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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Malcom: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 100 and 2
Immersed in Exodus.
The Book of Exodus describes how God
makes his third covenant with humanity,
Abraham's descendants multiply into
the ancient nation of Israel, and God
appoints Moses to serve as the mediator of
Israel's covenant relationship with God.
The Bible describes this covenant
in such detail that its story and
provisions make up the rest of the
first five books, a sign of how
crucial it is for what follows.
Exodus continues the story
from the book of Genesis.
It explains how the descendants of
Jacob's sons, after settling in Egypt,
multiply into a nation and become
enslaved by Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt.
God sees the suffering of his
people and intervenes to save them.
A move that establishes the pattern
for God's future acts of rescue.
Moses is chosen as the leader who will
deliver the Israelites from slavery
and bring them to their own land
through a series of terrible plagues.
God convinces Pharaoh to release the
people the plagues represent the Lord's
judgment against all the gods of Egypt.
God reveals his name to Moses
Yahweh, meaning I am who I am.
And shows himself to be more powerful
than these false gods and powers.
These stories are told in the
same astic arrangement as many
of the stories in Genesis.
Once they are free from slavery, the
Israelites set off toward Canaan,
the land God had promised to Abraham.
God goes with them along the
way, and at Mount Sinai he
renews his covenant with them.
If the people obey God's instructions.
There will be God's special treasure
from among all the peoples on earth, his
kingdom of priests, and his holy nation.
The implication of this covenant
ceremony is that Israel is not being
chosen merely for their own sake.
They are being given a special vocation
as part of God's mission to restore
the world At Mount Sinai, God begins
to deliver the laws starting with
the 10 Commandments that will shape
the Israelites into his community.
Many of these laws teach the
way of life that God intends for
his people by explaining what
to do in specific situations.
For example, one law states, if you see
that the donkey of someone who hates
you has collapsed under its load, do
not walk by instead, stop and help and
perhaps make a friend out of an enemy.
Other laws speak in more general terms.
For example, you must not mistreat
or oppress foreigners in any way.
Remember you yourselves.
Were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Many more laws of both kinds are
given in the books that follow.
But Exodus, after presenting an
initial collection of laws, then
turns to describe the tabernacle.
This is a beautiful tent with a courtyard
and furnishings where God will live in
the midst of the people's encampment.
The tabernacle is filled with
representations of different
parts of the creation.
Earth, sea lights in the sky, et
cetera, revealing that God intends for
the world to be his home with humanity
living in close fellowship with him.
The Tabernacles description is actually
recounted twice in detail once as the
plans for the tabernacle are given,
and again, when those plans are carried
out, then the Tabernacles construction
is summarized three additional times.
These repeated descriptions of the
tabernacle indicate the importance of
God returning to live among his people.
This is one of the places in the Bible
where it can feel like the story stops
because there are practically no action
episodes for a very long stretch.
Although Moses does put down a rebellion
among the people between the two detailed
descriptions of the tabernacle, but the
story of God's covenant relationship
with humanity continues to unfold.
As that relationship is given
statutory expression through the
law and artistic expression through
the craftsmanship of the tabernacle.
It's early in the Bible story, but
God is already working to create
a new humanity and a new world.
The Book of Exodus.
These are the names of the Sons of Israel.
That is Jacob who moved to Egypt with
their father, each with his family, Ruben,
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon,
Benjamin, Dan, Naftaly, GAD, and Asher.
In all.
Jacob had 70 descendants in
Egypt, including Joseph, who
was already there in time.
Joseph and all of his brothers died
ending that entire generation, but
their descendants, the Israelites,
had many children and grandchildren.
In fact, they multiplied so
greatly that they became extremely
powerful and filled the land.
Eventually a new king came to
power in Egypt who knew nothing
about Joseph or what he had done.
He said to his people, look, the
people of Israel now outnumber
us and are stronger than we are.
We must make a plan to keep
them from growing even more.
If we don't, and if war breaks
out, they will join our enemies
and fight against us, then they
will escape from the country.
So the Egyptians made the
Israelites, their slaves.
They appointed brutal slave
drivers over them, hoping to wear
them down with crushing labor.
They forced them to build the
cities of Python and Rames as
supplies centers for the king.
But the more the Egyptians oppressed
them, the more the Israelites
multiplied and spread and the
more alarmed the Egyptians became.
So the Egyptians worked.
The people of Israel without mercy,
they made their lives bitter, forcing
them to mix mortar and make bricks
and do all the work in the fields.
They were ruthless in all their demands.
Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this
order to the Hebrew midwives, Shrah and P.
When you help the Hebrew women as they
give birth, watch, as they deliver,
if the baby is a boy, kill him.
If it is a girl, let her live.
But because the midwives feared God,
they refused to obey the king's orders.
They allowed the boys to live too.
So the King of Egypt
called for the midwives.
Why have you done this?
He demanded, why have you
allowed the boys to live?
The Hebrew women are not
like the Egyptian women.
The midwives replied, they are more
vigorous and have their babies so
quickly that we cannot get there in time.
So God was good to the midwives and
the Israelites continued to multiply,
growing more and more powerful.
And because the midwives feared God,
he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this
order to all his people.
Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the
Nile River, but you may let the girls live
about this time.
A man and woman from the
tribe of Levi got married.
The woman became pregnant
and gave birth to a son.
She saw that he was a special baby
and kept him hidden for three months.
But when she could no longer hide him,
she got a basket made of papyrus reeds
and waterproofed it with tar and pitch.
She put the baby in the basket
and laid it among the reeds
along the bank of the Nile River.
The baby's sister then stood at a distance
watching to see what would happen to him.
Soon, Pharaoh's daughter came
down to bathe in the river and her
attendance walked along the riverbank.
When the princess saw the
basket among the reeds, she
sent her maid to get it for her.
When the princess opened
it, she saw the baby.
The little boy was crying
and she felt sorry for him.
This must be one of the
Hebrew children, she said.
Then the baby's sister approached the
princess, should I go and find one of the
Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?
She asked, yes.
Do.
The princess replied.
So the girl went and called
the baby's mother, take this
baby and nurse him for me.
The princess told the baby's mother,
I will pay you for your help.
So the woman took her
baby home and nursed him.
Later, when the boy was older, his
mother brought him back to Farrell's
daughter who adopted him as her own son.
The princess named him
Moses, for she explained.
I lifted him out of the water.
Many years later when Moses had grown up.
He went out to visit his own
people, the Hebrews, and he saw
how hard they were forced to work.
During his visit, he saw an Egyptian
beating, one of his fellow Hebrews,
after looking in all directions
to make sure no one was watching.
Moses killed the Egyptian
and hid the body in the sand.
The next day when Moses went
out to visit his people again,
he saw two Hebrew men fighting.
Why are you beating up your friend?
Moses said to the one who had started
the fight, the man replied, who
appointed you to be our prince and
judge, are you going to kill me as
you killed that Egyptian yesterday?
Then Moses was afraid, thinking
everyone knows what I did.
Sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had
happened and he tried to kill Moses,
but Moses fled from Pharaoh and
went to live in the land of Midian.
When Moses arrived in Midian,
he sat down beside a well.
Now the priest of Midian had
seven daughters who came as usual
to draw water and fill the water
troughs for their father's flux.
But some other shepherds
came and chased them away.
So Moses jumped up and rescued
the girls from the shepherds.
Then he drew water for their flocks.
When the girls returned to rule
their father, he asked, why
are you back so soon today?
And Egyptian rescued
us from the shepherds.
They answered, and then he drew
water for us and watered our flocks.
Then where is he?
Their father asked, why
did you leave him there?
Invite him to come and eat with us.
Moses accepted the invitation and
he settled there with him in time.
Rule gave Moses his daughter,
Zipporah to be his wife.
Later she gave birth to a son and Moses
named him Gershom for he explained I
have been a foreigner in a foreign land.
This concludes today's
Immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.