The Book of Exodus: The Victorious God
Why study Exodus?
1) The Old Testament is the Word of God to us as well.
2) To know God better.
Annual Prayer
Father, help us to see you clearly, trust you fully, seek you diligently, obey you completely, and reject all idolatry as we worship you alone.
3) To understand God’s deliverance and redemption better.
4) To learn lessons for living out our faith as the people of God, including many of Israel’s failures.
Deliverance is Needed
Exodus 1:1-22
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5 The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them. 8 A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.” 11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly 14 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah— 16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”
17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous. 21 Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”
A. The promise and blessings of God (though sometimes in the background).
Genesis 46:3-4
God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back.”
God had promised that the people of Israel would multiply into a great nation.
Often we have a hard time seeing the hand of God at work.
B. The people were living through dark days.
Often people act out of fear.
The people of Israel were forced into slavery.
Exodus 3:7-8
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”
There is resistance to the plan of God.
Differences between king of Egypt and King of Heaven
Suppresses
Limits
Takes life
Blesses
Multiplies
Gives life
C. The victory of God.
The plans of Pharaoh:
Plan A, forced labor and slavery
Plan B, secretive genocide via the Hebrew midwives
Plan C, public genocide via the Egyptian people
The Hebrew midwives had faith, they feared the Lord so they obeyed God rather than Pharaoh.
Acts 5:29
We must obey God rather than people.
The plan of God cannot be thwarted, he will prevail.
Isaiah 14:24
The Lord of Armies has sworn: As I have purposed, so it will be; as I have planned it, so it will happen.
Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the Lord’s decree will prevail.
Our God is victorious against all worldly powers.
Trust in our Victorious God
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
John 13:7
Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”
His victory is secured… so trust Him.
Proverbs 3:5-7
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.