Exodus: The Lord And His People Series

The Lord and His People

Exodus

Let’s review from last week. Genesis

The rest of the Old Testament is God’s relationship with the Hebrew race. The nation of Israel God’s chosen people. As we move into the book of Exodus we find that the first chapter starts where Genesis ended.

The Jewish Rabbis called the book of Exodus the book of names because we have listed here the 12 sons of Jacob. Remember God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The names are listed distinctly by mothers.

Remember God started the Hebrew race with Jacob marrying Leah and her sister Rachel. They each had a maid servant so those four women and Jacob had 12 sons and several daughters.

**Exodus 1:1-7** Leah’s six sons are listed in the order of their birth; from Reuben through Zebulun (Benjamin, the son of Jacob’s second wife Rachel, is mentioned next but Joseph, Rachel’s firstborn, is not listed because he was already in Egypt. Joseph is mentioned again in v.6. Dan and Naphtali were the sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah (Gen. 35:25), and Gad and Asher were the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah (Gen. 35:26). The males who entered Egypt with Jacob numbered 70.

Jacob’s descendants increased: The Israelites were fruitful and multi- plied greatly and became exceedingly numerous (cf. Acts 7:17). Several generations separated Levi from Moses (cf. comments on Num. 26:58-59) so that the time from Joseph’s death (Gen. 50:26) to the growth of the nation as described in Exodus 1:7 was probably little more than 100 years. The adult males in the Exodus totaled 600,000, not counting women and children (12:37), so the total Israelite population at that time may have been about 2 million.

**v.8-12** God was continuing to bless His nation and used bondage to bring blessing. Strange arrangement but God really does know what He is doing.

In verses 13-22 we see Pharaoh talking to the midwives and telling them if a son is born to kill it. The midwives didn’t do that and said the Hebrew women were having their children before they even arrived. Because of their faith the midwives were blessed with their own families. That is an interesting blessing. Because they saved children God blessed them with the greatest blessing a family of their own.

God deals with His people here in Exodus. Let’s look tonight how God delivered His people from bondage.

**2:1-1**

I. The Lord Delivers His People (1-18)

Redemption: “I will bring you out” (Ex. 6:6)

A. He calls a leader (1-4) Often times when God gets ready to do something great He sends a baby. God blessed Amram and Jocebed descendents of the house of Levi the priestly line and sent them a son who would be the leader of the nation of Israel.

I think most people no the story of Moses. His life has been portrayed on the big screen. But in chapters 2-4 there are many significant events in the life of Moses. First of all, he was supposed to be killed, thrown into the Nile River. His mother did put him in the river and God saved the life of Moses and used him to deliver his people.

We can never know what God has in store for a person’s life which means every life is precious and has a purpose in the plan of God. Out of that event Moses was raised to manhood by Pharaoh’s daughter. He was in direct succession to the throne of Egypt.

Second significant event was that Moses refused to be called the son of pharaoh’s daughter and killed an Egyptian and somehow God used that circumstance to send Moses into exile. Third event has Moses encounter with God at the burning bush. Moses gets his calling at the age of 80 forty years in Egypt, 40 years in the desert herding sheep.

**3:13-15** Moses returns to Egypt and God well;

B. He declares war (5-10) the first encounter Moses has with Pharaoh has Moses handing his shepherd’s staff to his brother Aaron. Aaron throws the staff on the floor and it turns into a snake. Pharaoh unimpressed calls two of his sorcerers in and they throw their staff’s down and both of them turn into snakes. Never underestimate the power of the enemy. But also never over estimate the power of the enemy because Moses snake devours both of the Egyptians.

Pharaoh would not listen to Moses so God pronounced a series of plagues on the nation of Egypt. Nine of these plagues are listed in chapters 5-10. Water turned to blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence on all the livestock, boils, hail mingled with fire, locusts, and darkness for three days. And then God well:

C. He wins the victory (11:1-15:21) Pharaoh decides to let My people go. It’s interesting to note that the ninth plague (darkness) and the tenth (firstborn killed/Passover) are seen as pictures of the coming Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ.