So I started this a while back: putting into the blog a complete Biblical synopsis of the fantastic Divine Drama that unfolds in human history contained in the pages of Scripture. So getting back to it in lieu of another entry this week, it is appropriate for Exodus to be next simply because this is a week when we all should be focusing on thanksgiving (never mind that this is something that should be done throughout the year!) To get back to the previous entry in this synopsis, you can go to part 1 and parts 2&3. So here we go:
(continuing the Bible's fantastic story...) Where we left off at the end of the book of Genesis, the stage has now been set for the greatest and most spectacular event of the Old Testament: The Exodus from Egypt around the year 1446 BC, which is also recorded in other historical records besides the Bible. God’s promise to Abraham is slowly but surely being fulfilled, for his descendants have indeed grown through subsequent generations and now number possibly close to a million people.
Two hundred years after Joseph, however, a Pharaoh who didn’t know about Joseph and his deeds in Egypt called for the enslavement of the Israelites because there were too many in his land (Exodus ch. 1). He even instituted a heinous form of population control by instructing that all the Hebrew males must be killed after birth.
Eventually, Moses is born. To avoid his death also, he was set afloat in the Nile river, and Pharaoh’s daughter eventually found him and raised him (ch. 2). As a young adult man, Moses ended up fleeing Egypt after he killed an Egyptian who was beating one of the Hebrew slaves. While in hiding in Midian (believed to be along the shore of the Red Sea), he marries, has children, and encounters God in the form of a burning bush (ch. 3). “I AM,” or “Yahweh” in Hebrew (the “name” of God), gave Moses a great task: to be his messenger to Pharaoh that God was putting an end to his peoples’ suffering and enslavement. As a sign that God was going with him, his staff turns into a snake (ch. 4). Moses is reluctant, and also fails to follow God’s decrees to his own peril, but eventually reestablishes the sign of God’s original covenant through circumcision. Thus begins the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart by God (4:21) in order that the people, through the coming signs and wonders, will know that he is indeed God (6:1-8).
The initial request by Moses causes Pharaoh to force the Israelites to make their bricks without the aid of straw, making the task much harder since they now had to gather their own (ch. 5). What follows are ten plagues caused by God, so terrifying in their own right that most rational people would believe in the Lord: The Nile river turns to blood, killing its wildlife (ch.7); the land is infested with frogs (ch. 8); then come the gnats, flies, the death of Egyptian livestock (ch. 9), a plague of boils (lesions), hail, locusts (ch. 10), darkness, and the final plague: the striking down of all the Egyptian firstborn (ch. 11) in answer to Pharaoh’s initial decree to kill the Hebrew firstborn males.
It is here that God institutes the “Passover” meal (ch. 12, AND the foundation of the Lord’s Supper): to eat in haste while marking the doorposts of the Hebrew homes as the angel of death comes through the land, carrying out God’s terrifying plague and “passing over” the homes of God’s people. Pharaoh finally relents, and orders all the Hebrews to leave his land, which they do immediately, being led by God himself as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. Upon encampment at the Red Sea, however, Pharaoh has a change of heart and pursues them once again. The pillar of cloud envelops the Egyptian army (ch. 14) while Moses holds his staff over the water. The water divides, and the Israelites escape across the sea on dry land, with “a wall of water on their right and on their left” (14:22). Pharaoh’s army pursues. God sends the water back into place and destroys the armies and chariots of Egypt. The Israelites see the awesome power of God and trust in God, singing a great song of triumph in “Moses and Miriam’s song” (ch. 15).
God has rescued and delivered his people out of bondage and slavery! This becomes a recurring and prominent theme throughout the Bible - delivery by God out of bondage and slavery!
No comments:
Post a Comment