Lessons From Moses and Pharaoh: Do Not Harden Your Heart
Even today, Pharaoh’s character offers us much insight into humanity’s flawed nature. He is more than just an evil ruler; he represents us at our worst.
Finding Jesus in Exodus
The first time we meet Jesus in the Bible is not in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. We meet Him in the very first book of the Bible—in Genesis. Genesis is full of Jesus. We see that through Jesus, God spoke creation into existence. We see hints of Him as the Seed of Promise. Then we are given insight into why He is called the Last Adam. We see Him in Adam and Eve’s First Sacrifice, Noah’s Ark of Salvation, Jacob’s Ladder, and in the very obscure but relevant priest Melchizedek. Finally, the lives of Isaac and Joseph plainly point us directly to Him. From Genesis, we move on to Exodus, which like the book before it, also provides glimpses of humanity’s savior. In the first chapters of Exodus, we see Jesus in a burning bush, as the Great I Am, and as a personal God. These images of Jesus help us to understand His nature and character better. Reading: Exodus 2 and 3 Jesus as the Burning Bush Throughout the Bible, God often appears as fire. The book of Exodus is no exception. God shows himself to Moses and the Israelites in the form of fire several times: He guided the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years by appearing as a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). He displayed His powerful presence to them when He descended on Mount Sinai in fire (Exodus 19:18). But probably the most memorable occasion is His appearance to Moses in “flames of fire from within a bush” (Exodus 3:1-6). This story of the burning bush is rich in symbolism. Some believe that the burning bush is an acacia bush, the same type used in the construction of the Ark and the Tabernacle. Thorns The burning bush had thorns. Not part of God’s original creation, they only appeared after man sinned as a curse on the land. For this reason, thorns have come to represent sin. Jesus wore a crown of thorns to the cross. Like the crown He was wearing, He took our sins with Him to the cross. On the cross, Jesus was stricken but not crushed, just as the burning bush was consumed by fire but not burned. Humaness and Divinity The burning bush helps us understand Christ’s simultaneous humanness and divinity. The fire did not consume the bush, just as the divinity of Jesus did not consume His humanity. Humanity and divinity could coexist in the same body. The bush consumed by fire was not less of a bush because it was consumed by fire; it was both wood and fire. Just as Jesus, when taking the form of a man, is not less God, He is both fully man and fully God. Jesus as the “I Am” During the burning bush saga, God appeared to Moses and identified himself as the “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6, 3:15, 3:16, Exodus 4:5). “God” is the Hebrew word Elohim, which means god or God. By referring to himself as “God of your father,” He distinguishes himself from the other gods of that time, the gods worshiped by surrounding cultures, and identifies himself as the same God who had made a covenant with the patriarchs, beginning with Abraham, 400 years earlier. In this covenant, God had promised Abraham and his descendants land (Genesis 12:1), numerous descendants (Genesis 12:2), and blessing and redemption (Genesis 12:3). God also wanted to remind Moses that, just as He was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was also with Moses. He is the God who will fulfill His promises. Moses asked God, ‘What should I tell the Israelites? Your name is?’ (Exodus 3:13) God answered, “I AM WHO I AM.” Here, God is telling us three things. He is Eternal No matter when or where Jesus is there. He is eternal. Moses, author of Psalm 90, beautifully writes of God’s eternal nature: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). He is Self-Sufficient Jesus doesn’t depend on anything or anyone else for His existence. He is self-sufficient. Again, we turn to a Psalm to majestically echo this truth: “For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all it contains” (Psalm 50:10-12). He is the Source of Everything God is the source of all that we see and all that we don’t see. In God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). The Prophet Isaiah reminds us, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom” (Isaiah 40:28). Jesus as a Personal God After reminding Moses of who He was to Moses’ forefathers, He then gave Moses His personal name: YAHWEH (Exodus 3:15). YAHWEH is the ancient form of “He will be” or “I AM.” YAHWEH appears over 6,500 times in the Old Testament. In our English Bible, God’s personal name YAHWEH is “LORD” in all caps. God wanted to remind Moses that He is a personal God—He is about relationships and covenant. He demonstrates that He is personal when He heard the Israelites’ cries from their bondage in Egypt (Exodus 2:24), and He saw their misery (Exodus 3:7). But He didn’t just leave them crying out in misery, He rescued them! (Exodus 3:8). Jesus Said He Was “I Am” Jesus in John 8:58 said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” The Jews recognized this reference to God and were ready to stone Jesus to death for such blasphemy (John 8:59). By making this statement, Jesus is telling us the same three things that God told us when he said, “I AM.” Jesus is saying that no matter when or where He is, He is there. He is eternal. In Revelation, He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” …. “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” Revelation 1:8. Jesus
Sent by God: Moses, a Type Of Christ
For 400 years, Egypt enslaved Israel in the darkness of bondage. But God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he heard his people’s cries and took action. He saved Moses, a Hebrew baby boy from certain death, raised him to power in Egypt, then hid him in exile in Midian to prepare him for his ultimate calling: the saving of Israel. Fast forward 1,500 years, the Israelites were again enslaved in darkness, but this time because God had been silent for 400 years. Like before, God would speak through a baby boy; the baby boy Jesus who would not only save Israel but save the entire world!
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament: From Genesis to Moses
Reading Exodus 1 & 2 About 2,500 years passed from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. Adam’s one act of disobedience plunged the whole creation abruptly into an ice-cold curse. However, in the same moment that it seemed as if all hope was lost, God promised us a way out, a Savior (Genesis 3:15). The Book of Genesis gives us a foretaste of God’s divine plan of salvation; how He would fulfill his promise of redemption through one family, the family of Abraham. What God hinted at after the fall of man, He unveiled further in the three promises He made to Abraham, which together we call the Abrahamic Covenant: the promise to make Abraham into a great nation through which all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3), the promise to give Abraham’s offspring land (Genesis 12:7), and the promise to give Abraham descendants far too great to count (Genesis 13:15-16). God repeated these promises to Isaac, the son of Abraham, and to Jacob, the son of Isaac. Genesis takes us through the lives of these three patriarchs showing us how they acted in faith and held tightly onto the promises of God. Jacob, whose name became Israel, fathered 12 sons, who would later become the 12 tribes of Israel. Genesis ends with Abraham’s descendants, although living in Egypt, far away from the promised land, still holding on tight to God’s promises of a nation, land, and descendants (Genesis 50:24-25). READING: EXODUS 1&2 Exodus picks up around 280 years after the death of Joseph, the last recorded event in Genesis. Joseph, the son of Jacob, and second in command in the pagan nation of Egypt, rescued his family from famine by offering them refuge with him. In response, Jacob (Israel) left Canaan and brought his entire family to Egypt to live, where they stayed for over 400 years (Exodus 12:40). While in Egypt, Abraham’s offspring began to see God fulfill His promise of many descendants to Abraham. The Israelites flourished and grew in numbers from 70 people (Exodus 1:5) to around 2 million (Numbers 1:46). They became “so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 2:7). Israel was becoming a great nation, not in the promised land, but instead, in Egypt. As Israel’s numbers increased, the Egyptian’s tolerance of them decreased. The Israelites sheer numbers threatened Egypt, and eventually, because of this fear, Egypt enslaved and oppressed them. The promises of God could not be stopped, not even by enslavement or oppression, because “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (Exodus 1:12). Satan, who constantly schemed to destroy the line of the promised Messiah, began to work in the heart of the Egyptian king. He ordered every Hebrew baby boy to be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Nevertheless, Satan’s plot failed, as we will see in the story of Moses. Moses was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents during this time of Egyptian subjugation. Moses’ mother devised a plan to save her son from being thrown into the Nile River to die. She hid Moses for three months, but when she could hide him no longer, she put him in a basket and placed him in the Nile near the royal bathing place. The Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses, and “felt sorry for him” (Exodus 2:6). Moses’ sister, who had been watching this scene unfold, approached Pharaoh’s daughter and asked if she wanted her to find a Hebrew nurse to feed the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and Moses’ mom became his nurse. When Moses was old enough to be weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him (Exodus 2:1-10). Pharaoh’s daughter raised Moses with all the privileges of the Egyptian court, but instead of accepting this privilege, Moses “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (Hebrews 11:24). After seeing an Egyptian beat a fellow Hebrew, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day, Moses returned to his people and witnessed two Hebrews in a fight. Moses tried to make peace between the two men, but they rejected his help and mocked him. Pharaoh heard what happened and tried to kill Moses. Moses fled Egypt to Midian, not a short journey. Once he arrived in Midian, he sat down by a well. (Exodus 2:11-15). At the well, he saw shepherds harassing the 7 daughters of Jethro, a priest of Midian. Moses rescued the girls and watered their flocks. Moses remained in Midian for 40 years. He married Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro, and became a shepherd. During these 40 years, the Israelites in Egypt “groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (Exodus 2:23-25). God heard the cries of his people. God had not forgotten them, and he had not forgotten about Moses. God had been making preparations behind the scenes. He had answered the people’s prayers before the Israelite even uttered them. God saved a Hebrew baby from certain death, positioned him in a position of power in Egypt, and then exiled him to Midian, all in preparation for what was to come: the liberation of His chosen people, the Israelites from Egypt. God had promised the Israelites he would make them into a great nation, give them land, and make them numerous. Amid oppression and slavery, these promises must have seemed distant and unobtainable to the Israelites. But God was working. God is always working. Through this story, even in the middle of trying times, even when God’s promises seem distant and unobtainable, we can rest assured that He is working and that what He promises will come to pass.
From Pits to Palaces: Joseph a Type of Christ
Even though Joseph’s story begins in a pit of despair, it ends in a palace of blessing. This rags to riches story is one of encouragement, showing us that God can and will take what is meant for evil and use it for good (Genesis 50:20). But it is more than that. It also points us to Jesus, reminding us and instructing us of the perfect One that was to come: Jesus Christ!
Greener?
Is the grass really greener on the other side? We hear this saying all the time: The grass is greener on the other side!!! BUT my question is, is it really greener on the other side? This really boils down to perspective: So we have two fields; 1) Yes, it is greener on the other side. It is pretty, it’s flourished, it’s bright, you just want to go lay in it. Then we have another field that’s brown has no color, and it looks like there’s no life to it, so no, we wouldn’t want to be on that side. Who wants to lay in dead grass? No one that I know of. What we don’t know is on the not so pretty side are seeds being planted so that there can be a harvest later. The field that looks ugly is in the process, * which is another blog for later* to look like the grass on the other side. So being on the bright green side would be nice, but we don’t know all the work that had to be done to be that green.We may not be real happy with all the work that needs to be done to the not so pretty side, but in the end, it will be great. So we have to wait, water, and pull the weeds that shouldn’t be there to make it grow! It is hard and can be painful at times, but I know I would rather have my own work done than to go through someone else’s work. HANG ON YOUR GREEN IS COMING!!