Exodus Feedback
Time for more feedback on the course - Meditation on the study of Exodus
As you meditate list what you consider as the top three events of the study of Exodus and Leviticus and tell why.
All three events—Exodus, law, and tabernacle—emphasize one important truth: God is present with Israel as its savior and king. The events are the departure of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, made possible by the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. Moses led them, and their destination was the Promised Land. God guided them by sending a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to show them the way they should go. God also fed them with manna and gave them water out of a solid rock. Because of their frequent complaining and failure to trust him, however, God made them stay in the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land. God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law on Mount Sinai during the Exodus.
The book Leviticus contains the Laws and ordinances of the Levitical Priesthood and the ministrations of it. The Sinai covenant, and erection of the Tabernacle, and the presence of God in the Israelite worship (Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:9;3:5)
· Holiness, being holy (Lev 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:26)
· Offering of proper sacrifice (Heb9:22). The first 17 chapters in Leviticus is dedicated to explaining the occasions for and the correct procedures to be followed in sacrifice.
· Obeying of the rules of the covenant. Leviticus is the sequel to Exodus.
Discuss the significance of “Moses and the burning Bush” and the first “Passover” in Egypt.
Moses' appearance marks a kind of new beginning in the biblical story. Israel's ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the past. In time of famine their descendants went down to Egypt, the largest and wealthiest neighbouring country, and settled there. These Hebrews became numerous, but Egypt's ruler, the Pharaoh, decided that they would be a good source of cheap labour, and began to exploit them in building projects; he also decided to make them less dangerous by keeping their numbers down through killing their male children at birth (Exodus 1). When Moses was born, his mother sought to protect him by putting him in a basket to float on the river Nile. Here he was providentially found by the Pharaoh's daughter who took pity on him and brought him up as her own child (Exodus 2).
One day Moses saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting. He intervened and killed the Egyptian. But when this became known he fled for his life. In the land of Midian, probably somewhere in the Sinai peninsula, he married the daughter of a priest, had two children, and settled down to life as a shepherd. That might have been the end of his story - except that his compatriots were still enslaved in Egypt, and God resolved to do something about it.
Moses meets God
The Bible contains astonishing accounts of God and Moses speaking face to face begin when Moses is quietly minding his own business as a shepherd. God appears to Moses in a burning bush. Moses sees a bush which burns without being consumed - a symbol of the presence of God which defies usual human experience of things. And he hears a voice which calls him by his own name (Exodus 3:4)
The point is that God has chosen to effect his plan through a human agent, Moses. It is for this reason that Moses is called the greatest prophet in Israel, for a prophet is someone who speaks and acts on God's behalf. God is calling Moses to embody the pattern of human response to God that becomes basic within the Bible.
The other great face to face encounter with God is when Moses has brought the Israelites out of Egypt and has returned with them to Sinai where he first met God. The encounter is awesome. When God appears to the people of Israel, a whole mountain burns; for when God comes, Sinai becomes like a volcano (not an actual volcano, but God's coming is so awesome that the only way to depict it is in the language of the most overwhelming of known phenomena):
God then gives the Ten Commandments to Moses as a kind of basic constitution or charter for Israel, together with some more detailed laws that apply the Commandments within everyday situations. Israel responds by promising obedience (Exodus 24:3-7).
Moses - and the golden calf
As soon as Moses has rescued Israel from Egypt and brought them to Sinai where they become God's people, things almost unravel. For while Moses is on the mountain with God receiving the law the people persuade his brother Aaron, who had clearly been left in charge, to make a golden calf to symbolize God's presence. They want to worship the calf, instead of God. Consequently the new relationship between God and Israel almost comes to an end. When Moses comes down from the mountain he symbolically smashes the stone tablets which contain the Ten Commandments, Israel's charter. Yet even so Moses does not give up on Israel, but prays for them and asks God to be merciful. He persists in this, and God responds favourably. (Exodus 33:19)
But even Moses gets caught up in a failure to heed God. The story of his failure is told in Numbers 20:2-13. The consequence is that Moses is prohibited from entering the Promised Land with Israel. So he gives a long series of addresses in the book of Deuteronomy, explaining in depth the dynamics of God's relationship with Israel. Then, he ascends Mount Nebo, east of the river Jordan, from where God gives him a panoramic vision of the whole of the Promised Land; and there he dies, as he had lived, in God's presence (Deuteronomy 34).
What Moses learns about God
Moses has an understanding of God that perhaps his ancestors didn't have. On Mount Sinai he asks to see God, and God says "You can only see me from behind". So he hides in a cleft in a rock, and God passes by. As He passes, he defines himself (in 13 ways). Moses understanding of God is that we can only see what God does after the event, we can look back and understand. Moses has a much closer relationship to God than anyone ever had, but it's still an elusive one. We understand through Moses that although we can get very, very close, God remains always beyond us. We can never define God.
The first Passover observance, as described in Exodus 12:1-14, contains powerful lessons for Christ's followers. Christ changed the symbols for the New Testament Passover to bread and wine (Luke 22:13-20), but the lessons of the first Passover, given by God to Moses, still apply and have great meaning. In fact, they can give us added appreciation for the greatness of Christ's sacrifice.
A lamb without blemish
First, the Israelites had to choose a lamb without blemish, meaning without spot, undefiled and perfect (Exodus 12:5). This lamb represented the future sacrifice of Christ, who was perfect, without spot or blemish, particularly in the spiritual sense. Thus He was a perfect sacrifice for mankind's sins.
This is made clear in 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
The male lamb also had to be in his first year. This is the lamb's prime time of life. We see that Christ Himself died at age 33 in His prime--an innocent sacrifice given at a time when human life is at its best.
Protection of God
Second, Israel had to eat the lamb within their homes, with the blood applied to their doorways (Exodus 12:7,13). In their homes, they were protected from the 10th plague, death of the firstborn.
Likewise, those within the House of God--His Temple and His Church, which includes all who have the Holy Spirit--will be protected from the second death. If we continue in the faith and are led by the Holy Spirit, then Christ's sacrifice will enable us to receive the gift of everlasting life.
Christ gave all
Third, they could eat the lamb only after it was roasted by fire, accompanied by unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8). The roasting by fire symbolized Christ giving all of Himself for man. It was eaten with unleavened bread because Christ was perfect and sinless; thus the bread had to be unleavened (symbolically without sin).
The bitter herbs reminded Israel how they suffered in slavery in Egypt . Their bondage was indeed bitter, but it also pointed to the "bondage of sin," which they were leaving and which we came out of and are to stay out of.
Christ truly died for all
Fourth, the "roasting with fire" pertained to the whole lamb (Exodus 12:9). This pictured the total and complete sacrifice of Christ.
Christ gave His lifeblood and was then resurrected to be our Savior in order for us to have the gift of eternal life.
The lamb was to be completely consumed. Any uneaten part was totally burnt with fire (Exodus 12:10). No part of the lamb could thus be subject to decay or corruption, just as Christ's body was not to be corrupted (Acts 13:36-37). "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts 13:36-37).
Don't look back
Finally, the Israelites had to be fully prepared to leave Egypt and the only world they had known (Exodus 12:11). They would now have to look to God and live by His laws and not look back at Egypt. For us, the meaning is clear--come out of this world and never look back (2 Corinthians 6:17; Luke 17:28-33).
Christ gave His lifeblood and was then resurrected to be our Savior in order for us to have the gift of eternal life (Romans 5:6-10). As Passover approaches, we need to review the myriad lessons to remember what Christ sacrificed for us to become a part of God's family.
Meditate upon the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus and list ten events and comment on each discussing God’s foreknowledge, God’s granted freedom to man, God’s foreordination, and the affects of these events on the relationship (fellowship) between God and man.
The Bible tells us that God ‘knows’ His people. This not only means that He has knowledge about them but that He has chosen them and entered into personal relations with them. (The same word for ‘know’ was used in the Old Testament as a euphemism for sexual relations between a man and his wife (e.g. Genesis 4.1; 4.25 and often)).
Some examples are:God does whatever He pleases.
Gen. 18:14, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."
Human plans and accidents. -
i. Exodus 21:12, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be
Human Birth - God grants offspring and descendents -
i. Gen. 4:25, “And Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel; for Cain killed him.”
Health and prosperity
Exodus 4:11, "And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"
God hardens people's hearts :What God arranges: Exodus 4:21, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."
See also Exodus 7:3; 9:12; 10:1; 11:10; 14:4 where God hardens Pharaoh's heart.
Exodus 8:32, "But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go."
Exodus 14:17, "And as for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen."
The Lord directs people's paths: Gen. 45:8, “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” – (Joseph in Egypt – His brothers, therefore, were not free to kill Joseph)
God creates the person, the will of the person, and the body of the person since God is the one who forms us in the womb (Isaiah 44:2,24; Ecc. 11:5), etc.
Since God knows all things, a person's free will is not outside God's knowledge.
God puts that person in a particular place and time
He predestining us because He is seeing in us something that is motivating Him to save us? If our faith motivates God to save us, then it must have some merit in God's eyes, otherwise it would not motivate God to save us." The truth is that God is omniscient and knows all things all the time. He does not have to look anywhere, anytime to discover anything. To say that He looks into the future to see who would pick Him and then He predestines them is to say that God essentially is learning and adapting to the knowledge He gains in His future looking.
For example, in the Bible God says of Abraham, ‘Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him (Genesis 18.18-19). Here God’s personal call to Abraham (Genesis 12.1) and His covenants with him are described in terms of ‘knowing’ him, and results in godly living and the fulfillment of His covenant.
Man is able to act ‘freely’ is demonstrated by the fact that without freedom there would be no guilt. When the first man made his basic choice and tainted the human race with sin, he chose freely (Genesis 3.6; Romans 5. 12).
If “free will” can mean that God gives humans the opportunity to make choices that genuinely affect their destiny, then, yes, human beings do have a free will. The world’s sin status is directly associated with choices made by Adam and Eve. All accounts of the fall of mankind indicate it was as the result of a wrong choice. From that point on, individuals have had the opportunity to choose to follow God or to experience the consequences for not making that choice.
Even in light of God’s choosing Abraham and his descendants, God held individuals accountable for their choices. In the Old Testament, individuals outside of the chosen nation (Israel) were able to choose to believe and follow God (examples: Gentiles that left with the Israelites at the Exodus, Ruth, and Rahab). Therefore, He who chooses (elects) also allows individuals to choose. The Book of Romans is famous for explaining salvation and the sovereignty of God. It uses words like chose, predestined, elect, etc., yet it also holds people accountable for not choosing. It is impossible for us to fully understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. Only God truly knows how those two work together.
Leviticus 1:3-4, “‘Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.” Leviticus 3:1, “‘WHEN his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.” Acts 13:28, “And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.”
Scripture is clear that God knows who will be saved (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2). Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us “before the foundation of the world.” The Bible repeatedly describes believers as the “chosen” (Romans 8:33; 11:5; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2; 2:9) and the “elect” (Matthew 24:22, 31; Mark 13:20, 27; Romans 11:7; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). The fact that believers are predestined (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11) and elected (Romans 9:11; 11:28; 2 Peter 1:10) for salvation is plainly clear.
The Bible also says that we have the free will choice – all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and we will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). God knows who will be saved, God chooses who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. How these three facts work together is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend (Romans 11:33-36). Our responsibility is to take the Gospel to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). We should leave the foreknowledge, election, and predestination part up to God and simply be obedient in sharing the Gospel.
Meditate on the Exodus study and list five things/thoughts that God gives you that would be relevant to a counseling situation.
God made the world. He judges it. He evaluates it. He redeems it. He invades it. He challenges it. He destroys it. He has a point of view on whatever happens in human life.
Exodus opens with a description of the extended family of Jacob who migrated from Caanan to Egypt because of famine. They were welcomed in Egypt because of their brother Joseph whom they had sold as a slave into Egypt many years before. God had told Abraham that his descendants would be exiled in a strange land and treated as slaves and oppressed for four hundred years. It seems a strange twist of providence that God would lead his people into Egypt only to be left there in bondage. Why did God do this? First, he wanted to establish them as a nation. They went to Egypt as a large family and came out of it as a nation.
Second, the suffering they experienced in Egypt made them detached from it when their deliverance came. Don't we become attached to our possessions and land until God weans us and shows us that we belong to another land, another kingdom in heaven? We struggle to hold on to what we have; but suffering gives us a different perspective. It helps us to see beyond the immediate to what is beyond life, to eternity. Suffering made the people of Israel strong in Egypt. Do you allow God to strengthen you through suffering and trials?
There is another possible reason the Lord allowed the Iraelites to suffer in Egypt. "You will sow what you reap." The sons of Jacob had to reap the results of their own action in selling their brother Joseph into slavery. We often do not see the seriousness of our wrong actions until the consequences reveal how sinful they were.
The bondange of the people of Israel is a type of human bondage to sin (see 1 Peter 1:14-18). The whole human race has gone into slavery to sin, in our father Adam. In the making of the nation of Israel, the children of Jacob were born outside the Promised Land in slavery. We, too, are born in a foreign land, under Satan's dominion, and enslaved to sin until Christ sets us free through a new birth in baptism and the Holy Spirit. We, too are pilgrims on our way to the Promised Land, the New Jerusalem.
The Lord calls Moses up to the Mountain again to renew his covenant which the people had broken. He offers to work more wonders for Israel than for any other nation on the earth. During this forty day period on the mountain, God again instructs Moses in the covenant, and commands him to write down the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. These instructions include teaching on how to be a holy people, and how they are to worship God in a way that prefigures the truth to come (John 1:17).
Through Moses God mediated his law. When Jesus came he showed the spirit behind the letter and revealed God's original intention in giving it. He raised the standard to the level of the Spirit, writing it on our hearts where the Holy Spirit would enable us to live it (Matthew 5-7). Do you love God's commands and do you seek to follow them wholeheartedly?
"Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Teach me your ways and show me where I fail to follow in your way of love and truth. Help me to conform my life fully to the will of the Father."
Moses' humility and obedience are constant, as is his fiery love for God and his self-less service of his people. He went daily to the tent of meeting to worship God. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Moses boldly asked the Lord to show him his glory. He desired intimate fellowship and full revelation of the God of Israel. The Lord graciously answered him and showed him his glory. Is your zeal for God hot or cold? And do you seek to draw near to him in daily fellowship and prayer?
We, too, are privileged to see the glory of God revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the glory of God and his presence in our lives transforms us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). Whose glory do you seek--yours or God's?
In the glory of the burning bush God revealed himself to Moses as the great I AM. On Mount Sinai, when he manifests his splendor to Moses he proclaims who he is in a seven-fold perfection: a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The people needed a merciful God who would teach them his ways and discipline them when they went astray. God's response to the intercession of Moses and the repentance of his people is the revelation of his grace and his glory (see 2 Cor. 3:12-18).
Jesus is the mercy of God to sinners, showing us the way to the Father, through repentance, humility, and obedience to the word of God. The Lord's mercy reveals the depths of his tender love for sinners, a love for the undeserving and a willingness to bend over backwards to reconcile us to the Father. Do you approach God's throne of mercy with humility, repentance, and a firm resolve to turn away from sin in the future?
Moses transfiguration on the Mountain points to the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor (Luke 9:28-36)). The glory of Moses was a reflection of God's glory. Jesus is the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3), hidden in the incarnation, but manifested in visible form on Mount Tabor in the presence of Peter, James, and John, his disciples. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit we can see the glory of God. In heaven we will see God face to face and behold his beauty.
As you meditate list what you consider as the top three events of the study of Exodus and Leviticus and tell why.
All three events—Exodus, law, and tabernacle—emphasize one important truth: God is present with Israel as its savior and king. The events are the departure of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, made possible by the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. Moses led them, and their destination was the Promised Land. God guided them by sending a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to show them the way they should go. God also fed them with manna and gave them water out of a solid rock. Because of their frequent complaining and failure to trust him, however, God made them stay in the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land. God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law on Mount Sinai during the Exodus.
The book Leviticus contains the Laws and ordinances of the Levitical Priesthood and the ministrations of it. The Sinai covenant, and erection of the Tabernacle, and the presence of God in the Israelite worship (Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:9;3:5)
· Holiness, being holy (Lev 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:26)
· Offering of proper sacrifice (Heb9:22). The first 17 chapters in Leviticus is dedicated to explaining the occasions for and the correct procedures to be followed in sacrifice.
· Obeying of the rules of the covenant. Leviticus is the sequel to Exodus.
Discuss the significance of “Moses and the burning Bush” and the first “Passover” in Egypt.
Moses' appearance marks a kind of new beginning in the biblical story. Israel's ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the past. In time of famine their descendants went down to Egypt, the largest and wealthiest neighbouring country, and settled there. These Hebrews became numerous, but Egypt's ruler, the Pharaoh, decided that they would be a good source of cheap labour, and began to exploit them in building projects; he also decided to make them less dangerous by keeping their numbers down through killing their male children at birth (Exodus 1). When Moses was born, his mother sought to protect him by putting him in a basket to float on the river Nile. Here he was providentially found by the Pharaoh's daughter who took pity on him and brought him up as her own child (Exodus 2).
One day Moses saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting. He intervened and killed the Egyptian. But when this became known he fled for his life. In the land of Midian, probably somewhere in the Sinai peninsula, he married the daughter of a priest, had two children, and settled down to life as a shepherd. That might have been the end of his story - except that his compatriots were still enslaved in Egypt, and God resolved to do something about it.
Moses meets God
The Bible contains astonishing accounts of God and Moses speaking face to face begin when Moses is quietly minding his own business as a shepherd. God appears to Moses in a burning bush. Moses sees a bush which burns without being consumed - a symbol of the presence of God which defies usual human experience of things. And he hears a voice which calls him by his own name (Exodus 3:4)
The point is that God has chosen to effect his plan through a human agent, Moses. It is for this reason that Moses is called the greatest prophet in Israel, for a prophet is someone who speaks and acts on God's behalf. God is calling Moses to embody the pattern of human response to God that becomes basic within the Bible.
The other great face to face encounter with God is when Moses has brought the Israelites out of Egypt and has returned with them to Sinai where he first met God. The encounter is awesome. When God appears to the people of Israel, a whole mountain burns; for when God comes, Sinai becomes like a volcano (not an actual volcano, but God's coming is so awesome that the only way to depict it is in the language of the most overwhelming of known phenomena):
God then gives the Ten Commandments to Moses as a kind of basic constitution or charter for Israel, together with some more detailed laws that apply the Commandments within everyday situations. Israel responds by promising obedience (Exodus 24:3-7).
Moses - and the golden calf
As soon as Moses has rescued Israel from Egypt and brought them to Sinai where they become God's people, things almost unravel. For while Moses is on the mountain with God receiving the law the people persuade his brother Aaron, who had clearly been left in charge, to make a golden calf to symbolize God's presence. They want to worship the calf, instead of God. Consequently the new relationship between God and Israel almost comes to an end. When Moses comes down from the mountain he symbolically smashes the stone tablets which contain the Ten Commandments, Israel's charter. Yet even so Moses does not give up on Israel, but prays for them and asks God to be merciful. He persists in this, and God responds favourably. (Exodus 33:19)
But even Moses gets caught up in a failure to heed God. The story of his failure is told in Numbers 20:2-13. The consequence is that Moses is prohibited from entering the Promised Land with Israel. So he gives a long series of addresses in the book of Deuteronomy, explaining in depth the dynamics of God's relationship with Israel. Then, he ascends Mount Nebo, east of the river Jordan, from where God gives him a panoramic vision of the whole of the Promised Land; and there he dies, as he had lived, in God's presence (Deuteronomy 34).
What Moses learns about God
Moses has an understanding of God that perhaps his ancestors didn't have. On Mount Sinai he asks to see God, and God says "You can only see me from behind". So he hides in a cleft in a rock, and God passes by. As He passes, he defines himself (in 13 ways). Moses understanding of God is that we can only see what God does after the event, we can look back and understand. Moses has a much closer relationship to God than anyone ever had, but it's still an elusive one. We understand through Moses that although we can get very, very close, God remains always beyond us. We can never define God.
The first Passover observance, as described in Exodus 12:1-14, contains powerful lessons for Christ's followers. Christ changed the symbols for the New Testament Passover to bread and wine (Luke 22:13-20), but the lessons of the first Passover, given by God to Moses, still apply and have great meaning. In fact, they can give us added appreciation for the greatness of Christ's sacrifice.
A lamb without blemish
First, the Israelites had to choose a lamb without blemish, meaning without spot, undefiled and perfect (Exodus 12:5). This lamb represented the future sacrifice of Christ, who was perfect, without spot or blemish, particularly in the spiritual sense. Thus He was a perfect sacrifice for mankind's sins.
This is made clear in 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
The male lamb also had to be in his first year. This is the lamb's prime time of life. We see that Christ Himself died at age 33 in His prime--an innocent sacrifice given at a time when human life is at its best.
Protection of God
Second, Israel had to eat the lamb within their homes, with the blood applied to their doorways (Exodus 12:7,13). In their homes, they were protected from the 10th plague, death of the firstborn.
Likewise, those within the House of God--His Temple and His Church, which includes all who have the Holy Spirit--will be protected from the second death. If we continue in the faith and are led by the Holy Spirit, then Christ's sacrifice will enable us to receive the gift of everlasting life.
Christ gave all
Third, they could eat the lamb only after it was roasted by fire, accompanied by unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8). The roasting by fire symbolized Christ giving all of Himself for man. It was eaten with unleavened bread because Christ was perfect and sinless; thus the bread had to be unleavened (symbolically without sin).
The bitter herbs reminded Israel how they suffered in slavery in Egypt . Their bondage was indeed bitter, but it also pointed to the "bondage of sin," which they were leaving and which we came out of and are to stay out of.
Christ truly died for all
Fourth, the "roasting with fire" pertained to the whole lamb (Exodus 12:9). This pictured the total and complete sacrifice of Christ.
Christ gave His lifeblood and was then resurrected to be our Savior in order for us to have the gift of eternal life.
The lamb was to be completely consumed. Any uneaten part was totally burnt with fire (Exodus 12:10). No part of the lamb could thus be subject to decay or corruption, just as Christ's body was not to be corrupted (Acts 13:36-37). "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts 13:36-37).
Don't look back
Finally, the Israelites had to be fully prepared to leave Egypt and the only world they had known (Exodus 12:11). They would now have to look to God and live by His laws and not look back at Egypt. For us, the meaning is clear--come out of this world and never look back (2 Corinthians 6:17; Luke 17:28-33).
Christ gave His lifeblood and was then resurrected to be our Savior in order for us to have the gift of eternal life (Romans 5:6-10). As Passover approaches, we need to review the myriad lessons to remember what Christ sacrificed for us to become a part of God's family.
Meditate upon the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus and list ten events and comment on each discussing God’s foreknowledge, God’s granted freedom to man, God’s foreordination, and the affects of these events on the relationship (fellowship) between God and man.
The Bible tells us that God ‘knows’ His people. This not only means that He has knowledge about them but that He has chosen them and entered into personal relations with them. (The same word for ‘know’ was used in the Old Testament as a euphemism for sexual relations between a man and his wife (e.g. Genesis 4.1; 4.25 and often)).
Some examples are:God does whatever He pleases.
Gen. 18:14, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."
Human plans and accidents. -
i. Exodus 21:12, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be
Human Birth - God grants offspring and descendents -
i. Gen. 4:25, “And Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel; for Cain killed him.”
Health and prosperity
Exodus 4:11, "And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"
God hardens people's hearts :What God arranges: Exodus 4:21, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."
See also Exodus 7:3; 9:12; 10:1; 11:10; 14:4 where God hardens Pharaoh's heart.
Exodus 8:32, "But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go."
Exodus 14:17, "And as for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen."
The Lord directs people's paths: Gen. 45:8, “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” – (Joseph in Egypt – His brothers, therefore, were not free to kill Joseph)
God creates the person, the will of the person, and the body of the person since God is the one who forms us in the womb (Isaiah 44:2,24; Ecc. 11:5), etc.
Since God knows all things, a person's free will is not outside God's knowledge.
God puts that person in a particular place and time
He predestining us because He is seeing in us something that is motivating Him to save us? If our faith motivates God to save us, then it must have some merit in God's eyes, otherwise it would not motivate God to save us." The truth is that God is omniscient and knows all things all the time. He does not have to look anywhere, anytime to discover anything. To say that He looks into the future to see who would pick Him and then He predestines them is to say that God essentially is learning and adapting to the knowledge He gains in His future looking.
For example, in the Bible God says of Abraham, ‘Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him (Genesis 18.18-19). Here God’s personal call to Abraham (Genesis 12.1) and His covenants with him are described in terms of ‘knowing’ him, and results in godly living and the fulfillment of His covenant.
Man is able to act ‘freely’ is demonstrated by the fact that without freedom there would be no guilt. When the first man made his basic choice and tainted the human race with sin, he chose freely (Genesis 3.6; Romans 5. 12).
If “free will” can mean that God gives humans the opportunity to make choices that genuinely affect their destiny, then, yes, human beings do have a free will. The world’s sin status is directly associated with choices made by Adam and Eve. All accounts of the fall of mankind indicate it was as the result of a wrong choice. From that point on, individuals have had the opportunity to choose to follow God or to experience the consequences for not making that choice.
Even in light of God’s choosing Abraham and his descendants, God held individuals accountable for their choices. In the Old Testament, individuals outside of the chosen nation (Israel) were able to choose to believe and follow God (examples: Gentiles that left with the Israelites at the Exodus, Ruth, and Rahab). Therefore, He who chooses (elects) also allows individuals to choose. The Book of Romans is famous for explaining salvation and the sovereignty of God. It uses words like chose, predestined, elect, etc., yet it also holds people accountable for not choosing. It is impossible for us to fully understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. Only God truly knows how those two work together.
Leviticus 1:3-4, “‘Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.” Leviticus 3:1, “‘WHEN his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.” Acts 13:28, “And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.”
Scripture is clear that God knows who will be saved (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2). Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us “before the foundation of the world.” The Bible repeatedly describes believers as the “chosen” (Romans 8:33; 11:5; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2; 2:9) and the “elect” (Matthew 24:22, 31; Mark 13:20, 27; Romans 11:7; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). The fact that believers are predestined (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11) and elected (Romans 9:11; 11:28; 2 Peter 1:10) for salvation is plainly clear.
The Bible also says that we have the free will choice – all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and we will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). God knows who will be saved, God chooses who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. How these three facts work together is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend (Romans 11:33-36). Our responsibility is to take the Gospel to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). We should leave the foreknowledge, election, and predestination part up to God and simply be obedient in sharing the Gospel.
Meditate on the Exodus study and list five things/thoughts that God gives you that would be relevant to a counseling situation.
God made the world. He judges it. He evaluates it. He redeems it. He invades it. He challenges it. He destroys it. He has a point of view on whatever happens in human life.
Exodus opens with a description of the extended family of Jacob who migrated from Caanan to Egypt because of famine. They were welcomed in Egypt because of their brother Joseph whom they had sold as a slave into Egypt many years before. God had told Abraham that his descendants would be exiled in a strange land and treated as slaves and oppressed for four hundred years. It seems a strange twist of providence that God would lead his people into Egypt only to be left there in bondage. Why did God do this? First, he wanted to establish them as a nation. They went to Egypt as a large family and came out of it as a nation.
Second, the suffering they experienced in Egypt made them detached from it when their deliverance came. Don't we become attached to our possessions and land until God weans us and shows us that we belong to another land, another kingdom in heaven? We struggle to hold on to what we have; but suffering gives us a different perspective. It helps us to see beyond the immediate to what is beyond life, to eternity. Suffering made the people of Israel strong in Egypt. Do you allow God to strengthen you through suffering and trials?
There is another possible reason the Lord allowed the Iraelites to suffer in Egypt. "You will sow what you reap." The sons of Jacob had to reap the results of their own action in selling their brother Joseph into slavery. We often do not see the seriousness of our wrong actions until the consequences reveal how sinful they were.
The bondange of the people of Israel is a type of human bondage to sin (see 1 Peter 1:14-18). The whole human race has gone into slavery to sin, in our father Adam. In the making of the nation of Israel, the children of Jacob were born outside the Promised Land in slavery. We, too, are born in a foreign land, under Satan's dominion, and enslaved to sin until Christ sets us free through a new birth in baptism and the Holy Spirit. We, too are pilgrims on our way to the Promised Land, the New Jerusalem.
The Lord calls Moses up to the Mountain again to renew his covenant which the people had broken. He offers to work more wonders for Israel than for any other nation on the earth. During this forty day period on the mountain, God again instructs Moses in the covenant, and commands him to write down the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. These instructions include teaching on how to be a holy people, and how they are to worship God in a way that prefigures the truth to come (John 1:17).
Through Moses God mediated his law. When Jesus came he showed the spirit behind the letter and revealed God's original intention in giving it. He raised the standard to the level of the Spirit, writing it on our hearts where the Holy Spirit would enable us to live it (Matthew 5-7). Do you love God's commands and do you seek to follow them wholeheartedly?
"Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Teach me your ways and show me where I fail to follow in your way of love and truth. Help me to conform my life fully to the will of the Father."
Moses' humility and obedience are constant, as is his fiery love for God and his self-less service of his people. He went daily to the tent of meeting to worship God. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Moses boldly asked the Lord to show him his glory. He desired intimate fellowship and full revelation of the God of Israel. The Lord graciously answered him and showed him his glory. Is your zeal for God hot or cold? And do you seek to draw near to him in daily fellowship and prayer?
We, too, are privileged to see the glory of God revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the glory of God and his presence in our lives transforms us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). Whose glory do you seek--yours or God's?
In the glory of the burning bush God revealed himself to Moses as the great I AM. On Mount Sinai, when he manifests his splendor to Moses he proclaims who he is in a seven-fold perfection: a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The people needed a merciful God who would teach them his ways and discipline them when they went astray. God's response to the intercession of Moses and the repentance of his people is the revelation of his grace and his glory (see 2 Cor. 3:12-18).
Jesus is the mercy of God to sinners, showing us the way to the Father, through repentance, humility, and obedience to the word of God. The Lord's mercy reveals the depths of his tender love for sinners, a love for the undeserving and a willingness to bend over backwards to reconcile us to the Father. Do you approach God's throne of mercy with humility, repentance, and a firm resolve to turn away from sin in the future?
Moses transfiguration on the Mountain points to the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor (Luke 9:28-36)). The glory of Moses was a reflection of God's glory. Jesus is the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3), hidden in the incarnation, but manifested in visible form on Mount Tabor in the presence of Peter, James, and John, his disciples. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit we can see the glory of God. In heaven we will see God face to face and behold his beauty.
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