Discovering True Intimacy with Our Savior
In our last episode, God lays down details in his law requiring those who have caused injustice or injury to another to make things right. Let’s see what happens next in Exodus chapter 22.
Reflection Questions
1. What do you see God doing in this chapter?
2. What does that teach you about who He is?
3. How do you need to respond in light of what you learned?
So far this season, we’ve caught up with the Israelites from where we left off in Genesis and seen God’s faithfulness to His word and His covenant with Abraham back in Genesis 15.
We met a man named Moses who had a heart for rescuing God’s people, the Israelites. Moses’s story was complicated, but God chose him to rescue His people out of the land of their slavery and lead them into a land of abundance – The Promised Land.
After 400 years of oppression – right on time based on God’s promise to Abraham back in Genesis – God moved on behalf of His people and rescued them. He executed 10 plagues because one man refused to humble himself. When God finally broke his heart, Pharaoh did, indeed, let God’s people go, but changed his mind and tried to chase them down with his whole army. The Israelites thought they were trapped but God had a plan to fight for them and to take through through the Red Sea on dry ground.
Last week, the Israelites were in the wilderness. The miracles they saw God do on their behalf were eclipsed by the lack of basic necessities like food and water. But we saw God miraculously and supernaturally provide them with bread in the mornings, meat in the evenings, and water in the most unlikely of places.
And if that wasn’t enough, we saw God come down to them in the power of a storm and speak to Moses on the mountain at Sinai, but when God opened Himself up for all the people to hear, the were too terrified to go.
In our last episode, God laid out the terms of the Law. The thou shalts most of us have heard in our youth were given to Moses and inscribed by God’s own hand on stone tablets. Let’s see what happens next in Exodus chapter 21.
Reflection Questions
In our last episode, two months after Israel walked out of the land of their slavery, we saw God fulfill His promise to Moses from way back in Exodus chapter 3.
They reach Mt. Sinai – The Mountain of God. Moses climbed that mountain, and God told him if they obeyed Him and kept their covenant, they would become God’s own special possession. They would be a kingdom of priests; a holy nation.
Moses told the elders, and they agreed to do everything the LORD had commanded.
God said he would meet with Moses in a thick cloud because he wanted the people to hear him talk, so they would trust him.
To prepare for God’s arrival, the people had to purify themselves for 2 days. On the 3rd day, God would come down. Moses was to mark off a boundary on the mountain that the rest of the people could not cross or touch until they heard the sound of a rams horn.
And so, God comes down in a storm with thunder roaring and lightning flashing. But when the people heard the sound of the rams horn and could approach him, they were terrified. Listen to what happens next in Exodus chapter 20.
Reflection Questions
In our previous episode, Jethro – Moses’s father-in-law – comes to visit and brings his sons and wife with him. Moses told him about how God rescued them and his faithfulness in their troubles.
Jethro puts his faith in God and there is a celebration in honor of that.
We found out that Moses wears another hat in addition to prophet and priest. He is also serving as a judge among the nation of Israel. If you are familiar with the book of Judges, this is a predecessor to that set-up. Jethro tells Moses that he is going to wear himself out because it is too heavy a burden to carry alone, so he suggested appointing honest men who fear God and hate bribes to rule over the sampler cases. Back in the book of Genesis, we saw God delegating His ruling authority to humans. Now we see Moses imitating God by delegating his. Let’s see what happens next in Exodus chapter 19.
Reflection Questions
In our previous episode, we heard a very famous story of three men who prayed Israel through to victory over their enemies. Let’s see what happens next in Exodus Chapter 18.
Reflection Questions
In our last episode, the Israelites were in the wilderness of Sin. They had been away from the familiarity of their old lives in Egypt for 2 1/2 months and hadn’t reached the Promised Land. Don’t you know they were tired, and hungry, and scared, and probably starting to wonder if this Moses guy was a crazy person? The whole community was complaining to Moses & Aaron.
If only….the Lord had killed us in Egypt.
If only….we had….pots full of meat and ate all the bread we wanted
But now….you brought us here to starve to death
God hears their complaining and tells Moses he is going to send down food: bread in the morning and meat in the evening. But there were some rules: these hungry and tired people could only pick up enough food to eat for that one day. It was a test. They would have to fight their instinct to hoard for the future and rely on God by trusting that he would provide their basic needs each and every day. Since God was serious about keeping the Sabbath day as a day set apart for rest, God would provide a double portion on the 6th day.
Let’s see what happens next in Genesis chapter 17.
Reflection Questions
