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.