Exodus

The first thing that struck me as I read Exodus yesterday and today was that Moses powered through over 400 years of history in order to introduce himself, then he says about himself: "He was a beautiful Child." Third person, and confident.

The second thing I realized was after I got to 13:19 (CEV) - "Moses had them take along the bones of Joseph, whose dying words had been, "God will come to your rescue, and when he does, be sure to take along my bones." This got me thinking about Joseph. He told his brothers, as recorded in Genesis, that it was God's plan all along for him to be in Egypt; they sold him to slavery, but God intended it for good, in order to save Israel. So, God lead the Israelites into Egypt, knowing full well the 400 or so years that would pass and move them from prominent and honoured among the Egyptians to slaves of the Egyptians. Then, to show his glory, God would deliver them.

Even as God was working in Pharoah, God allowed him or caused him to become stubborn, so that the Israelites could remember how God saved them. God was writing history for his glory. I'm not sure what to do with that just yet.

Another thing I see is the constant excuses and mistakes of the Israelites. It seems the only reason they were God's people and he was watching over them was because he chose to do so. There's been no change since Genesis - the people were still messing up. Right from the getgo, God tells Moses he will deliver his people, and Moses comes up with an excuse - "Yeah, about that God, here's the thing, I'm not good at public speaking." God finally convinces him he can do it by getting the assistance from his older brother, Aaron.

Then, once God delivers his people and they leave, even after all the miracles to get them out, including walking across the dry bed of a sea, they complain and gripe asking where is God, will he let them die, they'd be better off as slaves, and so on. Each time, God in his patience, sometimes with Moses' convincing, makes himself known to them. Even Aaron made excuses about the idol he built for the people while Moses was on the mountain - 32:22 (CEV) - "You know as well as I do that they are determined to do evil."

Moses covers a lot of ground in the first half, taking us through dozens of stories to get to the point where he is able to tell us about God's laws. Twenty chapters of laws on two stone tablets. It must have been big tablets or some seriously small font. Either way, Moses was very deliberate to tell us about the laws. In fact, in great detail he records it as God told him, then he records it again as he told the people and as it was being built. Obviously, it was very important. It made me be thankful that Paul in his writings tells us that we're no longer under law, but grace. I don't think we'd be looked too kindly upon now if we were killing rams and smearing their blood over stuff now. Of course, the Israelites sinned a lot, so it required a lot of blood.

The book began and ended in the same theme. The beginning records how God helped his people leave Egypt and at the end he is still directing them, but in a means that is visible to all of them - a cloud by day and a cloud of fire by night. All he seemed to want was to be in realtionship with them, and this book sets out the guidelines or infrastructure for that to happen.

I remember two incidents in Genesis and at least one in Exodus where Moses says specifically that someone looked at God, or was in his presence, and lived to tell about it. As a matter of fact, they seemed surprised that they walked away from it. No wonder so many rules and directives were necessary. If God's people recklessly came into his presence, it's a good chance they wouldn't live to tell about it, then God wouldn't have a people to have a relationship with and someone to show his glory through. The rules were necessary in order to let them live to enjoy his blessing. I don't think I ever saw that before.