road2answers

Deliverance can happen in a moment.  It is very costly, and it comes to anyone without distinction or discrimination. God’s deliverance of His chosen people from the land of Egypt illustrates these three points. First, who are these Chosen People?  The descendants of Israel are known as the Chosen People. Israel is another name for the man Jacob.  Jacob was the second son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham.  After the flood, the descendants of Noah all settled in a plain called Shinar.  They began to build a tower there in order to keep from spreading out over the whole earth.  This was an act of rebellion against God, and God confused their language so the tower was never built.  In the generations before the flood, humanity quickly strayed far away from God in heart, philosophy and practice.  After the flood, humanity made it clear that no lesson had been learned.  In just a few short generations, humankind was far from God in heart, philosophy and practice.

The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. This world sets itself up in opposition to God. The Bible tells us, “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” [i]   (1 John 2:16)  These things oppose God in our lives.  They come from within and are reflected in our attitude toward the world around us.  These three things enslave us, and will not let us go. Our slavery to sin and God’s deliverance is pictured in the story of the Exodus.  The Scriptures tell us of Moses: He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.  (Hebrews 11:25-26) Reviewing the Exodus, we will learn how God works. Much of how God works is a mystery.  He tells us tha

Read Exodus 5 For many years, the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt.  Israel and his family moved to Egypt because of a widespread famine.  God used Israel’s son Joseph to preserve the family from the devastating effects of the famine. While Joseph was alive, the children of Israel lived in favor in Egypt.  However, a pharaoh came to power who did not know Joseph.  He saw the rapidly growing population of Hebrews and made plans to both dominate and reduce the Israelite population. Those plans included slavery, oppression and killing the male babies. The labor demands, slavery and oppression became so harsh that the people of Israel cried out to God for help. God responded and appeared to a man named Moses.  Moses was tending sheep in the wilderness at the time.  He saw a bush engulfed in flames, but the fire did not consume the bush.  When Moses went to investigate, God spoke to him from the bush.  God told Moses to go and lead the children of Israel out

Exodus chapter 1 through chapter 2 verse 10 gives the details of how God prepared a deliverer for His people in spite of all of Pharaoh’s efforts to keep it from happening.  Pharaoh tried enslaving the Hebrews and killing all their male babies as means of controlling the Hebrew population.  God planned otherwise.  God used Pharaoh’s daughter to raise Moses.  Exodus 2:10 says, “The princess named him Moses, for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.” [i] Her reason for naming him Moses was she lifted him out of the water.  A clever play on words for her, and unknown to her an even more clever play on words for God. God was about to lift a nation out of slavery! God was about to “lift out” over 2 million slaves. Every generation since that time has retold the story of the great deliverance God worked through Moses. We see in Exodus 2 God’s preparation of the deliverer. First, we see his early training.  Moses was nursed by his Hebrew mothe

In the Garden of Eden, God promised to provide salvation.  The book of Genesis traces history from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Joseph.  Exodus picks up the story, recounting the number of the descendants of Israel who went to Egypt when Joseph was prime minister. Four hundred years passed and the people of Israel were becoming so numerous that Pharaoh was in fear of being outnumbered.  The book of Numbers (1:46) tells us that one year after the Exodus from Egypt, there were 603,550 men between the ages of 20 and 50. This means that the total Israelite population could have been anywhere from 2.5 million to 3.5 million.  Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are.”  (Exodus 1:9)  Whether he was exaggerating or stating a fact, the population had grown to the point that the Egyptians felt threatened. Pharaoh and his people came up with a plan to manage the Israelite population.  First, they tried hard labor.  They made the Israelites’ li