Exodus 1-3

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Here is the agenda for the next 2 weeks!

• Moses (1-7)
• The Plagues (7-13)
• The Exodus (14-18)
• The Law (19-24)
• Tabernacle and Worship (25-40)
• (I posted an Overview last night, sorry so late…I fell asleep studying)
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You do not even have to look at this timeline if it hurts your brain.  I know some people like history in “His Story”.  When Joseph was #2, the  Hyksos Dynasty was over Egypt.  When we turned the page from Genesis to Egypt over 400 years had passed.  The book of Exodus is around 1446.  What?  How do I know 400 years have passed?  Good question!

Let’s read Genesis 15:13 one more time..

 “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

We left Egypt naming 70 descendants and 431 years later they count about 2 or 3 million.  In verse 8, the new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power.

Pharaoh Timeline in Egypt

• Amenhotep I -2nd Pharaoh of 18th dynasty
• Thutmose I- practiced genocide on Hebrew male babies (Exod. 1:15-22).
• Hatshepsut – was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I who drew Moses out of the Nile and later ruled as Queen (Exod. 2:5).
• Thutmose III (1504-1450 B.C.; 6th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty) was the Pharaoh of the oppression who tried to kill Moses and from whom Moses fled into Midian (Exod. 2:15).
• Amenhotep II (1450-1425 B.C.; 7th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty) was the Pharaoh of the plagues and the Exodus (Exod. 3:10—15:19).

The new king, Thutmose I, was threatened by a large number of Israelites so he enforced 2 plans:

1. Oppress them with forced labor, and when that didn’t work
2. Kill the newborn boys

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The parallel to the Gospel is unremarkable:

Matthew 2:13 : When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child (Jesus)  and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, 

Shiphrah and Puah are likely representatives of a large group of midwives.  This is the first recorded instance in the Bible of civil disobedience for God’s name.  In return, God blessed them with families of their own.  (Keep the book of Job in the back of your head.  Satan is going to do everything he can from disrupting God’s plan of bringing forth the Messiah).

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So the midwives will not obey Pharaoh…so a 2nd attempt was made:²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

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Chapter 2  The parents of Moses, Amram, and Jochebed are both from the tribe of Levi (you need to know that for later).  When Jochebed puts the baby in the basket, the Hebrew word is tebah, which is the same word used in Genesis for the ark.  Both were used to save a life from the destructive force of water.  This passage is so visual.  I can picture his sister, Miriam, running down the riverbank keeping an eye on the tebah.  When the Pharaoh’s daughter herself defies the decree to kill the newborn, Miriam suggests a woman to nurse the baby….it was the birth mother!  Isn’t that amazing! ❤️

Later, Moses kills an Egyptian while Thutmose III is king, and it becomes known,  so he flees to Midian (an area settled by one of Abraham’s sons after Sarah died and he married Keturah)  where he meets Reuel (also called Jethro) and marries Zipporah.

Ruel “Jethro”  was the father-in-law of Moses and father of Zipporah. Jethro is described as “a priest of Midian.”  The name Reuel means “friend of God,” so the fact that the Bible calls him first by this name may mean that he was a priest of the Most High God.

Back in Egypt, Thutmose III dies, (opportunity knocks to bring Moses back to Egypt!).  I think this is probably the most popular chapter for pastors to teach from because there is so much in it.  To try to find something new in your read today.

But can I say, years ago I was talking to someone who just felt like her sins were  “the big ones” and God would not be able to get passed it.  She would never be good enough.  She had been loved on by the church, told all the right phases by her friends, probably had a coffee mug with 3:16 on it, and just could not feel it.  Clearly, I am not “slow in speech” (my co-workers wish…I don’t shut up!) like Moses, but I just said, “Woman, God used a murderer who was a fugitive, named Moses to save a nation, I am sure he can use you!”.

In short, God tells Moses, go back to the very place he committed murder, covered it up, ran as a fugitive.  So when Moses says “who am I” in verse 11 (not sure he wants that answered to be honest).  God does not answer him because IT DOES NOT MATTER who Moses is.  Instead, God waits for the question that does matter….”Who are you!”. ❤️

“I am who I am”!  Yahweh.  He is SOVEREIGN.  He states the covenant, adds a few promises (which I love),

When you read this scripture, what do you see?

• 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.’

A long flowing with milk and honey?   True…BUT we have spent so much time looking at “people” so who are these people?  It will help you to understand who is occupying the land they are heading into one day.

Click here for the genealogy.

When Noah cursed Ham’s line in Genesis 9, they became the: Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  

❤️Have a wonderful day.  Remember if God can use a fugitive that stutters who murdered someone, he can use you to be an instrument to help someone today feel the love of God.❤️