Category: BIBLE/SCRIPTURE

Chapter 1

Exodus opens with the listing of Israel’s sons and then tells us his family numbers seventy in the land of Egypt. We are then told Joseph died along with all his brothers and all of that generation.

Deduct that entire generation and you have a mighty small nation of people that have been the focus of the world ever since their beginning. But the Israelites were fertile and prolific, they multiplied and increased very greatly. In the writing of Exodus, with all it contains, we see God’s great attempt to make a moral world.

God’s first attempt to make a good world was creating human beings with a conscience. We know that didn’t work because Adam and Eve’s first child Cain killed his brother Abel. After that episode, and some following events, God came to regret creating human beings. It was then that God sent the flood, destroying all mankind except for one particular good man and his family. God knew that human conscience did not work, so he set up a few rules in Genesis chapter nine. He then revealed some basic moral laws and principles. The first was to not murder. In fact, they were to take the life of those who deliberately murdered.

Next, they were to have children, and they were not to consume the blood of any creature, and He reminded them every human being is created in the image of GOD. But that didn’t work either. People murdered and plundered and engaged in other evils. Then God made a third effort to morally improve mankind by revealing Himself to one specific group “who would be charged” with spreading ethical monotheism in the world.

That group was first known as the Hebrews. The word which meant to cross over or to pass through. Next, they were known as Israelites. The new name given to Jacob by God which means “to wrestle with God”. And then they got the name Jews, which is retained to this day, from Jacob’s son Judah, the Lion of God.

The question, of why God had to keep trying different ways to make man good, may have crossed your mind. It could make you wonder, “Doesn’t God know the beginning from the end”? Or don’t you even wonder why He didn’t just begin the world with The Ten Commandments or with a Chosen people who would obey?

But as you are led off in that path you have to remember God created the human with free will. We have the freedom to believe God – or not. And then with hindsight we know that God dealt with different people, in different times, and in different ways. That is what we call dispensations.

When the unbeliever stands before God, he cannot blame God for not covering all the angles. God can only say I tried all these different methods to convince mankind and yet “you would not believe in spite of all My efforts”. Scripture continues with “and the world was filled with them.” This statement implies that the Egyptians perceived that the Jews were everywhere. They ignored the fact that the Jews only occupied the land known as Goshen. The Jews evidently made a large impression.

The Jews presence throughout the centuries and throughout the world has always been overstated. Today (2021) there are about fourteen million Jews over all the world and the entire world has approximately 7.9 billion people. But back in Egypt there was a change, a big change. A new king, who did not know Joseph, arose over Egypt. We all tend to have a short memory when it comes to anything good. That new king did not know that Joseph actually saved Egypt from the famine.

But maybe it is not a short memory that plagues us. Maybe it is a lack of gratitude that does the most damage. Human beings tend to much more quickly forget the good others have done.

It is human nature for people to remember vividly the bad that has been done to them but it is so much harder for anyone to remember the good that has been done to them. This is one of the very good reasons why it is so difficult to be a good person. Being good actually is only accomplished by fighting our prominent nature.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 3
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For those of you who have read through the Bible more than once, this may be a great repetition for you. But I have to admit I have never read through the entire Scriptures. I am not a fan of reading. I need a purpose to get my nose into a book. And that purpose is never just satisfaction of reading. My Bible reading has been limited to reading passages on specific subjects about which I am trying to learn or confirm.

The first five books of the Bible, which the Jews refer to as the Torah, reveals the God of the universe to us. Those first five books when translated to English mean ‘teaching’ or ‘law’. The central message we find in just those first five books is that God is good and demands we be good. Those first five books tell us all what we need to know concerning the wisdom that is contained therein.

God’s wisdom that He shares with us far outweighs any wisdom taught in any University or any place of higher learning. It’s sad when we study the occupants of our world and learn that most people value knowledge and intelligence but not wisdom. The Bible is the greatest repository of goodness and wisdom in human history and the greatest book ever written, because it comes directly from God.

In the study of the book of Exodus we will find The Ten Commandments, which is the most important moral code in world history. Exodus is, in equal parts, narrative, laws and theology. Another unique element is the only national history ever written that begins with the creation of the world. It is the story of all mankind and not just the Jews.

Exodus opens with the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. The total number of that family was seventy. The Israelites are referred to as the “sons of Israel”. We remember that Israel was the name given to Jacob after he wrestled with an angel. We are reminded that the name Israel means “wrestled with God”.

It’s amazing how the story of one of the smallest nations in the world holds such worldwide appeal. The Israelites gave to us the detail of two of the most important events in world history: the Israelites Exodus from Egyptian slavery and the revelation of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Even an atheist who believes neither event occurred would have to acknowledge that the Western world – and those parts of the non-western world influenced in the West – has been largely shaped by the belief that these events did occur.

It’s really interesting to note that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, two of the founders of the USA, neither of whom believed in a literal reading of Scripture, commissioned a design for the Great Seal of the United States of America which depicted the Israelites leaving Egypt and was surrounded by the words, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”. They also believed the founding of our land was a second Exodus in as much as people were leaving Europe and establishing the United States.

Our country truly had great beginnings when you consider that America (outside of Israel) was the most Bible based country ever founded. At one time the Bible was the best-selling book in our country. When I tried to confirm that it still is, I queried google, asking “what was the number one best-selling book in the USA in 2020” and found it was “A promised Land” by Barack Obama. So I refined my search to how many homes own one or more Bibles. Nine out of ten homes have a Bible BUT they don’t read it!

I don’t think my answers surprised me. The results by a Christian organization were 16% of the Population never read the Bible, and only 14% read it every day. They reference or read portions of the Bible three to four times a week.

Another fact about the creation of our own Nation is: Truth and Liberty are the two pillars of the Bible, as seen especially in the first five books of the Bible, and Truth and Liberty are the two main pillars our Nation was founded on. Our founding fathers gave us a great heritage because they read and believed the Bible. We can see all around us the degeneration of our Nation because the majority of our leaders do not depend on God and so do not read or believe Scripture.

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Anyone, anywhere, or even everywhere, people who call themselves believers in God, know the story of the manna. It was a miracle way to feed the wandering Israelites.

I’ve always imagined or heard it was a bland tasting food that was not very interesting and was boring to eat.

But that is not what Scripture says. Scripture actually says, “It was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey.”

God told them the protocol of the manna, which is about three point seventh of a quart, or one tenth of an ephah, or about thirty five liters.

The instructions were quote, “let one omer be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.”

We all know they gathered manna for six days but had leftovers to eat on the seventh.

But just like today many of those believers didn’t believe. Remember, you didn’t work on the Sabbath. This was God’s orders.

The Sabbath was the Lord’s Day, set aside for only Him.

Moses of course, told them what God’s orders were, and he told them more than once! They should not and would not collect the manna on the seventh day.

But what did they do? Some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather their daily manna – but they found nothing.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Remember, it only took one month for the Israelites to disregard the fact that God had planned and accomplished their complete escape from the Egyptians.

You remember, God annihilated the entire Egyptian army for them.

Humans sure tend to have very short memories.

We certainly know that none of this took God by surprise. But for man’s sake God asked the question, “How long will you men refuse to obey My commandments”?

To this point God has given the Israelites very few commandments. They were to circumcise all males, remember and keep the Passover, and now to observe the Sabbath.

Yet, even after all God has done for them, they keep forgetting to do what God asks.

It’s interesting because, after all this time and all that God’s Word teaches us, man still does not do it God’s way. Humans tend to think they are smarter than God.

But, finally the Israelites learned their lesson on gathering food on the Sabbath. They then remained inactive on the Sabbath.

The Israelites ate manna for forty years
until they came to a settled land,
they ate the manna until they came
to the border of the land of Canaan.

Think about it, God had to be patient and teach the Israelites the lesson of His complete care of them for forty years until they came to the borders of Canaan.

But while they were still wandering they had their third crisis.

They had just left the wilderness of Sin, they encamped at Rephidem, where once again there was no water.

Those Israelites, with their short memory were mad again. They forgot that God gave them water for all their kin. And now they are as mad as a hen. Now they were mad at Moses again. He of course was the one to blame cause once again they forgot God’s name. But let’s not be proud, let us not be smug or we’ll bury ourselves in that hole we dug.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 44
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Exodus to this point has been all about God extricating the Israelites from under the cruel hand of Pharaoh.

God performed the greatest miracle when he parted the sea for the Israelites to walk between walls of water and then destroy the entire Egyptian army.

And only three days later when the Israelites hit a glitch in the road they forgot all about God’s miraculous works.

We would love to say how dumb they were and that we certainly would have never turned our backs on God but sad to say not many of us have a good enough memory to just believe God. We get led astray just as easily as the Israelites but our turning way doesn’t normally have critical physical life or death concerns.

While weeping and moaning they said, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread.

Wow!  Their memories are enhanced, and their exaggerations are enormous.

It may overwhelm us at times but liberty does come with a price. It’s the price of self–reliance, not the free handouts that eventually enslave us.

But because they encountered a few days of discomfort they stated, You have brought us out into the wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.

But God has an answer.  He told Moses He would rain down bread to you from the sky and the people should go out each day and gather that day’s portion. We of course know that bread is Manna.

God explained to Moses that this test was to see whether they will follow my instructions or not.

There two different thoughts as to why God chose to gift them with their sustenance.

One thought is God was testing to see if the people’s faith will trust God to provide them with enough food for every day or God may be testing them to see if they will believe in Him when they are doing well.

It’s sad to say but some people only seem to need God when their life is on the downturn and not when they are doing well.

In this age of Grace our test is whether we believe our salvation is strictly tied to our faith in Christ’s ability to save us by His death on the cross.  But there are those people who only turn to God when they are down on their luck.

The instruction for the manna were they would collect it for only six days but when they gather the days portion on the sixth day they will find they actually got double portions for that day and they will not have to collect on the seventh day, the Sabbath.

And the Moses reminds the Israelites that even though they are directing their grumbling to Moses and Aaron they are actually grumbling against the Lord.

And now, once again, the Lord is taking responsibility for all the miracles that have happened to the Israelites.

And now, once again He has heard their grumbling and He is going to take care of the Israelites so they may know His is the Lord.

The Lord told them in the morning you will have your bread and in the evening you will eat flesh.

Here we thought they were just getting bread and  we probably would quote them and say, “man cannot live by bread alone, we need jelly for that bread”.

But God did not wait for then to say they could not just eat bread. He was now supplying them with meat.

Every evening quail would appear for their evening meal.

In the morning there was a fall of dew in the camp and when the dew lifted there was a substance, a fine and flaky substance, and this was the bread which the Lord had given.

They were commanded to gather as much of it as each required to eat.

When the Israelites gathered the manna they were not consistent. Some gathered a little, some gathered a lot.

But when it was measured the person who gathered much ended up with no excess and he who gathered a little ended up with no deficiency.

Moses told them they could not save any of it until morning.

I suppose some wanted to gather a weeks worth and store it up so they didn’t have to go get it each day.

And of course, even though they heard Moses instructions, they disobeyed them.

When it was left until morning it became infested with maggots and stank.

And Moses got angry with them.

They finally got the point, and only gathered enough that they would eat.

But on the sixth day they were told to gather a double portion so they would not work on the Sabbath.

And low and behold it did not turn rancid, it did not get maggots and it did not stink.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 43
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God parted the sea and allowed the Israelites passage on dry land to escape the Egyptian army. Only three days later, the Israelites couldn’t find water and began to doubt Moses and the Lord. They found a water source, but its waters were bitter and undrinkable. For this reason they called that place Marah. Immediately, the people began to grumble against Moses. They had just walked through walls of water, on dry land through the sea yet they doubted God. He did not provide good drinking water for them.  “Oh, woe is us!” But did they ask for God’s help? Oh no, they cried and whined and blamed Moses. Moses cried out to the Lord, and God told him to find a certain piece of wood and throw it into the water. He obeyed, and the waters of Marah became good. It’s easy for us to be critical of the Israeli’s choice to turn from God because they were disappointed.

But did you ever stop to consider how short our own attention span is. Sometimes it’s easy to complain about a situation when we’ve only had problems for three hours or less! Do we ever stop to think what could be written about us if we were in Scriptures? When we stop trusting in the goodness of God and see only our own limited resources, we can become bitter and even blame God.

We are no different than the Israelites except in our own minds.

What does God say? “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.  It’s pompous when we think we are better than others.

After finding the wood that made the bitter water sweet they continued their journey.

They came to Elin, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and there they camped beside the water.

Next they came to the wilderness of sin. This is between Elin and Sinai. This was the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.

This means that it was only a little over a month since they sang that song of gratitude at God’s triumph over the Egyptians. And what are they doing? Well, they are loud and vocal complaining that they would rather be back in Egypt.

I guess it was easy to forget what captivity and making bricks was really like!

And it wasn’t just a few people who complained, it was the entire group!

We all like to think if we saw a miracle it would bring us closer to God.

Remember, we are just as bad as the Jews and miracles don’t necessarily convert to faith in God.

Think about it:  We live with miracles everyday. The birth of a baby, love, music, a body that heals itself! What isn’t a miracle? And yet these don’t bring people closer to God. They just call it nature and expect it! Quoting the Israelites, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread.”​

It’s obvious by these statements that the human mind can make up its own stories.

This wasn’t the situation in which the Israelites were living.

The problem is their short memories and the fact that they did not have to provide for themselves in Egypt, no matter how meager the rations.

It seems most people prefer to be taken care of – even at the price of losing their freedom.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 42
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