God letting them die here was actually a back handed accusation against the integrity and faithfulness of God to His own promises. They then compound their complaint against the Lord by declaring that their lives would have been better off if God had not intervened to free them at all. They were saying it would be better to be a living slave to Pharaoh than a dead free man who had followed the Lord. What they failed to grasp is that even if they were to die here, their shorter lives would be more meaningful because they had followed the Lord where He led them. But, even so, the Lord had not led them here only to abandon them to Pharaoh.

The Lord has not abandoned them, but they are abandoning the Lord. This response of the people to the very first thing in their journey that goes "wrong" in their perspective introduces a theme in their relationship with the Lord that will be repeated over and over in the years to come. Their inability to anchor their hearts to what the Lord had just revealed to them and done for them is their downfall. They so quickly forget the multiplied proofs of God's commitment to them, and focus instead on the present difficulty as "proof" of how little Yahweh cares for them.

14:13-16 - "But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. "As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land."

The people have already slipped from faith into complaint and unbelief, but the spiritual growth of Moses in this process now becomes evident by his answer to their complaint on behalf of the Lord. Moses does not shrink under their accusations, or indulge in self-doubt or despair. He boldly replies to them with a three-fold rebuke and double word of encouragement. The wording in the original Hebrew emphasizes the strength of his word to correct their heart perspective. "Do not fear!" A study through the Bible of the times the Lord speaks to His people will turn up dozens of times that the Lord gives this same simple but powerful exhortation. The implication is the fear is the natural and expected tendency of the human heart when faced with uncertain circumstances. The Lord knows our tendency to fear, but also wants us to understand that our hearts cannot effectively hold both fear of the circumstance and faith in the Lord at the same time. Our heart will be dominated by either fear or faith, and we have a responsibility to not yield our hearts to fear, but rather trust ourselves fully to Him.

The following two words by Moses were for Israel to take a stand and watch what the Lord would do for them. To take a stand is the opposite of turning to run away. As soon as fear grips our hearts the natural flight to perceived safety mechanism kicks in. The parallel New Testament exhortation is, "... having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore ..." (Ephesians 6:13-14). The emphasis on standing to see the salvation of the Lord is that in this situation, they would not have to raise a hand to fight Pharaoh for themselves. Moses declares that the Lord, Himself, is going to fight for them. This tells them and us that the Lord is a warrior and that this battle will be all His. This points forward to the New Testament fulfillment in the work of Christ. When Jesus went to the cross, He did so, not for Himself, but for us. His sacrifice was the greatest battle of spiritual warfare. Just like Israel's future depended entirely on whether the Lord would defeat Pharaoh for them, our eternal future depended entirely on whether Jesus won the great battle at the cross. Israel could contribute nothing to Yahweh's fight with Egypt, and we contributed nothing to the war Jesus waged for us on the cross. Because Jesus won a complete and final victory for us, our old slave masters of sin and death have forever been vanquished.

The Lord's response to Moses was not a personal rebuke of Moses, but directed to the complaining people whom Moses represented. The essence of His response was for them to stop their crying complaint and to go forward where their natural perspective saw no way out. God then announces that He is about to do the greatest miracle that they have yet seen, even overshadowing His works in the ten plagues. By the hand of Moses, the Lord will divide the Red Sea and provide a highway for them to reach their new life.

14:17-18 - "As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen."

The Lord now briefly explains to Moses the why behind the what. What has happened is that the Lord chose to spare Pharaoh's life in the ten judgments upon Egypt. He then hardened Pharaoh's heart once again and stirred him to pursue and recapture Israel. The obvious question is why the Lord arranged things in this way. Bringing Pharaoh and his army of chariots after Israel has really complicated their escape from Egypt. Why didn't the Lord simply kill Pharaoh before they left? Or, since the Lord can influence Pharaoh's decisions, He could have persuaded Pharaoh to not pursue Israel and to remain at home. So what reason could be big enough to put everyone to the trouble of Pharaoh's pursuit? For the Lord, there was only one reason what He caused this circumstance.

The Lord did this for His own honor! He did it to be honored through Pharaoh and his armies. By stirring Pharaoh to marshal his strongest military force and pursue Israel, the Lord was going to make one final demonstration of His power compared to Pharaoh and his army of chariots. The demonstration to follow would never be forgotten for all of history to follow. Not everyone in the generations to come will believe this event as it is recorded here, but, those who do, will have the single greatest evidence of the comparative power of God over all false gods. We have a humorous way of emphasizing personal glory in our culture. When a man asks his friends, "Who's the man?", the anticipated response by them in acknowledgment of his greatness is, "You're the man!" In this circumstance God designed, He was essentially asking Israel (and all nations that would later hear of this), "Who's the Lord?". The only right response is, "You are the Lord!"

The priority to the Lord of His own honor is established in this event in a costly way. As bad as the armies of Pharaoh were that drove their chariots into the Red Sea in pursuit of Israel, they were still human beings. Each one of them had value and significance as a person made in the image of God. Yet, God was willing to wipe out an entire army of human beings in order to make a huge point about His own glory and honor. We might be tempted to ask whether the Lord could have found another way to establish His honor that would not result in the death of so many. Even though this is difficult for many to grasp because we too are human beings, the truth is that as important as human beings are in His plan, His own honor is more valuable to the Lord than the life of a human being. This tells me that I am not more important than the honor of the Lord. His honor comes first and I come second. How important is it then that my life would honor the Lord?

14:21-22 - "Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left."

The physical circumstance described in these verses is an awesome display of the power of God to control an entire sea superceding the "laws of nature". This is a physical miracle, but this parting of the Red Sea also bears great significance as a symbolic type of God's work in our lives. The crossing of Israel through the Red Sea is a picture of the transition from our old life in sin to our new life in Christ. Paul refers to this event and identifies it interestingly as a baptism. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;" (I Corinthians 10:1-2). The water never physically touched the Israelites as they walked across the sea, but as a symbol, they were all being baptized together in the sea. Their baptism was "into Moses", which signified that they were no longer slaves to Pharaoh, but now belonged to the Lord through His chosen deliverer, Moses. In the same way, when the Lord saved us on the cross, He calls us to follow Him into a new life. Our first step of obedience to Him is in submitting our entire body to be baptized into Christ. That act of obedience declares to everyone that we no longer belong to our old slave master, Satan, but we belong completely to God's chosen One, Jesus.

Exodus 15

15:1-3 - "Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol Him. The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name."

The events of this chapter take place on the far side of the Red Sea after Israel has crossed over safely and the Lord has drowned the chariot army of Pharaoh in the waters of the sea. The first eighteen verses of the chapter are a spiritual song that Moses sang in celebration. The song seems to be a spontaneous composition by Moses as he was inspired by the Spirit of God. As he sang, the men of the nation all joined with him. Given that there were 600,000 men in the exodus, the chorus of their celebration was massive. It really is an amazing song and well worth some time spent with it in study. This song also has the honor of being the very first song written in the Bible. It is also the first worship song and the first example of congregational worship singing in the Bible. Our continuing practice of singing songs of worship when we gather together as the people of God follows the pattern we see established here. The pattern has not been diminished over all the time since that day, and it will continue not just throughout history, but into heaven and eternity as those gathered around God's throne will sing the song of Moses (Revelation 15:3).

There are many elements of this song which should be noted, but the single most important element is just how God centered it is. The song covers all the details of the Red Sea event, but the focus is not the event, not the Egyptians and not even Israel. The focus is the Lord. His greatness, His power, His anger, His lovingkindness, His holiness, His purpose, and His rule rise above all other concerns in the song. This is why the song functions as a pattern for us. There is a principle in interpreting Scripture which can be called the principle of first mention. We can expect in any first mention of something in the Bible that whatever God is introducing to us in that first mention is intended to be for succeeding generations a model from which to learn and to follow.

The pattern that still fully applies for us today is imperative for God's people to gather together as congregations and to sing unto the Lord songs of worship like this one in which the main focus is God Himself. God's people are distinguished from the world as a people of worship. Our worship, like the Israelites on this day, is to be characterized by great joy and celebration. Our celebration is not from a mere emotional high. If the joy of worship was primarily emotional, then we would only worship when we felt like it. Their worship that day was in direct response to the mighty acts of God on their behalf. This is why true Christian worship continues after 2000 years to focus on the person, death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of Christ. I worship Him whether I feel good or bad, glad or sad, because He has done awesome things for me and He is always worthy to be worshipped for it.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the song of Moses is the portrayal of the Lord as a warrior. "Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is His name." I describe it as unsettling because of the common emphasis on love and peace as predominant aspects of the Lord's nature. God is love, and the Lord is the Prince of Peace, but He is also a warrior. One aspect of the Lord's nature and character does not eliminate the other. Because God loves and God makes and preserves peace does not mean that He never goes to war. When it is time to fight as a warrior, the Lord rises up and goes to battle with His enemies. In this case, the Lord showed Himself as a warrior against the arrogant and rebellious who had dishonored His name by worshipping false gods and rebelliously rejecting His commands.

15:11-18 - "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them. In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation. The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased. You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. The LORD shall reign forever and ever."

The two questions at the beginning of this section of the song are what we call rhetorical questions. They are questions with an obvious answer. They are not asked in ignorance, but to emphasize the point being made by showing how obvious the answer is. The questions are, "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness...?" The obvious expected answer to both questions is "No one!" No one is like Yahweh among the gods. No one is like Yahweh in His majestic holiness. The questions highlight the uniqueness of the Lord. He cannot be compared to any person, and angel or demon, or even to any of "the gods". Some have mistaken this line of the song to think that Moses actually believed that there were Egyptian gods. Moses did not believe in the reality of any of the gods of the Egyptians. Rather, this is a poetic way of declaring that even the fantasy beliefs of the Egyptians cannot be compared to the greatness of the One true God. It is an interesting study to research the various mythologies of the cultures of the ancient world. Each culture had their own gods that they had imagined and honored. What is striking is that even the fantasies of these made up gods do not compare with the reality of God. In other words, we could try to imagine the greatest god possible, and Yahweh would be far greater still.

An interesting shift in focus comes in this part of the song. The first part of the song was concerned with the immediate past and rehearsing what God had just done to the Egyptians. Now, there is a time shift from past to future. Moses begins to sing, not about what God has done, but about what God will do in their future. As the people of God, their journey has just begun. The exodus from Egypt was an awesome experience, but they are not to camp at the shore of the Red Sea forever. The Lord has already made known His long range plan for them to journey to the Promised Land. In between them and the fulfillment of God's promise are barriers to its fulfillment as represented by other nations, each with their own agenda. They would face Philistines, Edomites, Moabites and Canaanites. Each represented a threat to their safety and their hope for the future. As Moses sings about these nations, he does so with a strong sense of confidence and assurance. His confidence is not in the flesh, as though Israel was so great and mighty, but in the Spirit because God would lead them and God would protect them just as He had done with the Egyptians. For Moses in worship here, the future is as certain as the past as long as they are following the pillar of God and obeying Him. Those nations in front of them do not reign over them any more than Egypt did. It is the Lord Who reigns!

15:22-24 - "Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

We saw in the last chapter how quickly the hearts of Israel had turned from the celebration of their new freedom from the Egyptians to fear when Pharaoh had overtaken them at the shore of the Red Sea. All that the Lord had done to prove His power and faithfulness in the ten plagues was so quickly forgotten under the pressure of the present crisis which dominated their perspective. That experience was just a day or so away. The memory of the hard lesson learned of how easily they turned from trust to complaint should have been super fresh in their hearts and minds. Yet, here we are in this passage, which takes place only a day or two later. Since then they have been given one more ultra-powerful object lesson to reshape their perspective. The Lord has miraculously split the waters of an entire sea, they have walked through it on dry ground with walls of water on either side of them, and when the chariots of Egypt attempted to follow them they were swallowed up in the rushing return of the sea. Do you think this new lesson has penetrated to a deeper level of their heart than the ten plagues did previously? Sadly, no, they once again quickly default to grumbling against the Lord and Moses.

The circumstance this time is three days removed from the worship celebration of verses 15:1-18. They have now walked three days into the wilderness, heading toward the Promised Land. They are not wandering in these three days, because the pillar of cloud by day is continually leading them. They arrive at a place called Marah, which translates as "bitter". There is a water source there and as they first arrive you might imagine the people are glad that the Lord has led them to water in the wilderness. Water will be throughout the journey their number one physical need and it is naturally scarce in this desert wilderness. The people attempt to drink the waters of Marah only to discover that the water is bitter and cannot be used for drinking water.

This represents the first great test for Israel in the wilderness. It is the first of a series of ten tests that the Lord designs for them to expose their hearts to themselves and call them to change. Israel does not pass this test, but fails it miserably. They are hot, they are tired from a three day walk, and most of all they are very thirsty. All of us might be a bit cranky under similar circumstances, but their response is to resort to grumbling. This is not the first time we hear them grumble and it most certainly won't be the last. The issue is how they should have responded. There was nothing wrong with them being thirsty and crying out to the Lord and Moses for water. The problem was that they grumbled at Moses (and the Lord through him). Their grumbling was more than crankiness. It revealed unbelief in their hearts. They did not say, "Lord, we see no way for us to drink here, but You know our needs and we are trusting You to provide for us." Their failure is meant to teach us by their bad example. We are to learn from them how not to cry out when we find ourselves in God designed extreme circumstances in our own lives. "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us..." (I Corinthians 10:5-6).

15:25-26 - "Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer."

In spite of their grumbling complaint to His messenger, the Lord mercifully answers the need of the people for water. He led them here to this place of bitter water, not just to prod them to complain, but to show them, and us, the one answer He has provided for bitterness in our lives. Moses cries out to the Lord on behalf of Israel to answer their need for water. As Moses prayed, the Lord opened his eyes to see a tree. Without any verbal instruction, the Lord gives Moses the understanding that he is to take the tree and throw it into the waters of Marah. When Moses throws the tree into the water, the water is transformed from bitter to sweet. The water is now miraculously fit for drinking. Like all the other miracles of God, the miracle powerfully meets a physical need, but it also teaches in symbol a key spiritual lesson.

The lesson here is another significant type or symbol which points far forward in God's plan to the work of Christ. We are meant to notice that it was a tree that "healed" the waters and transformed them from waters of death into waters of life. The same Hebrew word for tree is found in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which describes a specific death penalty for an accursed man. Paul later refers to that passage in Galatians 3:13. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE". Paul connects the tree of Deuteronomy with the cross of Christ. I believe this cure for the bitter waters that God showed to Moses is a symbol of the cross. It is only when the cross is applied to our lives that our hearts are transformed. The waters that once came from our hearts were filled with bitterness. The waters are healed and "From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38).

Questions from Exodus 14:

Question: What a wonderful lesson in this passage of scripture. Just a question in the part of Pharaoh and God. If God allowed Pharaoh's heart to be hardened for His own honor and purposes, do you think God does the same to some political leaders who are doing wickedness now days to show forth His own honor?

Answer: Thanks for your question Brian (this question comes from Brian, who is the pastor-overseer of a number of churches on one of the Philippine islands. Please pray for him!) Yes, I am 100% convinced that God still works in the hearts of political leaders throughout the world in ways like He did with Pharaoh. The Lord is the same today as He was then, and there is no passage in the Bible that teaches that He has changed His ways. The difficulty for us is in discerning what God is doing with any particular political leader at any particular time. With Pharaoh, we have the benefit of the Lord telling us step by step when He hardened his heart. With other leaders we can be confident that the Lord is working, but we do not have specific revelations from God telling us what He is doing in each case. We are urged to pray for political leaders.

"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior," (I Timothy 2:1-3).

This kind of prayer is asking for God to influence the hearts and decisions of all political leaders. This means not just the good ones, but the wicked ones also. When Paul wrote this, the Caesar in Rome was Nero, who was the most wicked of Roman rulers. Nero had thousands of Christians praying for him, but he never got any "better", but rather grew progressively worse. At first glance, this might seem like there were thousands of wasted prayers, but I don't think so. I believe that the Lord hardened the heart of Nero for His greater glory. Nero was the Caesar that raised the first great persecution of the church by Rome. Thousands of Christians were martyred for their faith in Christ under his rule, but the name of the Lord was awesomely glorified in the martyrdom. There were also multiplied thousands more who were drawn to salvation because of the testimony of the martyrs. Nero's hardness ended up serving God's greater purpose.

Exodus 16

16:2-7 - "The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the LORD'S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, "At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?"

The Lord has led Israel now from their recent camping place at Elim to the wilderness of Sin. They have been gone from Egypt long enough to have exhausted the supply of food that they had carried with them from Egypt. The people are now hungry, and there is nothing in their natural surroundings that shows any promise for enough food to feed such a large host of people. There are no grocery stores in this wilderness and certainly no McDonalds for an easy solution to their hunger. The question arises in the hearts of the people as to why the Lord would have led them to such a place where there would be no food for them. One unhealthy question leads to a dangerous consideration. The people begin to compare their present situation in the wilderness without food to their former situation in Egypt. Yes, they were slaves and life was hard, but at least the Egyptian slave masters provided daily food for them to keep up their strength for the next day's hard work. Having questioned the Lord in their hearts and then considered how much better they had it in Egypt, the people then cross the line of righteousness and choose to grumble among each other.

There is a spiritual dynamic of how we affect and influence one another that we should all understand and treat with respect and caution. If I am struggling in my heart with my life circumstances but doing so privately only before the Lord the effect on you or the community of believers is minimal. If I openly begin to complain and grumble in your hearing about a shared circumstance of difficulty, I have the potential of having a powerful negative influence on you and everyone else in that community. You hearing me grumble tempts you to indulge in the same temporary release of the stress of the difficulty by grumbling along with me. Soon the mood and the attitude of the entire community can become a chorus of complaint. This pattern took place once again in the camp of Israel. This is now the third time they grumble with what they believe are good reasons from a natural perspective, but from a spiritual perspective has a corrosive impact on their faith. Their first complaint was at the shore of the Red Sea when overtaken by Pharaoh and they complained they were going to die. The second time was at Marah when they complained that they had nothing to drink. In both cases, they saw the Lord work a miracle on their behalf to provide a safe escape and to cleanse the bitter waters. Those two miracles should have prepared their hearts for the next testing circumstance and functioned like a spiritual vaccine against further grumblings. Yet, here they are once again, so recently removed from those evidences of the Lord's faithful care for them, and they are again quick to complain.

Another common aspect of community complaints that surfaces here is the specific target of this complaint. The people approach Moses and Aaron and complain to them about the lack of food to eat in this place. They do so in another example of biting sarcasm which reveals the condition of their hearts. They don't want to die, but they claim it would have been better for them to die in the plagues in Egypt than to come all the way out here to the wilderness to die of starvation. There is a reason why the people complain to Moses and not the Lord. Deep in their hearts they know that whatever the Lord has done was the right thing to do. So, rather than grumble at Him directly, they choose a more subtle and indirect way to grumble about the Lord. They target the Lord's chosen leaders for their complaint. Their challenge to Moses and Aaron was, "...for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Was their complaint valid? No, because the reason they had been led here was not to kill them with hunger, and even more to the point, it was not Moses that led them here at all. The Lord, in the pillar of cloud and fire had led them to this place of hunger.

This highlights for us though, one of the principles of spiritual leadership. Becoming the target of undeserved grumbling by the people you lead spiritually comes with the territory. This factor alone makes spiritual leadership an unattractive "job" that I would not encourage anyone to seek. The cost of leadership is simply too great to choose it as a life's vocation. Am I recommending not to seek to be a spiritual leader in the Christian community? The short answer is yes! The greatest heartaches of my life have come from this kind of interaction with the people God has called me to lead. However, I am not saying to any, that they should not become a spiritual leader, nor am I choosing to walk away from my own leadership role. What I am saying is that the burdens that come with the role are too great to endure unless you have been called by the Lord into leadership. If He has called you, then He will sustain you and grant you the grace to endure even the worst complaints. The grace God gave Moses to endure these complaints resulted in his discernment that they were not really complaining about him but about the Lord.

16:14-15 - "When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat."

The Lord is so very gracious to us as His people. To complain even once to Him about Him deserves His hand of judgment to fall immediately upon our lives. Yet, He knows our weaknesses and especially so in extreme circumstances that test our character like this one in which Israel found themselves. When they grumble this third time against Him, the Lord was not pleased with them, but He did not give them the judgment they deserved. Instead He powerfully answers the practical pressing need that stirred their complaint. The Lord provided food for them and did so in a way to meet their physical need while communicating symbolically to them about their deeper need. This is the beginning of the forty year long miracle of manna. The name manna was coined at this time from the shared question they asked when they woke up to this strange substance covering the ground around their camp. They asked, "What is it?" This question in Hebrew is the words "man hu", which then became the term manna. The question they asked has been answered a number of ways by people who have read this account and attempted an explanation, but there are really only two possible answers. Either what they gathered for forty years was a natural product of the desert or it was a miracle.

Those who seek to identify a natural cause for every miracle in the Bible are convinced that this manna was no miracle, but the product from the tamarisk tree in that region of the world which secrets a sap which is sticky and white and hardens to into edible pellets. People that try to rationalize the Biblical miracles with such shallow explanations are blinded by their own agenda that they grasp after any faint correlation that allows them to dismiss the miraculous. The reason that manna could not have been tree sap is that over a million people ate all of their daily meals for forty years of this manna. All of the sap in all of the tamarisk trees in the world would not have been enough to correlate with their diet. In addition, the manna appeared only six days a week and took the seventh day off, and no tree would ever do so. Then on the sixth day the manna supple was double what it was for the other five days and again no tree would produce twice the sap let alone all the trees do so, and if they did, that in itself would constitute another miracle. There is just no escaping the testimony of the manna. Either believe it was a miracle, or choose to reject it as a myth, but don't try to connect it to a natural cause.

The Lord give us additional testimony about the manna further on in the Scriptures. "He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance." (Psalm 78:24-25). "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.' Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." (John 6:31-35). The clear testimony in these two passages is that the manna was bread from heaven. That means it did not come from the earth and had no natural source or cause. This is far more important to correctly identify than to simply satisfy our curiosity about an unusual substance. Above I mentioned the symbolic purpose of manna. The Lord Jesus references the manna event in connection to one of His miracles. Remember that He multiplied loaves of bread and fed a multitude of thousands in the wilderness of Judea. When some of the people asked Him to compare the bread He multiplied with the manna, the Lord Jesus answered in an unexpected way. He identified the manna with Himself. His teaching reveals to us that the manna was a symbol of Christ. Jesus is the bread of God which came from heaven to give life to the world!

16:22-30 - "Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning." So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none." It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? "See, the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day.

The Lord purposed for the manna to serve a triple spiritual purpose for Israel, but unfortunately they only saw and understood the first purpose. The three purposes were that the manna was to meet their immediate physical need for food, it was to point forward into the future as a type of Christ as the Bread of Life, and third it was to be a daily test of their obedience to the Lord's commands. It is not at all unlike the Lord that He will also test our hearts in the same things He provides to meet the needs of our lives. In this case, the test was in the connection of the manna provision to the principle (and later the Law) of honoring the sabbath of the Lord. The sabbath is a day of rest that would soon be given to Israel as the fourth of the ten commandments on the two tablets of stone. They will not receive that Law until they reach Mt. Sinai in the wilderness ahead, but the Lord gives them the pattern of the sabbath here before He gives them the Law.

The sabbath did not originate with the giving of the Law on Sinai, but from the pattern of the Lord's own actions at the beginning of world history. "By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." (Genesis 2:2-3). The same principles that we find in this Genesis passage are involved in the sabbath that Israel was to follow in connection to the manna. The seventh, or final day of each week, they were to rest from gathering any manna. Instead, the Lord would provide a double portion of manna on the sixth day so that on the seventh day they would be able to eat without gathering. There were two miraculous elements in this sixth day / seventh day manna pattern. First, the Lord provided twice as much of the bread from heaven every sixth day for forty years. Second, the Lord suspended the normal rotting process that occurred overnight for any manna that the people attempted to horde.

Like the manna, the sabbath pattern was also a gracious provision from the Lord and also a spiritual test. The provision was that He gave them one day each week to do no work and just rest. This was not their normal pattern in Egypt. As slaves in Egypt there was no such thing as weekends, or days off from their labor. All the slaves worked seven days a week all year long with no rest days to recharge. The Lord knows our capacity and provided in this pattern of one day of rest after each six days of work a wise and necessary way to renew physical and spiritual strength. Anyone, even today, who ignores this pattern of the Lord and works seven days a week does so to their own detriment.

The sabbath was also an ongoing weekly test. Would Israel simply listen and obey when the Lord said to not gather manna on the seventh day. By this point, we are not surprised to see many of the people ignoring this new boundary and going out on the seventh day searching for manna that was not there. The Lord responded to those who failed this test with more than minor irritation. "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?" The tone of the Lord's response is one in which He is warning them that such rebellious disregard of His commands will be met with serious consequences. We know that the Bible is filled with the commands of the Lord that form for us firm boundaries around our actions. When the Lord says "no" we would be wise to listen and obey.

Exodus 17

17:1-4 - "Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me."

The Lord now leads Israel further south in the Sinai desert until they arrive at their next planned camping spot at Rephidim. This was, like all of their camping spots throughout their journey in the wilderness, the Lord's plan for the best spot to stop, not theirs. Even though the Lord chose this spot for them by the pillar of cloud and fire stopping at Rephidim, the people quickly become irritated over the Lord's choice for them. There was apparently nothing wrong with this location as a resting place, other than the glaring lack of any water here. The lack of any water once again becomes the natural reason which leads to an exposure of a deepening issue in the hearts of the people. The people approach Moses as their leader and "quarreled" with him. This does not imply that there was a back and forth argument between Moses and the people, but it does describe the attitude of the people who complained to Moses. The word translated quarreled refers to a complaint made with serious hostility. It describes the flavor of their complaint. Now, we should already be familiar with the tendency of the people to complain. This is now the fourth time the people have lodged a formal complaint against the leadership of Moses (and the Lord) in their relatively short time since being freed from their slavery. The pattern of their complaining spirit is growing all too familiar. Each of these complaints was unfounded and should have been an occasion for them to trust the Lord rather than grumble about Him or His messenger, Moses.

What we see in this particular complaint is that it is progressively worse than the previous ones. Before, they complained and grumbled, but now they quarrel with Moses showing open hostility toward him. The people are exposing the depths of their own rebellion in this because in order to complain again they have had to ignore the warnings of both Moses and the Lord. The dangerous pattern here is that sin, left unchecked by necessary repentance, will always grow worse and more serious over time. Moses correctly identifies what they are doing and rebukes them. "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" The people have crossed a second serious line of sin here. The first line was in their previous complaints when they should have trusted the Lord. Now, they presumptuously dare to put the Lord to the test. What this means is that their complaint is essentially saying to the Lord, "We will see what kind of Lord you are by how you respond to our complaint for water. If you give us what we want when we want it, then we will accept you as Lord. If you don't, then you are not the kind of Lord we want." This is the spirit of rebellion on full display in their attitudes. To be the Lord, by definition, means that He is in charge, and in His wisdom, He determines when, where, and how to provide for us. For us to challenge Him in His decisions for our lives, and, even worse, to question His right to be in charge of us by how He responds to our demands is the worst kind of arrogant rebellion. The people then add to their complaint the same invented insinuation that they used back at the Red Sea when they accused Moses and the Lord of bringing them out to the wilderness only to cause them to suffer a more painful death here.

Moses does not answer the people further and in this decision he shows growing wisdom. In their current perspective and heart attitude, there is really nothing he could say to them to change their disposition. The Lord is going to have to change them. In turning right away to the Lord, rather than try in vain to reason with unreasonable people, Moses saves himself unnecessary further headaches, and limits the explosive potential of the confrontation. What is interesting about the prayer of Moses that follows is just how short, direct and honest it is. Moses does not launch into a long winded prayer filled with what he is "supposed to say" in such situations. "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me." His prayer takes about five seconds to pray. In certain communications with the Lord, less is more. He does not best around the burning bush, but gets right to his concern. His prayer actually consists of his own complaint to the Lord. There is a key difference between the complaint of the people and the complaint of Moses though. The people are complaining about the will of God and what God has chosen for them both as a camping spot, and the leader that brought them there. Moses is complaining about the sin of the people and asking the Lord for help in dealing with them. Their complaint is a growing sin, while his complaint is aimed at limiting their sin.

17:5-6 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel."

The Lord answers the cry of Moses with a surprising plan. He instructs Moses to take the staff which he used to strike the Nile, take some of the elders of Israel as witnesses, and then to go ahead of the people to a chosen location at nearby Horeb. Horeb is the same location where the Lord had originally appeared to him in the burning bush, and it was the place where the Lord would soon give Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai. Once Moses and the elders arrived at Horeb, the Lord described that He would stand on the rock there. Moses was then to take the staff and strike the rock with it. When the rock is struck, the Lord would cause a stream of water to flow from the rock sufficient to meet the need for all the people. There is much more going on here than the Lord simply providing a drink for Israel. As with the previous miracles in the wilderness, the Lord is meeting their natural need in a way that will teach a critical spiritual principle for all future generations. The way the Lord provided for their water is another of the great types of the Old Testament pointing to Christ and His work of salvation.

Paul refers to this event in this passage; "and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ." (I Corinthians 10:4). Paul identifies this rock at Horub as a spiritual rock. That should help us to see beneath the surface of this event. He also further identifies this rock with Christ. He does not mean that Christ literally became this rock, but that when the Lord stood on this rock it became identified with Him spiritually. When Paul says that this rock followed them through the wilderness he implies that wherever they traveled through the wilderness from this point forward, this rock was at the camp site God selected to provide an ongoing supply of water for the entire nation.

The specific way that they received the water from the rock was the key to this symbol of our salvation. Moses was ordered to strike the rock which represented Christ. The striking of the rock is an image of the crucifixion of Christ. This entire event is a symbolic preview of the cross. The people have a great need for water that is naturally impossible to meet. The people sin in their hearts and complain with hostility toward the Lord. Instead of punishing the people as they deserved, the Lord strikes His own Son, and in that strike, He releases life giving water in abundance for them. The water flowing from the rock points to the outpoured Holy Spirit bringing new life in salvation to the people.

The detail of how the rock was to be struck in also important. Moses was to strike the rock with the staff of God. This staff represented the authority of God. This was the staff of God's judgment. God mentions that it was the same staff with which Moses struck the Nile to make the connection with that judgment upon Egypt. The point is that the cross of Christ is not the doing of human beings. Yes, Jesus was nailed to the cross by human hands, but it was God's plan and will that He was crucified. The cross was not about the human judgment of Rome or Jerusalem against Christ, but the judgment of God upon Christ as he took our place to suffer our judgment for us. "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." (Isaiah 53:4).

17:8-13 - "Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."

After the incident with the people's complaint about water and the awesome answer of the Lord in the miracle of water from the rock, we might expect that the Lord would give His people a break to think it over. The Lord often works according to a different agenda than we would choose for ourselves. An unexpected enemy arrives on the scene as soon as their thirst is satisfied. As we will see in the battle that ensues, this battle has a distinctly spiritual element. It is what we would call spiritual warfare. The lesson here should be obvious for all believers. If the water from the rock is an image of salvation, then what is the relationship of the immediate battle that follows? The point is that our spiritual warfare starts at the moment of our salvation. Before we were saved, the enemy of our souls has no reason to fight against us since we are no spiritual threat to him. As soon as we are saved we become a threat to the kingdom of darkness because our lives are now a testimony to the saving power of God. I have counseled many new believers who were surprised at the unexpected disruptions in their life as soon as they were saved. New believers should not be discouraged by the sudden impact of spiritual warfare after salvation, but encouraged by it as an indication of the salvation of the Lord.

The enemy Israel faces is Amalek. This was a tribe of people descended from Jacob's brother Esau. They are distant blood relatives to Israel, but they are not coming to greet Israel to the wilderness. This passage from Deuteronomy gives us more detail on this attack. "Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget." (Deut 25:17-19).

The response of Israel to this attack has a natural and spiritual aspect. Moses appoints Joshua to lead the battle against Amalek. This is the introduction of Joshua. He is a younger man that served as the personal assistant to Moses, and will later be chosen by the Lord to lead Israel into the Promised Land. It is interesting that the Lord handles this battle with Amalek in an entirely different way than the battle against Pharaoh's chariots at the Red Sea. Then, the Lord had Israel just stand and watch as He did all the fighting. Now, the Lord wants Israel to fight in their own defense. In doing so, the Lord is now beginning to train Israel for the later conquest and occupation of the Promised Land. Even though Israel is to fight for themselves in this battle, that does not mean that they are fighting on their own. Their battle is going to depend on more than the strength of their arm, sword and shield. The outcome of the battle will still depend on the Lord. The scene with Moses on the hill lifting the staff of God is a powerful image to show them to not lean upon themselves in their battles, but in the Lord and to lean on Him from moment to moment in the battle.

There is also a great benefit for Moses in this situation. In order for Israel to prevail, the staff of God had to remain lifted by his hands. Yet, the strength of Moses was limited and left alone, the staff would fall and Israel along with it. Moses must have been recently discouraged from being the target of the complaints of the people. In granting Israel victory this way, the Lord was speaking to Israel and to Moses. The message to Israel was that Moses was the leader chosen by God to lead His people and only if the authority of God through Moses was supported would there be victory. For Moses, there was the encouragement of experiencing two men coming along side to support him and strengthen him to fulfill His role so that the victory of the Lord could be won.

Questions from Exodus 16:

Question: 16:34 - What did the "Testimony" consist of at this time?

Answer: Great question. I'll elaborate for those that may not have noticed this in yesterday's reading. You are asking about an important detail from this passage. "Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony, to be kept." (Exodus 16:33-34). At first glance this passage is a bit confusing. The Lord commanded Moses to instruct Aaron to take a jar of the manna and place it before the Lord to preserve it for future generations. This manna was not for anyone to eat, but as a continuing reminder of the provision of the Lord for Israel throughout their forty years in the wilderness. The passage describes that Aaron obeyed and placed the manna before the Testimony. Your question is what was the Testimony at that time. The answer is that there was no Testimony at that time. That is the confusing part. There is an explanation however.

The Testimony was a term that referred to the ark of the covenant constructed for the tabernacle. The concept of it functioning as a testimony came when the Lord instructed Moses to have three items placed inside the box of the ark. The three items were the jar of manna, the rod of Aaron that budded, and the stone tablets of the Law. The ark is not introduced until chapter 25 of Exodus and it is there described as the Testimony. "You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you." (Exodus 25:16). "There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel." (Exodus 25:22). The explanation of the passage in Exodus 16:34 is that Moses is writing this account, not as it happens, but years later near the end of the journey through the wilderness. He knows about the ark of the testimony as he is writing. He includes the description of the jar of manna placed into the ark of testimony as part of the story of when the manna first fell to emphasize for the reader the spiritual significance of the event. In the chapter 16 description Moses does not write that Aaron placed it in the testimony right then. We tend to assume that because we think chronologically. The point Moses is making is that later, when the ark was constructed, Aaron then placed the jar of manna in it by the direction of the Lord.

Exodus 18

18:1-6 - "Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Moses' wife Zipporah, after he had sent her away, and her two sons, of whom one was named Gershom, for Moses said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land." The other was named Eliezer, for he said, "The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh." Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was camped, at the mount of God. He sent word to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her."

While Israel is still camped at Rephidim, near Horub, Moses receives an unexpected, but welcome visitor. His father-in-law, Jethro, whom he has not seen since his return to Egypt arrives at the camp. Word had traveled to Jethro in Midian about how Moses had led Israel out of Egypt by the power of the Lord. Jethro had come to honor Moses for what had been accomplished, to renew their personal relationship, and to bring the family of Moses to him for a reunion. The last time the wife and sons of Moses are mentioned was at the lodging place where they stopped as Moses was returning from Midian to Egypt (Exodus 4:24-26). No detail is given there of what happens from that point to his family, but they are not mentioned once Moses arrives back in Egypt until now. With this passage we can conclude that from the lodging place Moses sent Zipporah and his sons Gershom and Eliezer back to her father Jethro. There are two possibilities for why he sent them back. Either there was serious strife between Moses and Zipporah over the circumcision issue and he did not want to be distracted in his mission, or he sent them back for their own safety due to the danger of his mission.

Jethro was able to find Moses here, because a camp of over a million people would be well known to everyone in the region by now. Moses may have also arranged to meet Jethro here for a restoration with his family when he returned from Egypt. The Lord had given this location to Moses as a sign and promised that he would return here. "And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain." (Exodus 3:12). The names of Moses' two sons are rehearsed in the text with a reminder of the meaning of their names because Moses now sees the hand of the Lord in why he gave them these names at their birth. The sons were born before his journey to Egypt, but Moses now interprets their names as prophetic encouragement from the Lord regarding what He had done in his life. Gershom, which means "stranger there" highlights that while born in Egypt, Moses did not belong there. His home was not behind him in Egypt, but ahead of him in the path the Lord had appointed for him. Eliezer, which means "God is my help" is a reminder of how the Lord had helped him and Israel in such an awesome deliverance from the power of Pharaoh.

These names serve as twin principles to focus our attention where it belongs in the purpose of God which we share with Moses. Our sense of personal identity should not be based on who we were, or where we came from, or what kind of life we had before our salvation. We are now truly strangers to our old life. That was a life we just passed through and we were never meant to stay there. Our life is all about what the Lord has done for us by His amazing grace in the cross of Christ. Our life is about where He is taking us.

18:7-12 - "Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had befallen them on the journey, and how the LORD had delivered them. Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians. So Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people." Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses' father-in-law before God."

When Jethro arrives in camp, Moses shows him the honor of a visiting man of importance. He gives Jethro the greeting of a welcomed and honored guest including both a ceremonial bow of honor and a kiss on the cheek of friendship. Asking each other of the other's welfare since they last met gives Moses the opportunity to share with Jethro the news of all that has transpired in Egypt and in their journey through the wilderness. Jethro has already heard the basic word of mouth report of these events, but Moses now gives him the full account of the ten great judgments of the Lord on Egypt, Pharaoh's hardness of heart, the plundering of Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh's chariots, the celebration of Israel that followed, the tests of no drinking water at Marah, Massah and Meribah, the provision of manna from heaven, and the battle with Amalek. This series of testimonies of the Lord's reality, presence and power serve as an overwhelming proof to the heart of anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see.

Moses sharing these testimonies of the Lord is an early example of what we now call evangelism. Biblical evangelism is not an expression of argumentation, manipulation or marketing. True evangelism consists in the simplicity of passing on to others what the Lord has done. For Jethro, his heart is so impacted by the account that he immediately rejoiced because of the evident goodness of the Lord toward Israel. Jethro blesses the name of Yahweh as an acknowledgment that he believes the testimony of Moses. His response shows that he perceives for the first time that Yahweh is the supreme God. Remember, Jethro was previously identified as the priest of Midian. We do not know which specific god or gods the Midianites honored, but this is the moment of Jethro's conversion to a true believer in the One true God, Yahweh. "Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people."

Jethro's declaration indicates he now has a genuine faith in the Lord. It is possible that he still believes in the existence of other gods at this point, but that Yahweh is clearly superior to them all. That possibility does not diminish the validity of Jethro's faith. The genuine nature of a new believer's faith should not be evaluated based upon how fully developed it is in all details of theology. What matters at this point is whether the Lord has caused Jethro to believe in Him as the supreme God over all. There were many details of my theology that were in error when I was first saved. I remember shortly after my salvation struggling when another believer spoke to me about the blood of Christ. I did not understand the significance of the blood for my salvation, because I had not yet been taught the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary death upon the cross. Because I was truly saved, once I was taught, my heart embraced the truth of God's Word regarding the blood. It is the grace of God and our genuine faith that carry us forward into a greater and more accurate understanding of the truth as we grow.

The actions of Jethro following his declaration of faith in the Lord are also significant. He worships the Lord by offering a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. He then shares a meal of fellowship with the other leaders of Israel. The pattern here still applies today. When a person accepts the message of the gospel of salvation we should expect their heart to be moved to express the change that always accompanies a true conversion. Jethro first shows by his sacrifices that he has his own spiritual relationship with the Lord now, and his meal with the elders shows that he now identifies in true fellowship with the covenant people of God.

18:13-20 - "It came about the next day that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from the morning until the evening. Now when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening?" Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws." Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good. You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people's representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God, then teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do."

The next day, Moses returns to his normal daily routine and Jethro is with him to observe. Jethro is troubled by what he sees Moses doing, not because it is a bad thing, but because it is an unnecessary burden for Moses and all the people. Moses was accustomed on the days they were not traveling to sit as a judge to handle the problems and issues that arose within the camp. Remember that there were 600,000 men, plus women and children at this time. These are the people of God, living under the blessing of God, but that did not mean that they were trouble free. We have already seen that God has led them into challenging circumstances to expose their corporate flaws for the sake of their spiritual growth, and those are just the flaws they all shared. On an individual basis, how many issues, problems and disputes do you think might arise among between one and two million people all out camping together in the wilderness? Moses was at this time the sole judge for those issues. A line would typically form for Moses to hear and judge each case in turn. He would begin early in the morning each day and at night when he finished for the day, the line still remained.

Jethro concern was that this system was sure to eventually wear out both Moses and the people that had to wait to be heard. I remember when I was handling pastoral counseling for a congregation of 500. There were some days where I had one appointment after another for the entire day. At the end of the day I would return home drained from sharing the life crisis of just seven or eight individuals, couples or families. I'm sure there were more than seven or eight cases for Moses to judge on a daily basis, but no matter how many he was able to judge, the extent of the need was far greater than his capacity to meet it. There is a super important lesson here for spiritual leadership. We are called and graced by the Lord to represent Him and minister to His people on His behalf, but no one of us is able to fully accomplish the work of God on our own. We are designed with a limited capacity to represent Him and serve His people. Ultimately, only Christ can meet all the needs represented in the church of God.

Jethro then begins to give Moses counsel in how to modify his ministry approach. We can interpret Jethro's advice as well intentioned but worldly counsel and dismiss it. Or, we can see his counsel as stimulated by the Lord and wise perspective the Lord intended to use to shape the ministry of Moses and all future leaders. I believe this second perspective is how the Lord intends us to interpret this. The Lord has many times spoken directly to Moses, but now He chooses to speak indirectly to him through a wise and trusted counselor. The message is clear, and identifies a Biblical principle of leadership that no leader ignores if he is wise. The principle is that God's leadership pattern is a shared leadership. No one man that God appoints to lead is meant to lead by themselves. The burden of leadership and ministry is to be shared with other men. Shared leadership is beneficial for the primary leader and for the people that he leads. The primary leader is spared the danger of overload and inevitable "burnout", and the people are blessed to receive more timely personal attention.

18:21-23 - "Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace."

The type of men with whom Moses is to share the leadership is the focus of this passage. They are identified here by a short but spiritually descriptive standard. They must be "...able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain." These descriptions are meant to be understood as qualifications. It is necessary to emphasize that the Lord is the One who establishes the standards of qualification for who may lead His people because they are His people. The principle continues throughout the Old Testament and on into the New Testament church (I Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9) and even until today. A person must be spiritually qualified to lead God's people. Only the details of the qualifications have changed, but the essential character of qualified leaders is consistent from that day until today.

Keep in mind that the way a spiritual qualification works is that all qualifications must be part of the leader's character. If a person is mostly qualified, or even 90% qualified, that translates to not yet qualified to lead. These are not a menu from which we can choose which characteristics matter most to us. Each quality is critical for effective leadership. On the other hand, no one is perfect in any of these qualities. What is necessary is that the leader's life is characterized by these qualities.

There are five specific qualifications that we can identify from the list. They are: 1) The leader must be a man 2) The leader must have the capacity to lead 3) The leader must be in right relationship with the Lord 4) The leader must be committed to the truth revealed in God's Word 5) The leader must be a man of personal integrity. The quality of our churches would be significantly improved if these five standards were spiritually applied to all that were considered for church leadership.

Questions from Exodus 17:

Question: 17:10 - Is Hur Caleb's son? Is there significance to why he is the one helping Moses here?

Answer: The Hur mentioned in Exodus 17 helping to hold up the arms of Moses is possibly the son of Caleb (I Chronicles 2:18-20), but we can't say for sure. Hur was a fairly common name. Another possibility is found in the writings of Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. He identified this Hur as the husband of Miriam, the sister of Moses. No reason is given explaining why Hur is one of the two holding up the arms of Moses, so we are left to draw a conclusion from the little material we have. It is easy to understand why Aaron was one of the two as the brother of Moses and the one appointed by God to help Moses in his ministry. Hur was one of the leaders of Israel that Moses trusted along with Aaron and Joshua. In Exodus 24:14, when Moses goes up to the mountain of God he leaves both Aaron and Hur in charge of the camp. It seems that Aaron and Hur are the second and third leaders after Moses, with Joshua as the future leader in training.

Exodus 19

19:3-5 - "Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;"

Every chapter of the Bible is significant because they are all the inspired Word of God. Some chapters, because of their special content, stand out even among the other chapters of God's Word. This chapter is one of those special chapters. It is the prelude to the revelation to follow in which for the remainder of the book of Exodus, the Lord is going to give to Moses the Law and the plans for the tabernacle. In this introduction to the revelation of the Law, the Lord makes declarations to Moses that introduce new concepts that describe His great purpose for His people in a way that carries directly into the New Covenant and speaks just as powerfully to His purpose for us today.

Israel has arrived at Mt. Sinai, which is also known as the mountain of God. The pillar of cloud and fire now rests upon the mountain under which Israel is camped. The Lord calls Moses to join Him on the mountain. The message of the Lord that Moses is to deliver to Israel rehearses where they have been (Egypt), how God permanently changed all of their lives (the ten plague judgments upon Egypt), how He had sustained them in their journey here (borne on eagles wings), and what the goal of their journey was (to be brought to Yahweh in this place). Before the Lord gives them His Law, He wants to be sure they hear again that everything that has transpired so far has been His doing and not theirs. The Exodus is the story of God's great purpose for His people being accomplished by His power and grace for His own glory. It is a necessary spiritual foundation for the Law that the people understand the great purpose of God for their lives. Without understanding His purpose, the Law will become in their perspective nothing greater than a long arbitrary and oppressive list of do's and don'ts. What we should understand, even if they did not, is that the Law is a necessary aspect of His purpose. When God calls His people to obey any specific requirement of His Law, there is always a greater purpose behind that call.

The Lord chose to describe their journey from Egypt to this mountain using a poetic image of His relationship to them. Yahweh bore the entire nation of Israel on eagles wings. In the image, Yahweh is pictured as a giant eagle capable of carrying the whole nation. In this image there are two possible positions that Israel occupies in relationship to the eagle. Either Israel is in the eagle's claws or Israel is riding on the eagle's back as it flies. If Israel is held in the claws of the eagle, then the image is that of the Lord as a predator and Israel as His prey. I don't believe this is the picture the Lord intends here. In the other way of seeing this image, the Lord is like the mother eagle that flies underneath its baby eagle as it makes its first flight from the nest. Whenever the baby eagle would begin to fall in its first flight the mother eagle would soar upwards underneath and carry the eagle chick to safety. The image is one that conveys the care and commitment of a parent to its offspring. Yes, Israel left Egypt, and traveled here to Sinai, but each step along the way it was the Lord's presence, power and provision that sustained them and brought them here.

The Lord also uses a new term here for the first time in the Bible. The term is "My own possession." The phrase translates a single Hebrew word, segullah. It refers to the specially treasured personal possession of a king. The Lord uses it to describe His own heart perspective toward Israel. To catch the full meaning it must be understood in the context of what the Lord says next about the earth. He declares that all the earth belongs to Him. Since He created all things, He also owns all things. Yet among all that He owns, He considers one thing to be his special treasure. That one special treasure is His people. The theology term that corresponds to this concept is election. God has a certain relationship to all of His own creation and every person and nation. Election teaches us that God chooses to form a special covenant relationship with some, but not all. We show this same inclination when we choose among all the people alive to focus special attention on one person and to enter into a committed lifelong relationship in the covenant of marriage. That person we marry becomes our segullah, our special treasure. The Lord refers to Israel in this way throughout the Old Testament. "For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession." (Psalm 135:4). In the New Testament, the Lord uses this exact same name to identify His special love for the church. "But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" (I Peter 2:9). "...who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:14).

19:6 - "and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

There are three connected descriptive terms the Lord uses in this passage to identify how He sees Israel (and by extension now, the church). The Lord wants us, as His people, to identify ourselves in the same way. We are His own possession (special treasure), we are a kingdom of priests, and we are a holy nation. The great purpose of God is that His people would be identified with Him and live in this world reflecting His likeness. When the Lord called Israel a kingdom of priests it was a life shaping designation. The role of priest was not unknown in the ancient world all cultures had certain individuals like Jethro, the priest of Midian, that were set apart from normal occupations in order to serve their god or gods. What was revolutionary about this message is that the Lord was not describing His plan for a few among Israel to be set apart for priestly service, but that the entire nation would serve Him as priests. Such a thing had never been conceived before in history, that an entire nation would all be priests. This does not mean that every person would stop doing normal occupations, but that every man, woman and child in Israel was meant to see that their lives belonged to the Lord in a special way and that they were to live every day with that as their dominant perspective.

We will see in the chapters ahead, that this declaration from the Lord represents to us the plan of the Lord to one day fulfill among His people, not a real expectation to happen immediately. Soon, because of the rebellion of Israel before they even move away from this mountain, we will see the Lord naming one tribe of the original twelve as a tribe of priests. That failure of Israel to live up to this awesome purpose of God for His people does not, however, mean that God has abandoned this plan as one that cannot be fulfilled. In the New Covenant, because of the power of the cross of Christ to transform our hearts, and the presence of the Holy Spirit filling His people, the Lord's purpose to have all His people set apart to serve Him as a kingdom of priests is now being fulfilled. The following passages apply this same designation to the church. "But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;" (I Peter 2:9). "...and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6).

Sadly, even today, among the believers of the New Covenant, there is much confusion regarding priests. Because of the long history of the Roman Catholic Church, and its unbiblical priesthood pattern, many true believers are shocked when they first hear that God identifies all Christians as priests. The Catholic Church historically has confused the priesthood with church leadership roles. This is not taught anywhere in the New Testament. The true priesthood in the church is to be set apart by God through salvation to a life of holy service. To be a priest in the New Covenant means that your life belongs exclusively to God because of Jesus Christ. There are no special physical garments to wear identifying a certain few as priests. All of us who have been cleansed by the sacrifice of Christ as spiritually clothed in robes of righteousness.

The third special designation for God's people in this passage is that they are called by God a "holy nation". This was not as strange to the ear as the kingdom of priests concept would be, but the implications are just as great for Israel first, and now the church. The first implication is that from this point forward Israel was no longer an extended tribal family, but a nation. This is the official point at which Israel first becomes a nation. There were many nations in the world at that time, but until the Lord formed Israel into a nation, none of them are identified as holy. Israel was called to be the first and only holy nation. The great implication is that Israel is to be different from the other nations of the world. The first and great difference is that every other nation was devoted to their own gods, living by their own moral and ethical standards, and pursuing their own purposes as a nation. Israel was to stand alone among the nations devoted only and exclusively to Yahweh, committed to living only by His moral and ethical standards, and pursuing only His purpose for them as a nation. God selected Israel to be a shining example to all other nations of what a nation should be like. Now, in the New Covenant, what is the holy nation of God in this world? God's holy nation today is the true church of all the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. The holy nation of God is now a spiritual nation without geographic boundaries. God has seeded all the natural nations of the world with some of His holy nation to influence each nation from within. As believers, our first identification should be as Christians, even before we identify ourselves as American, or any other national identity. We are called to live as His examples of His holy nation. "But you (the church) are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION..." (I Peter 2:9).

19:10-19 - "The LORD also said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. "You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 'No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman." So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder."

This passage tells of the final preparations the Lord makes among His people before the giving of the Law, which begins in the next chapter. The Lord instructs Moses to have the people "consecrate" themselves. It meant to cease any activity that would have a spiritually defiling effect on them, and to prepare to meet the Lord Himself. The Lord announced that He was going to come down upon Sinai in the sight of everyone. He did not mean that everyone would see His unveiled glory, because no one could survive seeing the Lord's full glory. He meant that in the cloud, the Lord was going to manifest His presence in a powerful way upon the mountain. Even veiled in the cloud, Israel would not survive the experience unless they were spiritually prepared by three days of consecration. The Lord also had boundaries erected around the mountain so that none of the people or even their animals would wander too close to the Lord and die in that transgression.

In today's religious culture, we are not accustomed to being concerned about people dying if they get too close to the Lord. The loss of that perspective is really a loss for our culture. What the Lord was teaching Israel here is a basic lesson about His holiness, and the only appropriate human response when in the presence of the holiness of Yahweh, the fear of God. Today, people tend to presume upon the kindness and tenderness of God and trample on His holiness. This was not an issue for Israel on the day the Lord descended upon Sinai. When He did, there was great thundering, lightning flashes, a thick cloud upon the mountain, a progressively louder trumpet sounding, and then the Lord descended in fire! As He did, the entire mountain quaked violently, and all the people trembled as they looked toward the mountain. None of this is God showing off in an unnecessary display. The entire point was to establish the hearts of Israel in the holy fear of God. He is exactly this awesome and holy today.

Questions from Exodus 18:

Question: 18:5-6 - Is this example of Moses going on God's mission without his family here for us to see God's desire for the husband as spiritual leader of the home to be the one to pursue any outside ministry of the family while the wife/mother is caring for the home and family matters (though Zipporah was with her father)? Or is it possible that Moses fell short as a father by doing this?

Answer: No, I don't believe that we are meant to take the story as firm pattern against going on a mission with one's family. We see examples earlier with Abraham and Jacob where they took their entire households with them as God directed them. You can make a case for the man called to a dangerous mission exercising wisdom in leaving his family in a safe situation while he completes the dangerous mission. In this case, the more dangerous portion would be what had already taken place in Egypt. Certainly, Moses was reunited with his family at this point and they remained with him for the rest of his mission through the wilderness journey. Moses did fall short as a father by not circumcising his son earlier, but there is no hint in this passage that he was a bad father for having sent his family back to Jethro while he went to Egypt.

Question: 18:12 - The sacrificial system had not yet been established. Was there an informal pattern of eating a meal before the Lord at this time? Any thoughts on what that looked like and how it got started (perhaps Noah in Gen 8:20-21?)

Answer: I believe that this is the first example in Scripture of a group of people eating a meal "before God". We have no details of what was different about the meal. I doubt there was any physical difference of food or practical arrangements. I think the emphasis we are to catch is that Moses, Aaron, Jethro and the elders ate the meal unto the Lord with a shared awareness that the relationship established between them was of the Lord. It was common in the culture then for visiting chiefs and dignitaries to be honored by a celebratory meal. What this meal did was direct the honor shown in the meal beyond Jethro to the Lord Who brought them together.

Exodus 20

20:1-2 - "Then God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

This chapter gives us the first declaration of the Ten Commandments and the beginning of the many laws that God gave to Moses for Israel. The remainder of the laws are given throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The first thing we should notice is how these ten laws in this chapter were communicated to Israel. There are a grand total of 613 individual laws given by God throughout these four books. 603 of those laws were communicated by God to Moses, who then was to pass them on to Israel. These first ten, however are meant to be understood as special among all the laws because they were spoken by God to all of the people, and not just to Moses alone. The people were at the foot of Mt. Sinai in this scene and the presence of the Lord was within the cloud on top of the mountain. The Lord spoke with a loud enough voice to be heard by every man, woman and child of Israel and to cause them to tremble in fear at the sound of His voice. There is a reason the Lord chose to speak these ten to all, and not just to Moses. It was critical for the people to understand that these laws were aimed directly at each of their hearts. The Lord was making each Israelite personally accountable to His standards for them.

The second thing worth noting is how these laws are described in the text. They are not called the Ten Commandments. They are not even called laws here. Both of those terms are used elsewhere in God's Word as descriptions of His standards, but the term used here is a more simple "words". These are more accurately called the Ten Words. The difference in emphasis is subtle but necessary. These ten things function as laws because God uses them to hold His people accountable, but they are more than mere laws. They are also principles. God is not just correcting bad behavior here, He is also teaching right behavior in contrast. They are useful to teach us, convict us, correct us and train us in righteousness (II Timothy 3:16). The primary Hebrew word that is used to identify what we call the Law is Torah. The word Torah literally means teaching or instruction. As we consider the Ten Commandments, we should be thinking, not just what God wants us not to do, but also what God by contrast is training us to be like as His image bearers.

There is traditional disagreement on how the ten words were meant to be organized. What is clear from Scripture is that the Lord later wrote these same ten words upon two tablets of stone for Moses to carry down the mountain. The two tablets each have a more specific focus with the first tablet's concerns being our responsibilities toward the Lord, while the second tablet is focused on our responsibilities toward our neighbors. The disagreement is on how many words or laws were included on each tablet. The two primary alternatives are 5/5 and 4/6. The advocates of the 4/6 arrangement see the fifth commandment regarding honoring parents as a neighbor command and so group it with the second tablet commands. I believe that the tablets were arranged symmetrically with five commands on each. The fifth command to honor parents fits with our responsibilities toward God because of the unique role parents play in a child's life in being the first representatives of the Lord to that child.

Jesus used two other individual laws later in the Law of God to summarize and identify with clarity the overall purpose of each tablet. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40). Even though most of the ten are phrased as negative prohibitions using "You shall not..." language, each of the ten has its own role in training our hearts in what God desires to see in us and receive from us. The two tablets of five laws are summarized by the two principles; love God and love your neighbor. Jesus taught that the entire Law of God is communicating these priority concerns. A helpful way of understanding the Law is that God calls us to love Him and love our neighbor. The Ten Words are ten examples in ten specific categories of how and in what ways we are to our God and our neighbor. The Ten Words serve as an outline of all of the 613 individual laws. God was gracious to give such an outline summary knowing the impossibility of us remembering 613 details at the same time, but the realistic expectation that we would be able to remember ten reminders of the substance of His standards.

20:3-6 - "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

The first concern of God's Law is about Himself and our proper relationship to Him. The spiritual goal of these first two of the Ten Words is to train our hearts in how to love God. Yet, like most they are phrased emphasizing what we must not do. The reason for the negative wording is that the people that received the Law were listening that day with good intentions, but their basic spiritual condition is as fallen humans. Sin has already infected them, so the natural tendency is toward sin and disobedience in every category of life. The negative phrasing immediately limits the development of those sinful tendencies while also providing by contrast a template for understanding what God desires for us instead.

Law number one was to have no other gods before the Lord. This does not mean that the Lord is proclaiming the actual existence of other gods, but that He is prohibiting Israel from following the pattern of all the nations around them in worshipping gods of their own invention. The phrase, "before Me" is a Hebrew figure of speech which indicates that the Lord forbids the acknowledgment or honoring of any other so-called god other than Himself. Understood positively, it is a declaration from the Lord that He is the only God that exists and as God, all worship properly belongs to Him alone. The temptation for Israel throughout their generations was to follow the example of the nations around them in their practice of worship. We are rarely tempted today to worship Ra, Osiris, Isis, Zeus, and the other gods of the nations. That does not mean that the first command is an easy requirement for us to fulfill today however. The core of the issue with this command is what we worship in our lives by assigning greatest value to certain things. God calls us to honor and value Him above all else.

For the ancient peoples false worship of false gods invariably was expressed in making idols to represent their gods. Two comments are necessary regarding an appropriate application of this standard today. First, this prohibition against making things in the likeness of things in heaven, earth, or in the water has been mistakenly used to prohibit many form of art such as statues or paintings. Taken to an extreme some believe that painting, sculpture or photograph that depicts a bird, animal, fish, human or angel is a violation of this law. They are completely missing the concern here. God is not forbidding works of art that stimulate us to honor Him more. What He forbids in the second commandment is the creation of anything that then becomes itself an object of our worship.

The danger for us today is directing our heart's devotion to created things rather than to the Lord, even if the things created are much more technologically advanced than they were in ancient times. It is possible for people to so devote themselves to things that the thing becomes like a god to them. Indicators of this modern expression of idolatry are what we spend most of our time and money on. It is possible for a person to show that kind of spiritually dangerous devotion to a car, television, computer, hobby, etc., in which they rearrange budgets and schedules to give first place, not to the Lord but to some thing they actually love above all else.

20:13-15 - "You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal."

These are commands six, seven and eight and are the first commands on the second tablet of the Law. All three are in the negative form of communication, but all three have the same positive purpose of teaching us how to love our neighbor. None of these laws of the second tablet are as simple as they seem at first glance, and each is aimed at a range of thoughts, words and actions (Matthew 5:21-30). Israel became infamous over the generations for avoiding the letter of the law, but minimizing the spiritual implications conveyed by each of these laws.

The sixth word is a prohibition against murder. The old King James translation of this command produced a common misunderstanding that still raises debates in our society today. In that translation, it read, "Thou shalt not kill." Man have wrongly seen this as a complete prohibition from God for any human being to ever take the life of another human being under any circumstances. That is not the intent of this law. There is a critical difference in prohibiting killing and murder. Murder always includes killing, but killing does not always include murder. Killing refers to the act of ending another person's life. Murder adds a moral element of evil to the act of ending another person's life. It is always wrong and prohibited by God to end another human being's life with evil intent or reasons. God defines evil elsewhere and teaches us how to recognize it. On the other hand, the Bible sanctions killing under certain circumstances. Those circumstances are righteous war, governmental execution and self defense (when your own life is in danger). Jesus broadens our understanding of the influence of murder to include murderous thoughts and words as well as actions.

The seventh command has fallen into serious disrepair in our culture today. When a television show such as Desperate Housewives (which is based upon a single premise, that adultery is a pleasure that should not be denied) is one of the highest rated shows it should be obvious that the culture has drifted far from God's standards as revealed in the Ten Words. Glorifying portrayals of adultery as viewing pleasure is the perspective at which this law was aimed. The prevalence of the sin of adultery is greater today than perhaps any time before now. One of the most effective things we can do as believers is to use God's own terminology to describe it and to identify it as a sin as He does. The culture substitutes terms like, "an affair" to evacuate it of any spiritual concerns and to remove God from the picture. People remain uncomfortable with bold declarations that any sexual relationship for those who are married outside of their marriage is a sin of adultery. Other kinds of sexual violations of God's standards are addressed later in the Law, and this command in that sense summarizes God's standards in those areas. The bottom-line of this law is that God defines what is right and wrong about sexual relations, not us. When individuals or entire societies substitute their own desires and preferences for God' law standards regarding sex, the deterioration is rapid and substantial. What feels right to each person then becomes the new standard, and the only sin is by the person that dares to say that what they are doing against God's revealed Word is wrong. Tolerance of all sexual practices becomes the shared value of the society and holiness and obedience to God's standard become the strange or abnormal thing.

The eighth command prohibits theft. How much stealing does it prohibit and of what kind of things? The simple answer is all. Whether a person steals a billion dollars through illegal insider trading, or a quarter from their parents' change, the law is straightforward in its concerns and applies equally. The positive element of the law is a confirmation by God of what we call the rights to private property. In the biggest perspective, God created all things and so He owns all things. He has, however, given to each person some things to own. Private ownership serves His purpose to train us in larger issues of personal responsibility. The things that belong to us we are free to give to another, but no one has the right to take what is ours without our agreement.

20:17 - "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

The final command of the Ten Words has a special function among the ten. It was chosen by God to be last on purpose. Overall, one of the main purposes of the Law is to expose to us our own sinful tendencies and to prepare our hearts for the Savior by showing us our great need for salvation (Galatians 3:24). The first nine commands of the ten all have an internal element and application as Jesus taught us, but the command itself is worded with a focus on observable behavior. You can see for yourself when I worship an idol, take the name of the Lord in vain, dishonor my parents, steal from my neighbor, etc. This final command of the ten is aimed at addressing an internal temptation and sin exclusively. The requirement is to not "covet" our neighbors' house, mate, servants, animals, or any of his possessions. The word covet means to desire what one should not desire. The amazing point of this law is to show God's people that He determines what our behavior, our words, and now even our hidden desires should be. The problem is that coveting is hidden to all except God Himself. I can covet, and you may never know that I am. But, the Lord knows.

This command meant that for the sticklers about obeying the behaviors required by the Law, there was still a command that would convict their heart of sin if they were honest in their own heart evaluation. I may never in my life commit physical murder or adultery, and in avoiding those outward behaviors convince myself that I was righteous. We all know in our hearts however that we have privately desired something that belonged to someone else. Whether it is my neighbor's TV, landscaping, bathroom, car, watch, job, etc. does not matter. Once I want what belongs to them, the boundary of this command has been crossed. Paul refers to this in this passage. "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." (Romans 7:7). Even as a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, the Lord used the tenth command to convict his heart of sin. When Christ saved him, he later testified that his heart had learned the spiritual opposite of coveting. God trained his heart in contentment (Philippians 4:11-13).

Questions from Exodus 19:

Question: 19:13 - The first reference of stoning is in Ex. 8:26. Did the Israelites learn this from the Egyptians? Did "shot through" (with an arrow) continue as a means of punishment after this?

Answer: There is no evidence or indication that Israel learned stoning from the Egyptians. This command in 19:13 comes directly from the Lord. It was His chosen method of death penalty execution for the nation of Israel to practice. I am not aware of any continuation of shooting after this. Being shot through refers to being shot with an arrow. Most likely this was included in this special scenario for anyone that violated the boundaries around the mountain and was caught already heading up the mountain. In such a case an arrow could still reach them without anyone else crossing the boundary line.

Question: 19:22 - Is this mention of "priests" referring to the tribe of Levi (future) or were some already identified for specific priestly duties (given the position of priest for the time being?)?

Answer: It is an interesting question, because the Levites have not yet been set apart to serve as priests. Even the commentaries I have read are uncertain of who these priests were. There are several possible explanations, but none of them is completely satisfying to me. At this point, I have to say I just do not know the answer. Here are the best among the possible explanations: 1) It refers to Aaron and his sons who were beginning to function as priests prior to their formal calling 2) They are the firstborn sons of Israel set apart for holy service 3) Moses is anticipating the Levite's role and inserting them into the story to emphasize that the consecration would even affect the Levites.

Question: 19:10, 22, 23 - There are three different mentions of consecration. Vs. 10 reads "go to the people and consecrate them" (something Moses is actually to do?), Vs. 22 mentions the priests consecrating themselves and verse 23 speaks of them consecrating "it" (the mountain or area around the mountain?). Can you elaborate on these different forms of consecration mentioned here and how that might apply to us in the New Covenant? Are we to consecrate others, areas or ourselves?

Answer: Moses consecrates the people in 19:10 simply by delivering to them the command of the Lord for their consecration. The faithful proclamation of God's Word always has a consecrating effect on believing listeners. For the priests to consecrate themselves in 19:22, the emphasis is on them obeying the instructions of the Lord including washing their garments, abstaining from marital relations for the two preparatory days. The consecration of the mountain in 19:23 is referring to the erection of physical barriers between the people and the mountain so that they could not transgress.

Yes, all of the many forms and expressions of consecration both here and throughout the Law are meant to speak to us. Remember "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;" (II Timothy 3:16). The point for them and for us is that the people of God are first and foremost to be a holy people because our God is holy. These passages are helpful to us in considering different circumstances in which God calls us to greater holiness. Apply these three situations I would consider: 1) The consecrating influence of God's Word every time I read the Bible, listen to a Bible teaching, or participate in a study such as this one 2) The consecrating effect upon my life when I obey God's Word 3) The consecrating impact of being in the manifest presence of God. The mountain was to be consecrated simply because God was there. For instance, when we gather together as the church, the Lord promises to fill our gatherings with His presence. That experience is meant to influence us to greater holiness each time we gather.

Exodus 21

21:1-6 - "Now these are the ordinances which you are to set before them: "If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,' then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently."

Commenting on some sections of God's Law is a challenge in our culture and society today because of how radically different the ancient Biblical culture was from our own. Many of the laws we will encounter beyond the familiar Ten Commandments will stretch and challenge our perspectives. Things we should keep in mind as we dig into God's Law include 1) Every one of these laws was inspired by God and is meant to teach us something. 2) The laws must first be understood in their original setting before we leap to wrong conclusions based upon comparisons to modern society. The values represented in these laws are not primitive, or archaic, or old fashioned, or no longer of any applicable value. 3) Each of these laws was meant to convict our hearts of the reality and consequences of sin. 4) Each of these laws reveals some aspect of God's righteousness in various life situations which we can derive as a principle to be applied in a variety of similar situations. 5) Each of these laws was meant to display our great need for Christ. For the sake of space, I won't attempt to connect all five of these points to each law we consider, but will choose at least one to emphasize for each law we study.

This section is concerned with the laws regulating slavery in Israel. For many new Christians as they first read through the Bible, they are shocked when they come to this section of Exodus and discover that God allowed slavery to be practiced in Israel. When the Exodus story of God setting Israel free from slavery in Egypt is read it is often interpreted as God's only comment on slavery and these subsequent slavery laws seem to embarrassingly contradict the anti-slavery message of the Exodus. I'll attempt to clarify a difficult issue in a short space. The first thing to clarify is that the slavery laws in the Law of God do not promote or even condone the evil kind of slavery Israel endured at the hands of the Egyptians. We need to distinguish between the slavery of Israel in Egypt to the slavery later practiced in Israel which was regulated by God's Law. Egyptian slavery was complete ownership of people by a dominant master (Pharaoh) who enforced his rule over his slaves by threat of death. Egyptian slaves had no rights and no protection under any law. Pharaoh as a god in Egypt was the law. Their slavery was permanent and oppressive.

The kind of slavery later practiced in Israel was completely different. What is shocking to us today is that any form of slavery was practiced, but what was even more shocking in the world of that day was these new slavery laws that actually granted rights to slaves and regulated by authority of law what a slave master could and could not do regarding slaves. It was revolutionary to consider a slave as a human being with their own rights worth protecting by law. This form of slavery was not like the Egyptian practice, and neither was it like what was practiced in American history prior to the Civil War. Slaves in this country before the civil War were enslaved by force, taken from their homes against their will and then sold into lifelong forced service. The pattern in Israel was not by force, not lifelong, and the slave master was as regulated by law as the slave. A better term to avoid confusion might be bondservant rather than slave. They were contractually obligated for a set period of time, usually six years, to serve in the home or business of the person who owned the right to their contract of service. At the end of that period they were free to go and the master was legally required to release them from their service. The most common way to become a "slave" was to sell yourself into slavery for that six year period. The motive to do so was usually economic due to a significant debt, or poverty. Working as a bondservant provided regular meals, clothing, and shelter during hard times.

One other circumstance typically led to slavery and that was when a person was caught stealing. If they were unable to repay the victim the double restitution required by the Law, then they would be required to serve as a slave, or bondservant for the person from whom they had stolen to pay off the debt created by their crime. What is noticeably different here from modern society is the replacement of a jail sentence with bond-service. There was no such thing as jail or prison in Israelite society. God never instructed Israel to build any. There was no need for one. The most serious criminals were eliminated by the death penalty, and the less dangerous violators were required to work off their debt, not to "society", but the person that they actually harmed by their theft. Our society has used the prison system as an alternative to God's pattern revealed here, but the fruit has not been good. The prison system is a mess and tends to function as a breeding ground for more crime. The pattern described in this passage is truly rehabilitation focused with the best opportunity to redeem a bad decision on the part of the person who has stolen.

There is one other important element in this slavery section, and that is way it functions as a spiritual symbol. In the New Testament, slavery is a common symbol for the effect that sin has upon the sinner's heart (Romans 6:17). Sin indulged gains a measure of control over the person who sins. The lesson to all of Israel, and to us as well, is that there are consequences to our sin that extend beyond the moment of sin. Understanding the cost of the consequence in a vivid way like in the reality of slavery was meant to be a strong deterrent against temptation.

21:12-14 - "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die."

This section is concerned with laws regarding assault and murder. The laws identify critical differences in the varying circumstances involving one man striking another. The factors considered, such as degree of harm done to the person struck, the intent of the person who strikes the other, and the differing penalties in each case are all legal elements that our laws are based upon today. Our laws for the same circumstances were primarily drawn originally from English Common Law years ago, which were based largely on the standards learned from the study of God's Law. Nevertheless, this area of the law concerning harm done to another person, and the penalty due for that harm has been hotly debated in the recent generation. This passage is very clear, that is one strikes another and the result is the victim dies, then the person that struck them "shall surely be put to death." The strong emphasis on the penalty required is established by the word, surely. This is what we call the death penalty. This is God's standard for the penalty that must be carried out upon anyone who murders. They must be put to death. The whole reason why the Lord used the word, surely, is the natural tendency for societies to choose some other penalty for this crime. The reason why the death penalty is a non-negotiable penalty was given by the Lord earlier to Noah (Genesis 9:6). Human beings are made in the image of God, and have special value as His image bearers. When the concept that humans bear God's image is removed from the legal system, it is inevitable that the death penalty will be re-evaluated as it has been in our nation over the last generation.

The Lord also makes an exception under certain circumstances for the death of the person struck to not require a death penalty. The exception is when the person that struck the other did not "lie in wait" for the one they struck. This can be interpreted in two different ways. Either it refers to the issue of what we call in the law today, premeditation, which means that it was not planned, and that the guilty person struck the other only in the heat of passion without intending to murder the other. The other possible interpretation is that this is covering all manner of what we call accidental deaths, in which a person is struck and dies, even though the person never even intended to strike them at all. This would include unanticipated events like swinging a sword and hitting a person to the side that was never seen, and any other unintended deaths. It was common in ancient cultures for families to respond to even accidental killings of one of their own by in turn killing the person that had killed their family member. The Lord makes a new provision here for the safety of the one responsible by establishing a safe place where they can flee from family retribution. These places will be addressed in more detail later in the Law when the Lord causes Israel to build a series of cities in the Promised Land called cities of refuge.

21:15-17 - "He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death. He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death."

There are three laws given in these three verses. They cover two topics and at first glance the third law seems to fit better with the first. Some have questioned why the third law is not grouped with the first, as if the Lord mentioned it out of order by mistake. The Lord did not forget, like we do, and fit it in later out of place where it was supposed to go. The order is intentional. All three are laws worthy death penalty judgments, but they are mentioned in descending order of the seriousness of the crime. All three require the violator to be put to death, but even among the death penalty cases, there are degrees of evil behavior involved, and those subtle distinctions are expressed in the order chosen so that we can learn from them. Laws one and three in this group are violations of the fifth of the Ten Commandments from the last chapter. The fifth word of the ten required that all in Israel honor their parents. We saw that the Lord identifies the honoring of parents with the honoring of Him since parents are the first representatives of His authority we encounter in our life.

The two violations covered here are if a person strikes either of their parents, or if they curse either parent. The parent does not have to die from being struck for this law to apply. What is staggering is just how different this standard of the Lord is from standards in our society today. Thankfully, our society still will respond if there is a serious physical assault upon a parent, as long as they are willing to "press charges", but if the parents live, the penalty for the rebellious son or daughter is going to be far far lighter than death. What does our society do today to the rebellious teen who curses his parents in anger? The answer is, nothing! They do not receive even a minor fine, or any penalty whatsoever. Any person that attempted to pass such a law as this today would be mocked a ridiculed as crazy, or barbaric. Who is more wise; our society or the Lord? Without such a serious deterrent in place, has the respect for parents increased, remained the same, or seriously diminished in our society?

The second of these three laws covers the issue of kidnapping, and also treats it as a much more serious crime than we do today. If a person kidnaps someone today, the death penalty would only ever be considered if they also murder the person they kidnap. Here, the death penalty is required just for the kidnapping, whether the victim is harmed further or not. There is one important difference in this kind of kidnapping, than the kind we see today most often. This was not kidnapping for a ransom. This was literally, man-stealing. It meant to capture another person against their will and it was usually done for the purpose of selling them into slavery. The motive was economic and crime was in reducing an innocent person to a commodity for the perpetrator's selfish use. Anyone that had so devalued another human being was not fit to continue to live according to the Lord. Interestingly, this law touches more closely than the laws above the practice of slavery that we remember from American history. The slave traders that sailed to Africa and forcefully captured Africans to be sold into lifelong slavery were by Biblical definition kidnappers and should have been executed by a righteous society, rather than sanctioned for economic benefits.

21:22-26 - "If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye."

This section introduces us to the famous "eye for eye" formula. It is part of another section dealing with physical harm done by one to another in a dispute or fight. Theologians refer to the formula as the Lex Talionis, which means the law of retribution. The standard is equal penalty to be imposed for the harm done. The types of harm mentioned are not a complete list, but examples to show the required response. It is a common misunderstanding to think that Israel was supposed to literally do the exact same thing to the violator in each case. We do not see a letter of the law response in any future historical examples in God's Word. We never see the society gouging out the eye of the violator because they damaged the eye of another person. The point was to consider the relative value of the harm done to the victim in each case. The violator commonly redeemed the value of the harm they had done by making restitution to the person harmed. It was up to the judge in each case to evaluate the true injury done, and to set a real value for their harm. The loss of an eye would be considered of greater value than the loss of a tooth, or a bruise. This principle is at the foundation of our personal injury laws today. If a person causes you to lose the permanent use of your eye, it is the court's responsibility to determine the value of your eye over the course of your life.

Something of significant application for our laws today, is the example given of the involvement of a pregnant woman. The woman in this example has not chosen to be involved, but the fight between two men affects her. One of the men strikes her. If the blow causes her to give birth prematurely, but there is no injury, then the husband of the pregnant woman is authorized to impose a fine on the guilty man, subject to the approval of the judge. If there is an injury, then whatever the injury caused the man who struck is responsible for the much more severe penalty up to death, if he caused a death. The key detail to notice, in light of the current standards in our society is that this law does not differentiate whether the injury caused is to the mother or her unborn child. The law implies an injury to either must be met with the appropriate penalty. No matter how it is worded in our culture today, an abortion does injury to the unborn child, and the Lord sees that child as having the same value and same protection under His law even though the child has not yet been born.

Questions from Exodus 20:

Question: Exodus 20:5-6 - "...am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." This verse notes the passing of iniquity to children for those parents who hate Him. But even to those that love Him, it does seem that children take on certain behaviors and sins exampled in parents' lives. How does this apply to us today (2 Tim 3:16?)?

Answer: I'm not following you on the connection you are drawing to II Timothy 3:16, but I can comment on Exodus 20:5-6. The emphasis in this passage is on the Lord's role in dealing with the descendants of either obedient or disobedient people. It is a warning to the people receiving the Law to be obedient, because their choices and behaviors will have a reverberating consequence through succeeding generations for either blessing or cursing. The Lord's role is highlighted as the One Who rewards the obedience of His people with blessings that extend beyond the present generation. In fact His blessings are described here in almost unbelievable terms. He promises here that if a man is obedient in his life to the Lord, that the Lord will cause blessings to flow to "thousands" of succeeding generations of his descendants to follow. For the disobedient person, the curse from the Law that he deserves is going to impact even the third and fourth generation of his descendants. It was a way of emphasizing the difference in how much greater His blessing was as an encouragement to be obedient.

In relationship to what is actually meant by passing things on to the next generation, this is what I believe is meant. I do not think that the Lord is saying that if you choose to sin, then God will cause your children to sin. That would contradict the principles of how God deals with each generation as described in Ezekiel 18. I believe it is describing consequences. Yet, each generation will still be responsible for their own response to the Lord. As an example using something practical; if I were given a million dollars by the Lord as a reward for obedience, my continuing obedience would provide a financial blessing of inheritance to my children. That blessing will increase in the hands of the next generation if they follow my example of obedience and they will pass an even greater inheritance unto the second generation and so on. If however, I am disobedient, then I will pass the consequence of a smaller inheritance unto my children. Rather, that the million dollars I may pass on a debt to be paid, If my children follow my bad example, there will be an increasing trouble that ripples through my family future.

Exodus 22

PARENTAL ALERT—some of the following subject matter involves mature themes. Please review with discernment before sharing with your children.

22:2-3, 10-11 - "If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account. But if the sun has risen on him, there will be bloodguiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution; if he owns nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft... If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is hurt or is driven away while no one is looking, an oath before the LORD shall be made by the two of them that he has not laid hands on his neighbor's property; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution."

The opening section of chapter 22 from verses one to fifteen are laws related to the eighth of the Ten Commandments, "You shall not steal". Remember, the Ten Words function as a kind of outline summary of all the rest of God's laws. I chose two of the laws from this section for comment. The first is a law regarding what we call burglary under our laws today. Two scenarios are addressed which are similar in the crime considered with one critical difference. The first is a burglary which takes place at night in the dark. The second is a burglary which is attempted in the daylight hours. In the course of the nighttime burglary, the law anticipates the homeowner waking up during the commission of the crime. In the ensuing confrontation with the burglar, the homeowner strikes the burglar and kills him. Has the homeowner committed any crime himself in this case? In our modern criminal system that has come to protect the criminals with extraordinary rights, the homeowner is likely to be sued by surviving members of the burglar's family and win. If the burglar is injured but survives he is likely to win a substantial settlement in court more valuable than anything he intended to steal. According to God's justice, the burglar is responsible for placing himself in harm's way. The death (or serious injury) of the criminal is the responsibility of the criminal not the homeowner. This presupposes the right of the homeowner to defend himself, his family and his property from harm in the uncertainty of the darkness of night.

However, if the crime occurs in the daylight then a different standard applies. If the burglar was stealing, and the homeowner strikes the burglar with deadly force, then the homeowner is responsible to make restitution to the burglar's family for his life. The homeowner makes restitution, rather than facing the death penalty because it is a killing rather than a murder. The key difference is between the darkness and the light in the environment during the crime. The daylight means that the homeowner is not startled awake, is able to see exactly what is going on, and is able to conduct the defense of his home, family and property without unnecessary deadly force. This distinction in the law shows us that true justice weighs all pertinent factors before executing judgment. The punishment must always fit the crime. God's justice is never too heavy or too light. A theft must be treated as a theft, not as an assault or attempted murder. It is not that the criminal has the right to be protected to commit crime, but that even while committing a crime, they are protected under God's law from being given a harsher punishment than their crime actually deserves.

The second law from verses ten and eleven addresses the case of a man giving any of his animals to his neighbor for safe keeping. If the animals under the neighbor's care die, are injured, or stolen while no one is watching them, what should be done? The complication in the case is the lack of any witnesses to what occurred to the animals. The law allows for the possibility that the neighbor is secretly attempting to steal from his neighbor by either eating or selling the animals, and then telling his neighbor that the animals just died or were stolen. If there is no witness, there is no practical way to know for sure what really happened in such a circumstance. Rather than leave the circumstance unresolved the Lord provided in this law an unusual solution in the context of our laws today.

An "oath before the Lord" was to be taken. Such an oath was typically done in public before witnesses. The purpose of the oath was to declare one's innocence of any wrongdoing toward the neighbor. The oath was taken in the name of the Lord which was a request that the Lord would take notice and arbitrate between them. Such an oath recognized that true justice belongs to the Lord and that He sees what is hidden from men. His eyes are in every place, and the oath takers made themselves personally accountable to the Lord to handle any hidden or secret theft between them. The expected way the Lord would hold them accountable was by bringing judgment upon the person that was hiding their theft from their neighbor. It presupposes that God is willing to involve Himself in the daily interactions among His people and hold them directly accountable to walk in righteousness. Such a law could never be passed in our legal system today which has essentially divorced itself from the oversight of a holy God. We still maintain a little of the intent of this law in our courtroom tradition of swearing to tell the truth before testifying. In years past that oath was sworn with the words, "So help me God" with the right hand upon a Bible. Those words and the Bible have been recently removed, and the resulting diminishing of fear of the Lord in our justice system is a result.

22:16-17 - "If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and lies with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins."

This law deals with the issue of what has become neutrally named "premarital sex" in our culture. The first thing to notice is the dramatic difference in terminology. The label of premarital sex effectively reduces the activity in view to a physiological function prior to marriage. It does not reflect any moral perspective at all and allows for the possibility if not likelihood of repeat activity as long as a marriage has not yet occurred. keep in mind, that in this verse it is the Lord still speaking to Moses and giving His standards for how such activity between people should be viewed and handled. A violation of an unspoken standard is implied here. The standard is established elsewhere in God's Word, but this law shows that God does not approve of sexual relationship between unmarried people. It is also very clear, that if the Lord's law was followed, the activity would not continue past a first violation. The simple reason that the activity will not continue and become habitual is that the Lord commands a marriage to take place in such cases. Now, this is so foreign to our current cultural perspective regarding sex, that it is difficult for many to even consider the possibility that our culture may be wrong on this issue, and God's Law may be right.

The first thing we should notice is the value this law places upon the virginity of the young women in God's holy nation. Sexual innocence and purity is something God wants His people to honor and protect. It is a telling comment on the decline of our culture when virginity is rare and commonly considered a condition to lose as quickly as possible as if it were a disease or social disability. The second thing to see is that the law does not even consider the "virginity" of the man involved, nor is it concerned with his situation. The reason is that in the Biblical perspective, only women were identified as virgins before marriage. Without a detailed explanation, this is connected to the role of the man to reflect the role of the Lord in the marriage relationship as the initiator. What is in view for the man is not his virginity, but his responsibility. In this scenario, both the man and the woman choose to participate in sexual relations, but only the man is considered accountable to the law. As the initiator, he is the one who "seduces" her. The term literally means to persuade. It does not take a behavior expert to recognize that the man is the driving force as the persuader in 99% of these situations.

Because the man is held responsible by the Lord, the judgment of the Lord attached to this violation of God's Law falls upon him. There are two forms this judgment takes, both of which are geared to insure there will be no repeat of his sin. The first judgment is that he must pay the young woman's bride price. This was a serious amount that was to be paid to her father. This price was due to be paid even if the relationship with the young woman ends right here. The bride price was more than an archaic, primitive custom. It served as a kind of insurance account for her future in case her husband died and left her without financial support. It also served the spiritual purpose of establishing the value the Lord placed on the young women who were the future wives and mothers of society. The second judgment is perhaps most surprising for us. The young man was required to marry the young woman. This required approaching the father of the woman, which would have a powerful accountability influence on the young man after this violation of that family's honor. The marriage would take place unless the father refused. This allowed the father room to exercise wisdom and discernment regarding whether this man was a fitting husband for his daughter. However, if the father decided for them to marry the young man had no choice but to go through with marriage.

This powerfully demonstrates that, from God's perspective, marriage is covenant union that must be understood as a spiritual obligation, more than a romantic inclination. Romance itself is a gift from God that when present in a marriage relationship is a great enhancement of the experience of marriage. Romance is not as essential to marriage as spiritual responsibility is however. Marriage can survive an absence of romance, but it cannot survive spiritual irresponsibility. It is not even a factor to consider in this law how the young man feels about marrying the young woman, or even how she feels about marrying him. They both made their feelings the priority when they chose to engage in sexual relationship and this law's requirement of spiritual responsibility is the antidote for both of them. How different would our society be today if just this one law of the 613 laws of God was instituted and enforced? Recent statistics indicate 63% of young people between the ages 14-21 are "sexually active" and all of that activity is taking place before marriage. There was a time a generation or two ago where this was not the norm. Is our society healthier because of it? Many think so, but the Lord is not one of them.

22:18-20 - "You shall not allow a sorceress to live. Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the LORD alone, shall be utterly destroyed."

This section contains three short laws that do not have any direct connection to each other except that they all share the same judgment. All three of these laws require a death penalty response by the holy nation. In the study of the ten Commandments we considered that the Lord required a death penalty for the sin of murder. Here three other sins are in view, and as we continue our study through the Law of God we will find additional violations that require a death penalty. What is immediately obvious, is the longer list for death penalty offences in God's Law compared to ours today. In our legal system, only murder is punishable by death, and even among murder cases, the prosecution usually is required to demonstrate that there were "special circumstances" involved in the murder in order to be able to qualify for the death penalty. "Ordinary" murders are punished only by varying length of prison sentences. In God's value system, all murders require the death of the murderer, but there are other violations of His holiness that require death as well.

These three violations are all deserving of death according to the Lord. They are sorcery, bestiality, and idolatry. The first sin is the same kind of activity that Moses confronted in Pharaoh's court in Egypt (Exodus 7:11). Our translation refers only to a sorceress because the form of the word in Hebrew was feminine, but we will see in other passages that the Lord condemns this activity whether it is practiced by males or females (Deuteronomy 18:10). This is the category of what is known today as occult practices. It involved various secret "magical" arts such as divination, necromancy, and incantations seeking spiritual knowledge and power. In ancient times, it was a common perspective that "magic" was the greatest power in the world and the goal of sorcery was to tap into that power. With the benefit of a New Covenant perspective, we can be clear that there is no such power as magic, but that sorcerers were empowered by demonic activity. This law reveals how serious the Lord considered such human-demon interaction to be.

The second of the three laws was aimed at bestiality, or the practice of sexual relationships between a human and an animal. While not yet as prevalent today as some other sexual deviations, the practice has continued in every generation of human history. In the ancient world it was not uncommon, especially in some particularly corrupt societies. The seven Canaanite inhabiting the Promised Land at this time allowed it and even promoted it as part of certain religious fertility rituals. Baal, the chief god of the Canaanites was depicted in this activity, and the people that worshipped Baal tended to follow his example. God's Law was aimed at eliminating this horrible moral contamination from the nation by an immediate death penalty without any right of appeal.

The third of these laws would be particularly offensive if it were to be instituted in our society today. It forbade offering sacrifices (the practical common expression of worship) to any god other than Yahweh. No worship of any other than the One True God was allowed within the boundaries of God's holy nation. Period. Israel was not established by the Lord as what we term a religiously pluralistic society. We currently take great pride as a nation today in allowing everyone to worship as they see fit whatever they see fit to worship, or to worship nothing at all if they prefer. If people want to erect a statue to themselves in their home and worship it they are free to do so. If they want to worship Allah, Buddha, Krishna, a dog, or tree, or the sun, or any other thing our law protects their right to do so. Not so in God's holy nation. Anyone found worshipping any god other than Yahweh was not just given a slap on the wrist. They were to be executed. What would the ACLU do with this law? Was this law extreme? Yes, of course, any law with a death penalty is an extreme law. The issue is not whether it was extreme, but whether the law was right and holy. See, the issue is whether there actually is any other god that exists in God's creation. God says no other god exists, and that all honor and worship our hearts are inclined to give to a god actually belongs to Him alone, and that it is spiritually a high crime to rob God of His glory in this way.

Questions from Exodus 21:

Question: What possible motive could a slave owner have, by giving his male slave a wife, other that keeping him a slave forever, or breaking up his family for financial gain. On the surface it seems unrighteous to take a man's wife and children from him after his freedom. ( And the two shall be one flesh) Is that just the price you pay for being a slave?

Answer: I can see four possible motives for why an Israelite master would have given a slave a wife. 1) It could be for economic reasons to increase the size of his own extended household through the children born. 2) It could be for economic reasons by keeping the male slave happy and motivated to work hard. 3) It could be for reasons of compassion by recognizing the real needs and desires of his slave. 4) It could be for strategic reasons knowing this law in the hope of retaining the service of his slave on a permanent basis.

Regarding your comment on it being unrighteous to "take" the released slave's wife and children from him after he gains his freedom; you are not catching the real heart of the slavery issue. His wife and children do not belong to him, but to the master. If the master chooses to keep the wife and children he is only keeping what belongs to him. The master is not taking anything from the former slave at all. The whole point of slavery is that the person enslaved does not belong to themselves, but to a master. That means that the master is not unrighteous to keep what belongs to him in the first place. The ball is then in the former slave's court entirely. He is free to choose to remain with his family. The separation is his choice, just like remaining united with them is.

The Lord used this real life circumstance to teach His people about the terrible consequences of sin. When we sin, we choose to enslave ourselves to that sin as a master over us. The world calls it addiction, but the Lord does not describe it first in terms of our craving, like the world does, but in terms of the spiritual and legal reality. From the Lord's perspective, people that misuse drugs are worse than addicted to the drugs, they are enslaved to them. The same principle applies to every category of sin.

Exodus 23

23:1-2 - "You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice;"

These laws are an expansion on Commandment nine of the original ten. It certainly applies to a strict court room setting of a legal case and testimony given before a judge. It is a warning against joining with a wicked man and giving a false testimony against an innocent person. The minimal standard for conviction under the Law was two or three witnesses. If one wicked person could convince one other person to give a false testimony with him, that would meet the minimum standard. The entire justice system could be subverted by the agreement of two such false witnesses in the case of a person they wished to harm. God does not name any specific judgment here for the two who would pervert justice in this way, because their wicked agreement to bear false witness would only be known to themselves. However, we can be confident that the Lord would take action on His own behalf in those cases because the justice system of Israel was intended by Him to represent His justice, righteousness and holiness. An attempt to abuse justice in Israel for selfish reasons would be an attempt to twist God's justice for personal gain.

The wording in our translation, "false report" correctly identifies that there is other behavior in view than only court testimony. There is common human behavior that would almost always precede a court appearance to give false testimony. It also points to what we call malicious gossip today. There are two basic forms of gossip, neither of which is beneficial, but one is more harmful than the other. Some gossip passes on true information about another person when it is not our business to do so, and will harm the reputation of the person in an unnecessary way. Then, there is gossip in which a false report about another person if accepted and passed on to others. Bearing a false report in this context involves listening to, accepting as worth sharing, and then speaking it to one or more others. The choice to do so is always tempting for various reasons, but is never profitable or wise. The person who is the subject of the gossip is always harmed to some degree when we participate in it. Even if the only harm done is to diminish their reputation in the eyes of others, we are attacking something the Lord tells us is of great value to every person. "A good name is to be more desired than great wealth..." (Proverbs 22:1).

There is one more important factor to consider in this section. The Lord warns His people to not "follow the masses in doing evil". This warning recognizes the nature of all people in a community setting. The Lord made us with a disposition for agreement and unity which inclines us to want to go the same direction that the majority of people go. The problem, of course, is that we live in a fallen world filled with fallen people under the influences of a wide range of sin and spiritual corruption. The majority in a fallen world are not always right, and most often are wrong in their shared opinions. If the majority of people choose to believe or follow an evil path, then the person who follows the Lord must be strong to go against the grain and hold to what is true and right. The impulse to shade testimony to make it more acceptable to the majority is a powerful temptation. To hold to the truth against the desires of the multitude in such situations is never easy and may even put the one testifying at risk to become the target of the crowd's displeasure. This is the peer pressure at its worst. Only those believers who have a solid commitment to the truth and justice of God before finding themselves in such a circumstance are likely to emerge without compromising.

23:4-5 - "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him."

Many people who are mostly unfamiliar with the Law of Moses have the impression that the laws found in the Old Testament are harsh, and oppressive. These two laws regarding a neighbor's donkey answer that false accusation and support what Jesus taught regarding all of the Law (Matthew 22:37-40). The primary focus of all of God's Law is love. The individual laws are aimed at teaching His people what it looks like in various life situations to truly love God and love our neighbor. These two laws are neighbor laws. At first glance, the neighbor focus might not be obvious because the Lord is giving directions for how we are to treat our enemy. The fact that he is our enemy does not change his identification as our neighbor in the broader Biblical definition of neighbor, but it does flavor our understanding. An enemy neighbor is in view here. This is someone with whom we are not on good and friendly terms. For the sake of our responsibility under these law, it does not matter whether we were the cause of becoming enemies, or they were. What matters under these laws, is how we will choose to treat them in certain kinds of circumstances knowing what God calls us to do in those situations.

The unspoken tension contained in both laws is the natural tendency of people toward enemies. I saw a clip on television last night of Donald Trump explaining his actions in his recent dispute with Rosie O'Donnell. In the clip, Trump declared, "If someone attacks me, I attack back." He is honestly stating the basic principle for human relationships that everyone in the world follows, "Treat me right and I'll treat you right as long as I feel like it, but if you treat me wrong, I'll treat you worse." That principle was never negotiated or agreed upon, it is simply the natural pattern of the fallen human nature. This portion of God's Law is aimed at exposing that sinful pattern and requires of us to go against every selfish, bitter, hateful tendency of our hearts when we are presented with an situation involving our enemy neighbor. Even though the specifics of this law are centered on what we do with our neighbor's donkey, the intent of the law is far broader than donkeys. If it were literally only for donkeys, we could easily dismiss any requirements for ourselves since few of us know any neighbors with donkeys anymore. The donkey is an example of something that is of value and matters to our enemy neighbor. The purpose of the law is also broader than only enemies. If we are to treat enemies in this way, we are also to treat every neighbor this well. The Lord uses the extreme example of an enemy neighbor to represent the entire category of neighbors.

So, how are we to treat even our enemy neighbor in his time of need? We are to love our neighbor as we would hope someone would do for us in the same circumstance. Using modern examples, if my enemy neighbor left his car lights on in the driveway, should I drive by with glee anticipating his trouble in the morning when he finds his car battery dead? No, I am to stop, and risk going up to his front door and informing him that his lights are on. This is a law identifying what God requires of us. The word, "surely" emphasizes that my response is not optional. God will hold me accountable if I choose to disregard this law. One the other hand, the focus of the law is on my choice to do the right thing toward my enemy neighbor, not how I feel emotionally about them. I can do what is right without having tender feelings of affection toward them.

The second of these two laws is given to show that this same standard applies even when it may cost us something to obey it. The second law envisions a scenario where the neighbor's donkey has collapsed under a heavy load. It requires us to stop, unload the donkey and help their donkey back up. This would require the time to stop and do this as well as the hard work to accomplish it. There is no exception clause included which would allow us to back out if it would be too much trouble, or "not worth it". It is worth the trouble because God says it is. These laws are at the heart of the teaching the Lord Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount. "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:43-45).

23:14-19 - "Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother."

This is the first passage in God's Law that identifies the pattern to be established in the nation of the three great annual spiritual festivals celebrated by all of Israel. The three festivals would in the future be celebrated in Jerusalem once the Promised Land was conquered and the temple was built there. Each of the festivals will be described later in the Law in greater detail. The three feasts are Unleavened Bread, Harvest of Firstfruits, and Ingathering. They also became known by other names which may be more familiar. Unleavened Bread was also the annual Passover feast. The Harvest of Firstfruits is known now as Pentecost. The Feast of Ingathering is also known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.

The feasts would become a continuing test of faith and obedience for Israel in the generations to come. It was not an easy thing for every household in all of Israel to stop, for the time required to honor the feast, all normal daily activity and travel to Jerusalem to celebrate it. It would require faith to trust the Lord to watch over all they left behind at home, and that He would honor their obedience by blessing their practical concerns while they were away. It was also a costly obedience. Each family was burdened with the cost of the trip three times a year to Jerusalem. In addition, each was to come to Jerusalem under a spiritual obligation greater than just showing up. It was commanded by the Lord that "none shall appear before Me empty-handed". To appear before the Lord empty handed meant to come with nothing to offer the Lord in sacrifice. The Lord commanded that every household present an offering to Him when they came to the feast. This was a direct reminder of the value of their relationship with the Lord. The offering did not teach that they earned their relationship with the Lord, rather that because He had blessed them so greatly, it was the appropriate expression of their gratitude toward Him.

When it came time to decide what to bring to the Lord for the offering, the Lord had a clear standard of what He expected from them. They were to offer "the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God". Simply put, the Lord wanted them to offer Him their best. This anticipates the natural devaluing of the Lord that occurs when we offer to God from the leftovers after we have set aside the best for ourselves. This portion has an application to our relationship with the Lord today. We have an ongoing call from the Lord to honor Him in tithes and offerings today. You might be surprised by what percentage of the people that attend church come empty-handed each week. Of those that are faithful to give, there are many that give to God only as a financial afterthought once money has been set aside for all other purposes. God calls us to honor Him first, not last.

These feasts were not the idea of Moses or any other Israelite to give everyone a vacation three times a year. These were established by the command of God. They all served a practical purpose benefiting Israel, an immediate spiritual purpose to cause them to stop and remember the Lord's role in their daily life, and a far distant symbolic and prophetic purpose. The feasts of the Lord were prophetic in that they portrayed in the festival a different aspect of the work of Christ as Messiah and Savior. These three great feasts each point to a great part of the work of Christ in salvation. The Passover points to the cross, the great center of God's work of redemption by His Son. Pentecost points to the beginning of the harvest of salvation in the New Covenant which was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to fill the newly formed church (Acts 2:1-4). The Feast of Ingathering points forward to the final culminating work of Christ in His Second Coming when all of His chosen ones will be gathered to Him in the great harvest of souls that concludes current history.

There is an interesting but mysterious law included in this section. "You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother." Without understanding the cultural context of this law, some have erroneously concluded that this was one of the food laws given for health reasons. In later rabbinical rules on food preparation and handling that became known as the Kosher rules there remains to this day a very strict prohibition of mixing meat and milk products. That rule was developed from an incorrect understanding of this law. There may be relative health disadvantages to boiling meat in milk, but not because God gave this law. The law had to do with insuring Israel as God's holy nation would not fall into the false worship patterns common in Canaan at this time. It was common practice for the Canaanites to boil a kid in its mother's milk as part of a religious fertility sacrifice. It was believed that doing so would cause their flocks to give birth at a greater rate. The law prohibits Israel from following their pagan influence and is placed here to show the clear contrast with where the assurance of their prosperity originated. Israel was to trust the Lord for the prosperity of their flocks and herds and that their obedience in these three annual feasts would be blessed by Him in practical ways affecting their flocks for good.

Questions from Exodus 22:

Question: Ex. 22:29-30 - "The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me...on the eighth day you shall give it to Me." - Was this referring to circumcision?

Answer: Yes, the eighth day requirement for the firstborn sons referred to the day of their circumcision. They were not to be given to the Lord before that day. The giving of the firstborn son however involved more than only circumcision. It required the father to redeem the son by paying a price in silver to the Lord because the son was symbolically "sacrificed" to the Lord.

Question: Should we still execute people for Witchcraft? If the answer is no doesn't that play into the hands of people who say the Law was only for the nation Israel, and if the answer is yes where is there confirmation of that principle in the New Testament?

Answer: I'm glad you asked this question, even though this is a tough one to answer. My answer will apply to all of the various death penalty laws in the Law of God, not just to the law regarding sorcery. In order to answer your specific question accurately I need to split my answer into yes and no sections. No, "we" should not execute people today for practicing sorcery. I am interpreting your "we" as we the church, not we the United States of America. The reason we should not, is that in the New Covenant, the Lord has not given to the church governmental authority to execute His judgments in society. In Old Covenant Israel, the Lord united the authority functions of the church (temple, prophets) and state (judges, kings) in such a way that a theocracy was created. God's Law was the law of the land. The government was responsible to carry out all the judgments required by the Law. In the New Covenant, the church is called to speak prophetically (representing the Lord's will) to the state, but has no way to hold the state accountable to follow God's laws. The church is not called to take up the sword to do the job of the state even if the state fails to do its job properly (Romans 13:1-4).

There is also, though, a yes aspect to your question. Let me rephrase your question for clarity. Do people that practice sorcery today still deserve a death penalty judgment for their sin? The answer is yes, they deserve it. The church must not presume to give them what they deserve, but a righteous society should. The question really boils down to this; to what degree is any modern society shaped and influenced by the holy standards of God's Law? We now follow Paul's example. He declared the truth of how God sees these kinds of sins and what the people that commit them deserve by way of His judgment, but Paul also left the judgment in the hands of the state where the Lord intends for it to be in the New Covenant. "and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:32). So, as a Christian, I will never raise my hand against a person that practices such sins, but I will declare openly what God says they deserve to receive as judgment. In an ideal world, all societies should look to God's Law as the standard for making their own laws, but we live in a fallen, far from ideal world.

Exodus 24

24:3-8 - "Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!" So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The Lord has concluded His declaration of the Ten Words and the ordinances of the covenant. Moses is instructed to return to the camp, deliver the ordinances of the Lord to the people, and prepare for a meeting between the Lord and the leadership representatives of the nation. When Moses descended from the mountain of the Lord, he recounted for the entire nation what the Lord had spoken to him. There are two unspoken but implied details in this part of the story. One, in order for Moses to recount the ordinances revealed to him (chapters 21-23), he would have to remember them accurately. These are the covenant laws of God and any mistakes Moses might make in telling the law to the people could forever affect their own obedience to the Law. What is implied is the influence of God upon the mind of Moses to cause him to remember every single word of these ordinances perfectly. Moses only heard God speak them to him once, and yet the words of God were powerfully impressed upon his mind in a way that he would not forget or modify by mistake. Second, in order to effectively declare the ordinances to the nation Moses had to proclaim them in a way that the 600,000 men at minimum could all hear. It was critical that all the people hear the words because all the people would be held accountable by the Lord to obey them. This was no quiet conversation in which Moses shared what he had heard on the mountain from God. The voice of Moses had to powerfully project to be heard by so many. Moses was representing the Lord Who thunders, as the mediator of the covenant. By this point, long gone is the Moses who objected to the Lord at the burning bush that he was "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10).

Once Moses declared the words of the covenant, all the people appropriately responded with a corporate declaration of their commitment to obey the Law. Their answer is a model for how our own hearts should respond each time we open God's Book and learn more of what His Word requires of us. "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" When we encounter a requirement in God's Word, is this our immediate and serious heart response to the Lord? Sadly, it is far too common among the people of God, especially in our generation, to pick and choose which requirements in the Bible to obey. Israel was far from perfect as we have already seen, but having just the thunder, lightning, earthquake, smoke and fire as the Lord spoke from Sinai, there hearts are at this moment clear that God's Word does not ask us to obey what parts we prefer, but imposes on us all the responsibility to obey all of it.

Following the response of the people, Moses then wrote down all that the Lord had spoken to him. This is a monumental moment in the history of Israel, and in history as a whole. This is the first moment when a human being wrote Scripture. Up until this moment, God had chosen to speak to special individuals from the beginning of history such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and now Moses. None of them ever wrote down the words that God had spoken to them. The messages of God were communicated from generation to generation by verbal transmission, or what became known as the oral tradition. Now, the Word of God are captured for the first time in writing. What Moses wrote were the Ten Words of chapter 20 and the first ordinances of the Law from chapters 21-23. We know that Moses wrote them under the same powerful influence mentioned above of God working in his mind to insure perfect remembrance so that every word was captured exactly as God had spoken them. Peter later describes the spiritual principle of how God inspired Moses and all the other writers of Scripture. "for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (II Peter 1:21). Paul also describes this same principle which we call the Inspiration of Scripture. "All Scripture is inspired by God..." (II Timothy 3:16). The glorious result of Moses writing these words of God is that you and I can still read what God said to him over 3000 years ago, and our lives are shaped by them today just as their lives were then.

Once Moses finished writing the ordinances of the covenant, he got up early the next morning and built a special altar representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Upon the altar they offered sacrifices. Then Moses took the blood from the sacrifices and sprinkled half of it on the altar. Once he sprinkled the blood on the altar he read the book of the covenant which he had just written so that everyone could hear it for themselves. Remember that Moses had just orally rehearsed all the words God had spoken the day before. Yet now that the book was written the same words were read to all the people. This served a spiritual and a practical purpose. Spiritually, the reading was the second witness of what God had spoken. The standard under the Laws was by two or three witness every word would be established as truth. By having Moses read the same words to the people the Lord is confirming the absolute truth of His words to them. The practical purpose was by repeating the ordinances of God, the Lord was beginning to build a familiarity with His Law in the minds of His people. We will find throughout His Word, that the Lord will often repeat Himself when the subject requires special emphasis to make sure the people know it and remember it.

Then, the other half of the blood Moses sprinkled on the people. The significance of this simple act should not be overlooked. I'm not sure how the actions of Moses here would go over in a church setting today. Can you imagine the leader of a church taking a large basin filled with blood and going through the congregation and systematically sprinkling everyone with the fresh warm blood of animals that had just been sacrificed? I could see people hurry to exit before he hit them with a sprinkle of blood. It was an act that is so culturally distant from us that most people would recoil at the mere thought, let alone that actual experience of having their nice clothing permanently stained with the blood of a lamb. Keep in mind that there were no "miracle" spot removers in those days. In fact, this blood was not to be washed away or removed even if they could. This was the "blood of the covenant". The covenant was in one sense new and another old. It was old in that it was a continuation of the covenant God formed with Abraham. This covenant did not invalidate the covenant with Abraham. It was also new, because God had now, in the Law, added new substance to the covenant relationship with His people. This covenant modifies the original covenant with Abraham and gives it a new definition. In the same way, the New Covenant in Christ does not invalidate either the covenant with Abraham or the covenant with Moses, but adds new substance that redefines from that point forward the way God will relate to His people.

The reason Moses did this at this point was to display a vivid symbol of the people's true relationship with God and His Law. God required the people to obey all of His laws with perfect obedience. However, not one of them would obey as they should. Every single one of them would break the Law by disobeying God. The blood of the covenant was God's demonstration that only by the blood of the sacrifice, and the gracious mercy the sacrifice represented, could Israel maintain its relationship with God. Apart from the blood, Israel would have to bear the full judgment that their disobedience to the Law deserved. This is now the second great object lesson, along with the Passover in Egypt, that the Lord has given Israel to drive home the centrality of the blood. The blood points forward to the cross of Christ, and we understand that our own relationship to God depends entirely on the cross.

24:9-11 - "Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank."

Once the covenant with Israel through Moses is ratified by the sprinkling of blood, the leaders of Israel travel up the mountain of God with Moses and Aaron to meet with Him. Nadab and Abihu are the two eldest sons of Aaron, and will soon occupy special roles as priests in God's tabernacle. The leadership group travels up the mountain and when they do they encounter a special revelation of God Himself. They "see the God of Israel". We are not meant by this description to understand that they saw the full revelation of God. In other passages we discover that no human is able to see God in an unshielded revelation of His full glorious presence and survive the experience. Instead, what God showed them here was a form that could be identified as similar to a human body. The human form was recognizable because of the references to His feet and His hand. I believe that this appearance of God in a human similarity is another of what we have identified as a preincarnate appearance of Christ (Christophany).

When they saw him their attention was drawn to His feet. He was standing on what appeared to be like a pavement of sapphire, which was as clear as the sky. Pavement is probably not the best translation of the Hebrew word. It was something like tiles of sapphire. The sapphire meant that it seemed to be made of precious gem stone which was blue in shade, but clear enough to see through. There is a significance that we should catch of this surface that God was standing upon. Clearly, this was not a natural formation that was part of Mount Sinai. This was how God chose to reveal Himself to the leaders of Israel. The key to understand what it means is found in a passage from the book of Revelation. "and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal;" (Revelation 4:6). When John the apostle was caught up in his vision into heaven, he was allowed to see the throne of God, and God seated upon His throne. Just like the leaders of Israel, John's attention was drawn to the surface upon which God's throne was established. Around the throne was something like a sea of glass which was clear like crystal. This is a similar description to what the leaders of Israel saw beneath the feet of the Lord on Sinai. In other passages also, where God appears in glory, we see this crystalline surface beneath Him. It is compared purposefully to the sky in our passage. It represents what is called in Genesis 1:8 the "expanse". "God called the expanse heaven..." It represents the sky as that which shows that God is above and we are below. It is a reminder that the natural heaven that is above us is below His feet. When the leaders saw God standing on "heaven" it was also a revelation that heaven has come down to earth in this covenant meeting.

Earlier, when the Lord first spoke to Israel from the mountain in fire and storm, He had warned them to not approach Him or they would surely die. Now, these leaders who represent the entire nation have approached very near to God, "Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel..." To stretch out the hand means to strike with judgment. They approached God, but He did not strike them in judgment even though He is awesomely holy. The only reason that He did not stretch out His hand against them was the testimony of the blood that had been sprinkled upon them. Then an amazing thing unfolded as they were in the presence of God. All of the leaders of Israel shared a meal together in the presence of the Lord. This followed a common practice whenever a covenant bond was formed between two parties. Both would sit down to share a celebratory meal together that symbolized their new fellowship. We still follow this covenant pattern in our culture today in one special venue. When a marriage takes place we hold a reception immediately following. The reception meal was originally an expression of this covenant confirmation of fellowship. In a church context the pattern continues in the New Covenant form of the Lord's Supper. When the church eats communion together it is a symbolic meal that signifies our confidence that we now have fellowship with God because of the sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb of God.

24:15-18 - "Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights."

Following the covenant meal, the leaders return down to the camp at the foot of the mountain. Moses and Joshua continue up the mountain together. Joshua will remain upon the mountain while Moses continues further to the summit where God has called Moses to meet Him. When Moses arrives on the summit of Sinai a cloud covers the mountain. This is not a meteorological weather report we are given here. This is not natural cloud such as often form around mountain tops. This is the same cloud that has so far led them through the Red Sea and through the wilderness. It is the pillar of cloud during the daylight and the pillar of fire at night. In earlier descriptions we saw that the Angel of the Lord (Christophany) was in the pillar of cloud leading Israel throughout their journey in the wilderness. Now the Lord causes this same cloud to settle on and cover Sinai's summit. When the cloud covered the mountain, the glory of the Lord was visible through the cloud. In other words it was a bright or shining cloud. Moses is now in the near presence of the Lord on the mountain, but the Lord is inside the cloud and Moses is outside the cloud. For six days Moses waits there near the cloud, not daring to step into the cloud unless directed to do so by the Lord. The patience of Moses is evident in this six day wait. The Lord had told him to come up, but since he has arrived the Lord has said nothing further. Moses handles this well and simply waits on God, content to be quiet until the Lord shows him the next step.

Then on the seventh day the Lord spoke to Moses and called to him. The Lord called for Moses to come meet with Him inside of the cloud. We should recognize the intentional pattern of the six day wait and the seventh day call from God. This is the pattern as old as the original week of creation. The week before Moses entered the cloud was to signify that what was going to happen in the cloud was like a new creation in its implications for Israel and the world. What will unfold in the remaining chapters of Exodus is all that God showed and spoke to Moses. The main focus will be the plans and construction of the tabernacle of God. This new structure which will become, from that point forward, the center of Israel's relationship with God symbolizes a new creation that God will one day bring into existence through Christ.

Exodus 25

25:1-8 - "Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution. This is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams' skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them."

Moses has now entered the cloud covering the Lord's glory on the summit of Sinai. There is one subject on God's mind which He will communicate to Moses in great detail for the next seven chapters of Exodus. The subject is the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent structure that the Lord instructed Moses to have constructed by Israel. It was to be designed in such a way that it could be taken down and moved with them in all their travels. It will become, once it is finished, the center of Israel's culture and remain with them for the following 40 years in the wilderness, the conquest of the Promised Land, and until the Lord instructs kings David and Solomon to replace it with a more permanent stone temple many generations from now. The Lord names it here a "sanctuary". The word means a place consecrated for a holy purpose. That holy purpose is also identified in this passage. The sanctuary is "for Me, that I may dwell among them." The tabernacle is for the Lord and will provide for the first time a way that He may dwell among His people Israel. The concepts emphasized in this short phrase are huge in their spiritual implications and identify for us key themes that continue to shape our own relationship with the Lord today, and will on into eternity.

The first detail in this phrase is that the tabernacle / sanctuary if for the Lord. The tabernacle is a symbolic structure. It was an actual physical structure in history, but it is symbolic in that the Lord was speaking through its construction as a whole and in its details to the generations to follow about His purpose in history. It is a multi-layered symbol representing in certain aspects Christ, heaven, and the church. The connection to the church as a symbol is established by the New Testament teaching that the church is called by God, His temple (Ephesians 2:20-22). The implications of this simple two word phrase from this passage, "for Me", are huge when we keep in mind that this is the Lord speaking, not just about His relationship to the physical tabernacle in the wilderness, but about His relationship with the church. The church is being built through New Covenant history for the Lord. In our present generation and culture in particular, the common perspective regarding the church is that the church is for us, not for the Lord. There may not be many that are bold enough to admit that they see the church as existing for them, but it is a shared perspective that shapes the decisions of many regarding church. The meaning is this; if I see the church as existing for me, then I will choose to attend a particular church as long as it meets my own perceived needs and desires for church. If it has the things I like in a church then I go there. If not, then I'll leave and shop for another one that better suits my tastes. Many churches have learned that this is how all too many see church, and have adjusted their way of doing church accordingly. Many churches now are geared to be the most attractive to the church shopper; from the content of the "worship", to the length of the service, to the substance of the message, to the programs aimed at perceived needs, to the decor chosen. The one core principle that is missed in all these decisions is that the tabernacle / temple / church is not for us, but for the Lord. Everything should be geared toward pleasing Him, not ourselves. If we do so, we will discover that our deepest real needs are fulfilled by Him.

The second detail in our key phrase identifies the overall purpose of the sanctuary. It was to be constructed so that Yahweh would be able to dwell among His people. Ever since the fist day of the exodus from Egypt the Lord had been with them in an amazing display of His presence. The pillar of cloud and fire that led them through the wilderness and was now settled upon the mountain was the visible testimony of His presence with them. Yet, at the same time, the pillar of cloud and fire was also the testimony of the separation between the Lord and His people. He was always with them, but at a distance. The pillar was not in the midst of the camp but always just ahead of them. Since arriving at Sinai, the cloud was now on the mountain summit, but the camp of Israel was below, and the people dared not approach Yahweh in the cloud as Moses had done. The reason for the separation was simple, but critical. Yahweh was holy and the people were defiled by sin. Yahweh could come relatively close, but would not come into the midst of the camp of His people. If He were to do so, the entire nation would die in the presence of His awesome holiness. But, it was God's purpose to be united with His people in a fellowship relationship of intimacy. The tabernacle sanctuary would provide for a way that God's holy presence could dwell in the middle of the camp. Once the tabernacle was constructed and consecrated as God instructed, then Yahweh would come to dwell there. The word dwell indicates a more lasting circumstance than visit. Yahweh would not visit His people in the tabernacle. He would dwell there. This is the beginning of a theme that will be developed further later in Scripture in which the tabernacle will be identified as the house of God.

The Lord instructs Moses regarding the materials to be used for this construction project. Moses was to raise a contribution for the Lord. This is what we would call today, taking an offering. The Lord specified what things He wanted the people to contribute to this offering for the sanctuary. They were to give gold and silver, not as cash, but as materials to be used for certain parts of the construction. There were a number of other materials from select metals, gems, wood, fabrics, skins, oil, incense, etc, that they were to gather. Most of these materials were the things that they had plundered from the Egyptians when they left Egypt. The way they were to raise the contribution includes a significant detail for them and for us, especially in light of the offering practices of so many churches today. The contribution was based upon "from every man whose heart moves him". The Lord did not set the amount each was to give. There was no manipulation by Moses to stir the emotions of the people to give. He was simply to announce what the Lord had told him to pass on to them regarding the plan for the sanctuary and the materials that were needed. The contribution would 100% depend on the hearts of the people being moved to give. The value the people placed upon the Lord and His desire to dwell among them would determine the amount of their offering.

25:16-22 - "You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel."

Once the Lord describes the overall plan for a sanctuary to Moses, the next thing is to begin to describe it in detail, one part at a time. Each part will receive its own focus over the next seven chapters. What we should notice is where the Lord chooses to begin in addressing the details. We might have expected Him to begin with the outer structure, and then work His way into the details inside, much like we plan houses today. The Lord had the entire plan; both the exterior and interior in His mind as He is speaking with Moses, but there is spiritual significance in the order of what the Lord describes first to Moses for the construction. The Lord starts with the interior furnishings of the sanctuary, and with one piece of furniture in particular. Why does the Lord start with the inside rather than the outside of the sanctuary? It is because it is for Him, and everything is being built from His perspective and to foreshadow His future plans. God's construction always flows from heaven (interior) to earth (exterior). The tabernacle represents the church which is built from the inside out. The church is built in the New Covenant by the Lord as people with transformed hearts are added to His temple.

The first piece of furniture that God describes is the one that will occupy the innermost space in His house. The tabernacle will be divided into two interior rooms, the holy Place and the innermost Holy of Holies. This furnishing will be the only furniture allowed in the innermost room. In our houses, the furniture in the innermost room is a bed, where we sleep to rest. There will be no bed in God's room because He never slumbers or sleeps. Instead, the Lord has a special seat constructed for his inner room. The seat as a whole would become known as the ark of the covenant. It consisted of a rectangular box with a special golden cover on top. The box will contain the testimony once it is finished, which is the two tablets of the Law. The golden seat which will cover and close the box is translated mercy seat, but can also be translated seat of atonement. The cover was to have two winged cherubim at either end with their faces turned toward the seat with their wings extended over the seat. We have not encountered cherubim since all the way back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:24. "So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life." Later, we learn from the book of Revelation that the cherubim are special angels which continuously around the throne of God in heaven (Revelation 4:6-8). This is the key to our understanding the symbolism of the ark within the tabernacle. The ark represents the throne of God in heaven.

The Lord declares the purpose of the ark in the tabernacle. "There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark..." The Lord will meet with Moses from ark. His presence will manifest above the seat and between the cherubim. The image is of Yahweh sitting on His throne in heaven. The amazing thing is that this throne will be on earth and in the midst of the camp of the covenant people. Israel was meant to understand that God's throne is in heaven, but in the tabernacle, His throne is also fully represented on earth in the midst of His holy nation.

There is also tremendous symbolical meaning in the seat covering the box of the ark. Inside the box are the tablets of the Law. That Law holds the people of God strictly accountable to walk in perfect obedience before the Lord. Any violations of that Law are to be met with the judgment that God's justice requires. If this box containing the Law were to remain open to the people, it would symbolize the full judgment of God that their sin deserved. God had the seat of atonement placed over the box effectively closing it completely. Then, on the Day of Atonement, which we will read about in Leviticus, the blood of a lamb was to be sprinkled directly upon this seat. That blood was never to be wiped off. The blood forever stained the golden seat representing God's throne. When the blood was sprinkled on the seat it was transformed from a seat of judgment to a seat of mercy and atonement. The New Testament uses the identical word for this seat, translated propitiation, and Paul identifies it with Christ (Romans 3:25). Propitiation refers to a payment which satisfies judgment. Christ is the propitiation, now at the throne of God for us, Who by His blood, has transformed the throne of God into a mercy seat for us who believe.

25:23-30 - "You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long and one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold border around it. You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a gold border for the rim around it. You shall make four gold rings for it and put rings on the four corners which are on its four feet. The rings shall be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that with them the table may be carried. You shall make its dishes and its pans and its jars and its bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. You shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before Me at all times."

The second furnishing the God directs Moses to have made is a table for bread. The table will define a portion of God's house as a dining area. The food to be prepared and served on His table is bread. We will find in Leviticus the details of the bread in which the Levitical priests will bake twelve loaves of bread once a week to arrange on the table. The bread is not for God to eat however in contrast to the pagan temples dedicated to false gods throughout the world. In those temples bread and other foods and drinks were offered as food offerings for the god who was hungry. God does not eat and has no need of food or anyone to serve it to Him. Instead, this table is the table of the Lord which holds bread which He serves to His people. Each week the priest were to eat the bread as guests in God's house. The bread is called in this passage "the bread of the Presence". The word presence translates a Hebrew word which literally means face. The table was set with the bread of face, which symbolized His presence as the One Who feeds and satisfies His people.

This bread has a very direct New Testament connection. Jesus declared about Himself, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger..." (John 6:35). It is in Christ that God has made His presence known to His people. He is the One Who satisfies our every need. He is the One Who feeds and sustains us. When we eat at God's table, He only ever serves one meal, the bread of life! God provides the answer to our need to be restored to table fellowship with Him in the provision of His Son.

25:9, 40 - "According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it. ... See that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain."

As the Lord gave these instructions to Moses for the construction of His house, He gave a special instruction at the beginning and then repeated it at the end of this chapter. What I am calling a special instruction, the writer of Hebrews in the New Testament calls a warning. "just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "SEE," He says, "THAT YOU MAKE all things ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN." (Hebrews 8:5). A warning notifies of great importance and alerts the hearer to the danger of consequences if the warning is ignored. The warning in this case was the insistence of the Lord that the tabernacle would be constructed in every detail following a certain pattern. The pattern was revealed by the Lord to Moses on the mountain. When any complex structure is constructed blueprints are necessary to insure that the building is finished as it was planned. The Lord showed Moses exactly what the tabernacle and all its furnishings were to look like once finished. The Lord gave him a visual blueprint. It was the responsibility of Moses to oversee the construction and make sure the pattern the Lord had shown him was followed exactly. The consequence of failing to follow the pattern is not given here, but we will see at the end of the book of Exodus that Moses was faithful to follow the pattern and when the tabernacle was finished there was a great blessing as God approved of his work.

In this interaction between the Lord and Moses, and his role as overseer we see two New Covenant roles modeled for us. The Lord Jesus has determined to build His church (Matthew 16:18) in the New Covenant and has commissioned His people to follow the patterns He has shown us in His Word. The Lord also appointed in the New Covenant a special overseer in Paul the apostle to see the details of God's church and to pass them on in writing to all future generations of the church. "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 3:9-11). The application point for us who are part of the church now in the 21st century is that we dare not veer or deviate from the heavenly blueprints God has laid out for the construction of His church. The plans are found in His Word. It is our responsibility to study them and follow them in every detail.

Exodus 26

26:30 - "Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its plan which you have been shown in the mountain."

This is now the third time that the Lord has spoken to Moses regarding the absolute necessity of building the tabernacle according to "its plan". Twice in chapter 25, in verse nine and verse 40, the Lord emphasized that the construction must follow a specific pattern. That pattern was not just spoken to Moses by the Lord, it was also shown to him. The Lord showed the entire structure to Moses as it should look before it was even built to ensure that Moses would be equipped as it was built to duplicate exactly what the Lord showed him. Now, in this passage the Lord changes the key word that He used before. In chapter 25 the key word was pattern. Here a different Hebrew word is used which is better translated plan. The idea is that the Lord showed him the pattern of what the tabernacle must look like, and now that pattern has become a clear and firm plan to be followed. There is a progression in the slight changes in the three times the Lord addresses Moses regarding the construction plans. The first time the Lord exhorts Moses that he is to build it according to the pattern he will be shown. The second time the Lord warns him to build it according to the pattern and not to deviate from that pattern. This third time is neither an exhortation nor a warning, but a strong command by the Lord. Having been so clear and specific about how He wants His tabernacle built, in this verse the Lord simply commands Moses to build it exactly as the Lord has instructed. "Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to its plan..." This phrase could also be translated, "Then you must..."

The emphasis of the Lord is an imperative for Moses. There is one right way to build the tabernacle and many wrong ways. The right way is to build it exactly according to the pattern and plan of the Lord. The wrong way is to build it any other way. There was no room allowed for Moses or any of the craftsmen that would do the actual construction work to add their own personal touch or flourishes to the design. There was no room for changing any of the plan in any of the materials, dimensions, or designs. In this project, the Lord was like the ultimate custom home builder that intended His plans to be followed in exhausting detail.

One of the most important principles we can learn from the tabernacle and apply to the experience of the New Covenant church is established in this verse. Remember, that the tabernacle, in one of its symbolic purposes points forward to the church. The historic progression is tabernacle - temple - church. The issue is this; the Lord had a very very specific plan for the tabernacle. The tabernacle symbolizes the church, but spiritually the church is greater in significance than the tabernacle in that the church fulfills what the tabernacle could only symbolize. So, if the Lord was so careful to have the tabernacle built according to exact plan, does He have a similar, if not greater concern for the building of the church? The answer is yes! The church has suffered for two thousand years of church history from good intentions which took the church further away from God's pattern for it, rather than closer. The Lord has given us a clear pattern for the church in the New Testament writings. Yet, so many, ignore the Scriptures in building the church and substitute their own ideas, preferences and opinions. Why is it that there are so many different kinds of churches which are all follow such different patterns in their organization and structure when we are all supposedly reading from the same book? Allowing for some differences due to variations in interpretation will account for some distinctions among churches, but many of our differences can be attributed to ignoring the pattern for church established in the Bible.

As just one example, take differences in church government among different churches. The Bible is very clear in the book of Acts as well as the letters of I Timothy and Titus that the pattern for church government established by the apostles in all the churches of that time was a group of spiritually qualified elders. It is a sad comment that many churches today do not even have elders as part of their church government pattern let alone give them the prominent position of leadership they held in the early churches. How can this be explained other than the tragic substitution of human "wisdom" for the patterns God intended His church to always follow. Moses was truly wise to not ignore the pattern that the Lord showed him in building the Lord's tabernacle. We would be truly wise to start our own church building where Moses did; by recognizing that the Lord has His own way of wanting the church built and by studying the patterns He has preserved for us in the Scriptures, while crying out to Him for understanding of how we are meant to implement those same New Testament patterns today.

26:31-34 - "You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks also being of gold, on four sockets of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies."

This veil was the partition separating the Holy Place outer room, from the innermost Holy of Holies. There is an interesting detail that is established by not being mentioned in any of the descriptions of this veil. The veil had no opening in it. There was no part in the middle as most curtains would have that are used to separate two rooms. Usually, such a curtain has a division in the middle so that it can be parted and allow a person to pass through. This veil was one solid weaving of linen without such an opening in the middle. The reason there was no opening was that the Holy of Holies was not a public room, or even a room the priests ever entered. Only the high priest, and only one day a year would enter past this veil into that innermost room of the tabernacle. On that one day a year he would have to enter along the sides the veil support was loosened to allow the entrance of the high priest. The veil without an opening was a constant reminder for Israel that there was no way any of them could enter into the direct presence of God in the holiest place.

The book of Hebrews refers to this and tells us that it signified that throughout the Old Testament there was no way yet revealed into where the ark of the covenant rested. "but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing," (Hebrews 9:7-8). The symbolism was showing that the way into heaven was not yet open. The ark represents the throne of God in heaven. This veil without a doorway through it symbolically barred the way to God's throne in heaven from all but the high priest. The high priest pointed to Christ and the great work He had to accomplish in His sacrifice on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross an amazing thing happened to the veil in the temple in Jerusalem which was separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. "And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split." (Matthew 27:51). When Jesus actually died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The result was that the way into the Holy of Holies was now open. The spiritual symbolism is that Christ's death on the cross opened the doorway for us into heaven.

There is one additional important detail in the pattern for the veil. It was to be woven with a representation of cherubim on it. The cherubim were also represented in golden statues shaped into the mercy seat that covered the ark of the covenant. They are the special category of angels that are closest to God's throne in heaven and proclaim His glory in worship continuously. As we saw in an earlier study, the cherubim make their first appearance in the Bible, not in heaven, but in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). There, they were stationed as guardians at the entrance into the Garden of Eden to bar Adam and Eve from coming back into the garden and gaining access to the tree of life. Here, the cherubim are depicted on the veil which has no opening. The symbolism is that they are standing guard over the way into the Holy of Holies and the ark of God's presence just like they were at the entrance into the Garden of Eden. The point is that the access Adam lost by his sin in the garden can only be restored by God's chosen High Priest and the blood of the lamb.

26:35-37 - "You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand opposite the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south; and you shall put the table on the north side. You shall make a screen for the doorway of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen, the work of a weaver. You shall make five pillars of acacia for the screen and overlay them with gold, their hooks also being of gold; and you shall cast five sockets of bronze for them."

The tabernacle as a whole structure was built as a rectangle. The two long sides faced north and south and the two short sides faced east and west. The front entrance into the tabernacle faced to the east. As the priests entered into the tabernacle they traveled west. The entire structure was divided into three sections. The outermost section was an external courtyard around the tent. The courtyard was divided from the world around it by a curtain which functioned as a fence to preserve the integrity of the courtyard. Within the outdoors courtyard were found the altar for sacrifice which is described in the next chapter, and the laver for washing which is described in chapter 30. The tabernacle proper was a large rectangular tent. The tent was divided into two sections called the Holy Place, which was the outer of the two rooms, and the Holy of Holies, which was the inner of the two rooms. In the outer room were three furnishings; the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense which is described later. Inside the innermost room the only furnishing was the ark of the covenant. In the Holy Place the furniture was arranged in a specific pattern. The lampstand was placed along the south long wall. The table of bread was placed along the north long wall. The altar of incense was at the western end of the room just in front of the veil separating the Holy of Holies. Outside, in the courtyard the two items of furniture were placed so that the altar for sacrifice was in the eastern most side just inside the entrance to the courtyard. Then the laver was to the west of the altar as the priest traveled toward the entrance to the tabernacle.

The individual furnishings would then be encountered by the priests in a specific order each day as they entered the tabernacle. They visited first the altar, then the laver, then went inside the tabernacle and encountered first the lampstand, then the table, and finally the altar of incense. The final item of furniture, the ark of the covenant was only ever seen by the high priest, and that was only once a year on the Day of Atonement after the pure lamb was sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat covering the ark. All of the details we have encountered so far, and more in the chapters to come can be overwhelming to believers today unfamiliar with the subject, let alone the symbolic purpose of every part of this structure. Keep in mind as we continue through our tabernacle study that there is a big picture to keep in mind as we consider every part. The big picture is that the whole structure points to God's purpose in His Son, and His work of salvation and new creation.

The tabernacle effectively pictures all of this by pointing backwards and forwards in time simultaneously. The tabernacle points backwards in time by intentionally hinting at the following themes; original creation, the Garden of Eden, and the ark of Noah. It points forward in the progressive purpose of God in history and eternity by hinting at Solomon's temple to come, the New Covenant temple of the church, and the temple in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Just taking one of these themes that has intentional connections to the tabernacle as an example, the ark of Noah bears interesting similarities to the tabernacle.

The ark that God instructed Noah to build was built according to a "blueprint" that was given to him directly from the Lord. The ark was built in a rectangular shape that was much larger than the tabernacle, but the dimensions of the ark correspond to the dimensions of the tabernacle on a larger scale. The ark was built in three sections as was the tabernacle. There was only one door built in the ark, just as there was only one door built in the tabernacle. That single door in both structures spiritually represents to all generations that there is only one entry point chosen by God to enter into His presence. Both structures provided the only way of salvation available to humanity. Each one of the themes mentioned above from both the past and future connections to the tabernacle teach us that the tabernacle was the centerpiece of God's revelation to humanity of Himself and His purpose.

Questions from Exodus 25:

Question: 25:33 - what is the significance of the almond blossoms, bulb and flower?

Answer: I plan on addressing the lampstand and its symbolic significance in detail when we reach chapter 37. To answer your specific question without spoiling the chapter 37 commentary too much, the primary intention was to show through the symbol of the lampstand that it represented a tree. Almonds, bulbs and flowers were all indicating a living fruit bearing tree was being portrayed in the image of the lampstand. I'll address why the Lord chose the almond out of all the varieties of trees in the study for chapter 37.

Exodus 27

27:1-2 - "And you shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze."

The altar is the first furnishing of the house of the Lord. It was to be situated inside of the curtain separating the courtyard of the Lord from the world outside. That altar was portable with rings and poles for carrying as the Lord moved the camp of His people throughout their journeys. Even though it was movable, it was not small to accommodate the many sacrifices needed for all of the people of God. Its dimensions of five cubits long by five cubits wide provided a total surface area of approximately 56 square feet of cooking area. The altar was the end point for the sacrificial animals that God ordained for worship. The appropriate animals were brought by the people to the priests at the entrance into the courtyard. The priests then led the goat or lamb to the altar. There, the throat of the sacrifice was cut and the blood drained out into basins for that purpose. The sacrifice was then placed upon the altar which was a large bronze cooking surface with a fire built underneath it. Today, many believers struggle with the vivid imagery of the daily scene at the altar. It was not intended by the Lord to be scene of beauty. It was intended to have an unsettling impact on the heart as one began to approach the house of the Lord. It was a scene of bloodshed and death. Since there was no other way to reach the house of the Lord, the clear message was that no one could enter his house without first encountering blood and death. This is the necessary foundation in history for the fullness of the gospel to come.

All of the tabernacle and all of its furnishings speak in symbol about Christ, His work and His purpose. The altar is the first furnishing of the house of the Lord because it occupies a key role as a type or symbol of the work of Christ. The altar is the place where the sacrifices God ordained were offered. The sacrifices required the blood of the sacrifice to be shed and the death of the sacrifice. It was that sacrifice that opened the door to the rest of God's house. Without the sacrifice, no one could approach any closer to God, but with the sacrifice, the right relationship with God was established.

The entire life of Christ was aimed at one great purpose; His sacrifice of Himself on the cross. He was born for this one great reason. He lived a perfect life without sin in order to qualify to offer this great sacrifice. The altar is the single image in all of the symbolism of the tabernacle that points directly at Christ's death on the cross. The core message of the gospel of our salvation is that Christ died on the cross for our sins. "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures," (I Corinthians 15:3). None of us are good enough or holy enough to be able to approach the perfectly holy God without a sacrifice first cleansing our sins. Don't be put off by the uncomfortable reality of the blood and death at the altar of the tabernacle. It was all to show the depth and extent had to go in order to bring us to God. This is why Christians have always sung songs of worship praising Christ for the cross and His blood and death. We do not have a morbid fascination with blood and death, we have a spiritually realistic fixation on His blood and death. When a person has their perspective enlightened to realize the absolutely essential nature of the cross, it becomes, not an object of horror, but an object of wonder and praise to them.

27:9 - "You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side there shall be hangings for the court of fine twisted linen one hundred cubits long for one side;"

The court of the tabernacle was an outdoor area immediately surrounding the tabernacle on all sides that was established by hanging linen curtains all the way around the perimeter. Like the tabernacle itself, the curtains for the courtyard had only one entrance and exit on the east. This space held both the altar for sacrifice and the laver for washing. In order to enter the tabernacle, it was necessary to first enter and pass through the courtyard. This space around God's house was considered holy ground. Outside of the courtyard, everything was the normal space of the surrounding world, but inside the courtyard curtains the space was spiritually distinct. The concept of holy ground is not introduced here for the first time in the Bible, but it is repeated and re-emphasized. The first holy ground space in the Bible was the Garden of Eden. All of the space within the hedged in garden was holy, and all the space outside of the hedge of the garden was the normal space of the world. The ark of Noah was the next great representation of holy ground. Everything within the ark was on holy ground, while everything outside the ark was tainted by a fallen world and subject to the judgment of God in the Flood.

When the Lord appeared to Jacob at Bethel, it was a revelation of the holy ground principle. "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel," (Genesis 28:16-19). The Lord showed Jacob that wherever He causes His presence to be made known in this special way, it redefines normal space and causes that space to be set apart as holy ground. Even without the symbolic structure of the tabernacle, Jacob came to identify the location where Yahweh had revealed Himself as the house of God and the gate of heaven. The name he gave it, Bethel, literally means the house of God.

Then, when the Lord first appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He commanded Moses to recognize the place of His presence as holy ground (Exodus 3:5). We saw in our study of that passage that there was nothing particularly special about the ground in that location or the bush in which the Lord revealed Himself. The only special factor was the presence of the Lord. This aspect of the design of the tabernacle now continues this theme which began in the Garden of Eden. It is one of the main themes of the entire Bible. We properly identify theologically that in one sense God is everywhere present at all times. The theological term is that He is omnipresent. However, in another sense, the Lord chooses to manifest His greater presence only in certain places at certain times. In that second sense we can properly identify the Lord as being there but not elsewhere. The Lord was present on Sinai in the 40 days with Moses in a greater way than anywhere else on earth. This principle of the special presence of the Lord continues throughout the Old Testament and is leading up to one great culmination point in history. That culmination point is Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15, Colossians 2:9). When Christ was born, the manifest presence of God was revealed in Jesus, and remains in Him from that point forward even to today. God no longer reveals His manifest presence in this world or history outside of Christ.

27:20-21 - "You shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel."

In this passage the Lord repeats His earlier instruction to Moses to raise a contribution from the people (25:2-6). This instruction is only concerned with the oil that is to be contributed by the people. It is not limited to a single offering, but is to be a "perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel." They were to supply this oil on an ongoing basis from this point forward throughout their history. The oil the Lord specified was "clear oil of beaten olives." Our modern equivalent is what we would call virgin olive oil. It was in that day the best quality oil available. It was appropriate for the Lord to instruct them to bring the best quality oil to His house because all that they offered to the Lord was to symbolize His value to them.

The oil was the exclusive fuel used to light the tabernacle. There was only one light source in the tabernacle, the lampstand. This corresponds to the New Testament revelation by J