Exodus

We’re going to set the devotional speed at 2x today so we can cover some topics quickly.Pharaoh’s desire to kill all the baby boys led a Levite woman to place her newborn son in a basket along the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, named him Moses, and raised him in Pharaoh’s household.When Moses grew up, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. Afraid he would be caught, Moses fled into the wilderness, where he eventually married Zipporah and began a new life.Years later, the Israelites cried out to God because of their slavery. Exodus tells us that God heard them, remembered His covenant, and saw their suffering.One day, while Moses was caring for sheep, he saw a bush that was on fire but wasn’t burning up. God spoke to Moses from the bush and told him He had seen His people’s suffering and was going to rescue them.Then came the surprising part: God was sending Moses back to Egypt to confront Pharaoh.Moses asked, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?”God’s answer was simple: “I will be with you.”Moses then asked what he should tell the Israelites when they asked who had sent him. God answered:“I AM WHO I AM.”This is one of the biggest moments in Exodus because God begins revealing who He is. He is the God who sees His people, hears them, remembers His promises, and comes to rescue them.Next, we’ll see what happens when Moses takes that message back to Egypt.

From Exodus 4–11, Moses keeps going back to Pharaoh with the same message from God: “Let my people go.” And Pharaoh keeps saying no.But every time Pharaoh refuses, God gives another sign showing both the Egyptians and the Israelites who is really in control.It starts with the signs God gives Moses: his staff turns into a snake, his hand becomes diseased and then healed, and water from the Nile can be turned to blood.Then come the plagues.The Nile turns to blood. Frogs cover the land. Gnats fill the air. Flies swarm Egypt. Livestock die. People break out in boils. Hail destroys crops. Locusts eat what is left. Then darkness covers Egypt for three days.And through several of these plagues, God makes a clear difference between Egypt and His people. The Egyptians are suffering while the Israelites living in Goshen are protected.At one point, even Pharaoh’s own magicians say, “This is the finger of God.”But Pharaoh still refuses to listen.By Exodus 11, God announces one final judgment: the death of the firstborn in Egypt.The point of all these signs is bigger than just getting Pharaoh to change his mind. God is showing His people who He is. They had spent generations under Egypt’s power, and now God is showing them that Pharaoh is not in control.God is.He sees His people, He keeps His promises, and He is powerful enough to rescue them.

After 430 years in Egypt, God finally leads His people out of slavery. But almost immediately, Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army after them.Now the Israelites are trapped. Pharaoh’s army is behind them and the Red Sea is in front of them. They panic, which honestly makes sense. But Moses tells them, “The Lord will fight for you.” God parts the sea, the Israelites walk through on dry ground, and when the Egyptian army follows them in, the water comes crashing back down.God has rescued His people, but now they have to learn how to trust Him.As they travel through the wilderness, God leads them with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. They are not just wandering around hoping they are headed the right direction. God is literally showing them where to go.Then they get hungry.They start complaining and even say they would have been better off back in Egypt. God responds by providing manna every morning and quail for them to eat.Then they get thirsty.Once again, they complain, and once again, God provides. Moses strikes a rock and water comes out for the people to drink.Then they get attacked by the Amalekites. Joshua leads the people into battle while Moses stands on a hill with the staff of God. As long as Moses keeps his hands raised, Israel is winning. When he gets tired, Aaron and Hur help hold his arms up until Israel wins the battle.So in just a few chapters, God rescues them, guides them, feeds them, gives them water, and protects them.The people are learning something they are going to need to remember over and over again:The God who rescued them from Egypt is the same God they can trust in the wilderness.

In Exodus 20, God comes down to Mount Sinai and speaks to Moses. When people talk about this chapter, they normally go straight to the Ten Commandments. But tucked inside verse 11 is this little statement that almost made my head explode the first time it was pointed out to me:“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them…” — Exodus 20:11We read Genesis first, so we already know the creation story. Moses and the people of Israel didn’t experience the story in that order.They are already in the middle of Exodus.They have spent 430 years in Egypt. They have watched God send plague after plague. They have walked through the Red Sea. They have followed a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. God has given them food when they were hungry and water when they were thirsty.And now, at Mount Sinai, God reveals something even bigger:The God who just did all of that is the God who made everything.The sea He split? He made it.The sky where the cloud and pillar of fire appeared? He made it.The animals, the land, Pharaoh, Egypt, Israel, everything they had ever known existed because of Him.Imagine what that would have done to their understanding of everything they had just experienced.They probably thought they had watched God do some incredible things.Now they were finding out that those things were incredible to them, but they were not difficult for God.He wasn’t just more powerful than Pharaoh.He wasn’t just the God of Israel.He was the Creator of heaven and earth.Next week we’re going to walk through that creation story.