Exodus 3 Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you [a] will worship God on this mountain."
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am . [b] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, [c] 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, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.'
18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."
Moses is doing his everyday job of tending the flock. A lot different than being a royal prince. It was at this humble time in Moses' life that God got his attention through the burning bush. Sunday our pastor said it wasn't uncommon for a bush or brush area to catch fire with the conditions being so dry, but the amazing thing here and Moses noticed that the bush wasn't being consumed by the fire. God communicated his plan to Moses and in verse 11 Moses questions God as to why it should be Moses. God basically lays it all out for Moses telling him what to expect and that he is with him in this endeavor.
For ME: First of all it is clear that God can use us no matter what we've done in our lives and no matter how far we run. God will sometimes use us when we least expect it. I think we too sometimes question whether or not we are worthy or strong enough to do God's work. I like in verse 21 where God tells Moses that the Egyptians will actually be glad to see the Israelites leave giving them gold and silver to take with them. It seems that the Israelite slaves pretty much outnumbered the Egyptians so seeing them leave probably please most people.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Moses the Murderer
Exodus 2:11-25 Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
The 2nd half of this chapter jumps to when Moses is grown up. I would think this means he was of legal age. Keep in mind he is from royalty, but still has compassion for his people. When he sees a Hebrew slave being beaten he kills the Egyptian. I like how the NIV versions says, "glancing this way and that and seeing noone..." How many times do we do something wrong as long as nobody is watching or we think we won't get caught: running a red light late at night, cheating on taxes, putting miniature reseese cups in a Big Gulp to avoid paying for them, switching price tags on basketballs and so on. The next day a fellow Hebrew calls Moses on what he did so Moses runs.
For Moses the decision to run probably saved his life. It seems like this situation justifies times when we run from the truth. You decide for yourself in this case.
Moses changes occupations and lands and has to work with his hands. Up to this point in life Moses was really taken care of. Now he had to provide for himself. He would have been an overqualified. In verse 17 Moses probably confronted all of the shepherds even though he was outnumbered. My bible notes says Moses probably could have handled them all since he had been trained in the world's best military. Moses finds a wife and the chapter ends with God being concerned for the Hebrew people who were crying out to him.
For ME: The part where Moses does something when nobody is looking. I've always clung to the idea that integrity is what you do when nobody is looking. If you only do something good when others are watching then you are not doing it as God would have you. As of this point there does not seem to be any consequence for Moses killing a man.
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
The 2nd half of this chapter jumps to when Moses is grown up. I would think this means he was of legal age. Keep in mind he is from royalty, but still has compassion for his people. When he sees a Hebrew slave being beaten he kills the Egyptian. I like how the NIV versions says, "glancing this way and that and seeing noone..." How many times do we do something wrong as long as nobody is watching or we think we won't get caught: running a red light late at night, cheating on taxes, putting miniature reseese cups in a Big Gulp to avoid paying for them, switching price tags on basketballs and so on. The next day a fellow Hebrew calls Moses on what he did so Moses runs.
For Moses the decision to run probably saved his life. It seems like this situation justifies times when we run from the truth. You decide for yourself in this case.
Moses changes occupations and lands and has to work with his hands. Up to this point in life Moses was really taken care of. Now he had to provide for himself. He would have been an overqualified. In verse 17 Moses probably confronted all of the shepherds even though he was outnumbered. My bible notes says Moses probably could have handled them all since he had been trained in the world's best military. Moses finds a wife and the chapter ends with God being concerned for the Hebrew people who were crying out to him.
For ME: The part where Moses does something when nobody is looking. I've always clung to the idea that integrity is what you do when nobody is looking. If you only do something good when others are watching then you are not doing it as God would have you. As of this point there does not seem to be any consequence for Moses killing a man.
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Birth of Moses
Exodus 2:1-10
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"
8 "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."
In Exodus 1 we find that Pharoah is concerned that the Hebrew slaves were becoming too great in number and could someday join the enemies and leave or even overtake the Egyptians. He orders the midwives who delivered the Hebrew womens babies to kill the males. They did not because the feared God. The final order was to throw all the male babies into the Nile and let them drown.
In Exodus 2 a baby boy who would be named Moses was born to a Levite woman and after 3 months she can no longer hide him so she places him in a waterproof basket and floats him down the Nile where the Pharoah's daughter finds him and retrieves him. She feels sorry for him and keeps him even though she knows he is a Hebrew baby. A servant girl goes and gets a Hebrew woman to breast feed the boy and she ends up getting Moses' mother to care for him. When he was old enough for her not to nurse him she takes Moses back to Pharoah's daughter and she adopts him.
Summary: I love how this story plays out. Had she taken Moses to Pharoah's daughter directly this whole event probably wouldn't have played out. The mother had the faith to place her son in the water and she was reward with getting to nurse and raise him anyway. The upside of this whole deal is that Moses ends up being royalty even though he was born as a slave.
This past Sunday our pastor preached on the Legend of Moses. He quickly summarized the whole story which covers Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers. My goal in getting back into the word is to blog about the life of Moses throughout these books of the bible and leave some of my own comments.
Feel free to comment.
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"
8 "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."
In Exodus 1 we find that Pharoah is concerned that the Hebrew slaves were becoming too great in number and could someday join the enemies and leave or even overtake the Egyptians. He orders the midwives who delivered the Hebrew womens babies to kill the males. They did not because the feared God. The final order was to throw all the male babies into the Nile and let them drown.
In Exodus 2 a baby boy who would be named Moses was born to a Levite woman and after 3 months she can no longer hide him so she places him in a waterproof basket and floats him down the Nile where the Pharoah's daughter finds him and retrieves him. She feels sorry for him and keeps him even though she knows he is a Hebrew baby. A servant girl goes and gets a Hebrew woman to breast feed the boy and she ends up getting Moses' mother to care for him. When he was old enough for her not to nurse him she takes Moses back to Pharoah's daughter and she adopts him.
Summary: I love how this story plays out. Had she taken Moses to Pharoah's daughter directly this whole event probably wouldn't have played out. The mother had the faith to place her son in the water and she was reward with getting to nurse and raise him anyway. The upside of this whole deal is that Moses ends up being royalty even though he was born as a slave.
This past Sunday our pastor preached on the Legend of Moses. He quickly summarized the whole story which covers Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers. My goal in getting back into the word is to blog about the life of Moses throughout these books of the bible and leave some of my own comments.
Feel free to comment.
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