A Helicopter Trip Over the Old Testament - Part 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea1srEsNock

A Helicopter Trip Over the Old Testament

Part 15

Moses

Exodus [Exit]

My Goal = That your faith grows more than your knowledge.

EXODUS 1

The Israelites Oppressed

These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben… 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, [They had grown from 70 people to 603,000 males older than 20 according to Numbers 1:46 Including women and children = 2 million] 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. [about 2 Million total Jews left in the Exodus] 8 Then a new king, [about 50-150 yrs after Joseph died] to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. [“Came to power” Could mean that he was a Hyksos King seizing power in Egypt] 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. [A national security risk] 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, [they were also an economic asset] and they built Pithom and Rameses…for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 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.”

EXODUS 2

The Birth of Moses 

Now a man of the tribe of Levi [They would later become the Priestly Tribe] 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 when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket [Hebrew word = Ark] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child [Strategically where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed] in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister [10-12 yrs old?] stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter [Not told if she was married] went down to the Nile to bathe… She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry [Compassion even though it was a Hebrew baby boy and her father wanted them all dead.] 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. So 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.” … 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. [Adopted] She named him Moses, [Sounds like the Hebrew word for “Drawn out”] saying, “I drew him out of the water.” 11 One day, after Moses had grown up, [40] 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 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed [Different word than murder] 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 [Pharoah would have viewed Moses as a high-ranking traitor, not an anonymous runaway. Moses was a threat joining ranks with any invaders.]

NOTE:

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” [His true identity was Hebrew]

-Hebrews 11:24

15 …Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, [Descendants of Abraham and his wife Ketura after Sarah died] where he sat down by a well. [Keturah and Abraham had six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, MIDIAN, Ishbak, Shuah] 16 Now a priest of Midian [Probably a priest of the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] 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, [Bullied them] but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When the girls returned to Reuel [Also known as Jethro] 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?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.” [He might become my son-in-law] 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 a foreigner in a foreign land.” 23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died.  [Moses is 80 when he is called to lead the Jews out of Egypt] 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.

Some Thoughts

1. God is in ultimate control through our story as well as this Bible story. (When we are mistreated and in enslaved).

2. When commanded to sin, there are times to use

“Civil Disobedience” like the midwives.

3. Fight injustice the legal and right way.



Examples of when Moses did and did not:

•Killing the Egyptian

(Bad/Wrong)

•Helping the bullied women trying to water their animals.

(Good/Right) 

4. Since God sees all things, be careful of your next move when you are tempted to “Look this way and that”.

 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one,

he killed …”

-Ex. 2:12

5. Make room for what matters most.

Luke 10:38+

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 BUT Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” [Make her] 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 BUT few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

-Luke 10:38-42

6. Reduce unnecessary stress.

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

-Mathew 6:33