The Second Book of Moses called EXODUS - Chapter Five

Bricks without straw

1 Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.”’

2 Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.’

3 Then they said, ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.’

4 But the king of Egypt said, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labour? Get back to your work!’ 5 Then Pharaoh said, ‘Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.’

6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 ‘You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, “Let us go and sacrifice to our God.” 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.’

10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, ‘This is what Pharaoh says: “I will not give you any more straw. 

11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.”’ 12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. 13 The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, ‘Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.’ 14 And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, ‘Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?’

15 Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: ‘Why have you treated your servants this way? 16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, “Make bricks!” Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.’

17 Pharaoh said, ‘Lazy, that’s what you are – lazy! That is why you keep saying, “Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.” 18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.’

19 The Israelite overseers realised they were in trouble when they were told, ‘You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.’ 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, ‘May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.’

God promises deliverance

22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.’

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Exodus 5: “quota” (v.8)

Life in Egypt in Moses’ day is a picture of human spiritual struggle. Jesus said, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin … if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8 vv.34 & 36). Undeniably there are no exceptions. We’re all in the same boat, and it’s sinking. Just as a dictatorship squashes moves to bring freedom, so those who aspire to moral liberty meet with repressive reactions (v.23). Pressure increases the “quota” (v.8) demanded to double. Pharaoh commanded “let them go” – but to “gather their own straw” (v.7).

 If that’s you, stay defiant and confident, the Lord has better things for you!

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READING 

EXODUS Chapter Five

Read by David Suchet

The Complete book of EXODUS

Read by David Suchet  

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OVERVIEWS

Exodus : Overview 

The Bible Project  

Exodus : Overview 

Torah Series - 

The Bible Project 

=-=-=-=-=-=-

STUDY - LINKS

EXODUS - Part 1 

David Pawson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5cEpDlOP9A

EXODUS - Part 2

David Pawson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiNKP3GlPi4

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After The Fire Goes Out - Bishop T.D. Jakes 

 

The Second Book of Moses called EXODUS - Chapter Four

Signs for Moses

1 Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, “The Lord did not appear to you”?’

2 Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’

‘A staff,’ he replied.

3 The Lord said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 

4 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 ‘This,’ said the Lord, ‘is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.’

6 Then the Lord said, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous – it had become as white as snow.

7 ‘Now put it back into your cloak,’ he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

8 Then the Lord said, ‘If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.’

10 Moses said to the Lord, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’

11 The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’

13 But Moses said, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.’

14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, ‘What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so that you can perform the signs with it.’

Moses returns to Egypt

18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, ‘Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.’

Jethro said, ‘Go, and I wish you well.’

19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.’ 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

21 The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so that he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.”’

24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,’ she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said ‘bridegroom of blood’, referring to circumcision.)

27 The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.’ So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped.

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Exodus 4: “please” (v.13)

What a nice polite self-effacing prayer (it seemed): “please send someone else” (v.13)!  Moses’ first reaction to God’s call was, “what if …?” (v.1). He was worried his true countrymen would see him as an outsider and reject his leadership. Even miracles (vv.2-7) didn’t get rid of his reservations. “I have never been eloquent” (v.10). The answer from heaven was firm and clear: “I will help” (v.15). 

When we say ‘please no’ out of a genuine sense of our inadequacy, that’s good! It paves the way for us to know “our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 3 v.5). “Please” learn the lesson!

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READING 

EXODUS Chapter Four

Read by David Suchet 

The Complete book of EXODUS

Read by David Suchet  

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

OVERVIEWS

Exodus : Overview 

The Bible Project  

Exodus : Overview 

Torah Series - 

The Bible Project 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uf-PgW7rqE

=-=-=-=-=-=-

STUDY - LINKS

EXODUS - Part 1 

David Pawson 

EXODUS - Part 2

David Pawson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiNKP3GlPi4

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Exodus 4:18-21

After the Fire goes out

Bishop T D Jakes

The Second Book of Moses called EXODUS - Chapter Three

Moses and the burning bush

1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.’

4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’

And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’

5 ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ 6 Then he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

7 The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’

11 But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’

12 And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.’

13 Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” Then what shall I tell them?’

14 God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you.”’

15 God also said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.”

‘This is my name for ever,

    the name you shall call me

    from generation to generation.

16 ‘Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – a land flowing with milk and honey.”

18 ‘The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.” 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

21 ‘And I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed towards this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbour and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.’

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Exodus 3: “strange” (v.3)

Moses was just occupied in a mundane task “tending the flock” (v.1), when he noticed something “strange” (v.3). Despite the “flames of fire” the bush “did not burn up” (v.2) . 

God may break into your humdrum existence and get your attention through some unusual incident. Moses did not precipitate or expect it.Nor can we trigger a special encounter on demand, except by being open, willing and hungry.Though Moses was “no ordinary child” (Hebrews 11 v.23) he felt inadequate to lead the exodus (v.11). 

If God’s got your acquiescence, He’ll grant the ability to act as He asks! 

READING 

EXODUS Chapter Three

Read by David Suchet 

The Complete book of EXODUS

Read by David Suchet  

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

OVERVIEWS

Exodus : Overview 

The Bible Project  

Exodus : Overview 

Torah Series - 

The Bible Project

=-=-=-=-=-=-

STUDY - LINKS

EXODUS - Part 1 

David Pawson 

EXODUS - Part 2

David Pawson 

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I AM who I AM - Exodus 3:13-15

John Piper 

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The Second Book of Moses called EXODUS - Chapter Two

The birth of Moses

1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river-bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’

8 ‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.’ So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Moses flees to Midian

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’

14 The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘What I did must have become known.’

15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, ‘Why have you returned so early today?’

19 They answered, ‘An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.’

20 ‘And where is he?’ Reuel asked his daughters. ‘Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.’

21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, ‘I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.’

23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Exodus 2: “fled” (v.15)

The early life of Moses is packed into this brief narrative. His precarious fate as a little baby. His ‘good fortune’ being fostered by a princess. Then his equivocation in identifying with the mistreated Hebrew worker, while still part of the Egyptian establishment. Later on his  sudden personal exodus when he “fled from Pharaoh” (v.15) for his own safety. 

How hard it is to have a foot in both camps!  Sometimes events ultimately make up our minds for us, to do what we already knew full well was the right course of action. 

Are you in a similar quandary yourself? What won’t you let go of?

READING 

EXODUS Chapter Two

Read by David Suchet 

-=-=-

The Complete book of EXODUS

Read by David Suchet  

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

OVERVIEWS

Exodus : Overview 

The Bible Project  

Exodus : Overview 

Torah Series - 

The Bible Project 

=-=-=-=-=-=-

STUDY - LINKS

EXODUS - Part 1 

David Pawson 

EXODUS - Part 2

David Pawson 

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SERMON

Miriam: The Leading Lady of the Exodus 

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-389

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The Second Book of Moses called EXODUS - Chapter One

Exodus : Overview 

The Bible Project  

Exodus : Overview 

Torah Series

The Bible Project 

The Israelites oppressed

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 ‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.’

11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 

12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labour, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’ 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, ‘Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.’

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: ‘Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.’

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Word by Word Meditations 

by Fred Ursell

Exodus 1: “or” (v.10)

Fear causes fair-mindedness to flee. Egypt’s new ruler in a fresh generation watched with alarm as the Hebrew immigrants’ birth rate spiralled (“they will become much too numerous for us” v.9). He decided that pre-emptive action was needed: “we must deal shrewdly with them or they … will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country” (v.10). 

Jacob’s descendants had done no wrong, but imaginary future treachery poisoned attitudes towards them. 

If you face unfounded suspicions, see how, in spite of it, they “multiplied” (v.7). Or, if distrust devours you, “deal” with it differently.

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STUDY - LINKS

 Exodus part 1

David Pawson

Exodus part 1

David Pawson

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JANUARY - READINGS

JANUARY -  READINGS

from the New International Version (UK)